Fender59 Bassman LTD Guitar Amplifier

It’s my go to amp for playing out

It is a classic for a reason.

I have 27 tube amplifiers; most of them are Fenders. Most of them are "blackface" circuits. Now I only play through this "tweed" circuit to get a bit grittier sound. Grittier is better than super clean for blues music.

Great amp with super-clean sound.12ax7 and 6L6 tubes are plentiful and easy to roll, making changing the character of the amp very flexible.

59 basement is way too loud! Ha ha ha this is the best I’ve ever ownEd

This is a fine product, but mine appeared to have been damaged in transit and had to be returned.

It's been 8 years since I've purchased my Bassman LTD, so it has seen countless number gigs, dozens of pedal configurations and it's fair share of wear and tear. Also, because I've gigged so much with this amp, the four 10" Jensen P10R speakers have had plenty a lot of time to break in; thus providing me with the warmer tones and compression I was looking for when I originally bought the Bassman. I'm leaving this review today because I absolutely LOVE this amp and I would like to share with you some things I've learnt about this beautiful beast over the last 8 years. Before you even plug your guitar into the amp you'll notice that there are 4 input jacks (Bright 1, Bright 2, Normal 1 and Normal 2). Bright 1 and Normal 1 provide you with 6dB (decibels) more gain. So already you have so many tonal configurations to choose from. Additionally, you can "jumper" between the bright and normal channels if you choose to dial in your tone that way. Personally, I exclusively use the normal channel (1st and 2nd inputs) because the bright channel is just TOO bright for my liking. In fact, when you first get this amp you may think both channels are too bright. Don't be discouraged though, it takes a long time to break in Jensen P10Rs. My advice is to either play a loop through the amp or simply just play at loud volumes for extended periods of time. One of the things I really like about this amp is that it's super sensitive to your picking dynamics. I've found that the Bassman really exposes players with bad technique and playing dynamics. Although the amp is bare bones, it takes pedals extremely well. My pedalboard includes: Wah, Fuzz, Vibe, Delay & Reverb and they all sound GREAT through this amp. The pine cabinet really allows the sound to resonate and has a nice warm tone once the speakers and tubes are broken in. It does take a lot of time, labor and money (in the case of pedals) to get this amp to sound exactly how'd you like it; but in the end it will all be worth it!!!

This is an amazing amp. USA made, all tube, vintage bass amp. I've had my amp since 2018. I don't do gigs with it but have jammed a time or two just fine. The jensen p10r sound great but i wanted more low end response so i put in some eminence speakers with lower frequency responses. Such a beast amp. I also put a green led bulb in and a green jewel on it which looks awesome. I ordered myself a second one i will swap the speakers to the same ones in my current amp. This amp sounds best standing away 8 to 10 feet or more. Awesome floor shaking lows! My plan is to run the two at the same time for the ultimate vintage modified rig lol. The stock Jensen P10Rs are super light so after the speaker swap, it weighs about 100 pounds. I use mine exclusively for bass but when i had it stock, it sounded badass with a guitar too. Takes pedals well as any quality tube amp should. I would love to have a custom back panel to make it a "sealed" cabinet with a port or two but i don't know about where to get that. This amp just looks cool so buy one.