What came first, the Bassman or the Bass?? Introduced in early 1952, the Fender Bassman amp arrived just after the P-bass, and has been alongside guitarists and bassists ever since. A staple in the Fender amp catalog, the Bassman is known for its fat, compressed and driven tone, and is always a favorite in the studio and on stage.

The Bassman Model 6G6 was a brand new design, and began the transition out of the tweed era, With Bass and Normal channels, each with Volume, Treble, and Bass controls and a master Presence control. With a few holdovers from the Tweed era, such as the GZ34 rectifier and 5881 power tubes, Fender introduced a new combination of 7025 preamp tubes in this model, which would be constantly updated over the next few years.

This example dates to mid-1962, as indicated by the oxblood grille cloth (Fender had switched to wheat by late '62). Under the hood, it reveals itself to be a 6G6-A with a solid state rectifier replacing the tube rectifier and a metal plate covering the hole where the GZ34 would have gone. Similar in sound to the 6G6, the “A” revision has a solid state rectifier, which results in less “tube sag”, a tighter lower end and a later breakup.

This example is in very good cosmetic condition, with the only major imperfections being a small bend on the front panel and a missing back panel. The original tube chart is present, although sadly torn in half.

Inside it reveals some likely older repair work, with Sprague Atom capacitors replacing the original cathode bypass caps. The choke has been replaced, but the power and output transformers remain original. The power cord has been replaced with an older, non-earthed 3-prong power cord (likely more for stability than safety) and a replaced ground cap. Under the doghouse there is a curious re-cap job, with all of the 20uF capacitors replaced with pairs of 47uF capacitors in series, with dropping resistors between them all to achieve around 20uF. Not typically how it would be done today, but the work is neat and the amp functions well so we decided to leave it up to the future owner if they decide if they want to update it.

The tubeset is a mix of vintage and newer tubes in the preamp section, with a pair of Fender branded 5881’s for the power tubes.