Asking this because i do not want to shake walls at home but maybe is not possible to get this breakup at low level with this amp.
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The Fender Super Bassman 300 thread
- Thread starter Tim1
- Start date
at low volumes? if you are talking about tube breakup , nope that's not gonna happen. nature of having a 300W beast. doesn't mean that it doesn't sound great low volume but you are more depending on the preamp side for dirt than the power amp section in those cases, in my experience.
I have a question,
How di you make the vintage channel break up? There's no gain to push preamp tube, and im presuming the volume is after the passive eq. . . So to push the preamp tube, it's by boosting the passive eq? I tried to get the output tubes by cranking the master volume at the store but I thought I was gonna pass out it was so loud! It hurt so good! Super bassman. . . My ear dominatrix
How di you make the vintage channel break up? There's no gain to push preamp tube, and im presuming the volume is after the passive eq. . . So to push the preamp tube, it's by boosting the passive eq? I tried to get the output tubes by cranking the master volume at the store but I thought I was gonna pass out it was so loud! It hurt so good! Super bassman. . . My ear dominatrix
Well there's the volume control on the vintage channel.
Whatever the case. I just turn it up... not too loud but it seems to break up a li'l.
Perhaps it's the Bassman 115.
And not that I've tried if for a while, but can't you dial in drive on the drive channel and turn the master volume down low?
Yes, the Gain control adjusts the preamp tube distortion in the Overdrive channel. And the Blend controls the amount of distorted signal (set by GAIN) to be blended with the clean bass signal.
Just wondering. I saw that some people were able to get a Lil break up in the vintage channel and was wondering how they did it without a gain control. I was also wondering whether that break up was coming from preamp tubes.
I've always thought the VOLUME control on each channel was a GAIN control. I usually set it as such anyhoo.
To get a low volume break up on the Overdrive channel, I just set the channel volume low and dial in drive with the blend control.
I've been mostly using my V4B for lower volume gigs of late, so I'm not 100% sure of my settings on the Super Bassman, but I'll check it out asap
in theory, the volume knob just changes the loudness of the signal where the gain add character/grit/drive, but the fact that the volume knob is in front of the V1-A tube, would seem like for all intents and purposes, you can push the tube harder by bumping the volume knob. but someone with more experience reading schematics could confirm.
Fender Bassman 100T NAM Profiles by @salamiexcerpt5j · TONE3000
Check out salamiexcerpt5j's neural amp head capture for guitar, bass and recording: Fender Bassman 100T captured from the DI out set to post EQ. The amp has two channels, a vintage channel and an OD channel. The vintage channel is a classic Fender tone stack and was set to flat which is Bass...
www.tone3000.com
I made several NAM captures of my 100T several months ago. Maxed out master volume for power tube saturation and vintage Channel volume acts like gain for that Channel. Plenty of break up!
I think it all comes down to your perception and the definition of ‘break up’. We all hear things differently and that’s cool.
On Vintage channel I can boost the channel volume enough and definitely hear the ‘hair’ around the notes. It’s a beautifully organic punch of a tone.
On Overdrive channel I can boost Gain, Blend and the channel Volume and hear wide range of saturation from mild overdrive to distortion territory.
In either case, I can set my Master Volume at 1.5 and hear it all at bedroom volume including ‘edge of break up’ tone. Of course YCMV and all that!
On Vintage channel I can boost the channel volume enough and definitely hear the ‘hair’ around the notes. It’s a beautifully organic punch of a tone.
On Overdrive channel I can boost Gain, Blend and the channel Volume and hear wide range of saturation from mild overdrive to distortion territory.
In either case, I can set my Master Volume at 1.5 and hear it all at bedroom volume including ‘edge of break up’ tone. Of course YCMV and all that!
I don't know if this will make sense or not, so bare with me.
Playing at low volume levels (in a house practicing solo with a backing track) is it better to have a smaller cab (115) rather than a bigger one (610) in order to feel the punch? I used to have a DB410 and traded it for a DB112, which was better at bedroom level to control the volume and it felt puncher because I could (in my estimation) push that 1 cone a little harder. Pushing 410s at that volume may have been too loud.
Does that make sense? Asking because getting the tightest and clearest punch is what im after. Usually people would recommend solid state and some may point to barefaced videos about cone size, but you guys are the ones with the experience with amp and cabs
I am late to this conversation, but I don't really understand the appeal of practicing at home with a large amp at all. I use a mustang micro headphone amp for running through my sets at home and for writing on both bass and guitar. My amps live at my rehearsal spaces. I think if you absolutely need to play live without headphones at home doing something like a ToneX into an interface with some good studio monitors would be a lot easier to control, and you could set your amp sim to sound how you want at low monitor volumes.
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In my opinion, the vintage channel doesn't break up. At least..it doesn't break up until the volume is at a level that is not reasonable for any practical reason. I think what people hear as "break up" can be subjective, and based on what I consider edge of break up, it doesn't happen on the vintage channel. In one of my bands I use the vintage channel. I have played small to medium sized rooms (and one outdoor gig). I always have the channel volume at about 9, and then a dial in the master to suit the gig, and there is no preamp break up. I have also tried lowering the channel volume and bumping the master and I do not get power amp break up. I am not trying to get it to break up..in this band I prefer a clean tone. But I have played around with the settings to see what was possible.
I play rock music and hardcore punk, so break up to me is more than a little buzz around an aggressively plucked note. Someone who plays jazz or funk or pop hits might consider a touch of growl/hair to be break up. I think if you want any kind of grind or pushed preamp breakup, you have to be on the overdrive channel.
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In my case my music room is the rehearsal space where bimonthly jam sessions are hosted but I take your point.
Plus, we all enjoy feeling bit of an air coming from our cabs don’t we?
No matter what headphones or monitors I use, even in studios, I dont like the way bass sounds. I like the cab, the air, the feel. Also, the plug in and play is much easier for me to control than micro headphone amps, audio software not to mention the cables, and sometimes I play without my computer on. Not to mention I play a lot better when I feel the bass. Ive used amp sims before and ive never thought 'waw this sounds good' maybe because im never happy with the sound from monitors or headphones, could be psychological! I wish I were satisfied with a smaller setup.
That's totally fair! I can see how playing that way could be uninspiring. I think I see playing at home more as a way to keep brushed up on my songs (just the repetition) than a way to actually enjoy how anything sounds, if that makes sense.
Uhhhh to get things back on track here. I have 2 gigs this week. One with the vintage channel band, one with the overdrive channel band! Maybe I will snap a pic of my settings when I grab my amp and post it here.
Sometimes I plug a bass into the A/D input of my synth keyboard. Then the signal plays from the attached monitors, which are a pair of small floor wedges (8-inch speakers). For practicing, I think it sounds fine.
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Newbie question… Big fan of the Rumble 800HD, especially with the vintage button pushed, no OD, knobs: 12/12/12/9… sound in my head! Now, I’m ready to saddle up with a tube amp. Played the SVT (everything flat) through the 410HLF (I own) and it was good… but… you know? Something wasn’t right. Like an ingredient in homemade pasta sauce… Beefy…good…but…
Anyway, I would like to understand the second channel on the SB300. I typically turn down the lows more than I turn them up with the Rumble. Even without the vintage button pressed, the Rumble’s “flat” setting IS the sound. The vintage button makes it the Holy Grail. However, I still turn down the lows to about 10 playing indoors. I feel like all the notes have meat to them AND I have clarity.
Does the second channel still give you the roundness of the tubes (like an SVT) or will I only get that from the vintage channel? Would I have the best of both worlds (SVT + Fender tone control)? Is ch2 just a glorified solid state, no “real” roundness?
Anyway, I would like to understand the second channel on the SB300. I typically turn down the lows more than I turn them up with the Rumble. Even without the vintage button pressed, the Rumble’s “flat” setting IS the sound. The vintage button makes it the Holy Grail. However, I still turn down the lows to about 10 playing indoors. I feel like all the notes have meat to them AND I have clarity.
Does the second channel still give you the roundness of the tubes (like an SVT) or will I only get that from the vintage channel? Would I have the best of both worlds (SVT + Fender tone control)? Is ch2 just a glorified solid state, no “real” roundness?
I am not entirely sure what you're asking. Do you want the Super Bassman Overdrive channel to sound like an SVT? If so, it can get very close. Maybe it can sound exactly like an SVT, but I have never had the chance to have both amps side by side to try that.
As far as the OD channel - You can blend the gain all the way off on it so that you effectively have 2 clean channels between the Vintage and OD channels. The Overdrive channel has an active, solid state tone stack (it can cut or boost frequencies) but the overdrive/gain on it is tube overdrive, not solid state.
You can certainly set up the OD channel to be clean and round and I have played with it trying to get it to sound identical to the Vintage channel but it never quite gets there. However that's not why you use it. The OD channel is there for some dirt and added tone shaping. The vintage channel is there to be the fat/round thing. It has a passive tone stack and is the classic Fender sound. I use both channels depending on what band I am playing in.
I will say, as someone who has rehearsed (not gigged) with the Rumble 800HD, I much prefer the Super Bassman. The Rumble amps are a bit confusing to me. They have always sounded farty to me when playing solo, but then they sound very good in a mix. The downside is that if I am in a mix and there is a part where some of the other players drop out, the fart comes back.
Regardless of if I am playing at home office volume or gig volume the Super Bassman absolutely rips and feels awesome.
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Yes! This is what I was trying to ask! Thank you!
I tried the SVT and it sounded…round. So, my take is, the OD channel on the SB300 still gets the roundness of the tubes, but doesn’t sound like the Vintage channel. And, that’s what I’m looking for.
