Fender Bandmaster ??

Tommy Auldridge · Post by **Tommy Auldridge** » 2 Mar 2015 8:28 am

I have lots of questions about a silverface Fender Bandmaster Reverb TFL 5005 D. head. I'm wondering if it would be good for steel? Also, I noticed it has two line outs for the speaker cabinets, which say, total 4 ohms. I guess I can hook up one 4 ohm speaker, or two 8 ohm speakers. I don't own any 8 ohm speakers. But, I do have some different sets of 4 ohm speaker cabinets. What should I try first? I think it has 3 6L6 power tubes among the others. It also has two channels in the front panel, the second even has vibrato. Any help will be greatly appreaciated. Thanks, Tommy.....

Rich Santucci · Post by **Rich Santucci** » 2 Mar 2015 9:19 am

The Bandmaster is about a 45 watt amplifier. Don't confuse the speaker outputs as being "line" outputs. Two different things, two different voltage levels. The amp uses 2 6L6 power tubes. The other larger tube is the rectifier tube. Don't mix them up! You can use two 8 ohm cabs or one 4 ohm cab. The reverb is nice. Vibrato is up to you. Do you have the footswitch? Without the footswitch the reverb is always on and the vibrato is always off.

Bill Hatcher · Post by **Bill Hatcher** » 2 Mar 2015 9:32 am

good for underarm guitar or lap steel, but if you are playing pedal steel..not a first choice because of the dynamic range of the pedal guitar.

as rich said. it only has two 6l6 power tubes. if there is a third large tube on the left looking at the back, that is a rectifier.

on a very good day with new tubes and biased ...45 watts. on most days after years of neglect and old tubes..maybe 30-35.

like i said, nice amp for standard guitar. used to be cheap and plentiful. then the guys started robbing the chassis to make what they call a Vibroclone....a poor mans copy of the old single 15" speaker blackface vibroverb. SRV used these and all the kids wanted one. i think there may have been a reissue of the vibroverb at some point, so now the vibroclones are not so fanciful as they once were.

now if it was a dual showman TFL5000D....then you could play anything you wanted through it!!

Ken Fox · Post by **Ken Fox** » 2 Mar 2015 2:33 pm

I would put a Twin Reverb or Showman clone transformer from Mojotone in it. Been there and done it. I built 6 or 7 of the Vibroclones using this chassis. Basically the same amp as a Super Reverb, Pro Reverb, and Vibroverb. Just had too small of an output transformer for my taste. With an efficient speaker it would be a nice sounding low power tube amp steel

Clete Ritta · Post by **Clete Ritta** » 3 Mar 2015 7:13 am

Tommy Auldridge wrote:...one 4 ohm speaker, or two 8 ohm speakers. I don't own any 8 ohm speakers. But, I do have some different sets of 4 ohm speaker cabinets...

Its always best to stick to an amps rating (4 ohms here), but you can use two 4 ohm cabinets. Its not recommended, but going down to 2 ohm (or up to 8 ohm) is supposedly within the working range of the amp.

I certainly wouldn't crank it, as it will put more strain on it. Im no expert, but Ken and others are, and have explained this in more detail in other threads. Ken hows that work again?

Tony Prior · Post by **Tony Prior** » 4 Mar 2015 4:21 am

in my opinion the BM , SF with R or BF, is the least desirable of all Fender tube amps. It is just to darn weak for any clean gain for the Steel. You can modify it I suppose, or just get a better amp !

I owned both SF with Reverb and an original 64 BF set. Neither pumped any worthy juice.

Step up to the 4x6L6 Fender amps if you are looking for Atlantis !

john widgren · Post by **john widgren** » 5 Mar 2015 1:33 pm

Yes Bandmasters are horrible AB763 40 watt all tube steel amps. Specially those nasty blackface ones. If you have one do yourself a favor...cut your losses and sell to me.

Ahahaha

JW

Paul Sutherland · Post by **Paul Sutherland** » 5 Mar 2015 3:17 pm

It seems to me what is missing from this discussion is what will be the intended use of this amp. If it's to be used to play gigs, un-mic'd with a loud band, then I agree it probably won't meet your expectations.

But if you specifically want a lower power tube amp for situations where you don't want to or can't play loud, then you may actually like such an amp.

I have just such an amp; powered by 2 6l6 power tubes into a high efficiency speaker. It's great for practicing at home, recording, rehearsals, and lower volume gigs. That covers about 90% or more of the actual time that I spend playing steel guitar. I have tried the 40 watt'r amp with a loud country rock band and didn't like it; my twin is clearly the amp needed for those situations. But when I used the 40 watt'r with the country swing band that plays at a much lower volume, it sounded great. We played that gig un-mic'd and the amp easily filled the room.

If you want real tube compression at lower volumes a 40 watt tube amp with 2 6L6 power tubes seems like a good choice.

You can't expect any one amp to be perfect for every situation.

Bill Hatcher · Post by **Bill Hatcher** » 5 Mar 2015 4:36 pm

i didnt tell him to get rid of it!! lol just what he would find under different situations.

i just used my blackface 65 bandmaster on a show for 6 weeks playing underarm guitar. fabulous sound. most of the time they wont let you play loud in the orchestra pit anyway, so the bandmaster sounded fine.

steel is a different animal. he didnt say what kind of steel...pedal or non pedal, but some pickups are wound so hot that they can over drive a bandmaster pretty fast. you wont have much dynamic range either like a twin. at home....just fine.

Matthew Dawson · Post by **Matthew Dawson** » 5 Mar 2015 7:13 pm

I use a 5751 in the 1st stage of my Bandmaster Reverb and it is plenty loud and clean for most situations. I'm playing non-pedal though. Most of the time if the room is too big for the BR they have a PA and mic the amp anyway. It is a great sounding amp for my purposes with the stock OT.

Tony Prior · Post by **Tony Prior** » 6 Mar 2015 3:44 am

well, I suppose I'll qualify my comments above..yes , the BM, it is an AB763 amp rated at about 40 watts, they sound awesome....until they don't. Which is not that far up the knob. The stock OT for this amp is either totally under rated or the just wrong one for the amp, period.

Not a bad amp, just not a good amp for gigs if you are needing some extra clean gain.

here's two of them from maybe a year ago before selling them, A 73 SF ( BF small cab) and an original 64 BF set , both had been on the bench, new E caps and tubes. Nice amps just not enough juice...

Tony Prior · Post by **Tony Prior** » 6 Mar 2015 3:51 am

this amp, 64 Tremolux, rated at 35 watts had more guts than the supposed 40 watt BM. But still lacking in the CLEAN headroom arena...oh yeh , sold this one about a year ago as well...this was one of my favorite amps but I never used it for any gigs...

John Billings · Post by **John Billings** » 6 Mar 2015 10:55 am

I used my old '64 Vibroverb for Tele and Steel. But we had a great PA, and miked everything. Best sound I ever had! Jensen 15" speaker. But I retired it when I saw too many people eyeballin' it!

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Fender Bandmaster ??

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