Fender's Best Vintage Amp Value? - 1969 Bandmaster Reverb Service & DEMO 

As if you need another reason to love Bandmaster Reverbs, the baffle in them is big enough to hold a pair of 8" speakers, so if you get some good ones, you'll find it works fine for smaller gigs without the need to haul the cabinet around. You can also leave the cab loaded on your band's trailer and just bring the head home for practicing.

In 79 when we were about 14 my buddy bought a 1966 Bandmaster Reverb & still has it today. We both learned guitar on that amp. I always wanted one of my own.

The best sounding amp I have heard you demo on here. Nice vibrato and playing

The Silver Face Bandmasters were my favorite fender for modifying, because all the preamp tubes available for gain stages and they were cheap for a time back in the 80's & 90's.

I picked up a 72 B'Master Reverb this past week. Im in love with it. Came with the big cab and the oxford speakers in it and the original footswitch and tubes and covers.

I have a 69 twin, 73 dual showman reverb and a 68 bandmaster reverb. I run the bandmaster through a 4x10 open back cab that has two 4ohm dummy resistors wired in to give it the 4ohm load. Sounds freaking fantastic. It and my dual showman are my favs. The bandmaster reverbs are slept on for how great they are. Sound great through a variety of speaker combos.

You let me down Brad. I was really enticed by the Twilight Sparkle repair, but here I am waiting, with no delivery.

As a teenager, I walked into the local music store, looking to buy an amp. I'd been using my brother's but had joined a band and it was time to get my own gear. They're just gotten in a Bandmaster just like this one. I think they were anxious to just quickly off-load it, 'cause they gave me a screamin' deal on it! This was the late '70s and these things hadn't yet attained any kind of "collectable" value!! 40 - plus years later and safe to say it's a keeper.

I had that same late 80's speaker cabinet with my 1974 Bandmaster Reverb back in the 90's. Looked exactly the same.

As a father of a daughter, the part at 0:40 warmed my heart. I can totally relate!

Those amps sounded awesome, the combination of iron and good components. I don't dis anything in those amps and I always use AB carbon comp resistors and good quality caps along with ceramic disc caps. I don't mess with the recipe. Thanks for the good videos.

That's rad dude, I have a custom guitar shop in my garage and I always have to fix my little girl's toys too. I love that stuff. It's really great when they get old enough to start wanting to learn how to do it themselves too.

I just acquired a 69 BandMaster Reverb TFL5005D. I know more my amp now thanks! Great video.

I had a tweed Bandmaster back in 67. It was a 65 model ..5E7? that still had that 5u4G rectifier tube. Most of the Bandmaster models had been converted to the 6 diode bridge (3 diodes in series in each leg of the full wave bridge for handling the higher PRV of the secondary winding. Great amp. I tried to get more power out it by parallelling the 6L6s, got some more power but never found out how much actual rms increase, as I had no dummy load or audio sweep generator/oscilloscope at the time to confirm. Not sure if just parallel tubes would increase the power though. The output transformer probably was not matched to work with 4 push-pull o/ps, but it did work.

That reverb is from out of this world.

Bandmaster Reverbs are essentially a Pro Reverb in a head/cabinet configuration. There are a lot of non-invasive mod that can be done to make them somewhat more useful. The normal channel can have its gain increased with a simple parts substitution and splitting of the common cathode. A Bassman OT is also a nice improvement as the original OT is a bit undersized.

Especially appreciate that last riff. Thanks for another great vid.

Although not advisable, valve pins are sometimes bent to increase pressure on the valve base contact and also to make the valve more secure in its base- I have never done this! Your videos are very interesting and informative and your playing is nice too.

Absolutely my favorite amp from years past.

Another great vid. Amp sounds great. One of my favorite HS memories from '73 was seeing an older classmate playing a school dance with his band using a Bandmaster Reverb and an SG Standard and sounding like Carlos Santana..

My 2 cents. While you're in there hook up both channels to go through the reverb circuit. Then you can front panel jumper them without the phase cancellation jumping them stock induces. Massive tone gain. You can even foot switch it on and off with an A/B/Y box. Works on any black/silver Fender with 2 chan/reverb. Very simple non-invasive mod. And unless you just can't live without the black/silverface trem, put it to sleep. Just disconnect it at the pot. It drains highs off by shunting the sig. to ground even when you're not using it. And take the neg. feedback wire off the speaker jack. That really opens them up too.

I put 100μf capacitors to all my Fender amps for better filtering to this section of the schematic but i keep to the stock values for the other three. I do it because these two caps are wired in series and their value drops in half. Some techs use two 220μf caps for best results. I am a fan of your channel and i admire your work!

Great info, as always. Thank you for the tribute. I never met the man, but he had a huge influence on my music and challenged my thinking.

loved this..as i do all of them.. thanks for keeping me awake on my journey home

Important to note, The black face bandmaster (shown on top at end of video) has two gain stages on ch 1 and ch 2. The channels can be jumped at the inputs for extra gain, because the channels are in phase. The bandmaster reverb is different as you mentioned, since it has an extra "stage" on the vibrato channel. This is actually not extra gain, rather a buffer (mix) stage to mix the reverb signal with the dry signal.. very little to no extra gain comes from this extra stage. (both channels on the Bandmaster are effectively 2 gain stages and so is the reverb model) But, the vibrato channel on the Reverb model does have that extra mix stage, so it is phase is inverted, so we can not jump across the inputs for extra gain... ch 1 and ch 2 will fight each other and produce less overall gain. The same applies to all Fender 2 channel Reverb amps, such as the Deluxe Reverb, Twin Reverb, etc. Fender non-reverb amps such as the Tremolux can be jumped as the channels are in phase like the Bandmaster.

There's a good reason why the ground being the only thing on a lug is the legal requirement - to make sure the ground is not mistakenly or unintentionally disconnected from the chassis. I would have drilled it; one hole with one nut and screw wouldn't change the value at all considering all else done. Nice video, and gorgeous sounding amp!

As always, love your videos and demos! (Thanks for the Soundgarden clip!) RIP Chris C.

These amps are on my list of never should have sold it ! I had one of the tube rectified earlier ones and it was just sweet !!!

thats a sweet sounding amp...learning a bit watching your vids and loving it dude!

Hi Brad, re. the connection of the ground wire, I believe the correct connection method is to crimp the conductor to the lug. The thinking behind this is that, should a fire start under the chassis, the solder could melt thus negating the grounding. Just continuing the persnickkety thought train............. BTW I restore valve radios as a hobby & really want to work on a guitar amp. There are subtle differences in these two tasks & I am so glad that I have watched very instructive videos from Uncle Doug, Mr. Carlson, &, of course, The Guitologist. Keep on rockin' mate:)

I think I should have stay with 470ohms/1watt for the 6L6's screen resistors BUT use metal film types. This value stayed OK for many years in this amp, and I don't mess with original values in Fender amps. But otherwise I salute your very nice job here !

Aww, Fell on Black Days....thanks for that. It's a damn shame.

As you were tapping on that tube in V2, I was thinking: "I need more cowbell!"

I bought a 69' BMR black cloth front w/matching cab for $145 in 1981 and by 85, no one would even give me as much, smh😤We all wanted Marshalls. Sounded just like this1, addictive and inspiring like mashing on the go pedal of a V8. If I only knew how bad I'd miss it 🙄. Even the scent from it was like 💓 warming incense. 69s and the 68s with the drip edges are true gems.

Coolbeans,,I bought a 1971 Silverface Bandmaster same model,, in '85, ran it into Crate 2x12, got MesaBoogie DC-3 mid 1990's,,just had Sweetwater in Ft.Wayne,IN go thru it.I got the Fender back out,,but it has the snap,crackle,pop and need's a good Tech also.

i have one of these. picked it up for $200 last autumn. my guitar player wants to make it road worthy.

Have to agree with you on not drilling a hole for the ground on that 3 prong cord. A lot of regulations make no sense especially from a technical view point.

If I tap a cap or resistor and hear noise I'm usually suspicious that the solder joint might be a bit cold. I usually will heat the solder to see if the problem remains.

OMG! I have one of these! Bought it used in the mid-70's.

That ones got a heck of a deep reverb. Sounds great.

9:00 "I like the way YOU talk."

Beautiful amp. I'd like so see someone put a couple 6's, 8's or 6x9's in there and make a mini rig! Cool vid, thanks!

Great Video!! Nice amp, I purchased my first tube amp a 1968 Bandmaster Reverb that was changed to Blackface specs.

LOL..."I call them round turd caps" I'm not going to forget that one

The iconic Fender clean tone sounds as good as any thing you could find. Maybe you could convince your customer to go for a Tweed style mod on the normal channel preamp. Then it would be the most versatile amp in town, especially with an A/B switch.

Ya can't beat the vintage sparkle of these old amps. I'd love to hear a Les Paul coax some warm crunch out of that baby.

This amp was a good candidate for making the VibroClone. Stick it in a combo 1x15 cab and you essentially have a BF Vibroverb (SRV's amp) except the BR has a mid control. Mine has a 4 ohm square magnet Eminence and it sounds sublime....

That baby sounds incredible dude looking at one of these on Reverb for 800 I'm hoping for a tone like that

I wonder why the Bandmaster has that trademark crisp tones compared to other fender amps

That soldered ground wire doesn't look kosher. the rectifier tube was a 5u4 in mine. Sounds very good. One of my favourite amps, even if it's a bear to move around.

Sound Garden riff made me sad,but the spank out of that set up was very pleasing.

Must be rewarding to jam on a repair you just did.

These are still one of the best values in vintage amps. Did you ever change the phase inverter from that Tung Sol 12AX7 shown at around 2:40 to the proper 12AT7? Fender changed the circuit around a bunch on this particular amp, as they did with most of the amps in the late 60's. I think there is a AA768, AA1069 and a AA270. That is three different circuit revisions in less than 2 years. This one looks to have been built at the temporary factory in Santa Ana, so it would be an AA768. I have had a few of these over the years. The one I currently own has been modded with a newer multitap output transformer so it can drive most any type of cabinet. The Mercury replacement sounds bit fuller than the original Schumacher 125A7A. When this was changed, the amp also modded so either channel could go through the reverb & vibrato. Both channels were also placed in phase so they can now be jumped together. Sounds killer going through an older 4x12 Marshall Cab. The reverb on the Bandmaster & Dual Showman Reverb heads seems more sustained than other Fender amps. I have had them with various tanks(still like Gibbs the best), but any of the different types give a longer decay. I have often wondered if the tank being a 90 degree angle causes this longer decay. My guitar amp tech friends say no, but my recording tech friends say yes. An EMT plate reverb is suspended at a 90 degree as gravity impedes the flow of electrons. I know my Fisher Space Expander has more verb on it reverberation when it is placed vertically rather than horizontally.

why did you change the value of the screen resisters? excuse the obvious but i am trying to learn. thanks for any info.

Unmistakable warm Fender tone.

amps sounds heavenly, nice vid ...even got a "persnickety" to boot

I have the same one with everything original including the tubes. Low mileage. Only thing I changed was the 2 prong power cord with a cord with a groud plug. Was used in a churcn for about 5 years only on Sundays. The head has bolts to screw onto the Fender Speaker cabinet with 2 - 15" JBL's. How much do you reckon its worth?

Those 220K resistors are definitely new. Not just the looks, but notice, they are 5% and all the rest in there are 10%. Gold band instead of silver. Those are new, definitely.

I have the same model. It’s personally one amp that I will never sell. I paired it with a baseman 2x12 cabinet from the same era because it’s all that I could find locally. It also gets super dirty

great amp, great job, great channel! Thank you!

Nice old Fender, would love one a year or 2 older in blackface..to go with my late period blackface Vibrolux Reverb.. Its still near mint, original, ( even the death cap) with the usual age issues, pots a bit scratchy... I have had decent luck with JJ tubes sold by Eurotubes pre selected for low microphonics. They reject a lot of tubes to cull to low microphonics.. Nice riff!

A 69 amp should have had a AA1069 circuit with 5U4GB rectifier. Also the power tubes should have a 2000pF capacitors on pin #5 to ground which has been removed. Along with a few other differences it looks like this circuit has been modded to Blackface. I’m surprised you didn’t mention this. V6 had a Tung Sol tube with 12AX7 printed on it, the wrong tube for that spot. You said that V6 12AT7 had a bent pin, no mention being the wrong tube.

Random question, if tubes are mounted upright would that increase tube life due to heat being dissipated into the air rather then onto the chassis. Also seems like this would prevent thermal runaway on chassis loaded components

another awesome video.....I want that head,lol

Information about power cord safety is interesting.

another excellent video ,👍👊

Nice touch at the end.

These are great amps after some work and parts. I use the Mojotone Dijon and Sozo blue caps in these amps. Ive found the brown turd caps to be unreliable and should be changed. After making the changes to the AB763 circuit and changing ALL of the film/electrolytic caps and far out resistors, you basically end up with a Vibroverb in head form.

LOL I have had interrupted tube tinkering with some epoxy orthopedic surgery on some of my daughter's sparkly dolls. We are good dads. My electro bench makes a great OR table.

Great nod to Soundgarden!

Sounds Like the same tone as the song, " Pieces of April" with that vibrato sound Michael Allsup used with Three dog night. Great song sung by Chuck Negril..

The wrong wiring on the extension AC socket is a norm on silverface 3 prong wired amps. Every one I've seen has the plugs hot and neutral swapped on that socket.

I have a bandmaster about this same vintage. It really craps out after the tubes heat up and the reverb loop has issues. I might just open it up myself after watching a few of your vids.

That's some wonderful blues

I've got a S/F twin reverb 100W with the transformer codes 606632 606-6-36.. 1976 36 th week is this correct ? 606641 parts codes Cassis #. A606672 And has the D120F orange speakers that I think are replacements. I've bought this amp used in 1978.

Wishing Twilight Sparkle a quick recovery on her leg! Celestia's gonna wanna hear about the story behind that accident, I'm sure...

Very nice guitar playing.......

That things so clean an simple wonder why they still dont roll off a line????

Hey Brad, I've seen those brown turd caps in my Silvertone 1484. I think at this point I've changed most out due to leakage... pretty awful things. I just used some of those red Mylar film caps from the local electronics outfitter, and the amp is dirty enough that the type really doesn't matter.

Hey Guitologist, new to the page, I have one of these amps. It works sounds great except for the pops and crackles, nothing more than some contact cleaner should fix. My question is; at about 3 minutes in, under the doghouse, the Sprague capacitors say on them 20uF @500 is there a calculation I'm missing? Also when looking at my transformers they say year of 62, is this right? Did they make this amp in 1962? - Thanks in advance. -Phil

i would love for you to look at my fender cyber twin, apparently it reroutes the circuitry depending on the setting you use, ie: tweed, marshally, modern fender etc.... this amp is perfect for me in my office, doubt i would like to play it live even though its a 130w ss w/2 celestion gt100's, all tube preamp etc...

I love my BF BM, but I think I may have to look into a BMR. Nice!

I really want one of these. Would you say there’s much of a difference between the ones from the late 60’s vs early 70’s? The one I’m looking at is 71

Really Cool. Great tone.

I have a Wilder half stack that I got from a friend who’s grandfather had it in storage for decades. I think it was made in 1970. It has a rotating horn in it. It still works! Any thoughts about Wilder amps? I tried to find info about it, and there is hardly anything out there. Do I have a rare gem? Or is it nothing really special?

When is the video of twilight sparkles coming out?

Thanks as always for making these videos, I really enjoy them. I'm interested in getting started with some tinkering so I would really love it if you could find the time please to explain what extra considerations (if any) we need to take when we're on 240v - do the same designs work with just different transformers and if so what do we need to change in classic US circuits? The affordable kits and a lot of old equipment for sale seem to be mostly 110v designs. I'd love it if you'd go through a kit build or simple scratch build too. Sorry for being demanding :) Love your stuff and your taste in modifications!

That's a great sounding amp.

Great sounding amp

What is it that people don’t prefer in the AA568 circuit compared to the AB763?

Bill, please help; I have a terribly micro-phonic capacitor coming off the middle 7025 pin 1. The only clue from the schematic is that it +230V (it might be 330V it's hard to read) coming off PIn 1and the round cap itself reads 20% @.003. .003 what uF? pF? it doesn't say.

Hi, what's the thought process behind upping the screen resistors from 470 to 1k as well as from 1w to 2w? Thanks for posting all these repair videos! I hope Twilight Sparkles leg surgery was successful.

i have played some many nice,warm, lush fenders,these included, i,ll take marshall plexi or something with more attack,but yes,there all great,just allmost too soft,an warm etc..

Can the reverb tank from a bandmaster be used inside of twin reverb amp?

brad the fender pa135 is a beast. have you worked on one?

definiytly i need one of this

i would love a video on scratch building an amp w new parts. currently i have a ton of parts i ordered, and a chassis i just machined. now onto the hurculean task of drawing out a schematic, making sure it all makes since. im thinking about making a small board with various components and shielded wire, as to do some extensive testing to determine what my end values will be prior to final soldering. would you use proper shielded wire, or would you go with vintage cloth push back?

I guess these are deadly loud, right? Wouldn't it be nice to mod them for just one 6L6 output valve?

where's the twilight sparkle repair footage? Blocked and reported.

I like the Strat you use here for the demo. A tongue in cheek comment: It sounds pretty good for a 3 bolt neck. I have a question: What are your thoughts on Leo's use of the whole Micro Tilt thing? I have a theory which would make for a long comment, I don't wanna do that unless invited. Would like to hear your opinion please. Thanks.