Blackface Fender Amps

Here are a few blackface fenders we recently had in the store. You can’t mess with the tone of an old fender amp. The gritty-clean punchy tone you get when you hit 5-7 in volume is just fantastic. Mike Ness of Social Distortion plays a vintage Fender Bassman that has been modded through a Marshall 1960AV cab. One of the best aspects of an amp like his is you can gain it up by using an overdrive (like the Boss SD1 used by Mike) and still be able to distinguish the sound of each individual note. Here is a 1966 Vibrolux Reverb and a 1965 Bassman head and cab:

The Blackface Fender amplifiers were produced between 1964 and 1967. Blackfaced cosmetics do not necessarily mean "pre-CBS" since the CBS company takeover took place in 1965 and amps with blackfaced cosmetics were produced up to 1967. The blackface cosmetics were discontinued in late 1967; they returned for a brief period in 1981 before their discontinuation the following year.