Fender Silverface Bassman amp AB165 amplifier, with a 2×15' speaker cabinet

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The Fender Bassman is a bassamplifier series introduced by Fender during 1952.^{[citation needed]} Initially intended to amplify bass guitars, the 5B6 Bassman was used by musicians for other instrument amplification, including the electric guitar, harmonica, and pedal steel guitars. Besides being a popular and important amplifier in its own right, the Bassman also became the foundation on which Marshall and other companies built their high-gain tube amplifiers.^{[citation needed]}

History[edit]

1964 Fender 6G6-B Bassman Preamp tubes: four 7025 (12AX7 types) Output tubes: two 5881 (a more-rugged 6L6 type), fixed-bias Rectifier: solidstate Controls: Bass Instrument channel: Volume, Treble, Bass; Normal channel: Volume, Treble, Bass; shared: Presence Output: 50 watts RMS Utter the word “Bassman” in guitar circles, and most players’ minds rush to the tweed-covered 4×10″.

The serial number A23373? A lot of people do and here’s a plausible explanation based on the evidence. Sometime in 1970, Fender ordered a bunch of Twin Reverb/Dual Showman Reverb chasses from their supplier. The machine that stamped. The serial number A23373? A lot of people do and here’s a plausible explanation based on the evidence. Sometime in 1970, Fender ordered a bunch of Twin Reverb/Dual Showman Reverb chasses from their supplier. The machine that stamped. The outside of the chassis is stamped with the serial number A16440, which Fenders own records tell us was allocated as a 1966 build. Inside the chassis, an ink stamp 0166 indicates that the chassis was wired in the first week of 1966. The transformers all date to late 1965, and so do the potentiometers.

The 5B6 Bassman[edit]

During 1952, the Fender 5B6 Bassman amplifier was introduced as a combo amplifier cabinet that included the amplifier chassis combined with one 15' speaker. The 1952–1954^[1] 5B6 Bassman amplifiers had two 6SC7 or 6SL7GT pre-amp tubes, two 5881 power tubes and a single 5U4G rectifier tube. It was designed to generate 26 watts at an 8 ohm impedance load, and offered a cathode-based bias.^{[citation needed]}

From 1952 through the spring of 1954, Fender produced approximately 660 model 5B6 Bassman amplifiers (serial numbers #0001–0660).^{[citation needed]} The earlier cabinets have been called 'TV Front' designs,^[1] with a front panel that had a rectangular grill cloth with rounded corners and looked much like a television of that era. In 1953 the cabinet designs were changed to the so-called 'Wide Panel' design, with a 5 inch wide tweed covered panel above and below a wider swath of grill cloth. Fender ceased production of 5B6 Bassman amplifiers during the spring of 1954.^{[citation needed]}

The 5D6 Bassman with dual rectifiers[edit]

During November 1954, Fender introduced the newly designed 5D6 Bassman amplifier offering four ten inch speakers and was designed utilizing two rectifier tubes. The 5D6 was a major departure from the earlier 5B6 Fender Bassman model. Designed by Freddie Tavares, longtime R&D man at Fender,^[2] the new circuit included two rectifier tubes and became known as the Dual Rectifier Bassman.^[3]^[4] Instead of the single 15' speaker, four 10' Jensen Alnico P10R speakers were used. The circuit had two innovations: a fixed bias for the power tubes, which increased power in comparison to the earlier cathode bias design, and a cathodyne phase inverter, using half of the 12AX7 tube and allowing a third gain stage on the other half.^[5]

The first 4x10 Bassman amplifiers started with a batch of prototypes in November and December 1954, model 5D6. No schematic for the 5D6 circuit has ever been found, but Ken Fox and Frank Roy have created a few from originals, and copies are freely available online. Only 11 of these early 5D6 Bassman examples are known to have survived. The lowest serial number known to still exist is 0013 (Frank Roy), 0035 (Albert Talley), 0075 (Jim Cornett), 0077 (Perry Tate), 0089 (Mark Grandfield), 0701, 0745 (Walter Horton), 0769 (Hayes Kolb), 0780 (sold on eBay Nov 2006), 0783, and 0785 (Hayes Kolb) are among those still known to exist.

Narrow panel models, 1954 to 1960[edit]

Fender began making other models with tweed covering, a similar open backed cabinet with a rectangular grill cloth and a narrow (just over an inch wide) tweed covered panel at the top and bottom. Produced from 1954 until 1960, these models are called the 'narrow panel' tweed amps .^[5]

Fender introduced the model 5D6 'DK' in November 1954 followed by the 5E6 Bassman Amp during early 1955. The 5E6-A Bassman model was introduced later that year and included some evolutionary improvements.^{[citation needed]} Demand for the tweed Bassman amp grew, so Fender increased production. By the middle of 1957 more than 1,500 examples of the 5E6 series had been sold.^[6]

In July 1957, Fender introduced the model 5F6 Bassman. This model also had four Jensen P10R speakers, but the power supply was redesigned around a single 83 mercury vapor rectifier tube, and a new preamp circuit was introduced that included a three knob tone stack, with separate controls for Treble, Mid and Bass. The power amp included a 'long tailed pair' phase inverter, an innovation that noticeably increased the 'headroom' or clean power output capability of the amplifier. Similar preamp changes were also incorporated in the 5F8 Twin Amp at about the same time, but not on other large size Fender amps.

During 1958, Fender introduced the model 5F6-A Bassman model. This final 1950s Tweed Bassman model product line included a change from the 83 mercury vapor rectifier tube to the GZ34 rectifier tube, as well as a modification within the Presence control circuit.^[7] During early 1960, Fender began producing the 5F6-A Bassman with Jensen P10Q speakers. The P10Q speakers handle more power and produce better 'clean' tones than the earlier P10R speakers. The P10R speakers were shipped within all Fender Bassman amps from late 1954 until early 1960. Many professional music industry analysts have proclaimed the 1950s Fender 4×10 Bassman amps as the greatest guitar amp ever. The first 1954 Fender Tweed 5D6 4×10 circuit generated further Tweed Bassman amplifier development through 1960. Several Bassman models were progressively influenced by the 5D6 through the last Fender Tweed 5F6-A Bassman's circuit design. The 5F6-A Bassman's design was directly copied by Marshall Amplifiers in their JTM-45 amplifier during the early 1960s.^[8]

In 1990, Fender began reissuing the 5F6-A Bassman. The first series of the reissue were made at the Corona, California facility, and came equipped with four Eminence-made 10' blue frame AlNiCo speakers, and a solid state rectifier unit. Later on, production was moved to Ensenada, Baja California, and the model name was altered to '59 Bassman LTD'. The LTD came equipped with the original 5AR4 rectifier tube, and four Jensen P10R reissue alnico speakers, which was period correct for the original amp.

Piggyback model[edit]

In late 1960, Fender introduced a completely redesigned model 6G6 Bassman Amp, using the 'piggy-back' design, in which the amplifier chassis is housed in a small cabinet, attached by metal clips to a larger separate speaker enclosure.

The early models were called 'Brownface' because of the dark brown color used on the control panel. The 6G6 model was covered in rough Blonde colored Tolex material with Oxblood colored grill cloth. It had a single GZ34 rectifier, two 5881/6L6GC power tubes and four 12AX7 preamp tubes. The output was 50 watts at 8 ohm into a single 12 inch speaker, with a 'Tone Ring' baffle in the speaker cabinet. In early 1961, model 6G6-A was introduced with a solid state rectifier replacing the GZ34, and two 12 inch speakers with a conventional baffle in a slightly larger cabinet (wired in parallel) with a 4 ohm output. In 1962, model 6G6-B

Fender Bassman Serial Number