Blackface Bassman

Q

I know you are fond of the blond 6G6B Fender Bassman but what is your experience with the BF Fender Bassman? Part of the reason I ask is that the BF Bassman is much easier to obtain. I’m still able to find AB165 BF/SF Bassman heads for $600-1100 US and these are easily and respectfully modified to pre-CBS early AA864 BF Bassman.

brock, CAA

2 Thoughts on Blackface Bassman
    25 Feb 2022
    2:51am
    Comment:

    I’m looking for one right now, arguably the best and most pure Fender ever made for use on stage.
    I think they’re fantastic!
    They’re not gonna be under 1K for long tho, so if you do see one for 6 or 7, grab it.
    I’m kicking myself for not getting one sooner.

    brock
    28 Feb 2022
    9:07pm
    Comment:

    I live in Santa Cruz County and got one in 2020 when it seemed everybody was offloading larger amps and wanted a Princeton. It is a ’67 Blackface AB165 housed in a 2×10 combo cab and I paid $725. I had the AA864 conversion done and also cut a new 12″ baffle and put in a 12″ JBL D131 8ohm (old factory recone).

    I’m only now getting to gig with it in loud bars and outside stages and it’s phenomenal. Big and raw singing clean blackface tone.

    The 8ohm mismatch on the 4ohm tap feels really good with a Jazzmaster. After reading your answer about ‘favorite reverb’, I started running my delay+reverb pedal out of the channel jump and into the Bass channel. The two channels are in-phase thanks to the extra gain stage on the Normal channel.

    I’m looking for another one so I can run a dual amp or wet/dry rig sometimes and also experiment with various component values etc.

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