Fender Bandmaster Reverb

I think this is an early 70,s model. When I bought this amp it had been modified. A 1/4" jack was installed on the back and is labled Remote Volume control. There are two toggle switches on the front for reverb and tremolo and also an extra speaker jack was added. It has two channels (non-switchable), normal and vibrato. I built a 2x12 cabinet for it, sounds great. Over the summer I installed two 6x9 speakers directly into the head, perfect for practicing at home.

Use a Fender squier stratocaster, HM Strat and Fender Bullet s-3, Fender Bullet h-2 and a Fender Musicmaster Bass. All of my guitars sounds great through this amp. Terrific clean tones with wonderful reverb. Great for Blues, Jazz, Funk and Reggae. When I want distortion I use pedals. I used to be in a rap group in the eighties and used the amp for recording Guitar, Bass and sometimes vocals.

When I bought it the reverb wasn't working. The knobs were scratchy and amp was noisy. I changed the tubes and had my buddy service the amp. Worked great after that.

Never dealt with Fender directly.

I've been playing for about 17 years. I've had a Peavey Encore 65, don't come close to my Bandmaster. I sold my Peavey to a co-worker. My friend, who owns a Peavey Renown 400 likes the sound of my Bandmaster better. If it were lost or stolen I would buy it again. I love the tone I get no matter what kind of guitar or bass I plug into it.

I gave this a 10 due to the mods that I have added: variable neg.FB control, kill pot for vibrato, reverb and vib. added to normal channel, revoiced the normal channel a bit "darker" and changed a few resistors here and there to really "dial-in" the sounds...now the amp can do all sorts of things. You can A/B the two channels for switching or jump channels like a bassman to mix the sounds. Dial in the right amount of break-up with the FB control....that one really makes the amp come alive....before mods I would say features are standard Fender...all that you need...still gets a 10

Sounds....best amp I have ever owned...I also took the chassis mounted it in a Rodgers deep 12" cab...2-10 config... Ruby 10 speakers, actually eminence....I play tele's & strats....I have a 59 bassman and this amp...I sold a BF twin and a Rivera M100 combo cause I have no use for them...between the two amps I can cover anything..the Bandmaster is great for jazz, country, classic rock, blues, whatever, no metal here though...it loves pedals I use a Marshall Bluesbreaker, the old black one...thats it...killer sound...it is so sensitive that a small adjustment on the amp or the guitar can change the whole flavor of the sound...this amp just sounds great low vol all the way to loud....the more you put into it, the more it gives back...Again, without the mods, its still a 10...its that fender tone.This amp is a 1969...something magic about that year I guess...

I have had fender amps forever it seems, I really have never had a major problem with any of them, and I see no reason to expect one now..find a good tech and you are set...forget fender support or repair shops, they don;t have a clue...you need a guy that KNOWS what these amps can sound like and get that for you....if you have a good fender amp, a good tech can make that into a great Fender amp....

never had any luck with fender the company...seems like they would like to forget, or rather that the public would forget how good their amps used to be and still could be...makes their current stuff look weak.....even their re-issue series is getting worse by the day...none can hold a candle to the real thing...I don't think that they are very proud of that....I woulden;t be...I will give them a 3 cause I suppose they would at least answer the phone....

I have been playing since I was 12..almost forty years.. I have been in bands since I was 15.. I have had it all...with the exception of Dumble and a few others, and I would not hesitate to stack this bandmaster against any of them...maybe it can;t do what a Dumble can, but I bet the Dumble can't do what the Bandmaster can either..I am looking to put together annother combo, exactly the same...'cause its that good...I love everything about this amp...when I took it out last week first gig, I could have sold it 10 times over at whatever price I named...it is really that good...don;t hesitate to get one...you will not be dissappointed...straight stock they are great...modded they are AMAZING...I would not trade this amp for any current amp on the market....why buy something that is advertised as "sounds like a BF Fender" when you can have the real deal...everyone copies the best and Fender is the King of them all..at least the older ones...they are really "plug & Play" if you want them to be...Amps like these put a smile on your face and make you feel good about playing...its all about the tone...and this amp has it in spades...

1973 Bandmaster Reverb TFL5005D. The best feature is it's full frequency mojo. This makes it a very versitle amp. Plug in electric guitars, basses, harps, cheezy radioshack organs, real organs, synths, acoustic sound hole PUs, fiddles, banjos, mandolins, theremins, etc.. With the bright switched enabled, this amp also reveals all those esoteric "tone" claims of things like: cable length, dieing carbon batteries, true by-pass pedals, passive vs active P/Us etc...

This amp came with the tall 2x12 sealed cab with utah speakers and together they are brilliant. The amp ODs just past 4 and a setting of 7 lets me cover alot of genres with only my G&L asat's single coils, PU switch, volume/tone and 10' cable. But I also have a pedal board. Even though I lose some of the magical and juicy transparent sparkle with the extra cable length, true by-pass is essential to retain the air of passive single coils. I use a mesa bottle rocket as a virtual OD channel. A captain coconut 2 into the bottle rocket provides more authentic tone flavors. For modern tones the akai shred master is a bargain and works well with the same amp settings.

Mine needed service when I got it in 89' and both speakers were blown. It got new mesa power tubes and a nos 5u4 rectifier tube and has worked like a charm now for 13 years! Same tubes.

Too bad G&L doesn't build an amp like this!

I've heard alot of great clean amps and clean tone. But this tone has air in it. The bass is awesome as well. Plug straight in for jazz, blues, country, surf, punk, reggae, polka, ect..

I have an early 70's model. I use it to play mainly blues and classic rock. I hardly ever use it to gig being that I have no time for a band. i occasionally sit in with some buddies who play out. It has all the features I ever need.

I usually just play my Tele through it clean and it is incredible especially for blues licks using the neck lipstick pickup. Completely mellow tones and awesome reverb. This head was made for the Telecaster as far as I'm concerned. My SG and Strat really have no business being played through a head like this. When I do want distortion I use the Boss Metal Zone. This is in my opinion the most versatile pedal on the market. You can do anything from warm overdrive to seething Megadeth distortion even with the Tele. This amp is still most comfortable with clean bluesy playing though.

When I bought this amp it had been tinkered with by a meathead. A lot of mismatched tubes and someone had soldered a bunch of different valued filter capacitors together to get the somewhat correct rating. had a bunch of extraneous noise. It was still good to wank around on but far from spectacular. I have since had it completely serviced by the well respected Uncle Albert's Amp Shop in Indianapolis. Uncle Albert is frequented by many big name groups. Ted Nugent comes to mind immediately. When I dropped it off Mellencamp had a lot of his stage gear there being serviced as well.
After they worked their magic on the amp it sounds like brand new or better. Totally clean sound and no popping or hissing. Fair price too. Since then I am sure I could count on it for countless playing hours and wouldn't be too worried about a back-up.

I have never dealt with Fender directly for this amp.

i have been playing since I was 13 (about twelve years). I have had a few practice amps. I also have mid 70's Kustom 100 head and cabinet. It is in perfect shape with not a scratch or puncture anywhere. That is why I initially bought the Fender. It is cosmetically rougher and I wanted it to travel with for gigs or jams without worrying about dinging it up. Since then I have fell in love with it and hardly ever play the kustom. I have Played countless other Crates, Peaveys, and even Marshall stacks and combos and none of them can touch my old Fender tonewise.

Great Fender sound at lower volumes. If you like clean tones with shimmer and instand "break up" when pushed ,this amp has it. Won't support larger venues or outside work unless miked. For more volume and sonic blastin' I use a Dual Showman Reverb head ( a Twin Reverb clone)and a open back abinet with 2-12 JBL's. Never ever need anymore.

I've had two of these and countless other silver face heads. I really like the portability. My style is clean blues, modern country and 60's 70's 80's standard dance tunes. Wonderful tremelo and reverb.
I play it with a custom built Mojo open back cabinet with 4-10 alnicos. If any pedals at all, a Boss Compressor and Ibanez Tube Screamer. I keep it simple so not to loose signal/tone. If you want distortion don't even consider this amp.

Never had a problem except for some broken solder joins. Easily fixed by just about anyone. Premium tubes make all the difference.

Fender is Fender today. Way too busy with retail to help very much but there are so many users of this equipment that answers to questions are easily obtained via internet. Almost cultish in wanting to share info with a user.

I've been playing since 1965( 35 years) and have owned many Brands and types of amps but I'm most comfortable with older Fender tube amps. Some of the reissues and vintage repros are close but the old Fender blackface/silverface non-master volume units get my jobs done. Many folks constantly ask me how do I get "that tone" like its somewhere in a pedal or some trick amp mod. I tell them its shared between the gear and me..... thats all, no trick stuff. Plug and play.

This is a 1971 Silverface model, though I had a '69 one before (which was the same and which I wish I'd never got rid of!) The features are pretty standard Silverface Fender fare: two channels (non-switchable) - does anyone ever use the normal channel on these old amps? - long-spring reverb, tremelo, no master volume, tube rectifier. For a 40w head, this thing is physically HUGE - and quite heavy, too, though that's less of a problem as I took the head out of the cab and built it in a combo.
With the original '69 one I had (I paid #120 GB for it!!!) I built a 2x10 combo cab, which was pretty neat. (I wanted a Twin and thought this would be a smaller, more affordable version - in fact it was something far better and as I say, I should never had got rid of it.)

This time around,someone gave me an old Gibson Lab Series 4x10 combo, which wasn't working properly and sounded awful. (Mind you I saw BB King using a 2x12 Lab Series a couple of years ago and that sounded pretty dreadful, too, so maybe that's just what they're like!) Anyway, I looked at this cab and thought: "You want do be a Super Reverb!". It was almost exactly the same size as the wider-bodied Silverface Supers, so I decided to look out for a Silverface Bandmaster to drop in. It fits pretty well - the cab's about 15mm too wide either side and the slot is about 10mm too deep, so I had to sort out some discreet wooden packing pieces - but the overall effect is pretty good. Being a Lab Series cab, it's got black speaker cloth, rather than silver, so it looks a quite distinctive - very like Albert Collins' Quad Reverb on the cover of one of his live CDs that I have.

The speakers were shot, too, so I replaced them with a set of Celestions (basically Vintage 10s, modified, to go into Trace Elliot Bonneville combos which were then discontinued - Trace's factory was just up the road from me until Gibson closed it down and laid all the guys off just before Christmas.There used to be a lot of stuff like that floating around at very good prices)

I play blues - SRV/Fab Thunderbirds Texas-style - though in fact, this amp is more often used by Owen Barry, the wonderful young guitar player in my band, The Rockin' Armadillos, than by me. We both play mostly Strats - vintage, or vintage-style, loaded with Fender American Standard p/us (very under-rated units - we both swear by 'em!). Owen has access to a number of top-class amps, including a lovely Matchless Chieftain head and cab, but reckons on its day, the Bandmaster is the equal of any of them. I tend to agree - this amp is the business! At lower volumes, it has that marvellous, chystalline clean Fender sound - wound up it's just awesome.

I'm told this is basically the same circuit as the classic Blackface Super, albeit with a smaller output transformer that makes the power stage less powerful. I've used Blackface Supers and can honestly say that this amp sounds every bit as good - it just breaks up a bit earlier, which of course is what you want! After 6 on the dial, it stops getting louder - it just gets FATTER! For a physically big amp, it's not all that loud - just about loud enough for a smallish club or pub gig un-miked. For bigger gigs, Owen uses his Matchless Chieftain and 4x10 cab (a much louder 40 watts!) on its own, or with the Bandmaster - tube amp heaven!
The reverb is one of the sweetest I've heard anywhere, as is the tremelo - it's far smoother than the trem circuit on later Twins and modern Fenders.

Being an old amp, it does have issues with reliability. To be honest, I would worry about gigging the Bandmaster without a spare. With the band, it's less of a problem for Owen as I play guitar and harmonica, so there usually a couple of spare amps (my excellent modern Fender Blues/Hot Rod Deluxes) on stage that could be pressed into action in an emergency.

A couple of years ago, it suddenly started making a lot of hissing and buzzing noises. I took it to Dennis Cornell, my amp tech (and designer and builder of some very fine "boutique" amps in his own right!) and he looked at it and said basically the problem was that the tagboards were starting to break down and allow voltage leakage. The only answer would be an expensive rebuild - we were heartbroken!!! I took the amp home and left it in a corner in my bedroom for about six months. Then one night, Owen asked to give it a try at a gig, alongside the Matchless - and surprise surprise, it worked perfectly!
It had previously been stored in a cold, damp garage and it seems that six months snuggled up alongside a radiator had done the trick. It's been fine ever since, though I do worry about a recurrence of the problem.

The only other issues we've had were the time the rectifier tube went down - ALWAYS CARRY A SPARE, GUYS! - and the odd niggle with those stupid RCA phono connectors on the reverb circuit and the footswitch. Phonos must be the worst connector ever invented! Why on earth to people use them on grown-up amps like this?

Nor direct experience - Dennis Cornell also does repair work for Arbiter, the UK Fender importers, so I would imagine it would be pretty good!

I have been playing for about 25 years and I have seldom come across sweeter-sounding amp.(It's second only to the Matchless Chieftain 2x12 combo that a freind of ours used to have, but then that cost #2,500!!!) The combo looks pretty cool too - it's sometimes nice to be different!
I am looking to buy another one as a spare. If I saw one at the right price it'd snap it up - and if mine was stolen or lost, I would definitely buy another without hesitation. Mind you,I would get Dennis to have a good look at the tagboards and electrical state of the amp before I paid silly money for it. (These 70s Fenders are starting to get a bit pricey these days!)
In short - I honestly believe this is one of the best (and most uder-rated) amps Fender ever made)
Don't take my word for it. Check out the downloads on our band site www.rockinarmadillos.com and hear for yourself! (All Owen's guitar sounds on our last CD, "Armadillo in the Road" - and there's a huge variety of sounds - were recorded using the Bandmaster, a '62 Strat and a few pedals!!!)

This is the first Fender amp I ever owned. Came with a 2X12 cabinet I have always liked tube amps, but always had monsters that were way to loud. The Bandmaster is perfect for every style I play. At about 45 watts RMS it is plenty for most size rooms. Any larger room can be handled by miking the amp. Features are non-existent (think it was manufacture in the early 70's) except reverb and tremolo. I play mostly rock ie. Stones, Beatles, Clapton, Cream, etc.

I use an Ernie Ball Axis, Gretsch Black Hawk, Guild 12 string with pickup. The amp is fairly quite except I get what sounds like a grounding noise with my hand off of the bridge. I originally thought it was the guitar, but it happens on everything I plug in (not a major concern, keep my hand on the bridge). The amp has a very thick sound. I play mostly three piece, and the full sound is great. The amp is very clean, I control distortion with pick-up gain and preamps.

This amp has never broken down. However, it had just been overhauled when I bought it. I am very careful with equipment, religously using covers, and loading carefully. Avoid heat/cold and moisture. I think this amp is a typical fender. If I don't drop it off a cliff, it'll keep on going

No clue, never called them for anything.

I have been playing about 40 years. I have owned a lot of amps, and some unusual ones at that. The Bandmaster is without a doubt the best sounding amp I have owned. I use a 2X12 fender cabinet that was standard with the amp. I would like to add a cabinet with 4x10's for more brilliance. I really don't have any criticism of the amp.

my fender bandmaster was made in 1973
my father bought it secound hand in leeds england around 1980 unsure of how much he paid for it
features are basic 2 channels normal and vibrato
the normal chanell has only 2 tone controls and 1 volume thats your lot!
45 watt stated power but it is definatley the loudest cleanest amp i have ever owned

i play metal ie anything from metallica to kreator
all i use is a boss metal zone for distortion and a boss chorus for clean
i play a jackson with emg 81/sa/sa pickups
it is also one of a very few amps where i can get a clean sound at very high volume

never had it serviced ! if it aint broke dont fix it
it has never ever let me down apart from once when the rectifier valve died about 10 years ago
lets put it this way it still has the origonal rca valves in it
they must be at least 20 years old and i have never replaced any of them

i have been playing guitar for over 20 years,i use my bandmaster with 2 jbl 12" speakers.everybody tels me that my set up is wrong for metal but when they not only feel my sound as well as hear it they soon change there mind!
in the past i have used an ada pre amp boogie 50/50 valve amp countless rackmount fx processors they all tend to sound like mush
i can use massive amounts of distortion with this amp and chords still hold definition you can here every note in the chord with this amp
if sombody stole my amp i would hunt them down and kill them! this amp is not replaceble

Owned a 5005 since the late 80's and nothing can touch the
vibrant acoustic tranparency of the Band Master. Harmon speakers from the fifties provide hard edge distortion, while Celestian speakers from later years brought radience and
digital friendly sound, this too led to solid state amps. I run an original Harmon on top and a Pyle Driver 280 on bottom. This offers a wide range of frequency but the 40watt head really works for the sound at lower volumes (2-5)

I play a '92 American Standard Tele (Sunburst/Rosewood).
You can have the front pick-up when you pry it from my cold,
dead, Minnesota hands. I usually run a
DIGITECH GSP21 LEGEND before the input. I bought this processor at the same time as my guitar and have found
that not much has come close since. A Jimi H. Fuzz Wah
hypes the Fender to a level unknown, put on your seat belt if you should acquire this deaedly combo. Let me tell you first hand...
it Rocks!

As far as tube tech goes... I put it at a 9.8 out of 10
I've rented this thing out, had friends play it for their gigs...
it always works.

I have my Fender amp checked out every two years by
Good Guys in St. Paul MN USA
I have the extreme pleasure of being a close frien of Dung Mai
of Atma-Sphere(formally) and Tri-Planar Tone Arms

Beaut little amp made in 1968. Is starting to show its age now but still works great. Has two channels, normal (2 inputs) & vibrato (2 inputs). Has reverb capability but was never fitted with one from the factory. I think it was an optional extra. Full valve construction including the rectifier. Has good tone controls and vibrato/reverb switching jacks. Heaps of power for the small amount of stage work I do. The head itself has now been converted into a combo with two JBL 10" drivers.

Stratocaster, Telecaster, G335 and SG61 have all been played through this amp and they all sound really good. It suits the style of music I play because most of it is cabaret type music. No pub rock, grunge or heavy metal. Even though it is only rated at forty (40) watts of power with two JBL 10" 109dB sensitivity speakers in the cabinet it has never needed to be driven over more than six regardless of the size of the hall.

It has never given any trouble and has always performed better than expected. I always do gigs without a backup because I don't see the point of carying two amps and not trusting either of them. I maintain and trust my amps completely. I have never had an onstage failure in the ten years I have been playing.

Even though it is a 1968 amp I have had great support from fender dealers and from fender themselves. Not many people know much about the repairing of valve gear and those that do are very expensive. Being an electronic technician by trade I repair any faults and do all servicing myself.

If it were stolen I would hunt down who stole it and retrieve it with any force necessary. Compared to newer amps, even fenders, the old ones with valve rectifiers and point to point wiring have always held a special place in a musicians heart.