OffsetGuitars.com

Hey All!

After a longer hiatus from looking for amps I got curious about old Traynor YBA-1 , YBA-4 as I stumbled upon a rehoused YBA-4 head. It turned out to be butchered internally, so I had to pass on this particular one.

But, I did a quick search for blonde/brownface heads and a '62 6G7-A Bandmaster head was FS in south of Germany.
We don't see blonde Bandmaster very often here in Europe, and if we see them they are in most cases either molestered or totally overpriced with questionable history like this one:
https://reverb.com/item/2118652-fender- ... 1962-white

This time, the offered Bandmaster was in good condition (original signal caps in working order, original transformers etc.) with some minor modifications that are completely reversible with a little effort.

I have read many times on the interwebs that the Bandmaster OT is a weak point of the amp and should be replaced with one of the Bassman variety.
As I have a blonde (6G6B) Bassman I was curious to compare them myself, especially the low end response and the headroom of the Bandmaster compared to Bassman when using normal channel at the moderate volume (5-6 on the volume pot).
Volume wise they are in the same ball park, Bassman has a little bit better bass response, the headroom difference is nothing to write home about. The Bandmaster sounds a little bit smoother and sweeter with a tad more mids.
This is for clean and semi-clean sounds, which I need mostly.
If you turn the Bandmaster/Bassman up the differences between the amps become apparent: The Bassman is punchy angry beast, the Bandmaster
suffers a little bit from weak low end response.

The vibrato channel of the Bandmaster is fantastic, the harmonic vibrato is really cool.

I don't see any need atm to follow the widely spread advice to swap the OT for Bassman output transformer, as I need only semi-clean sound out of the amp.
The Bandmaster rules as is.

Here it is:

Amazing amp you have there! Congrats.

These are superb amps and totally underrated. I had one stolen from the back of our van once, it still haunts me to this day.

Perfect wattage and mid-range response.

been lusting after one of these for years, looks rad!

NICE! I’m a little jealous. I’m sort of on a 1962 quest, big Fenders only, got a Bandmaster, Bassman, and a Vibrasonic left, only have a Showman and Twin at the moment. To me, those are the five Fenders to have...

mijmog wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 13, 2020 6:25 am

Amazing amp you have there! Congrats.

These are superb amps and totally underrated. I had one stolen from the back of our van once, it still haunts me to this day.

Perfect wattage and mid-range response.

Oh shit! A stolen blonde/brownface Fender amp of any kind is a stroke of fate in Europe/UK due to unobtainium and additional £££-loss. I can imagine
it is haunting you! Shit!

DeathJag wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 13, 2020 3:27 pm

NICE! I’m a little jealous. I’m sort of on a 1962 quest, big Fenders only, got a Bandmaster, Bassman, and a Vibrasonic left, only have a Showman and Twin at the moment. To me, those are the five Fenders to have...

Wow, that's a quest!
But a Showman with two pulled tubes and an appropriate cab ( in the case of the Vibrasonic) covers the duties of Bandmaster and Vibrasonic.
The Bassman has a slightly different normal channel circuit compared to the Showmann/Vibrasonic/Bandmaster and a totally nuts bass channel which none of Showman/Bandmaster/Vibrasonic have. Bassman should be your next...

mijmog wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 13, 2020 6:25 am

Amazing amp you have there! Congrats.

These are superb amps and totally underrated. I had one stolen from the back of our van once, it still haunts me to this day.

Perfect wattage and mid-range response.

a bloody tragedy if ever i heard one

MechaBulletBill wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 13, 2020 5:27 pm

a bloody tragedy if ever i heard one

Yeah, it was in Camden in about 2004 (pre-wolf people) I literally put it down on the ground to unlock the back doors, turned around and it was gone. Saw the guy running down a side street, but it was either run and leave my guitar in the street or chase him with a huge guitar hard case in one hand.

Lesson learnt, since then I got super tetchy about leaving stuff on the street whilst unloading, always making sure everything was at my feet or there was two people about. Oh, and insurance too

My old Bandmaster came from Angel Music, it was painted black, I got it for £450, it had been sat there for ages, no one wanted it. I want to say "those were the days" but it wasn't even that long ago!

Apologies for thread derail.

Igorilla wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 13, 2020 4:01 pm

DeathJag wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 13, 2020 3:27 pm

NICE! I’m a little jealous. I’m sort of on a 1962 quest, big Fenders only, got a Bandmaster, Bassman, and a Vibrasonic left, only have a Showman and Twin at the moment. To me, those are the five Fenders to have...

Wow, that's a quest!
But a Showman with two pulled tubes and an appropriate cab ( in the case of the Vibrasonic) covers the duties of Bandmaster and Vibrasonic.
The Bassman has a slightly different normal channel circuit compared to the Showmann/Vibrasonic/Bandmaster and a totally nuts bass channel which none of Showman/Bandmaster/Vibrasonic have. Bassman should be your next...

Thanks for the tip! I had read that the Twin and Showman, and Vibrasonic are nearly identical, always wondered about the Bandmasters. I knew the bassman’s different, but I’ve really wanted a Vibrasonic first. Maybe I will rethink that...

DeathJag wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 14, 2020 6:57 am

Igorilla wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 13, 2020 4:01 pm

DeathJag wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 13, 2020 3:27 pm

NICE! I’m a little jealous. I’m sort of on a 1962 quest, big Fenders only, got a Bandmaster, Bassman, and a Vibrasonic left, only have a Showman and Twin at the moment. To me, those are the five Fenders to have...

Wow, that's a quest!
But a Showman with two pulled tubes and an appropriate cab ( in the case of the Vibrasonic) covers the duties of Bandmaster and Vibrasonic.
The Bassman has a slightly different normal channel circuit compared to the Showmann/Vibrasonic/Bandmaster and a totally nuts bass channel which none of Showman/Bandmaster/Vibrasonic have. Bassman should be your next...

Thanks for the tip! I had read that the Twin and Showman, and Vibrasonic are nearly identical, always wondered about the Bandmasters. I knew the bassman’s different, but I’ve really wanted a Vibrasonic first. Maybe I will rethink that...

Yes, the Showman/Vibrasonic/Bandmaster/Pro/Concert
at the A-Version stage are the same circuit
with different transformers and speaker configurations . I think that even the
early versions without A are the same too.

The real difference starts with Bassman. Then
Vibroverb, and Tremolux...

I have a 61 Blonde 6G14-A Showman that you'd have to pry from my cold dead hands. I'm a surf guitarist when solo. I run my Jaguar, XII, Jazzbass and P bass through it. I love the amp. I've always wanted a Bandmaster to hear the difference between them.

What cabinet are you using? Get you a nice phat JBL in a tone ring.

Are you a surf guitarist?

I only once had the chance to play a Blonde Bandmaster...At the guy‘s place who sold me his blonde 1x15 cab with a JBL K-130 in it. It sounded wonderful! So congratulations on your find!
In Europe they are indeed very rare!

I know it‘s not the same - but I also enjoy my Drip Edge Bandmaster through a 2x15 Bassman cab for surf and garage/psych stuff! How much have they changed between Blonde era and Blackface? At least the Vibrato is voiced differently as far as I know.

N0_Camping4U wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 20, 2020 2:57 pm

I have a 61 Blonde 6G14-A Showman that you'd have to pry from my cold dead hands. I'm a surf guitarist when solo. I run my Jaguar, XII, Jazzbass and P bass through it. I love the amp. I've always wanted a Bandmaster to hear the difference between them.

What cabinet are you using? Get you a nice phat JBL in a tone ring.

Are you a surf guitarist?

Indeed, I use a tone ring cab with 15" JBL K130 (4 Ohms)

And yes, I play surf.

MayTheFuzzBeWithYou wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 21, 2020 1:12 am

I only once had the chance to play a Blonde Bandmaster...At the guy‘s place who sold me his blonde 1x15 cab with a JBL K-130 in it. It sounded wonderful! So congratulations on your find!
In Europe they are indeed very rare!

I know it‘s not the same - but I also enjoy my Drip Edge Bandmaster through a 2x15 Bassman cab for surf and garage/psych stuff! How much have they changed between Blonde era and Blackface? At least the Vibrato is voiced differently as far as I know.

Thanks!

Re Black vs Brown: The tone stack topology is ´different and the PI section is different. The tone stack of your drip edge can be changed fairly easily to the 6G- specs of the earlier blonde amps without "A" in the circuit name (let me know if you need a reference!). In order to mod it to 6G-A specs you need a treble pot with a tap (350 KOhm with a 70K tap).
I didn't compare the PI sections in detail yet, but I think it involves a little work to convert it to long tail PI 12ax7 specs.

The harmonic-trem would be a major surgery and a overkill. I would just buy/build SurfyTrem...

Igorilla wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 21, 2020 2:39 am

The harmonic-trem would be a major surgery and a overkill. I would just buy/build SurfyTrem...

Thanks for breaking the amp difference down!
And yeah, I already got a Surfy Trem (and Bear). Originally I was looking for a Trem close to my Bandmaster’s Vibrato so that I can run my live amp (Supersonic) with it! And I‘m very happy with both options