So, did those amps end up toppling to the ground off of those chairs. Geeze! I was cringing the whole time, hoping those Bandmasters wouldn't fall to the ground and become Disastermasters.
The blackface has a fuller sound. The drip edge is thinner. I’m glad you did this side by side comparison because I was certain I wanted a silver. That has now changed. Thanks I guess lol
There are 3 reasons why these two particular amps should not be in a head to head comparison: 1- They are both modified 2- They have different tone settings 3- You're using two different channels (Blackface Vibrato vs Silverface normal)
Awesome! I picked up the same 67 Blackface a few days back with the original cab. I couldn’t believe the gain it had! Very Marshall like starting at around 5. I absolutely love mine. Thanks for the vid!
A lot of the charm of the Bandmaster Reverb IS the lighter iron it shares with the Vibrolux reverb. If you leave the original iron in, do the basic blackface mods for fixed bias, and add in a variable negative feedback (way cool) you have a poor man's Vibrolux. If you need big bold cleans, get a Dual Showman or a Twin, but if you want clean with a little touch of breakup keep that original transformer in there.
+Timbertea Hi, could you please tell me what a variable negative feedback is? I know nothing about electronics but i have a '68 silverface Bandmaster reverb and i would like to do the BF mod and whatever else i can to make it sound better.
I've been saying for at least 30 years now that the silver-faced Bandmaster was the best clean sounding amp Fender ever made. I was never a black-face fan. They distorted well, but none of those black-face amps had enough mids. If you want overdrive, the blondes were better and the tweeds better yet. A 59 Bassman with 4 x 10s for solos and a silver-face Bandmaster with a 2 x 15 cabinet (like a Showman) for clean, and you were in Telecaster heaven. Then get a little Super Champ XD for recording and practice, and you're set for life. For a Strat sound I'd trade the Bassman for a Dual Showman.
Preach it, brother!!! I agree that the SFBR is the best clean out there. I run it with one 15" But I am about to build a Showman Cabinet clone with JBL D130s and see what that is like!
I have one of these (silverface BR) and while I was horrified that Fender started reissuing silverface amps, I am glad because now I can order some drip edge and repair mine. I shoved mine into a custom 1x15" cab and made a Vibroclone.
In my opinion BF sounds fuller, rounder, thicker. More bottom end. The SF sounds thinner for sure. Proof here of why the BF circuit is so sought after and preferred. Good demo! Thanks for taking the time to compare the two.
Silverface seems to have a little more crunch rather than seer to me when distorted which I dig...always been a Silverface guy but really want an early 70s Bassman 100 to add to my Peavey 6534+ and eventually wanna get a Sunn Model T (Fender reissue) then run that with the Bassman head through my Mesa 412 cab with Celestion G12V-70
I have a 65' bandmaster that I am going to convert to bassman spec. I am wondering whether to go with BF era or blonde. I want something pretty nasty and warm but with tight low end. Any thoughts,
I have the same Silverface Bandmaster with matching 2 x 15" JBL's cabinet. Does yours have the two bolts to lock the Head to the Cabinet? Also did yours have a 2 wire power cord. Once I put a ground plug in, it eliminated a lot of the buzz noise. How much do you think the amps are worth to a collector ?
"And open-back cuz, hey man, that's how Leo intended it" I really hope this was tongue in cheek. Both of these heads would have been paired with closed-back cabs, no?
Ha! Yea ... but I'm an open-back guy ... actually been a 1/3 open fan lately ... got a '65 small box Fender 2x12 tilt-back "piggy-back" cab I've been using with my Bandmasters ... converted to 1/3 open & no acoustic insulation ... with a WGS Reaper & a Reaper 55 ... that combo totally kills.
+Vaughn Skow I have built a couple cabinets with 3 back panels. I cut a 45 degree bevel on the top and bottom panels so I could add a 3rd panel to completely close the back in case you like a closed back. I sold one of the cabs already and the guy who bought it loves the 3 panels. It's very easy to do.
That guitar has a lot of pickups Also I wish more AB demos were like this. You kept track of volume and tried to match tone and the audio is not from a cell phone.
Both are definitely great sounding amps, I wonder how much of the differences we hear could be adjusted via the tmb controls so that they sound about the same? They're pretty close, maybe a little more bass on the silverface and a little more treble on the blackface......hmmmm?
My 63 bandmaster was messed up by Kendricks amps,I had Skip Simmons amp repair fix it and he didn't charge me $1200 like Kendricks did only $100.00 Thanks Skip
Vaughn do you live in Nashville Tennessee. I hear you talk of country folks from time to time and I get the impression you live around Nashville because of your association with the processes of sound production. If so let me know. I m interested in the sound business. Thanks and enjoy Nashville as much as I always did. 40 years ago....
Cant go wrong with either. Bandmasters aren't as coveted as many of the other models, which is a good thing ! Just picked my '67 BF for 5 beans, can u imagine ?? You'd be lucky to find a good HR Deluxe or even a champ amp for that kinda dough around here ! For my style of playing, its perfect. I need the clean headroom of the Bandmaster, sure the SS recto chokes it slightly, but I jumper the normal ch to the vib channel and it really gives me all I need, very touch sensitive and expressive as it stands and my pedal board is simple simple. Vol/wah, eq pedal, OD, compression, and analog delay... oops, and a tuner ... gotta have that ! Ty for making this vid ~
Both sound great and thanks for another good demo, could you do demo of a comparison of an excelsior and a music master bass amp would love to hears the diff if you could get hold of them.
I'm torn between. BF is a LOT better clean but the SF just slaughters the BF in high gain stuff with the tighter bottom end and middle presence. Also the SF tremolo kicks ass. I'm gonna get one of these but I really can't decide!
Hi, I'm trying to understand how the ground switch on my blackface bandmaster works. TO turn it on, do I have to tilt it left or right? and do I need to turn it on?
+Nassim Dib-Mudie If your amp has been modified with a three prong power cord you probably wont notice any difference in the ground switch.If you have the 2 prong cord and you have any hum in your amp, switch the ground switch and find out which way has less hum.Sometimes it doesn't matter.That's how i always used the ground switch as a possible hum reducer and often enough it helped.I hope that answers your question.
The black face sounds fuller and the silver face sounds thinner. At least here on you tube. I had a black face bandmaster from 65 or 66. Sounded great but I also had a bf 67 bassman that I had modded to AA864 specs. Sounds even richer and fatter than the bandmaster.
This doesn't seem to be much of a balanced comparison due to the mods done on the silver face Bandmaster Reverb. The mods you mention don't seem to be very minor.
I need to do a comparison of my 2 bandmaster Heads. My silver faced one is a hotter sounding Amp. It is not a silver face reverb bandmaster. I have been thinking of selling my Blackface amp. It is not as hot sounding as my Silver face one. Keeping a bunch of amps and guitars maintained can be expensive.
Its weird, the different ranges register different likings for me. The BF bass is best, the SF upper Mid is best and both have good top end. BF had a better low mid (bit fuller sound) Thanks for this demo.
The Bandmaster REVERB's are under-rated ... the plain ol Bandmasters maintain a pretty solid fan base. I've got a '67 drip-edge, and the '67 blackface & '68 drip-edge Reverb shown here ... and I love them ALL. That was really the point of this vid ... to show that the BMR has some seriously under rated cool going on! I've got the original HUGE (!!) 2x12 drip-edge cab with it, and it's SOOOOO groovy baby :-) This wasn't a "that one rocks & that one sucks" kinda thing.
Oh my God ... so THIS is how this inaccuracy is propagated! No!!! The drip-edge amps first appeared in mid 1967 and continued into late 1969. Also check out my vid with my 1967 (!) drip-edge Deluxe Reverb....
Man over 3 minutes of jabbing about alllllllll the modifications made on two molested amps played on a frankinstrat run through new cabs amps set at different points and playing through different channels!! You had one job! For the love of vintage gear, Change the title Description man