![]() And remember, the amp was fairly quiet until it had warmed up for a few hours. It was only audible with the standby switch on (not in standby mode), so the power section was the prime suspect. The sound was sort of electrical static/crackling in nature. ![]() Rather than send it back into the shop, Ivan decided to leave it in mine-after all, it was already there! He actually had to move the speaker baffle back a ways to make it consistent with a standard Fender combo amp, and to properly protect the grill cloth.Īfter all that effort, two hours into band practice the following week, it was a bit disappointing to hear that the original problem still hadn’t been fixed. This actually involved a bit of woodworking, too, as the grill cloth originally stuck out proud of the front face of the cabinet. He replaced the grill cloth and re-glued a lot of the tolex. After more than a year of back-and-forth and missed connections, Ivan finally got it back from the shop, and thought it would be nice to give it a little TLC. The chassis of this amp was put into a third-party 2x10 combo cabinet by the previous owner, and it was getting a little long in the tooth. It had been in and out of another shop for over a year, and the problem was never successfully addressed. It suffered from a phantom crackle that would only appear after being warmed up for an hour or two. and this led to its being discontinued in 1974.My buddy Ivan uses this combo-ified 1963 Band-Master as his backup. This can be very desirable for blues and rock players at low to moderate volumes, but doesn’t permit the amp to do deliver clean tones at high volumes as a Twin Reverb can. As well, the Bandmaster design has a fairly low headroom level, leading to early breakup. However, they were overtaken by other higher powered designs as the demand for volume grew. These are great vintage amps, and were pretty high powered for the time. The head still has the original slides, however the original cabinet bolts are gone and replaced with other working units. On the bottom of the amp head, there are two slotted arms that slide out, and the cabinet has threaded ferrules to accept a pair of bolts. The Fender ‘Piggyback’ design includes hardware to couple the head to the cabinet. Here, the Tolex covering is in pretty good shape considering the realities of use, but the cabinet grille cloth has a few small holes visible in the cabinet-front image. The grille cloth and black Tolex coverings on these amps are the most vulnerable to wear and (literal) tear from normal use. The cabinet carries a pair of 1962 Utah speakers. Though it’s not pictured, a Vibrato footswitch is included. The head features its original, dated to 1964 transformers, and some caps have been replaced – this is ultimately necessary on virtually all amps as these parts do wear out. The head is in Blackface garb – white script logo lettering on a black panel, with black Tolex covering. Here we’re looking at a Fender Bandmaster head and cabinet set, built during 1964 at the Fender plant in Fullerton, California. This was immediately referred to as the ‘Piggyback’ design and every other manufacturer soon followed. ![]() This solution makes so much sense and became so common that it seems obvious now, but simply separating the amplifier and speakers into separate cabinets was a breakthrough. So a highly innovative solution was found. As power levels started to rise, physically repairing amps took more and more space. In the early 1960s Fender was realizing that combo amplifiers carried service issues in the ever-larger cabinets. ![]() Along the way it was also available, from 1955 to 1960, as a 28 watt 3×10 inch speaker combo. Contact us with any questions on other fine amplifiers or instruments we can assist you with!įirst appearing in 1954 and built to 1974, the Fender Bandmaster amplifier transformed from a 26 watt single-15 inch tweed combo to, in 1961, a 40 watt head and 2×12 cabinet set. We’re maintaining this post for reference. NOTE: This item has been discontinued and is no longer available.
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