Fender Bassman's - Pedal platform specialty ?

[griff10672]

I don't hate these tones ....

 

[DanTravis62]

Get an ab165 bassman or bandmaster and thank me later Wayne ?

They absolutely KILL for a pedal platform

 

[blackba]

I think all bassmans from late tweed to silversword well with pedals. The Bassman ltd I have, only thing I would change would be the Jensen p10Rs if I wanted to do gainier stuff.

The sf and Bf amps with the ab165 circuit are great, more rocking then other fender amps of the era. I like to mod the ab165 so that it has the power section from the aa864 circuit, but still has the extra gain stage on the normal channel.

If you can score a blonde Bassman from a good deal, don’t overlook those.

 

[LPMojoGL]

well crap ...... I've got a 2204 sitting right here .....

Having had both, the lo input of the 2204 is a great pedal platform if you want to get all your drive tones from pedals, at any volume. Great for fuzz to od to distortion. Like what you want your bf DRRI to be. Super underrated.

Where the Bassman excels is in the mix with a band. Volume cranked, edge of breakup, with just a great overdrive. Then you're in Allmans to EVH territory. But it's loud. Not a house friendly volume. Needs to hit a certain volume level to achieve greatness. Then it's hard to top.

Of course, using a reactive load into an IR evens the playing field. Then a DRRI can match a 2204 or bassman or plexi or Friedman or Vox AC15C1 or whatever. All you need is the right pickup or pedal to get the feel and dirt you want, then eq to taste. Homogenized, convenient tone. Totally different than playing loud thru a cab.

 

[blackba]

Another great pedal amp is an old Ampeg V2 or V4. They have a really flexible tone stack, so you can really shape your sound and reverb is different than a fender but good. They are heavy and the recapp job is expensive, but they sure sound great.

I have driven my V4 into overdrive, holy cow was it loud, pushing 130dB!