Tip o' the week- Fender RI Bassman
Tue, 12/14/2010 - 20:43
If you need a LOUD harp amp for outdoor gigs or too-loud guitar players, Fender's re-issue 4X10 Bassman is a modern classic. In production for twenty years now (has it really been twenty years?), it has proven to be very reliable in spite of its printed circuitboard construction. What's the reason? All of the tube sockets, pots, and jacks are bolted to the chassis and hard-wired to the circuitboard, unlike almost all new tube amps under $1500. An awful lot of good players have gotten great tone from these amps over the years with just a few simple tube swaps. In my opinion, the Fender RI Bassman also SOUNDS more like a real vintage amp than many of the hand-wired boutique Bassman clones out there. Believe it!
Skip Simmons
Great assessment on a great amp, Skip. I bought one of these for my daughter two years ago, and I can vouch that it really is a modern classic. The sound is very sweet with a lot of depth. And it is LOUD.
The chassis mounting is very durable - a fact that we tested earlier this summer. My daughter's band were unpacking for a gig and the Bassman took a tumble out of the back of the truck - hard. Aside from having to replace one tube and making sure the others were still seated, the amp performed like a champ - albeit a beat-up-looking champ.