The Bassman and Showman amps were the biggest, loudest US made amps you could get until the late sixties arrivals of Vox Super Beatle, Sunn, Kustom, Acoustic, Ampeg SVT etc.
So who used them? Everybody did.
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who used fender bassman amps in the 60???
- Thread starter bon viesta
- Start date
The Bassman and Showman amps were the biggest, loudest US made amps you could get until the late sixties arrivals of Vox Super Beatle, Sunn, Kustom, Acoustic, Ampeg SVT etc.
So who used them? Everybody did.
I jumped right to the Showman because the Bassman was too weak. Older Fenders sound great at low volumes. I've chased that sound for years. 
But almost every new introduction blew them out of the water. Meanwhile the B-15 kept being just wonderful when used for what it was designed for.
I played a gig with two guitarists with Marshall stacks, two drummers and another bassist. He had two Bassman and two cabs. You and I know a Sunn 200s would spank those Fenders. Well I didn't have a Sunn. I had an Acoustic 360/361. It was not my intention but crank a 360 to 8 (which I never had to do before or after) and I was as loud as the Marshalls and two drummers and the Bassman wielder looked like a mime.
But almost every new introduction blew them out of the water. Meanwhile the B-15 kept being just wonderful when used for what it was designed for. I played a gig with two guitarists with Marshall stacks, two drummers and another bassist. He had two Bassman and two cabs. You and I know a Sunn 200s would spank those Fenders. Well I didn't have a Sunn. I had an Acoustic 360/361. It was not my intention but crank a 360 to 8 (which I never had to do before or after) and I was as loud as the Marshalls and two drummers and the Bassman wielder looked like a mime.
I always wanted a Fender Dual Showman or a Bandmaster but settled for Ampeg then Sunn. From what I remember from playing in the 60's, the Bassman was not that loud.
I never owned one, but I played on stage with several guys that had the original short-style Bassman 2 x 12 amps. Those were solid, honest products that did a good job if you didn't push them past their capabilities (which was easy to do).
The next re-design of those amps with the taller 2 x 12 cabinets weren't quite so solid, but Fender probably sold more.
During this time (early 60s through early 70s) were a time when things were changing in bass amplification. In the early 60s, the Fenders were widely used and had a lot of fans. As time went on, a bunch of competitors - - Kustom, Acoustic, Sunn, Ampeg and others came in with better sounding, higher power amps that were MUCH better than Bassmans or Showman amps.
EV RE-20!
The next re-design of those amps with the taller 2 x 12 cabinets weren't quite so solid, but Fender probably sold more.
During this time (early 60s through early 70s) were a time when things were changing in bass amplification. In the early 60s, the Fenders were widely used and had a lot of fans. As time went on, a bunch of competitors - - Kustom, Acoustic, Sunn, Ampeg and others came in with better sounding, higher power amps that were MUCH better than Bassmans or Showman amps.
EV RE-20!
Specifically, Carol(and Joe)used a blond Fender Concert guitar combo, open back, with four 10” speakers(a forerunner of sorts of the Super Reverb). Not the most likely bass amp, but it came across punchy for all those car and pocket held transistor radio mixes.
The cabinet portion of a Bassman rig, either version, was the weakest link; granted, two 6L6/50 watts can only go so far, but all Fender stand alone cabs were 12” deep, I suppose for manufacturing simplicity. That, along with the lesser quality of the Utah or CTS drivers they used, and no real porting system inside the box, was not favorable to low frequencies.
Been playing Bassmans for quite a while. Started w/ a blonde piggyback w/ 2 x 212 cabs. By the early 80's I had a 135 head and gargantuan 412 cab. Decided to replace the 412 w/ 2 x 212's for easier transport.
Now [as you already know] I use a Mojotone 212 w/ Eminence Neo's. Could not be happier with the tone & volume.
Now [as you already know] I use a Mojotone 212 w/ Eminence Neo's. Could not be happier with the tone & volume.
Some guy called Jimi Hendrix used a Bassman in the studio. So did Kurt Cobain live and studio.
Probably just a coincidence they are both dead? Be careful.
Probably just a coincidence they are both dead? Be careful.
The answer is a resounding yes, and...more accurately... "it depends". If you put a bass through it, and play lower notes, the speakers on those cabinets don't have much linear excursion - at low frequencies they fart out before the amp clips. This is a tradeoff in the speaker design - efficiency (loud) is usually chosen over linear excursion capability. If you're playing notes higher up (guitar), then the amp will usually distort first.
My junior high band used a Bassman - everyone in the band plugged into it.
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The studio where I took lessons sold Magnatone amps exclusively. Boy were they pissed when I got a Fender amp from another store. One of the selling points was “You can plug the whole band into this thing”.
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On the west coast, as music got louder, it was fairly common to see Dual Showman and Bassman 135’s along with custom ported 215 cabinets using JBL D/K-140 and EV SRO/EVM-15’s.
It was also somewhat common to use 2 heads and 2 cabinets to end up with a couple hundred watts through 4x15’s.
The Mesa Bass 400 (and earlier models such as the earliest amps Randall built) were an offshoot of this concept, a heavily Fender Bassman inspired preamp with a larger Bassman inspired power amp.
Along the same time, the Dead took a similar path with the Alembic preamps, multiple McIntosh power amps and multiples of JBL 15” ported cabinets.
All of these developments occurred in parallel due to a common need for greater volume and low frequency extension as the needs of modern music evolved.
It was also somewhat common to use 2 heads and 2 cabinets to end up with a couple hundred watts through 4x15’s.
The Mesa Bass 400 (and earlier models such as the earliest amps Randall built) were an offshoot of this concept, a heavily Fender Bassman inspired preamp with a larger Bassman inspired power amp.
Along the same time, the Dead took a similar path with the Alembic preamps, multiple McIntosh power amps and multiples of JBL 15” ported cabinets.
All of these developments occurred in parallel due to a common need for greater volume and low frequency extension as the needs of modern music evolved.
In the 70s, I used a Fender Bassman head with a 215 cab. It had the detachable wheels on the bottom. I never had to turn the volume beyond 1/2, even outdoors. That was a great amp.
Nothing was extraordinarily loud in the early to mid ‘60s. Small high school party gigs were routinely played using small 2- channel amps with the vocals through a cheap 4- port mixer plugged into the unused channel of someone’s guitar amp. If the bassist had a B-15 or a B-12, that was as good as it got.
PA systems, used just for vocals, were in their infancy. Sometimes we forget that, given today’s FOH systems. When the Beatles played Shea Stadium in NY, the vocals were sent to a Bogen 100 watt PA system. I think it had two columns of speakers. And this was expected to cover a stadium seating over 50,000 people, three levels up.
Of course, no one could hear much of anything over the screaming girls in the audience. But that’s not the point. Guitar amps, bass amps, and the primitive PA systems of the day just couldn’t get that loud without distorting in a non-musical way.
An older friend’s band that played the local night club (Community Gardens in Queens Village, NY) four nights a week bought a Kustom tuck-and-roll PA system with two columns that had 4 12“ speakers and a HF horn each. And 200 watts of power in the head, with four mic inputs. It cost them what we considered a fortune back in 1967.
PA systems, used just for vocals, were in their infancy. Sometimes we forget that, given today’s FOH systems. When the Beatles played Shea Stadium in NY, the vocals were sent to a Bogen 100 watt PA system. I think it had two columns of speakers. And this was expected to cover a stadium seating over 50,000 people, three levels up.
Of course, no one could hear much of anything over the screaming girls in the audience. But that’s not the point. Guitar amps, bass amps, and the primitive PA systems of the day just couldn’t get that loud without distorting in a non-musical way.
An older friend’s band that played the local night club (Community Gardens in Queens Village, NY) four nights a week bought a Kustom tuck-and-roll PA system with two columns that had 4 12“ speakers and a HF horn each. And 200 watts of power in the head, with four mic inputs. It cost them what we considered a fortune back in 1967.
Just about every high school bass player who couldn't afford a Dual Showman. The ones who could not afford a Bassman usually settled for a Silvertone Twin Twelve.
I had a Bassman 50 with a 2 12 cab in the late sixtys. My band had one guitar , keyboard , three horns unmic'd , and a fairly tame drummer. That rig was totally inadequate for just about any gig we did. I was saving up for one of the Sunns or a big Kustom 200 when I wrecked my dads car and had to put the money out for repairs. That officially ended my music career for a few years.
Went to school with a guy back in the 60s that replaced the 2-12s with 2-15s JBLs. From what I remember, it made a huge difference. He used it in our high school band with 84 players and had zero trouble “cutting through the mix”..LOL!
I've seen pictures of the Byrds where Chris Hillman is playing through a Dual Showman. Once Norm Sundhom and his brother Conrad put the 200S out on tour when Norm was with the Kingsmen. Fender
was pushed aside as a competitive Bass amps. Kustom's were next. Just my take however.
was pushed aside as a competitive Bass amps. Kustom's were next. Just my take however.