Fender Band-Master VM

Fender Band-Master VM head, 40 watts, 6L6, two 12AX7, one for drive channel, one for phase inverter, two channel, effects loop, built in solid state effects including reverb, chorus and delay. The preamp is solid state. Typical Fender Mexico made quality, mass produced for working musicians price range. The chorus and delay share the same set of controls. Once the chorus setting is set, press in the setting to delay to set the delay. Note: The chorus stays set and will not be affected once the effect switch is set to delay. Set the delay setting to your liking and it is tweekable on the fly as long as the effect selection setting stays on delay. Once you set the effect selection setting back to chorus, the delay setting will need to be reset. Both channels share the same chorus, delay and reverb settings. The reverb has its own knob and can be adjusted at any time. The amp has one input and two speaker outputs. The main output is 8 ohm.

I am a weekend gigging musician with a full time day job and have gigged with numerous amp and pedal configuations. Our music room consist of many class A, classd AB and solid state amps including but not limited to '84 Fender Concert, Twin, Deluxe, Champ, Koch Twintone, Koch StudioTone, Allesandro Working Dog Doberman head, TopHat Royal head, Budda Superdrive, Mesa Maverick head and Mesa F-50 combo and several solid state amps including Fender Ultralite Jazzmaster, Ultimate Chorus and Roland Jazz Chours. In the last ten years or so I have always gigged with two amps via Tonebone A/B amp switch box. (Best AB box on the market) Too may guitars to list but must mention my main gigging guitar is a '89 G&L Legacy / noiseless Hot Plus pickups. I also own several Yamaha's of whcih are 70 and 80's copy era (Les Paul and ES 335) and an '90 PRS McCarty. Our band plays Blues Rock with a touch of classic and R&B; www.MikeVohsenBluesband.com We gig four to six times a month on average. I like a fat full Fenderish clean channel, some reverb, chorus for rythym and a some delay on leads. I use is an Ibanez Turbo Tube Screamer for leads. Prior to owning this amp my Pedalboard also included Boss Stereo Chours and Boss Delay.

The amp is very solid, no tube rattle, no hiss, no hum. I am very pleased with the amp. I accidentally dropped the head from my hand dolly while loading after a gig, it hit the street and did several 360's. The next morning I plugged it up expecting the worse. No problems, like new. I could not beleive it. The head has metal corner protectors and they worked. Years ago I used to gig with only one amp. I learned my lesson several times and now always bring two amps to a gig. Even the most expensive tube amps have issues. The Band-Master VM is a working mans amp, loud enough for any indoor gig and any outside venue when properly mic'd.

Leo Fender has built a company based on reputation and great products. I have always had great customer support from Fender dealers in the area.

In summary, been gigging for over 30 years and yes if it were stolen I would buy another Band-Master VM. Like I said previously, it is a working mans amp, built very well, Tube power amp, solid state effects built in, great sounding amp at a working musicians price. The metal foot pedal has buttons for channel swithcing, reverb, chorus and delay. Very neat. I upgraded the stock speaker cable and stock 1/4" x 1/4" footswitch cable for my own preferences but the stock ones worked. I have not had to change out the stock 6L6's but when I do I plan to use Ruby or Groove Tubes. I have tried out numerous other tube amps with built in effects including Marshall Haze, Vox, Bogner/Line 6 and the Band-Master VM outperforms them all in the tone category. I suspect in a year or so Fender will offer a newer version VM with independent effect settings for each channel. Not a big deal to me but I guess they designed it this way to keep the cost down so working musicians like me could afford one. Have a great day. Keep up Live Music!!

2 channel amp with seperate tone controls per channel. Built in reverb, chorus and delay. 40 watt amp that uses pre-amp and power tubes and some solid state circuits. Foot switch for channel switching and for effects. has effects loop. Has BIAS control.

This amp is not a old Fender Bandmaster it is the new Vintage Modern. I have to keep that in mind at times. I was expecting a tube sound like a Hot Rod Deluxe or a B-52 AT-60 or even a Bandmaster.

The bad: Not as full body and chimey as a other Fender tube amps, it seems a bit stiff and hard or (at sometines) compressed. You do not get that touch sensitivity that you have with other tube amps. At times the highs are hard and non-musical. the amp is not that loud. pretty quite for 40 watts. The clean channel breaks up to early, tough to get a loud clean channel unless you use low output pickups or have a humbucker rolled back to 5 or less and the amp volume at 5.
Reverb is not classic Fender (it's Vintage Modern!)

Moving towards the good: The amp has a BIAS control (yeah!!!). Pulled the Sovtek tubes (bad as usuall) put in Groove Tubes Gold series GT6L6 GE (no JJ's at the time)and BIAS'ed them cold (22MA) for more head room (at 26MA I lost head room). The amp sounded much better, warmer and more tube like, highs were better. Even though the amp was BIAS'ed cold it sounded good. I also used a late break up Jensen C12K 100 watt speaker.

The good: Yes there is good in this amp. The BIAS control helps. The thing that is good about this amp is you can BIAS cold and get a great sound provided tubes are good brands. I ran JJ 6V6's in this BIAS'ed at 17 to 18MA and got a great sound especially in the overdrive channel (clean head room dropped dramatically with the 6V6 but the dirty channel sure sounded good).

With right tubes and BIAS'ed cool I was getting a good clean at 7, some break up at 8 and lots of break up at 9. Break up was a lot like classic Fender normal channel break up (maybe not as fine but it had that character). This was good.

The overdrive channel was good, it was not the fizzy fender overdrive. It was tight and focussed, more like a good pedal. What I really thought was good about the overdrive was you could actually dial in a light overdrive that was characteristic of the clean channel breaking up. I find this hard to get on modern amps with high gain distortion channels (I usually have to buy a simple overdrive for my high gain amps but Not with this amp). The overdrive was a suprise that it would get good high gain sound as well, you could crank it all the way up and get a great sound, great for classic and contemporay rock (not metal). The dirty channel seems a bit compressed and sloppy playing gets hidden (I suppose that a good thing for some people).

The effects are good (are they like your most expensive pedal, probably not) however they are included and work well and are easy to select and adjust. They complement the rest of the amp well. reverb is nothing to rave about but it's there and does an okay job.

The bottom line is if your after an original Bandmaster or real tube sound this may not be for you. However it is worth checking out as it does have some nice qualities that are it's own and other amps may not offer.

It's looks well built inside, to new of an amp to know if it has issues.

Never tried them

I would have to say it's around a 7, it can be quite bad initially but re-tubed and BIAS'ed right it can be a pretty good amp, especially with the added on effects. the real deal breaker can be the lack of clean head room. It's not junk but probably should have been made more Vintage than Modern.

This is one of the new Fender Bandmaster VM (Vintage Modified) heads. It is rated at 40 watts, and is a 2009 model. It is an all tube amp with built in digital effects. One clarification though...the clean channel is solid state and goes through a phase inverter tube, and an all tube power amp. The lead channel is all tube using one 12ax7. It comes with a 4 button footswitch which controls channels, reverb, modulation, and delay. Has an effects loop and two outputs for speakers.

I use this amp with American strats and a '72 tele thinline reissue. I play mostly blues and classic rock, and this amp suits those styles very well. As always, the cleans are incredible and typical Fender, although the preamp stage of the clean channel is solid state, but the power tubes give it some warmth. The distortion channel has a nice smooth overdrive that some prefer over the Hot Rod series and compare to the overdrives on the Super Champ XD. This is a very bright sounding amp (think Deluxe Reverb) and I play it through a 2x12 Avatar cab with Celestion G12H30's. WIth the amp being so bright, you really have to roll off the treble on the bridge pickup, but on neck pickup of the strats, you can get a great SRV tone. I use an EQ pedal in front to add some bass and mids when using the bridge pickup and this amp takes pedals well. The reverb is digital, and I find it to be a bit noisy and not as good as true Fender spring or tube reverbs. The delays and chorus are pretty good. This is a good all in one amp and the head is also very light. It's taken me a while to really like this amp, mainly because of the brightness and digital reverb

I've owned this amp for a month but have never had problems with Fender products before.

I've been playing guitar for 40 years now, and this amp is a decent amp. I wish Fender would have given this amp a little more balls in the bass and mid-range to dial in a warmer tone, but again, this is just my preference...I like the tweed sounds over the deluxe sounds. It's a good versatile grab and go amp, and I think for the money, there are better amps out there.