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The Fender Super Bassman 300 thread

#1,861
Hey Rod I have seen that you are very active on the SB300 thread and you and the other brothers from down under (NZ included!) really got me into this head.

I own a Tech 21 LM300 with matching cab, a GK 400 RB III 210 combo, a GB SM 9.2 with the Uber cab and an Ashdown LB30 with Avatar 212. The Ashdown LB 30 sold me on tubes. I knew I wanted more.

The gig went great, no kidding everyone commented on my sound! Played a medium sized club with about 250 to 300 people. We always play places that have a PA. This one didn't so we brought ours.

We were doing it for free as a make up to our fans, some bought tickets to a show that got pushed back and the bar still paid us $100 each (5 band members and 1 sound guy) with free beer and food! Score.

Anyways the head performed flawlessly. At home I was using the vintage channel, literally only had about a half hour of testing before I had to leave. At the gig I set it to the OD channel and backed off the blend all the way for some super clean head room. Nice and snappy, just the way I like it. Perfect non stop 2 hour set and I wasn't even going through the PA. Only vocals, guitars and kick were. Everyone heard me and I was only on 4.5 on the volume.

I played my 2013 Fender Fender MIJ 75 Ri Jazz through it. No pedals. Bass, cable, amp. Loved it! Really I did.

Now for the bad. After posting the first time after received it, I hadn't realized that the jewel light was free spinning an not lit up. Strangely enough the way it's cut allows outside light to shine in it making it look illuminated.

Luckily for me my sound guy is a friend and he and his dad own a authorized Fender repair service center ( among other things) for warranty work. He assured me that it was ok to use and that his shop could have it back to me in a week or two.

I am a believer.
 
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#1,862
Sounds great! Except for the jewel light. ..:meh: oh well, as they said? ..an easy fix most likely.
Glad it worked well. Tis a righteous amp!
I hope my NZ and other Ozzies steered you to an amp you really like, & for a long time to come.
My gig went great. Plenty of volume with the 115. I used the Vintage channel all night. :smug:
Pics. ....
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The view. .....

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#1,864
I could've easily done with the 2nd 115 cab. But the single 115 Bassman cab did just fine. And, of course, I could drive the amp a fair bit harder. It's SUCH a sweet amp that doing this is a joyful experience, but adding the 2nd cab would've been great too. I've used 2 115 Bassman cabs before with the Super Bassman and it too is a wonderful experience, more air being pushed, brutal punch factor, just sublime! But. ..... but. . Pushing the amp harder is GREAT fun too! Ahhh such choices :smug:
I used both my '94 Stingray 5 & my short scale Fender Mustang at this gig. Both sounded good, but I'm still coming to terms with the short scale-ness :woot: so, it only got one of the 3 sets, the 'ray5 got the majority of that gig. Hard to beat,really. Stingrays just do a great job-always! Never seem to have any problems running a 'ray. They just work. Well!
 
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#1,865
Just found this as I was doing some research about the Fender auto bias. It seems that this tech had a Super Bassman auto bias issue. Ended up being a tiny ribbon cable for the auto bias. Apparently the amp was a rental and has had many hours on it. In any case I thought you guys might want to see what the Super Bassman guts look like out of the box. The Xformers are mounted to the bottom of the head case, BTW.

Found the info here, Fender Super Bassman Automatic Bias issues
Interesting read.
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#1,867
i picked up a SB300 right after they first came on the market, unfortunately i wasn't gigging enough at the time to keep it around, ( but it is owned by another TB'er in the bay area who is indeed in this thread often )

absolutely loved & missed the tone of the 300

wound up picking up a Fender TBP-1 preamp ( for a song ) & pairing it with a Crest Pro-LITE 3.0DSP

don't really know of a pedal out there that can pull off the Vintage Clean tone or the OD thing, ( or blended ) but the TBP-1 is right there

me Happy Happy
 
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#1,870
Rocksolid said:
I might start a separate thread on this in the effects section, but thought I'd ask here first:

What overdrive pedal does the best representation of the SB300? I personally think the Aguilar agro does a good job. But for those times you can't take your SB300 to a gig, what do you use?
Click to expand...

I use a Tech 21 Para Driver DI. It has a blend circuit that can add just a hair of breakup on top of your clean signal. Simialar, but not quite as smooth as the SB300.

I also use the VT Bass Deluxe but prefer the Para driver.
 
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#1,877
Rocksolid said:
One bass that has fallen out of favor with me over the last few years has been my EBMM SR5. BUT thru the Super Bassman/610 Neo combo that bass sounds amazing! Gone are glassy highs, and the mids just work beautifully!
Click to expand...

I find that very easy to believe. The Super Bassman / Bassman whatever Neo cab, matches up very good. The Super Bassman does seem to bring out the best tones.
 
#1,878
For those that use the Fender 410 Neo with the super bassman, have any of you compared to to a sealed cab to the Neo and preferred the sealed cab. My Berg HD 212 seems a little too much on the lows and I'm thinking a sealed cab is the way to go. Any thoughts ?
 
#1,880
Session1969 said:
For those that use the Fender 410 Neo with the super bassman, have any of you compared to to a sealed cab to the Neo and preferred the sealed cab. My Berg HD 212 seems a little too much on the lows and I'm thinking a sealed cab is the way to go. Any thoughts ?
Click to expand...
Depends on the sealed cab you are comparing it with. Sounds great with my Bergantino sealed NV215, but I preferred it with my Fender neo 810 over the Ampeg 810 when I played the two side by side. Perhaps try adjusting the eq more on the tone controls, although you probably have already??
 

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