Billie Joe Armstrong’s Fender Bassman

By the time of Nimrod in 1997, Armstrong added a Fender Bassman to his studio lineup. This wasn’t part of his core live rig, but in the studio, it gave him something he couldn’t get from the Marshalls. The Bassman was used for cleaner rhythm tracks and parts that needed a warmer, rounder voice.

Reports from the sessions even mention it paired with a Leslie speaker cabinet, which explains some of the swirling textures heard on the record. The Bassman never stuck around as a permanent amp after Nimrod, but it shows that by then, Armstrong was reaching outside the Marshall box when a song demanded a different color.