Fender Bandmaster Head

I love this amp. It has a sweet clean tone and a good natural overdrive. Mine is a '64 that I've had modified. I upgraded the output transformer to a Bassman type and added a tube rectifier and 4/8 ohm speaker switch. I play it though a Marshall 4x12 with 25 watt Greenbacks and it sounds loud and proud. The tremolo on this thing is absolutely awesome, just as good as any Blackface Fender should sound. I highly recommend the Winged "C" 6L6 power tubes for that "glassy midrange" tone on these amps. My favorite guitar to play though this amp is a Danelectro 59DC so I can dial up that 1964 garage band sound!

I have 2. 1, 66 Blackface & 1, 68 Silverface.

I don't use the Vibrato, but it does sound OK.

These heads sound great with my Les Paul & LP Jr.
Most people would agree there's not too much difference
between the 66 & 68 Bandmaster. After 68 all of the Blackface era
Transformers & other parts were used up.

I think it's all in my head that the 66 might sound best. (who knows?)
I'll keep them both. I run these through a 2x12 cab with 1 Wizard & 1 Governor (Eminence). These speakers add a little midrange, but don't mess with the killer tone these amps put out.

40 watts of PURE TUBE TONE! 4 ohms.

40 & 38 years old, almost as old as me.
These amps can go for ever if you have a good amp tech.
A little check up once in a while & you'll have no problems.

Not the best, not the worst.

I've been in a band since I was 16 (over 27 years).
I have these 2 Bandmasters, 1 Traynor YBA-1 & a Sovtek Mig 50.
NO MASTER VOLUME on any of these amps. I've owned over 40 tube
amps over the years & only my Hiwatt Custom 50 was a great sounding
Master Volume amp (Peavey Butcher sounded OK too).

If you have a good sounding amp like a JTM, Bandmaster or Bassman put
a pedal in front of it for some extra Gain/Overdrive if needed. There are tons great pedal options out there. Spend some time & you will find your tone. What works as a stompbox for solo's may not work best to run in front of an amp.

I love these amps, they're so simple & have such HUGE TONE!

Our's is a silverface 1968. It is one of the '67-'68 ones that had alluminum trim around teh grille. It has 2 inputs on 2 channels. One channel is normal, the other is vibrato. For vibrato, you need the footpedal. I do wish the vibrato didn't need a footswitch to work though, for finding a RCA jack footswitch is a bit pricey for a 1 button switch. This amp is rated at 35 watts (?) I think, but sounds like 70 because it's tube. It has great tone and is a great tube amp.

We use a Mexican Fender Strat with American pickups and a Kent Teisco SG copy and this amp sounds great. There is no built in distortion, but we use a Boss DS-1 that sounds fine.

We bought the amp recently and it is out being serviced right now. I could probably depend on it, but would DEFINITLY bring a backup of some type.

I get my customer support from the local shop I bought it from, but if you're talking about the manufacturer, forget about it. Fender probably doesn't even know they made it.

If it was stolen, I would definitly buy another. I totally like vintage amps and out of my collection, this is the best. I love it's tone. Comparing to my friend's new Line 6 Spider II stack, this whips it's @#$%#. He even admits it.

This is a 1965 Fender Bandmaster head in wonderful condition, with one loose bit of Tolex in a corner and one abrasion to the Tolex on top of the head. I bought it almost two years ago with new Groove Tubes and new filter caps for 300 bucks, so I guess I got a pretty good deal. We all know the features of the amp, and over the years I have come pretty much full-circle regarding amplifiers; I started out playing through Fenders, then went for channel-swithching, effects-loop, multi-channel high-gain amps, both tube and solid-state, and I have come to the conclusion that I just need a good tube amp with no bells and whistles. Throw a few pedals in front of her, and away you go. I wish it had the coveted Fender reverb, of course, but I add reverb from a Zoom multi-effects, and for the most part just play dry, which has improved my playing anyway.

This is my first blackface Fender. I had previously owned a couple silverface Fender combos back in the early 80s, back when you could pick them up for 50 bucks. I finally understand all the hype about the blackface sound. While I believe the tone to be similar to my silverface fenders, there is a warmth to the tone, as well as a wonderful sag when hit hard or run hot that defines the tone. Who needs a midrange control when an amp sounds this good? I have had a tech put a pull mid-boost into the Trem channel volume knob, but I rarely need to use it. The first thing I did when I brought it home was to plug into a cab and crank it to 10 to see how it sounded dimed-it's a glorious sound!! I run it between 6 and 7 1/2 on stage, usually, and that's still pretty damn loud. I run a Boss GE7 EQ, a Tubescreamer and a Marshall Shredmaster in front, as well as a Zoom 707 11 multi-effects for reverb and modulation effects and boy, this amps sounds freeeegin' great! Easily the best amp I have ever owned, hands down. If you find one, buy it immediately. The Bandmaster is a great low-wattage amp for stage and studio use. And of course, they look cool.

Well, here we go; sometimes a review can't be all rainbows and sausages. If you own a 40-year-old amplifier, you know that reliability can be a major issue. If you haven't had trouble with an old amp, you've either been extremely lucky (Leo and the gang are smiling down on you) or the amp spends the majority of its time in your bedroom as opposed to on stage. Old amps will accasionally poop out, and sometimes, like my Bandmaster, they do so in mysterious ways. Mine is currently in the shop, as it's been a fuse-blower over the last couple months, and took a dive on me last weekend, fortunately during set-up. I've learned to carry a spare amp with me at all times in case such events occur, and not to be a Mopey Mikey if I have to play through an amp that isn't as wonderful as my Bandmaster. You should always carry spares of stuff like guitars, amps and effects with you anyway, you never know when your 300 dollar distortion pedal might fry on stage, even if it has the highest-quality parts. Shorts, power surges, and brown-outs happen, so be prepared. Boy Scout Rock 101.

I have yet to contact Fender regarding anything..they are such a behemoth of a company, would they even care if one of their 41-year-old-Bandmasters was still blasting away on stage?

I'm a forty-something musician, started playing when I was 16, at the end of the Carter administration. Since then I have owned various Fender, Marshall, Lab Series, Roland, Harmony and Peavey amps, tube and solid-state. This amp really brings me back to my youth, back to the first time I ever plugged into a Fender and went "Ahhhhhhh"(a silverface Super and an original TS808). I believe that good tone can be coaxed out of just about any amp, but these old Fenders have that wonderful, natural, full sound that make them plug-and-play devices. Even though I love Marshalls for their awesome tone, they can be extremely unreliable amps. I'll take my Bandmaster anytime. With a dirt box in front, it can be VERY Marshally, anyway. Fender and Marshall still seem to be the reference points after all these years. However, if you get a chance, pick up an old Fender, you will not be disappointed-just remember to have it serviced regularly. If I find another old Fender, I will most certainly buy it. I mean, come on, I paid 300 bucks for this amp. Would someone want 300 bucks for an old Marshall head? The Fenders are fantastic amps, and great deals can be found.

Mine is a 66 blackface...features like the other Fender BF amps...two channel...minus reverb.Simlpe yet effective in dialing in tone! Nuff said.

I got this one cheep (150.00)in 05. It was sporting two extra 6l6 tubes and a larger output tranny...someone wanted a twin!No wonder the guy could never get it to work right!I removed the tube sockets and replaced the trnny with an original one...changed caps and had a fine sounding amp!I have owned bunches of old fender amps and all the other great vintage tube amps...my favorites for the style of music I play are the BF Fenders! Bandmasters are good for 40 watts and start to break up at the magic 6 vol setting (like most bf's)...normal channel is a bit hotter and fatter sounding... the vibr channel is vioced a bit cleaner.Perfect vol for most clubs these days...and you can crank it without offending the ears!They sound GREAT period!Solid state rectifier...less sag and a tight punch!

They just keep on ticking...for 40+ years. Easy to sevice and parts are easy to find!

N/A

Can't live without the blackface circuit...reverb would be nive...but thats why you can still buy these under $500.00. Best value around other than the not well know garnet amps!

This is a mid-sixties blackface Fender Bandmaster head that I bought almost a year ago. Too bad the shop didn't have the 2x12 cab that went with it, oh well. I run it through a Peavey 4x10 cab with the Blue Marvel speakers. I sometimes wish that it had reverb, but I add that from a multi-effects unit when needed. Not the same as Fender reverb, of course, but, to tell you the truth having no reverb has taught me to play more precise. Someone had put Groove Tubes in her, and, boy, oh boy, do they add some zip!

I've learned over the years that I don't need four channels, two effects loops, etc. All I really need is a tube amp that likes pedals in front of it, and the Bandmaster loves O/D and distortion pedals, so a distortion channel from the amp is certainly not needed. At first I thought that the lack of a midrange control might be a hindrance, but, man, this amp sounds GREAT without one. When I first brought it home, I dimed the volume and wet my pants. Baby, what a tone!!! Since I obviously can't be cranked up on stage, I end up starting off at about 5 or 6 and bump her up to 7 after she's all warmed up in last set, too late for complaints from the band by that time(damn sneaky guitar players). It actually is just perfect for small to medium sized stages. This is my first blackface Fender, I've owned a silverface Bassman 10 and a silverface Super, and this amp, while sounding very close to those, sounds even better. NOW I get what all the hype surrounding blackface Fenders is about. I can finally get that semi-distorted O/D that I have always tried for, and with pedals, this amp sounds soooooooooooooo damn good, so classic rock..it is absolutely the best-sounding amp I have ever owned.

We're dealing with a tube amp, of course, so you can't throw it out the back of a pickup at 65 mph and expect no damage, so score one for Peavey transitor buzz-boxes on that point. However, the mid-sixties Fenders had fairly simple wiring and singnal paths, so finding and fixing any problems you may run into is a lot simpler task than most of today's amps. I use a tech who, if I end up bringing my Bandmaster in to him, will probably drool as he repairs, which is a far cry from what he used to say when I would bring my Peavey Classic 50 in("Is it that damn Peavey piece of $%^& AGAIN?"). This may be just my opinion, of course, but I think that old tube amps can be more reliable than transistor amps if you keep them maintained. And, of course, they BREATHE, unlike transistor amps.

Haven't had to contact them. They'd probably be happy to hear that a 40-year old amp is still screaming.

I've been playing 22 years now, most of them onstage. I've owned Peaveys, Kustoms, Lab Series, silverface Fenders, Marshalls, and various practice amps, and I think I have found the best amp I've ever owned. If stolen, I would cry so much that I would end up on Dr. Phil.
"I'm sorry about your loss, son, but you are just going to have to get over it.."

I have got a 64 blackfaced and beautiful bandmaster (head SND org. box), and it has anything you will need (treble, bass, vol and treble!!

People who want more can buy hughes n kettner or some other shit!(digital sucks..

I am playing gibson es 330, dif, strats (old and news), framus(60ies) and hopf saturn (hagstrom+++

It is sounding great!! Words cant say how great the sound of this amp is.. 10 is not enough!

Its working after 41 years (perfectly), so what should I say.. PERFECT!!

Thje Fenderguys are nice!! (but you willprobably never need em..

One of the best to find... (beside (or maybe over??) bassman and other fantastic amps..

I have two head and cab combinations. My ?65 head is all original, but the cab that came with it has new Jensen C12N?s. The ?66 head, although still in stock configuration, has had the output transformer replaced with a modern Mojo version. Its speaker cab has the original Oxford speakers. So, one original head, one original cab.

Basic features: two channels, two inputs each (normal, -6dB), both channels with a bright switch, volume, treble, and bass control, the tremolo channel, in the great Fender tradition, is labeled ?vibrato.?

The speaker cabs have tilt back legs, which are way cool, and the head has brackets that prevent them from sliding off. I like the head / cab combo as the individual pieces are not as heavy as a combo, and hence are a little more back friendly. On the other hand, it is bigger than a combo. Look at the size of vehicle you drive and consider this.

The ultimate in fat and smooth guitar amps. Works for both humbucker or single coil guitars. The bright switch is very usable and great tones can be found in either on or off position. The tone knobs swing you from smooth jazz to country twang. There is much less overall treble output than my Deluxe Reverb RI, and the Bandmaster never produces that ?ice pick in the ear? tone that we all know and love. Maybe the lack of high end would be a problem in some loud bands, but in general I think that more tone variations are available, all good, and it is more tempting to tweak the knobs for many different tones. It is not one of those ?must be just like this to get good tone? amps. In my experience the volume knobs have a lot more room to work with than most Fender amps. They come on smoothly at 1.5-2, but stay clean up to the 4-5 range. After that, grit is added quite slowly and smoothly. I think they are easier to setup and use because of this. But the down side is that they are not high gain amps and they don?t deliver as much high volume grit or maximum distortion as some amps from the same era.

It is easy to get good tones. With treble and bass at 5 it sounds great. Roll of the treble to 1 and it is a great jazz sound, smooth but not muffled. Treble is usable for me up to the 7 range but beyond that it starts sounding a bit strident. Because of that, this amp definitely has less tonal range than my Tweed Twin, my standard for wide ranging tone.

The tremolo is beautiful, like you have heard on many roots inspired records. You could justify the amp based on this alone if you don?t already have a traditional tremolo equipped amp.
The Bandmaster excepts pedals easily. It sounds great with Tube Screamer like overdrive / distortion and delay. That is all I?ve tried it with, since I usually play with no effects.

My two heads and two cabs sound incredibly alike, from which I conclude that these guys are fairly tolerant of repairs (supply filter caps, transformer replacement) and appropriate speaker replacements. BTW, my reissue Jensen speakers, which are designed to duplicate the original ?60 speakers, are darn good. Very few people could tell the difference between these and the originals.

These guys sound so good that you completely forget about your desire for reverb. You just don?t need it, as this amp you sounds great without it. It makes you sort of wonder whether reverb is only necessary on amps that don?t have the tone that these babies have.

Well, my ?65 and ?66 are still working great.

If I had had one of these earlier, it would of saved me a bunch of money on amplifiers. It is very good with my Strat, but it is absolutely unbelievably sublime with my Bluesbird. It is absolutely all you need to sound great.

Blackface Bandmaster heads are still the best vintage Fender deal around. These guys are way underrated, I guess because they don?t have reverb, but once you have one, you?ll wonder why you thought you needed reverb. At any rate, they cost of fraction of what other BF Fenders cost, and although they are different from Deluxes, Vibroverbs and Twins, on top of being extremely cool, they sound great. These amps are keepers. Once again: fat and smooth like you never heard before.

1968 (I think) Silverface Bandmaster 40-watt head with the original 2X12 cabinet. I know it's a vintage amp and it doesn't have all the features of a new amp, but my main problem with this amp is the previous owner disabled the vibrato and wired some wierd gain-boost switch into the intensity knob. So it's basically a one channel, clean, dry amp.

This amp has the clean fender sound that you hear about ad naseum. This amp has the warmest, most full sound of any amp I have ever played. Plus it really feels like an extension of your guitar. I have never played an amp that handled the subtleties of my picking dynamics like this one. The clean tone of this amp flat out rules. It also breaks up nicely and has the characteristic tube-amp overdrive sound. The bright switch is also a nice addition. I like to use it in combination with the bridge humbucker of my guitar (An Epiphone Dot), as it gives an produces a strat-like sound. This amp is suitable for just about any guitar and any style of music, but I wouldn't recommend metal, because high-gain distortion is not this amp's forte (you can get metal tones out of it with the bright switch and a distortion pedal, but that's not what you should buy this amp for.) The one complaint I have (other than the fact that it's sort of beat-up) is the amp tends to produce some noise when you use effects with it. The most egregious offender of the my pedals is the E-H Small Clone, but even that is manageble (it doesn't detract from the sound, but you can hear the oscillations from the chorus pedal when you aren't playing). Great great great amp.

I haven't had it long enough to judge its reliability, but the fact that it has survived since 1968 leads me to believe that I shouldn't have any issues with this.

No warranty (obivously) and I don't think I'll be calling up Fender if I need something done on this amp. I'm sure they really don't care about this amp anymore.

I haven't been playing guitar very long, nor have I had many previous amps (I bought this one after my solid-state Peavey died and the repairs cost more than I bought the amp for), so I'm not the gear expert, but in my opinion this is best amp out there for the money. It blows solid-state amps out of the water. This amp also sounds superior to some modern tube amps, such as the re-issue blackface Super Reverb that I tested agaisnt this amp. The only other vintage Fender I've played is a Bassman, and that amp just wasn't my style. Overall a great amp for the money.

blackface bandmaster between 64 and 67 year i guess

use it with strats ,stevie ray and american standard , lace sensers ,an of course texas specials

i think it is dependable,just replaced some tubes an got it a safe 3 prong cord an cleaned an sprayed good

of course no warranty ,its nearly 40 or possibly is.

overall rating is a 9 ,is so beautiful thick an really more sparkly sn chimey than any fender almost ,blackface stuff really rules , the most incredible loudest 40 watts , iaxed my friend who modded this thang , he said its stock,no mods,i played it through my vintage marshall 4 12 cab with the old vintage greenbacks 25,watts each an it was so rich but mostly might be as loud as my rare 2550 marshall ,another great amp ,this blackface actually was pushin sound an was painful,an beautiful at same time ,i think somethin is weird here ,so loud ,an i know i got my marshall an also engl ritchie blackmore 100 watt that aint never even been over half way up an you wont do it ,unless you 100 feet away wireless or so ,it will kill you ,but back to the little fender ,so spanky an twangy ,beautiful ringing cords , extremely sparkly on both bright ,wow an normal tone , great huge bass an less soft than some fenders , got more of a marshall engl amp bite ,which is good an still huge warm fender sound ,hey i play it om about maybe 3 or 4 on clean playin good size club ,great vibrato too ,got a blackface 68 twin puttin together nest ,even richer soundin than this little bandmaster ,man what else can you ask for ,but my engl is great an unusual character an engl amps are the best lookin amps ever made, fenders good ole blackface an silverface are so good ,so huge a different kind of loud , hey this an my bassman reissue loves my heavy metal pedal ,but ts9 tube screamer fits better.