Re: Fender Bassbreaker
Got the B.B. 15 combo several days ago, and immediately played it hard for about an hour and a half, using my Fender A.V. '58 Tele only.
Since I got this amp mainly to provide a cleaner sound than some of my other 12–15 watters, most of my initial experimenting was done with the master very high or all the way up, and messing with gain as necessary to get what I was trying to get.
Final verdict: I'm a fan of the amp. It has some things about it that I will need to slightly adapt to, but over all, I think it's a great sounding and versatile little amp that gives me what I was after when I bought it.
It doesn't get as loud as my Ampeg J-12 T. But I can keep it WAY cleaner at roughly equivalent volume levels. Very useful.
The B/M/T tone controls are way more versatile than the J-12T. Takes some getting used to to have to mess with three tone knobs instead of just one, but in the end, it's a very good thing.
It cannot match the rawness and lushness of the J-12T at its tonal best (pretty much nothing does IMO – there is a reason it has been my main amp for 20+ years)...but the J-12T is a far more narrow sounding amp. It's pigeonholed into a certain range of tones (all of which are awesome). The B.B. offers far more tweakability, but without being overly complicated to set up/dial in. And it lets you clean it up a whole lot more, without sacrificing too much grit.
The B.B. 15 has way more bass than I will likely ever use. In the handful of nice tones I dialed in, none of them had the bass knob turned past about 10 o' clock...and that's with '58 reissue single coils. With humbuckers, I imagine I'll be running it even lower.
It also has way more [available] gain than I will ever use. I will almost never (if ever) use the high gain mode, and I will only occasionally use the medium gain mode. The low gain mode is the main reason I got the amp, and it is excellent. Most importantly, the other two gain modes don't get in the way in the slightest, and it's nice to have them there, in the event they are ever needed (I will use them from time to time).
It has plenty of treble available. I actually found myself using the tone knob on my Tele more than normal, even on the neck pickup.
The midrange might work on a kind of weird frequency...or I might just need to get used to it. But it's kind of like the effect of the knob isn't quite dramatic enough for me.
The volume and e.q. of this amp is HIGHLY dependent on where your ears are in relation to the center of the speaker cone. This is the case with all amps, but it seems far more pronounced with this one IME.
With the extension cab, I think this amp will improve (as most single-speaker combos do IMO). I would hope that it will add a little volume boost, and make the tone a bit more lush.
Future mods might just be the aforementioned addition of the B.B. 1x12 extension cab, speaker swaps, and tube swaps (but probably not till needed).
Compared to my Mesa Express Plus 5:25, the B.B. is nowhere near as loud, as versatile, or as full featured. But it is simpler, quicker to dial in, weighs less (or at least seems like it), and has better sounding "pushed cleans" on tap with far less fiddling and set up. In terms of the fundamental controls, it's more similar to the Express than to the J-12T. It's kind of like a diet version of the Express, for venues that don't need as much volume or as much easily switchable tonal versatility within a set.
I'm happy with the amp, and I look forward to adding the extension cab.
One thing I don't understand, however, is why the extension cab, which has the same height and width as the combo, is an inch and a half narrower! You should be able to stack the combo on top of the extension cab. It's really my only complaint...but one that is so baffling that it sort of sticks out like a sore thumb.
