Open Box Fender Bassbreaker 15W Tube Guitar Amp Head Level 1

Home recording !!!

Was sounding great until one of the output tubes went out. I'm still giving this 3 stars because of GCs return policy and how painless and easy to exchange new gear. Kudos to Nick from GC Hobart, IN.

Great little amp, tones from cleans to breakup to dirty. Nice feature set w/reverb, effects loop, 3 gain stage knob. Well worth the price. Holds its own against Friedman Dirty Shirley which costs 3 times as much.

Use at home mostly. Also use in live settings. There are definitely boutique sounds in this amp, as long as you keep the gain fairly low. Great clean sounds, from sparkly clean, to slightly hairy, are this amps strong points. This amp has a lot of base, so I keep the base turned down. It really sounds great with the mids turned way up. The high gain setting on this amp sounds good too, but there is also quite a lot of hissing in this mode when not playing. I actually prefer using a Dirty Shirley pedal with the amp in a clean setting. The reason I gave this amp four stars is because the mute switch makes a slight pulsating sound when engaged, (it is not a real standby switch, so whether or not you actually use it, is pretty much up to you). Also, I have heard that the LXR direct out sounds a little fake. I have never tried it. I've also read complaints about the effects loop being noisy on some of the early models. Again, I've never used it. Overall, if your goal is to achieve nice clean to very mild overdrive type vintage sounds, this is a stellar amp for the money. If I were to upgrade to the hand wired boutique amp of my dreams, I would be looking at spending about $2000, and it would sound maybe a little bit better, but not $1500 better, in my opinion.

The Bassbreaker15 is an exceptional amplifier. I first acquired the BB15 Combo at my local guitar center. I use a Mesa MK5:25 head, carrying a blues jr as a backup and a 1x12 cab with my favorite hemp cone speaker. When the BJr developed a problem that was not the tubes, rather than trying to have it diagnosed I decided to replace it because it was old anyway. My speaker would not fit in the combo amp so I took it back and swapped it out for the BB15 head, which is absolutely no problem with the great staff at my local GC. The Bassbreaker 15 is a very nice low wattage head. I use an extensive pedalboard and just set my amps on the "edge of breakup". The BB15 does this beautifully with the medium gain structure and the drive at around 9:30 to 10. Rolling the guitar volume down cleans up completely. Very full bodied tone that anybody would love. While I don't use it in the high gain structure mode, if I needed to, I would be VERY PLEASED with the driven tones. The high gain structure sounds better than any pedal out there (and I mean any, so long as you're not going metal, and it does that pretty well). If it were possible to switch from a med to hi gain structure tone on the fly, this would probably be one of the best amp available anywhere. I have a Marshall DSL40 and a Fender HR Deluxe as well. Without question I prefer the tones available from the BB15 better. Any talk of 15 watts not being able to keep up with a full band or a drummer is absolute nonsense. If that's the case, you're playing too loud or you need a different drummer. I love my Mesa MK5:25, and honestly have not decided whether the BB15 will become my primary amp, but it probably won't. The reason (and this is why 4 stars, not five) is that the direct out just doesn't sound good, and at some gigs I do use DO. It is easily on par with the MK5:25, or any other amp when miking up though. The tone controls are powerful and clean and the reverb is good enough for anybody. Buy this if DO isn't an issue.

I shopped very carefully among many brands and sizes of amplifiers. I chose the Fender head because of it's flexibility. For home and very small gigs I run it with a 1x12 cabinet. I also have a 4x10 cab for playing really loud! The tonal range of the amplifier is absolutely amazing. I can get almost any sound I want without using effects pedals.