Comparing 9 Original Fender BLACKFACE AMPS Twin Showman Vibroverb Deluxe Champ Bassman Super Reverb 

Best fiddle amp ever

Till you gotta put it in the car

Ya gimme that or honeslty the champ

+Dagger 323 I loved the Showman too. A brutal tone! :-)

They have HIGH headroom, not max headroom! LOL

Johan Segeborn # when I heard the showman I was like... wow that sounds just like Ted Nugent which I love his tone and playing. the bass man was my next fav then the vibro champ.

Didn't mike Bloomfield use a '59 lp into a blackface showman

The Showman has a 15" JBL speaker in the cab. so BIG sound! Fender also made made a "Double Showman 15" with two JBL 15's The JBL's were custom made to Leo's Fender's specs. The amp was born because Dick Dale, (Who lived in Newport Beach not far from the Fender factory) kept blowing every amp Leo supplied him with.. So Leo Fender went with BIG iron and worked with JBL on a speaker that would not blow or catch fire as paper coil speakers sometimes do when pushed to hard. The single 15 cab has a porting system inside the closed back cab, to lessen the chance of blowing the speaker. It was also Fenders first piggy back amp...It's a LOUD amp! First made in 1960 with white tolex and a marooned grill.. The Black Face Showman's (AB763) first appeared in 1963.. And that's my Fender trivia for the day. :)

I just inherited a 60s BandMaster sans cab. I've been using a 2x12. What speaker(s) are your fav match for this one?

Keith TPC yes and no. Jim Marshall did “clone” a fender Bassman, but it was the 5f6a tweed bassman not a blackface bassman. Totally different circuit. The difference between a 5f6a bassman and a Marshall jtm45 is very little.

@@jezzbro There was alot of component differences though wasn't there?

Barry SPeas I should compare both schematics but I always heard that early Marshall’s are basically tweed bassmans. (But with components available this side of the pond)

@@jezzbro Yeah I'd heard that too, just sure I'd heard someone mention a few of those different components resulted in it having quite a different flavour? Could well be wrong!

@@BarrySPeas - mainly the KT66 and different brand output transformer, the rest near identical, just uk brand little parts vs usa ones

+Yann E. Thanks, glad to hear that!

+Scott Hamilton Thanks Scott :-)

+Scott Hamilton - had I had just listened without knowing it was a Fender I'd have guessed it was a cranked Marshall.

WiserInTime Fun fact: Hendrix's Voodoo Chile (slight return) was recorded on a Bassman. That's one of the reasons everybody thinks it has a Marshall-y sound. It doesn't, but it does have THAT Hendrixy "dirty-yet-clean" sound. And bridging the channels together with a short patch cable is all kinds of fun.

+powerdog242 - I actually knew that. Read it a ways back in some guitar mag. Also read that Purple Haze was recorded through a Fuzz Face into an Orange power amp, not a typical head (but that's just an aside). That Bassman sounds Marshally for sure. It's in that ball park.

i read somewhere the original marshalls were bassman clones

+Brandon Simpson Thanks Brandon, Yeah cranked Fender are responsible for so many classic rock recordings!

+Guitar5986 Thanks, Yeah I was completely blown away by the Showman

@@JohanSegeborn Wow! Yeah that Showman is great. Have you got any videos on tone ring cabs? They really are unique

+SuperCarver2011 Thanks! The Bassman actually had HH 12 inch speakers. Cheers

+ehowie Good to hear that! :-) Cheers

+whiskeyboy Thanks man, glad to hear it!

+David Giles Thanks David, great to hear that!

+Tone Fingerz Thanks man!

+hrstrat57 Thanks man, I liked the Showman the most too

+Mr. Tee They are indeed

+Ryan Dial I'm a metal face guy myself. I prefer 71-73 Superleads. Cheers

+Mark Ormerod Thanks Mark

+Modestoney Thanks, that's so good to hear!

+Gerry Loughran Thanks Gerry, Yeah the Strat is coming up tomorrow :-)

+muddybucker bluesbreaker Thanks, great to hear that!

+Paul Simmons Thanks man, good to hear that

+rcolang1 Thanks, Yeah there are many reinkarnations of the Bassman. Cheers

Thanks man, I’m really glad to hear that!

+brandon caleb Thanks Brandon, Yeah Sweden is beautiful this time of year :-)

+Phillip Calvin I'm sorry to hear about your dad, Philip.

He was a good man who loved guitar and tone.

+Mark Davis Thanks man, Yeah the perfect recording machines! :-)

Mark Davis my thoughts exactly!

I have one a friend gave me and it's cleans are the best. most harmonically rich I've ever heard .

Picked up a '66 in L.A. a few years ago for $600. I'll never let that one go. Vol halfway with some vibrato on about 3.5 intensity is amazing, and it does nice cranked dirt too without the neighbors calling the cops.

Thanks Andrew! Yeah it was a great experience to play these amps back to back

Did you feel the Nuge?

@@mohamedtlass3842 That amp did have Mojo!

+e. tienne Thanks my friend :-) Cheers!

+yetanotherbassdude Thanks! :-)

Great amps indeed!

Loud and clean. Traded a blackfaced Princeton in on the twin in 74. Wish I had the Princeton back too! I am so greedy

+marc sarkissian Thanks Marc, Yeah that's still the best amp I've played

+Mario Evangelista Yeah Pro Reverb is a classic that was missing here

The Pro Reverb is a great, very under mentioned amp.

+Britt Rossman Thanks! Yeah The Champ is an amazing recording amp. Recorded it sounds just as good as the others here, and for some riffs it sounded the best of them all. Cheers Johan

I always thought that the only difference in them is gonna be the live feel - you know, touch dynamics and compression... I never figured they could all record so differently (though I guess the speaker/cab has a huge influence). Thoroughly impressed!!! Thanks for this awesome side-by-side!

+StealthParrot Thanks man :-)

+Tom Petty Thanks!

+Jeremiah Wilson Thanks, I love Stones

Yes Vibro Champ here, but maybe with others cones another

+metelegerald Thanks my friend :-)

+yeatzee7786 It was indeed. A bit too adventurous for my ears actually ;-)

(laughing)That's just what I was thinking! '67 Twin with JBL's here. My nephew tried it once -- rolled everything to 10 -- and got a quick lesson in True Old LOUD. He now RESPECTS these old dogs (^_^) ....

Sometimes I do the exact same thing to remind myself of what True Old LOUD really feels like. I probably should know by now, but I guess I keep forgetting...

lmao

i literally tried to crank my twin up to full when my wife was out and it rattled a glass off of my table. super unpleasant in a smaller room. much easier with a hotplate attenuator!

+Jay Collins Thanks Jay!

+Meins Thanks!

+rob brady Thanks Rob! :-)

+islanderwinder Glad to hear that! Cheers

+saddlebag Thanks, Yeah Bassman works for any style!

+Bob Boitt Thanks Bob, Yeah it's a little beast :-)

+Xosis Yeah these amps have so much character when they're cranked!

Thanks Jon!

+Timothy Spillane Thanks man!

Thanks Rob! :-)

+Nuccio raw Lo Presti Thanks Man!

+thecaveofthedead Thanks!

+DA_G Man Thanks! :-)

+eduardo miranda Thanks Eduardo, it does Indeed! Great recording amp

+Dan Noc Thanks Dan!

+Roel Cyborg They're so expressive, one can turn it upp full and then use the guitar volume knob and pick to shape the tone. Cheers

Hi Johan,Glad you like this one too , I use the Mashall Powerbrake for that '' on ,''always'' even with the rare band practices in the past,,the last one they made (with the red knobs) Has extra boost on tone knobs,and for presence a pull to twiek voicing (the twiek Squeezes the midd frequency),, and the one without revb has a 3 way switch ,L/M/H >which is compressed VHT type/marshall type/sharp(jackson pre amp) ,,,i use the medium my amp is a 87

+X Crow Thanks!