When BOSS & Fender announced their new ’59 Bassman pedal last month I greeted it with more than a bit of skepticism… to be honest, as a dyed-in-the-wool vintage tube-amp fiend I actually found the whole idea rather unsavory.
Not that I begrudge anyone for wanting to get some of that classic tone without shelling out a small fortune for a vintage Bassman, it’s just that to me, while the Bassman really is a veritable monster of great tone, a big part of the whole charisma & mystique of a vintage tube amp is actually plugging into that musky old tweed beast and punching up the volume––the cabinet rattles, the tubes begin to glow, and everything is right in the world.
Anyways, for those of you who are understandably intrigued by the idea of a “classic tube-amp in a box,” I thought I’d point out that BOSS has now posted an mpeg video demo of the ’59 Bassman pedal, otherwise known as the FBM-1, and to be perfectly honest––the pedal doesn’t sound half bad.
Granted, we’d need to hear it at full window-shaking volume to really know how close it comes to recreating the Bassman, but at first listen the FBM-1 does seem to capture at least some of the tonal quality and responsiveness of an actual tube amp.
Unfortunately, the whole experience is marred by Roland/BOSS’s most annoying spokesman ever––Johnny DeMarco––who easily wins my vote for cheesiest guitar-personality on the planet…
Where’d they pick this guy up?
- See The BOSS/Fender ’65 Deluxe Reverb Pedal In Action
- ’59 Fender Bassman In A Box… Am I The Only One Scared, Here?!
- BOSS Recreates Roland RE-201 Space Echo In A Digital Pedal
- Dreamy All-Tube Tone: Fender’s ’59 Bassman
- Hear The Fender Super-Sonic 112 In Action!
- Video Demonstration Of The New BOSS MICRO BR
- Finally, A Review Of The BOSS Micro-BR
- REVIEW: Marshall’s Guv’nor Distortion Pedal
February 21st, 2007 at 6:03 pm
cheesiest guitar-personality on the planet doesn’t even begin to describe that guy.
cool sounding pedal, though.
thanks for the great reviews, I check here all the time.
peace.
February 21st, 2007 at 10:08 pm
Thanks Mike… while I’m more than sure it won’t hold up to a ’59 Bassman, the pedal definitely seems to produce a fairly nice tone in and of itself.
February 21st, 2007 at 10:37 pm
that guy is so annoying. but he has some tasty licks
February 23rd, 2007 at 2:29 pm
Good ole Johnny Demarco, the most obscene voice/hair/demeanor to hit advertising since…well…no one.
February 23rd, 2007 at 6:37 pm
that guy is unbelievable. he must be joking.
March 5th, 2007 at 9:19 pm
Well his persona might be over the top but I worked with him about 9 years ago at Sam ash music in Cleveland Oh. And he is one of the nicest down to earth guys you have ever met, he has no secrets, he’ll show you anything he does if you ask him too. he is a really nice guy!
But yes he is coming off like tony little
April 26th, 2007 at 8:17 pm
The demo video was really impressive. Seems worth the $150. Better than shelling out a couple grand for the reissue amp.
June 3rd, 2008 at 5:57 am
gggggg–
probably the worst video demo ever!
thank you for this ‘analog’ blog!
;o)