# What do you think of Boss's Bassman pedal?



## Spellcaster (Jan 7, 2008)

I'm looking at a used FBM-1 and would like some feedback from owners. The Harmony Central reviews didn't tell me much - People seem to either love or hate it. I'm using a vintage Twin Reverb and JBL D-130F's and love the clean sound....mostly, I'm looking for a way to get it sounding like the amp's cooking without blowing myself out of the room. Any FBM-1 users care to comment?


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## Spellcaster (Jan 7, 2008)

I called Long and McQuade to price check them before I made a deal on the used one. Preinventory sale right now....60.00 new in the box. Needless to say, I'm an owner now. Thought some of you might be interested at that price.


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## JazzLix (Nov 8, 2010)

nice price! 
so what are your 1st impressions of the pedal?


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## Spellcaster (Jan 7, 2008)

Yeah, I was really happy with the deal. I ordered it over the phone (cheaper to have it shipped than to drive to L&M) and I probably won't get it for a couple of days. I suspect I'm going to like this....I had a look at the owners manual online and there're a bunch of suggested settings for Fender amps and the Roland Jazz Chorus. It seems as if this pedal's intended to be in front of a nice clean amp, so I suspect it'll get along well with the Twin Reverb. I'll check back in after I've used it for a day.


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## mrmatt1972 (Apr 3, 2008)

I have one (bought for a LOT more than that) and it is really good. I did a review of it here: http://www.guitarscanada.com/content/229-boss-fdr-1-fender-65-deluxe-reverb.html

I'm definitely in the love it camp, but I know exactly why the haters hate it. There is a LOT of gain in this pedal. If you're running into a tube amp, and you turn that knob more than a 1/4 of the way up there is no longer much "Deluxe reverb" sound there. The trem is really great, and the verb is splashy, like the real thing.

Buy mine, it's like new and I'll include an adaptor. I don't play electric anymore...

Matt


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## Spellcaster (Jan 7, 2008)

Well, I've had the Bassman pedal for a couple of days now and after having used it I'm pleased overall. The comments and reviews that criticized the over-sensitivity of the gain and level controls are legitimate. It definitely takes a light hand on the gain.....Anything over the nine o'clock position turns it from a tasteful modeling pedal into a snarling distortion box. That said, there's an awful lot to like here. I didn't find that the FBM-1 added an objectionable amount of noise to the signal chain and the tone stack works just fine. I've never even heard a '59 Bassman, so I can't tell you if they've nailed it, but the pedal did exactly what I expected - turned my blackfaced Twin Reverb head into something grittier but still pleasing. What surprised me (and I've never owned an amp or pedal that would do this) was the way you can lean into it. Played normally, it sounds like a nice smooth old tube amp, but when you really lean on the guitar and push the pedal harder, it breaks up beautifully. This is probably one of my most satisfying pedal purchases.

I made a deal on mrmatt1972's FDR-1 Deluxe Reverb pedal too, so I'll have a chance over the next few days to road test it and make some comparisons. I thought I was done buying pedals years ago and it's been a long time since I've used them much. These ones are changing my mind.


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## JazzLix (Nov 8, 2010)

noticed that L&M has these pedals going on sale this weekend. $60! Less than half what I paid a few years ago, and a steal for this pedal.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

As the proud owner of an actual 59 Bassman (September 59 if the tube sticker is to be believed, not a reissue), I can say that part of the sound of the unit comes from the P10R speakers, and apparently the Tung-Sol 5881 tubes.

Now, you CAN model all of that if you pay close enough attention. The trouble is that when you take _that_ signal and feed it to a different amp and speakers, you tend to lose the authenticity or faithfulness of the modelling as it becomes coloured by other devices. That is an intrinsic aspect of ALL amp simulators that do not constitute the very last element in your signal chain. Doesn't matter what it is. A Vox simulator, played through a phaser, then fed to a Crate amp with Eminence speakers, stops sounding exactly like a signal path where the last stop before the mic is a Vox amp.

I'm not saying that is intrinsically a "bad" thing. Rather, if the intent is to "capture" what a 59 Bassman is supposed to sound like, then one probably needs to run the pedal straight into the board, with nothing in between it and the board. If the intent is to use it to goose an amp, then you just have to like it for what it is and accept that some of the authenticity will be mistranslated along the way.

As always, what matters is if it sounds good to you and anyone you subject to your music at appreciable volumes for appreciable periods of time.


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## Spellcaster (Jan 7, 2008)

As always, mhammer, your insights are enlightening and appreciated.

A post script to this thread....I got the Boss Deluxe Reverb pedal in yesterday's mail. It's a nice piece and I don't have regrets about buying it, but after A-B comparisons between the FBM-1 and FDR-1 I'm finding that they can be set to do a lot of the same things as far as amp modelling. The reverb/tremelo aren't much like a real Deluxe Reverb though....The reverb has a real electronic time-tunnel sound (a lot like my Univox Reverb unit from 35 years ago) and none of the lush spring sound that a Fender amp produces. The tremelo sounds *exactly* like my blackfaced Twin Reverb's, but having to use the tap-tempo to set the speed is challenging. That said, I'm still glad to have it - The tone stack seems to operate a little differently than the Twin, so it's expanded the tone spectrum available, and I'm sure that it'll be handy if I ever end up using an amp without trem/verb. Both the FBM-1 and FDR-1 are nice and quiet in the signal chain too.

Now I'm curious about the BOSS FRV-1 Reverb pedal, LOL. Wondering if the extra controls for the reverb would make it different or useful compared to the tank in the Twin. When I assembled the Twin head I installed the correct Accutronics tank, but I find it's very exaggerated and overly "surfy" compared to Fenders I played in the 60's....Like, any setting over 4 is too much, where I used to dial in settings of 6 or 7 on my old amps.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

Spring reverbs are mechanical devices, every bit as much (if not moreso) as they are electronic. The quality of the resulting tone depends on how hard you smack the springs. That's what the "Dwell" control is for. One can probably safely assume that it was originally called "Dwell" because the decay of the springs.....the time the signal "dwelled" by moving back and forth along the springs....was determined by the amplitude of the signal fed to them, which was in turn determined by how much gain you applied to that signal.

We all know that setting the "Gain" to 1, and the "Master Vol" to 10 on an amp gives a different sound than setting "Gain" to 10 and "Master" to 1. Dwell and Mixer have a similar relationship; the primary difference being that your master volume adjusts the level of only one signal, while the Mixer adjusts the level of two signals. But Dwell should be thought of as a sort of Gain control, and Mixer as a kind of Master Volume....for the reverb signal.

If Boss provided an accurate model, increasing the Dwell not only determines the decay time, but also how well the virtual springs handle transients and the degree of "clutter" or cleanliness to the resulting sound. Tap the springs on a pan lightly and that's what minimal Dwell sounds like. Make them go "boi-oi-oing" by whacking them and that's what extreme dwell settings do.

The 1-knob reverb we are all accustomed to, on standard blackface and other amps, has a fixed dwell setting (which can be transformed to variable), and one assumes the designers aimed for a particular sound that you'd blend in to taste, rather than "voicing" it in any particular way.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

An ostensibly completely different topic, but in flipping through L&M's "specials" pages, I noticed they were also selling the Line 6 Tonecore Dr. Distorto for $65.

I own both the Dr. Distorto and a Boss DF-2 Feedbacker pedal that the Tone Core pedal was intended to surpass. They both synthesize overtones of whatever note you hold to simulate amp feedback at lower volumes. The DF-2 is all analog, while the Dr. D is entirely digital. That means you can mod the tonal qualities of the DF-2 more easily, but the tracking and control over the "feedback" tone is not nearly as good. Conversely, The Dr. D. has a respectable, though somewhat uni-dimensional, sound, but has a lot more control over the manner in which the overtone is introduced. It also does not require you to hold the foot treadle down to actuate the sustained overtone.

A decent buy.


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