The Steel Guitar Forum

Does anyone play through a Fender Bandmaster?

I have one that I bought new in 1967. I played through it extensivly in the late 60's in a band using a fender solid state reverb, maestro fuzz, and wah wah. It puts out about 45 watts I think and was loud enough in those days. I still have it and it looks almost mint. I had the head repaired and retubed about 4 years ago, and I have EV SRO speakers in it. It has the big cabinet that weighs a ton. I just use it at home now with a 63 reissue tube reverb, and a boss DD5 delay and a little compressor. It sounds great with my G&L ASAT, and has the best tremolo. It is a good recording amp, and probobly one of the most reliable amps ever made.
Lefty

I have a Bandmaster that I bought in '64. It is a great amp and very reliable, but I don't care for the sound with steel, also no reverb. I gave it to my brother when I got my Nashville 1000. No comparison.

I used it for a while with bass, but newer amps are better and lighter. Just my opinion.<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Jim Mathis on 26 November 2000 at 07:04 PM.]</p></FONT>

I concur with Jim. The Bandmaster is not a steel amp. Not enough clean headroom. But it is a good guitar amp and a classic design. The non-tremolo channel has more gain. The 45 watts are enough with good speakers. Mine originaly came with the Utah speakers, which I blew a few times and had re-done, and then replaced. It works great as a studio or pedal amp. More could be said about solid state vs. tube, but the subject becomes subjective.
Lefty<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Lefty on 27 November 2000 at 05:55 PM.]</p></FONT>

I have a 63' or 64' Bandmaster head. I used it along with a 65' Bassman each running a sgl. 15 Evans cabinet in stereo at Renfro Valley a couple of times. With reverb and delay they sounded good to me. Mics on both cabinets, so I didn't have to be real loud but they did hold there own with the rest of the band. I'm a sucker for tube amplification. The Bandmaster is great on guitar in the studio cranked WIDE OPEN!!:cool

Whoops!!!

I can understand the appreciation of many players for the old tube amps, the tone IS soft and mellow when they are working......but when tube amps are discussed all I can remember is having to remove all the tubes from those old Fenders every Saturday and taking them down to the 7-11 store and running them through the tube-tester before going to the club. Those 6L6 tubes lasted about as long as a 3rd string does now!

Gene,

Really? My 6L6's have always lasted for years. I've used a lot of tube amps and never had a amp go completely out because of a tube and certainly not a 6L6.

My experinece has been that tube amps are just as reliable as solid-state.

Tube replacement is a part of owning a tube amp. It may not be as often as 3rd stings break, but they do have to be replaced. Preamp tubes get noisy, output tubes tend to lose power, etc.

For me re-tubing is the nature of the beast. Still I am a slave to tube tone. At least for guitar, and lap. For pedal steel I like the tone as clean as I can get it. My amp tech retubed and rebiased my bandmaster with Sovtek tubes, and it is loud and clean even at 45 watts. I would not part with it.
Lefty

lefty you said it! i wouldn't part with my 63 blonde bandmaster or my 62 brownface bassman.there is no substitute for tube tone.these amps with good tubes and properly biased sound incredible!!!