Sparked by advances in tube circuit design, the 12-inch long-playing record (LP), and magnetic tape, a technology liberated from Germany at the end of WWII, the postwar years were a time of rapid innovation in the music industry. Electronics engineer and inventor Leo Fender and his eponymous company launched the Telecaster — the world’s first mass-production solidbody electric guitar — in 1950. When the first Fender Precision Bass rolled off the assembly line the following year, Leo and company were presented with a challenge: guitar amplifiers, including Fender’s existing Pro guitar amp, weren’t designed to handle the intense low-frequency content of the new instrument, and bass amps did not yet exist. However, a groundbreaking bass amp was in the works at the Fender factory in Fullerton, California. Fender had no inkling of how monumental their new amp would be — for guitarists. How could a single amp design spark a revolution that changed how guitar was played forever, across decades and genres, all around the world? Join us as we explore the fascinating history of the Fender Bassman and how it came to be one of the most iconic guitar amps ever made.
Introducing the Bassman
Upon its rollout in 1951, Fender initially paired the Precision Bass with its Pro guitar amplifier. A rather basic, but robust, bass amp was in development at Fender, and it would go on sale the following year. The “Bassman,” as Fender called it, was, like the Pro guitar amp, housed in a “TV-front” enclosure with a 15-inch speaker. The first Fender amp with a closed back, the Bassman boasted two rear ports and a top control panel adorned with just two knobs: volume and tone. Like most Fender designs in the early ’50s, the TV-front amp enclosures didn’t last long. Along with Fender’s guitar amps, the Bassman received the “wide-panel” treatment in 1953, and it was aggressively marketed as a beefy amp designed from the ground up for bass guitar. Well, so much for marketing agendas.Musicians, being the intrepid souls they are, soon found that the Bassman also made a great guitar amp. However, as the wide-panel Bassman became more popular with guitarists, bassists were grumbling. It seemed that the amp’s 15-inch speaker tended to blow when subjected to frequencies generated by the E string of an electric bass, which range down to about 40Hz. A complete redesign was in the works, though, thus setting the stage for Fender’s prolific golden era, during which the Bassman gained wide popularity as a guitar amp.
The Tweed Era
The narrow-panel Bassman that hit the market in late 1954 had the earmarks of a classic guitar amp. Resplendent in its tan tweed cladding, the 40-watt amp’s open-back cabinet housed four 10-inch Jensen speakers — its 4×10 configuration being a harbinger of things to come. By this point, Fender was cognizant of the fact that guitarists were enthused about the Bassman and recalibrated its description accordingly for their 1955 catalog: “While its characteristics have been designed to accommodate string bass, at the same time it makes an excellent amplifier for use with other musical instruments,” which explains in part why there are four inputs on the Tweed Bassman. Along with the snazzy tweed cosmetics, the Bassman was also outfitted with a full set of controls, which included treble, bass, and presence knobs plus standby and ground switches. The Tweed Bassman underwent several circuitry updates over its five years in production, beginning with model 5D6 in 1954, passing through models 5D6-A (1955), 5E6 (1956), and 5F6 (1957), and culminating with what many tone-savvy guitarists consider one of the greatest guitar amps ever made, the 5F6-A, manufactured from 1958 to 1960.
A Legend Is Born
What was it about the last original Tweed Bassman from 1957 that made it such a coveted guitar amp, one that would spawn countless clones and derivatives to this day? Well, for one, Fender had added a midrange control to the tone stack of its predecessor, which carried over to the 5F6-A. It also featured two channels, Normal and Bright, each with high-gain and low-gain input jacks, which increased its versatility exponentially. Equipped with two 6L6 beam tetrodes powering four upgraded Jensen P10Q 10-inch speakers, it moved serious air. It seems that Fender had hit the ideal formula with its combination of preamp circuitry, tonal flexibility, output tubes, negative feedback loop, cabinet construction, and speaker complement. The 5F6-A was an instant success — a competent bass amp, to be sure, but one that quickly became the most popular guitar amp of its era and remained an evergreen favorite in the decades since.
What Artists Used a Bassman Amp?
The list of artists who performed or recorded with a Bassman amp reads like a who’s who of the best guitarists of all time, including:
- Jimi Hendrix
- The Beatles
- Kurt Cobain
- Pete Townshend
- Mike Campbell
- Tom Petty
- Buddy Guy
- Eric Clapton
- Mike Bloomfield
- Jimmie Vaughan
- John Fogerty
- Brian Setzer
- Rory Gallagher
- Otis Rush
- Stevie Ray Vaughan
- Robbie Robertson
- Bruce Springsteen
An Insanely Great Design
When talking about the Mac, Apple CEO Steve Jobs famously referred to his creation as “insanely great.” The same could be said about the genius of the 5F6-A Tweed Bassman. Perhaps the late Tom Wheeler, noted author and guitar journalist, said it best. In The Soul of Tone: Celebrating 60 Years of Fender Amps, he extols the sonic virtues of the 5F6-A:
“For starters, it’s powerful, it’s loud, and it’s sensitive to the player’s touch. It sounds great, responding beautifully across the frequency spectrum. It exhibits a sparkling, harmonically rich tone at low and moderate volumes. At louder volumes it thickens with a sweet distortion that only seems to get creamier the more it’s cranked. It is particularly well matched to certain popular guitars, especially the Stratocaster.”
As a sign of its greatness, it was the 5F6-A circuit that Jim Marshall and Ken Bran would tap as the starting point for designing the very first Marshall guitar amp: the now-legendary JTM45 head. Fender certainly had a hit on their hands; but change, once again, was in the air. As the calendar flipped over into the 1960s, the music industry had little idea of the turmoil in store for it — and for popular culture — in the decade ahead.
Dawn of the Age of the “Piggyback” Half Stack
As the ’60s dawned, Fender amps received a complete makeover. In the process, the 5F6-A was discontinued. Circuitry was redesigned, new speakers were specified, and cabinetry was reconfigured to be covered in a rugged vinyl called Tolex instead of tweed. The Bassman went through several iterations in quick succession. Draped in blond Tolex, the 6G6 model, released in 1960, consisted of a tube head with front-mounted controls and a separate 1×12-inch speaker cabinet with a maroon grille cloth — a “piggyback” amp, as Fender called their new, stackable designs. This was followed in short order by a 2×12-inch model, and wheat-colored grille cloths replaced maroon in late ’62. After Fender’s early-’60s dithering, the time was ripe for another classic Bassman to make its debut.
The Classic Black-panel Bassman
The Bassman models from 1964 to 1967 consisted of a 50-watt tube head and a large 2×12 speaker cabinet. The whole affair was smartly dressed in Fender’s iconic mid-’60s black-panel livery — black control panels with black, silver-domed, numbered knobs; black tolexcladding; and silver-sparkle grille cloths — which was shared by the entire amp lineup. Among the standout Bassman amps from the black-panel era are those late-1965 models containing the revered AB165 circuit, which are prized among guitarists, bassists, collectors, and tone aficionados for their raw power and preamp distortion characteristics. Featuring distinctly labeled “Bass Instrument” and “Normal” channels with two inputs each and Deep and Bright switches, respectively, the control-panel nomenclature on the classic black-panel AB165 head is perhaps most telling in terms of its unique suitability as a guitar amp. The AB165 Normal channel contains an additional gain stage that the more common AA864 amps lack, thus providing crunchier overdrive characteristics that are wonderfully touch-sensitive. A twist of your guitar’s volume knob instantly takes you from glassy Fender cleans to fat, chunky breakup. As compared with AB763-spec’d Twin and Super Reverb guitar amps, Bassman AB165 amps have slightly more midrange, and the omission of spring reverb (which affects the tone) gives these models their inimitable full-bodied tonal purity.
The CBS Era
Leo Fender sold his company to the Columbia Broadcasting System in 1965, although technical and cosmetic alterations were slow to percolate through the product lineup. Soon enough though, under the watchful (meddlesome, some would say) stewardship of CBS Musical Instruments, a new look was introduced for Fender amps. With their silver-sparkle grille cloths now accented by gleaming silver control panels with light blue lettering, Fender’s CBS-era amps would gradually see technical changes, as would the guitars and basses. With the exception of the full-size Fender Rhodes electric piano, which first became available after Fender’s acquisition by CBS and would go on to become a stage and studio staple in the 1970s, the consensus among the cognoscenti is that Fender quality deteriorated under CBS’s reign, which would last until 1985, when Fender employees bought back the company. And the rest, as they say, is history, as the renamed Fender Musical Instruments Corporation embarked on a campaign to reclaim its former reputation of uncompromising quality and innovation.
The Loudness Wars
The mid-1960s witnessed the major amplification companies competing in an ever-escalating loudness war. Fender’s deafeningly loud Dual Showman guitar head and Twin Reverb combo efficiently wielded 85 watts of 6L6 power. Marshall had their fearsome JTM45/100 Plexi stack. Vox outfitted the Beatles with AC-100s in an attempt to reach stadium bleachers. But with ever-increasing wattage stressing the technical limitations of the era’s tube circuitry, manufacturers were also building massive speaker cabinets at the musicians’ behest. Pete Townshend famously commissioned Jim Marshall to build him an 8×12 cab, which ended up being so heavy and unwieldy that the Who’s roadies wouldn’t go near it. So, Jim essentially cut it in half, and thus, the venerable 4×12 guitar cab was born. Astute readers will have noticed that we’ve been talking about guitar amps here. Bass amplification was lagging but would take a huge leap forward in 1969 with the arrival of a 300-watt behemoth: the Ampeg SVT bass head and 8×10 cabinets. Also that year, Fender would upsize its 50-watt Bassman to the 100-watt Super Bassman, available with one or two 2×15 cabinets. Meanwhile, across the pond, Marshall was building their 200-watt Marshall Major bass amp, which was being used not only by bass players but also by the rock-star guitarists fronting their groups.
The Bassman Legacy Lives On
Inspired by Fender’s prolific Tweed and Black-panel eras, the Bassman legacy lives on today in amps that leverage modern advances in electronics to achieve authentic vintage tone. Let’s look at two amplifiers that owe some — or all — of their DNA to Fender’s legendary Bassman models of the ’50s and ’60s.
Fender ’59 Bassman LTD
With its all-tube topology, 45-watt output specification, and classic cosmetics, the Fender ’59 Bassman LTD is the modern embodiment of the King of Tweed. This amp’s lacquered tweed cladding, silver control plate with black chicken-head knobs, and woven oxblood grille cloth nail the vintage visuals, while its dual 6L6 tetrodes and four 10-inch Jensen P10R speakers pump out the tone that guitarists have coveted for over six decades. True beauty being more than skin-deep, however, the ’59 Bassman LTD offers more than authentic looks and sound. It is made right here in the USA and boasts a finger-joined solid pine cabinet that enhances harmonic resonance and helps bring it in at 52 pounds.If you’re intent on owning the Holy Grail — an original 1959 Bassman — then be advised: they’re exceedingly rare. When they do pop up, you can expect to pay up to five figures — plus the cost of bringing it back to fully operational condition. Or you could go for the ’59 Bassman LTD. For a fraction of the price, you’ll have a meticulous Fender reissue in perfect working order with new, reliable replica components and a warranty. From our perspective, this one’s a no-brainer!
Fender Tone Master ’59 Bassman
At first glance, the Fender Tone Master ’59 Bassman appears to be cut from the same cloth — tweed (pun intended) — as the ’59 Bassman LTD, but the former is aimed at a different market segment: guitarists who want the look and sound of the original along with all the advantages of a modeling amp. To the delight of those with an aversion to tubes, this remarkable amp is equipped with Fender’s cutting-edge digital Tone Master modeling technology mated to a 200-watt solid-state Class D output stage that delivers volume equivalent to the original’s 45 tube-driven watts. Like the ’59 Bassman LTD, the Tone Master is an outstanding gigging amp. Both are loud and can easily fill smaller venues without reinforcement. Although both have bulky 4×10 cabinets that are awkward to hoist up and down stairs, the Tone Master is 21 pounds lighter, sounds scarily similar, and is far more affordable. Another advantage of Tone Master modeling tech is that it provides six wattage settings, ranging down to a bedroom-friendly 1/2 watt, so you can still record a saturation-soaked solo late at night without disturbing the neighbors.
Find Your Signature Sound
More than an amp, the Fender Bassman is a phenomenon. From its inauspicious beginnings in 1952, the Bassman evolved into a product that changed the world of music. As both a bass amp and a guitar amp, its sound is intrinsic to every popular music genre. As a design influence, it provided the kernel that gave rise to the mighty Marshalls as well as countless other successful amplifiers and overdrive effects. As such, the Bassman commands reverence among the legions of guitarists and bassists here at Sweetwater who know that finding the right gear is a critical step in your journey as a musician. As always, we’re here to help you in that all-important endeavor. You can start by browsing guitar amps, bass amps, guitar pedals, or bass pedals on Sweetwater.com. For individualized advice, our expert Sweetwater Sales Engineers will be delighted to assist you in identifying the equipment and instruments that meet your unique requirements. Give us a call at (800) 222-4700. You’ll be well on your way to nailing your signature sound!
