We got our hands on the very first artist signature bass amp ever produced by legendary brand Fender: The Adam Clayton ACB 50 Bass Amp. We took it for a test drive in the studio.
Both Fender and Adam Clayton from U2 shouldn’t need any introduction, but to refresh you Fender has a legacy of iconic instruments and amplifiers that’s been around since the 1950s, and U2 founding member Adam Clayton is known for holding down the low-end whilst also bringing melody in their memorable catalogue (150 million plus records sold worldwide, 22 Grammy awards and Rock and Roll hall of fame status…and no, they are not from Scranton, UK).
The ACB 50 bass amp is a ‘made-to-Adam-Claytons-spec’ combo bass amp packed with preamp and output tubes, a 15” Eminence neodymium speaker, two varying channels, classic Fender design with chicken head knobs and it’s built to last while using lightweight materials. Owen from the team took it through its paces in our studio Noise Machines.
The Fender ACB 50 bass amp stays true to that Fender design that we are all so familiar with — Hot Rod Deluxe, TV amps, Fender Bass Amp Silverface, and Blackface — and coming very close in tone to the Fender Bassman AA864 circuit, this combo is sure to inspire that vintage tones from channel one with its Mid-range frequency section, while giving a more modern and straight forward tone from channel two with its simple 3 knobs of Volume, Treble and Bass.
For an all-tube amp, the lightweight and modern features are very welcome — there’s a transformer-coupled balanced XLR out with a ground lift, a balanced line out, and an external speaker out.
There’s not much to this amp — it’s an elegant design, twin-sounding, lightweight, and fairly small profile combo. It’s probably not aimed at those active pickup, heavy and loud players, it’s really for the players who are looking for vintage tones without breaking the bank — and the back!
Channel one has two inputs, 4 knobs of Volume, Treble, Middle, and Bass, with the Middle having a Mid Frequency Selector switch between Low, Mid, and High. Channel two has two inputs and 3 knobs of Volume, Treble, and Bass. For power, there’s a standby and a power switch.
It’s a thick, creamy-sounding amp, reminiscent of the Bassmans of the 60s, and maybe even a touch of Ampeg B15 too if you EQ it just right. It’s got a nice harmonic distortion to it if you give it a bit of a push too. And the second channel has a bit more of a modern flatter curve to its tone.
It’s powered by 4 tubes in the preamp section; 3 12AX7s, and a 12AT7, with a pair of 6L6 tubes on the output feeding a 15-inch speaker Eminence Neo speaker that’s been consistently tight and punchy so far…we couldn’t manage to get it to fart out just yet.
The rear has nice modern features – a built-in XLR direct out with ground lift, a jack out, and an output for an external speaker cab. It’s the kinda amp that’ll keep up easily in the studio with its 50 watts, and it’ll work pretty well on stage too.
If you really crank the volume on this thing it will start to break up on you, so that may be genre dependent on if you play this out, but for most situations, it’ll hold its own. It’s about 25 kgs, which in the scheme of tube bass amps it’s not too much of a backbreaker to lug around.
The Fender ACB 50 retails for around $2200 Australian and can be picked up from all good music retailers. For more info on the Fender ACB 50 Bass amp head over to Fender.com
