Fender Musicmaster Bass Amp

I'm a guitarist who plays exclusively through Fender Bass amps. I have a Silverface Bassman 4x10, and this little thing. They both rule...
One volume, one tone knob and a ****oad of good old tube distortion from 2 6V6s and a 12AX7. Takes effects pedals very well, making it more tweekable than first imagined. Great for Rock, and Blues Guitar. Not much headroom before it kicks into overdrive. Just Like the Doctor Ordered. A Killer little amp that never fails to surprise people I gig with.

Kick ***, raw distortion dimed... loads of compression and overdrive at 6. I play Rock, Punk style. This little thing is a Twelve Watt wonder that is one of the best kept secrets of Fender amps. Really loud for 12 watts. Put a boost pedal in front of it and you can play small venues.

A sturdy little amp that is easy to carry, and very reliable. I have had this thing for ten years with the same tubes, and I play it most weekends.

Who Cares? It really isn't needed. If an old amp was going to fail, it would have failed.

Wish it were a 2x12. But, it sounds great with one speaker. I've been playing for 15 years. This has been my primary practice amp, and occasional gig amp for ten years. This little amp is one of the tools I've built my reputation as a Rock guitarist with. Highly Recommended.

One volume and one tone knob on a one channel amp. Great tube tone from the two 6V6 tubes running push-pull, and great distortion that intensifies as you turn it up. It could use a reverb, so it only gets an 8.

This amp is great with single coils, P-90's, or humbuckers. The bigger, the sooner it growls. Single coils from my strat push the amp into overdrive around 7, while humbuckers start distorting around 5. Killer tone. The smaller silverface Fenders(5-12 watts) have that Blackface tone, and break up nicely, and early like a Fender should. This bass amp (that no one uses for bass) is certainly no exception to that rule. I chunked the worthless Oxford speaker and put in a Jensen C12R. It really rocks, now!!!

This amp is somewhere around thirty years old, and is still kicking. I took the head off the cabinet, and discovered that the point to point handwired amp's capacitors, etc. looked almost brand new, and showed no sign of heat, or humidity damage. This Amp is a little brick ********.

Compared to the 800, or more bucks you would spend on a Princeton, or Champ from the 70's this amp is a real bargain that can be picked up for 350-450 in online auctions. So, don't buy one from a shop and pay too much. I love this amp, and I would never part with it. My old one had a pair of 6aq5 tubes, and I must say the 6V6 tubes sounds way better than I remember my other amp sounding, and louder, too. I bought this to replace one that was stolen from me, and I shopped around and got a good deal. I highly recommend this amp for that dirty Fender Champ sound at twice the volume.

I have a 1977/78 (pots dated 33rd week of 77) with push-pull 6v6's. I don't play bass.I am using it stricly for guitar, and that is how I'm rating it. This amp was given to me by a friend who is moving. It needed retubing, and some tlc. I am giving it a 7 on features because there isn't alot of crap in between you and some good 6v6 tone. The amp takes pedals very well, but you have to have the pedals. I tested it with an Electro-Harmonix Hot Tubes(discontinued, get them while you can. they rock), a Guyatone MC-3 Chorus, an Ibanez TS9, and a Guyatone flanger pedal. All work well, and give the amp some versatility.

This is one of the best low power tube amps for guitar I have run across in quite awhile. Turn the volume to 3, and it's nice and warm, crank up further, and it screams and distorts all the more the closer it gets to 10. Just what I wanted. Rocks like a Champ, but louder and just a tad cleaner. I am using a Fender MIM Stratocaster with aftermarket overwound pickups(I'm not plugging the maker because he's an *******, and the pickups need to be modified, i.e., the vintage staggers he pushes as the answer to "that tone" need to be pushed down flat, so the mids don't scream and your bass at high end sucks hard). Trust me on this one. If you have a 63 fender neck, you might need the stagger, but it is just a ticket to bad tone with a modern neck's profile.

A particle board encased brick house. Rugged, and light enough to schlep around.

CBS has left the building... No warranty, no problem.

One of the best kept secrets in the Fender amp legacy. Don't buy into talk that these amps need modifications. Just because Torres floods the internet with links to his mods doesn't mean it needs, or can be improved by one. Keep it simple, and if it ain't broked, don't try to fix it. This one's a keeper.

Not much on the Features its a 1978 Musicmaster bass
- 12 watts RMS With 26 Watts Peak Music Power.
- Single Channel With 2 Instrument Inputs.
- Special Design 12" Bass Speaker.
- Finest Acoustic quality Grille Cloth.
- Numerically Graduated Controls.
- Professional Fender Styling and Quality.

This sounds great i use it with my 1978 Fender bass and its just awesome. Its loud enough and clear enough for my likings.

This amp is so old and still works great. Never had to do anything to it. its got the 6v6's and never had to replace them very reliable!

Never needed it lol.

Overall its great for beginners or people who just like to play and not get too crazy with stuff but all in all its a great vintage amp.

Built in the early 70's I think, it has little to no literature on it. 2 inputs and minimal knobs. I traded a valvestate 25watt marshall straight across for it and it was the best trade I ever made!! This amp has a pure tube tone from the get go!! I started out with el 34 power tubes and an aux7 preamp the combo lite up and purred! But the transformer ran hot and always smelled like cigarette smoke, lol! I then switched to a 12ax7(stock) and 6l6gc power tubes and the amp sounded awesome and if possible a little louder than normal. The transformer still ran hot, but not as bad, so I switched back to the stock 6v6 Fender tubes and the amp sounds as good if not better than any other combo. Mine puts out a wopping 9 watts on the meter, but sounds like 30 and when you power a 2-10" box it really works well for small gigging and recording.

The only thing I didn't like about the amp was when you turn the tone knob past 7, the volume drops??? Is this some kinda safety feature? It kills me cuz the sound is great then I try for a touch more bright and the volume drops 30%.
The amp sounds best when I play my Fender TC 90 with P 90's thru it I could jam blues rifts all night E B A baby, no one dies and we all go home alone!! a 7 cuz of the volume drop for no reason thing.

Never had a problem with it and I've driven it way harder than you should, changed tubes that pull to much from the transformer and never even biased it! Tuff Unit!!

Local amp guru is a former Fender shop guy, he has the ultimate set of tools, he can fix it!!

I've been playing 24 yrs, seriously gigging and recording for over 10 of them, I have a Mesa Boogie 200 watt Bass Buster, a Fender BXR 300C, and a Marshall 3020 artists series, Bassman 60, Line 6, Vox ac 30, Peavey Pro sys 112's and Samson power amps.
1998Gibson Blueshawk, 1983 Carvin DC 150CE, @005 Fender Mustang bass, 2006 TC90 tele, etc.. I've bought and sold more gear in 10 years than most schools will ever own, and these are the ones that stuck around. For the price <300 bucks you can't go wrong with the Musicmaster bass amp, it doubles as a killer guitar amp and it will give you the tone that should be coming outta yer fingers(hey, some of us just don't have the raw talent and need to experiment with gear)

Lightweight tube combo with 12" speaker, volume, tone and not much else. Fender had no small bass amp so about 1970 they brought out the Musicmaster. well, they still had no small bass amp but it turned out to be a pretty fair guitar amp.

A little thin compared to the comparably powered Princeton or the dredded Blues Junior but still fun. Turn it up past "3" and the P90s wail. Contrary to what another reviewer suggested, it is not class A but runs a pair of 6V6GTA in push/pull. The topology is a bit unusual as the phase inversion ahead of the power tubes is by transformer. Maybe that and the rather light output transformer conspire to roll off the bottom so drastically. I'm thinking I'll pull the phase inverter out, put a big single-ended output transformer in it and run this thing class A. I like the simplicity of the controls and the handy size. Seems like a great place to start.

It's simple as an anvil. What could break?

Fun as it is. Great potential.

1 12AX7 preamp tube, 2 6V6 power tubes, 1 volume, 1 tone, power switch, 2 inputs (high and low) 1 12" speaker, light weight, long power cord, cool red power light, silverface, very simple design, very sturdy and reliable.

Not enough features for my liking. Either it's clean at low volumes, or it distorts at higher volumes. Very simple, but not enough tweakability for me. I like to have control over things such as the amount of distortion, and at what volume. The tone control doesn't do much at all. Another separate channel, fx loop, and footswitch would be nice.

It does sound great though. Nice full clean sound, and great, Marshall-like growling distortion. Problem is, I can't use it for clean sounds with a band because it doesn't have enough power. I added an external speaker jack and hooked it up to a 4X12, which improved the sound a lot, but with a band I have to crank it up to about 7 or 8 on the dial, to be heard. Anything above 3.5 on the dial distorts. Wish it had more power, because I do love the sounds it makes.

Some see this simplicity as a god-send. I agree with this, to some degree, but I also require flexibility.

I use it with a Les Paul custom, Fender Strat and various other guitars, and they all sound great through it. I love the clean sounds. Only wish I could get them louder so I could play clean with a band. Distortion is awesome as well - no problems with that, except that you can't get it at low volumes. A gain control is really needed to control the amount of distortion, at different volume levels. I love the crunch this thing gives when at volume 7 and up.

The stock speaker by itself sounds ok, but distorts earlier. An external cab fills out the sound, gives a later onset of distortion and seems to have more power.

I'm only giving this a 7 because, although the sound is great, I can't control the distortion and clean volume levels.

I got it used, and it looks all original, and still works perfectly. Built like a tank.

Haven't needed it yet.

As much as I love the great sound of this amp, I have to give it a lower score, simply because I can't control the sound I'm after. I won't get rid of this however, since I do love the sound it makes, and it's pretty cool looking.

Rockin' class A point to point hand-wired amp!! 12 watts. This sucker rocks. Read the "Sounds" section for all the real goods.

Features? Ha! It's got a rubber handle!

May not seem like a whole lot of features when you compare it to a super-gold-plated 57-knob 8x12 I-can-digitally-model-every-vintage-amp-ever-created amp...but that's just ridiculous. Some people need to get real and get down to the basics and discover how to create good tone from the ground up. This is the way to go!

Two inputs. I assume one hi and one lo. Plug into both at the same time and they level with eachother.

Simple volume and tone knob.

12 inch speaker.

The amp starts sounding good at 3 on the volume and just a *tick* below three on the tone. Nice and clean with some brightness on top and a little rolloff on the low end. Volume at 4; it sounds superb! The tone warms up a lot more than sitting at 3. This is where I keep mine most of the time. A super nice clean tone with the ability to get some nice clipping if you dig in a bit. That's what I love about tube amps, they follow your dynamics!

Low wattage tube amps rock because you can squeeze the good juice out of them without blowing the doors off your house! Even in spite of that, when I practice in the music room I set up in my house, I can't turn it up past 4 otherwise my ears start to hurt. At 4 it starts to get a good crunch. Turning up the volume past that starts to give you the good ol' American style overdrive. It's pretty flippin' sweet. At 10 it roars. It follows your every nuance. If you're not too embarassed to play power chords, try it. It's sweet. Keep it at 10, but then change your picking dynamic a little and that natural tube compression happens and you get a cleaner tone at a good volume. You'll smile yourself to retardation.

I took this in to a tech to get it serviced. The dummy didn't even know what it was. He laughed thinking it was some crappy fender solid state. I told him to shut his face and just play it. His jaw dropped. Then I told him to drive a 4x12 with it. He nearly cried. It was beautiful. Bassman chunk!

Then I left the store because I didn't want that guy fixing my amp if he didn't even know what it was!

I've gigged with it every week for over a year. Practice an hour or so daily. Haven't changed the tubes. Rocks just as hard as it did when it was made in the 70s. I tell ya, if you can find one of these around you better snag it. All those crappy modern amps will strand you in the middle of a gig after a couple months of hard play. These *TRUE* vintage hand-wired amps are where it's at! They knew how to make 'em back then!!!! Leave those modern re-issues alone! They may sound great in the store...but what good is that gonna do if you're playing live and you're on the 6 song of the set and your amp dies? At that point you'll be so embarassed you'll wish that you had died right along with your overpriced modern amp.

I wouldn't even think about sending it to Fender. They probably wouldn't even recognize it!

This is a great little tube amp. I can't say it enough. I won't buy any more of those I-pretend-to-be-vintage-but-really-I'm-just-a-crappy-reissue amps. I've had too many bad experiences with them. They just can't nail it right. This musicmaster bass amp is not one of those monstrously overpowered amps where you will only use a small spectrum of it's possible operating range. Everything is useable on here, and you won't give yourself a concussion just trying to get good tone. I always enjoy being able to play my instrument without causing myself bodily injury. Try that with your 8x12 Marshall-Boogie-Randal signed-by-Jesus hybrid.

Is this the best tube amp in the world? By no means! But I do believe it has to be just about the best deal in the world. You won't ever find a Class A point-to-point hand-wired tube amp for this price...especially one that lasts this long!

I enjoy it a lot. If you try one and don't like it, I give you permission to come piss on my grave when I die.

Update of previous review. Using it for regular guitar.I e-mailed Fender, trying to get info on the owner's manual.I was very reluctant, because of previous problems.Well, I was surprised when they sent me the manual via pdf file.Mostly ads for their less expensive basses, etc., but there isn't much to the amp anyway.I guess because they're so big it takes a lot of time to get stuff together.I now love Fender again.Now if they could get someone to sell their Charvels and Jacksons besides that stupid c**t jenna jamison.

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Update on my previous review. I installed a 1/4 in-line female to male jack to the cable coming from power amp to the speaker. I can defeat the speaker in the amp by unplugging the male (speaker connection) jack, plugging in a speaker cable into the female jack, and run the cable into an outside cabinet. The amp absolutely roars through my 4x12 box. Incredible low end and sustain. It may not be "vintage" now, but it sounds great. I'm using straight 8ohm speakers now. The 16ohm speaker actually added a bit too much crunch, and reduced the decibel output as well. If you don't care about keeping the amp vintage, this mod is well worth a try in my opinion.

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