The 1965 Bandmaster from Hell......A Really Tough Repair Job 

Jack's meticulous care in his job cannot be understated.

Quote of the week "The amp is amping"....

Dear Uncle Doug I've learned a lot from your videos on biasing diagnostics and repair work on tube guitar amps from your videos and I am some of those techniques to my own little Fender blackface champ amp I bought this little amp for $100 22 years ago you are the best teacher I have ever heard and watched all be it on video. Hands down. Thank you very much. I have been soldering since I was 9 years old fixing the family transistor radios those many years ago because my brothers and sisters were a little abusive but I'd always fix them so I'll watch these videos again and again and apply those Diagnostic and repair techniques in my own Hobby of works learned a lot Doug so I'll be watching them again and again to absorb very good information thank you you are a gem live long and prosper

Nothing like an Uncle Doug video after a long day... The only problem,.. I have almost watched them all.

I'm impressed. Few people would take time to repair that brightness switch. Good work.

Uncle Doug, great job as always and props to Jack.

Jack never ceases to impress. Not only does he perform reliable "cat scan" duties, but he also serves as a fine audio quality control inspector. I believe some extra cat nip may be in order. Another entertaining, and educational video. Thanks Uncle Doug.

Hi Doug, I just wanted to say a couple of things. I have watched and enjoyed your videos for years now. I have a 1965 Fender Bandmaster that I redid and your videos have always helped me fix my amps. I have never come across anybody that explains things in such detail as you. You are amazing. The things that you can do is simply amazing. Building hot rod cars and being a teacher and amp repair tech is nothing short of miraculous. I hope you will always keep doing all of these videos. A lot of people on RU-vid are not forthright with this much information and my hat is off to you. This has to be my favourite channel. Just a thank you for all of the great videos. My Fender blackface 1965 amp has a plate voltage of 483 volts on the plates. My amp seems to play fine. This voltage seems very high. If you wouldn't mind, is this normal on some of these amps or could there be something wrong here. Just thought I would ask you about this if you wouldn't mind giving me some advice. Thanks Michael Newell from Niagara falls, Ontario, 🇨🇦 Canada

Always a pleasure to see another Uncle Doug video. Jack is such a character hahaha.

Well, the customer sent that amp to the right guy. Great methodical approach to fixing each problem that cropped up. Jack does better than my two cats or my dog. My cats just jump inside the box and the dog well he thinks its a tree and pisses on it. Great repair job and video Uncle Doug.

I just realized that jack is the real brains behind the diagnosis. Very cute cat

I have not seen a Simpson since I was in Electronics School in NYC .. Circa 1980 .. you are doing an amazing job here sir .. thank you !

Thx uncle Doug n the jack cat scan NVR fails! Must be the animal magnetism. Hope you both have a great day ;)

Great video! I'm enjoying all of the individual part repairs too...I'm hoping that one of these days you'll show us how to rewind a transformer!

Uncle Doug that is so true about the Letter on the hill. Where I grew up in Central California my small town is Reedley. 25 miles southwest of Fresno. Right before the uphill gateway to Kings Canyon National Park there is a letter R for Reedley that has been there all my life. Great reminder of our cultural past!

Sounds like there is a really cool sounding and ever present resonance buzz that seams to come from a specific frequency. It gives it that real authentic Tom Petty sound... Sweet Amp and great repair video... Thanks Doug!

Just did one about the same year a while back. Someone had put an FX loop in it and made a mess. I took it back to spec and it sounded great after. Great videos Doug! I usually just use an 80uf cap that are a lot easier to find. I just went through this intermittent tube short on a Marshall JCM 800. Inverted the chassis and it worked fine and after I flipped it and moved it was blowing HT fuses. Checked the tubes initially and they tested fine, after it started blowing fuses I started to think bad tube. Sure enough a second test showed a short on 3 of my tube testers, my Hickok 539C, 6000A and my old Eico 666. Replaced the bad tube and it ran fine for hours where it would cook the fuse after 2 minutes before. I'm thinking a loose element in the tube that moves around. Like a light bulb that will light after shaking it around sometimes.

I just purchased a 1966 bandmaster. What timing! Now I know what I'm up against.

I’m glad I waited until I had time to watch this with total focus. This troublesome amp afforded me the opportunity to understand more clearly the things my amp techs say to me. Though I won’t be building my own high wattage amp, nor hang up a repairman shingle out side of my door, I will be better and cooperating in the maintanance of my own 50s and 60s fenders with my trusted technicians. Thank you again, Uncle Doug.

Have a cat exactly like Jack, he sniffs and checks our food to make sure it’s okay. Had an old Fender amp years ago. It started getting funky and I took it to a crazy old electronics guy I knew to check it out and never saw it again. Wish I still had it, you and Jack could help me fix it up myself.

Dang, Uncle Doug, that amp is 6 years younger than I am. I wish I "only" had minor blemishes like the minor corrosion on the top of the chassis!

Been ordering from Parts Express for 10+ years. Great place.

I usually find that the white wire is often on the wrong lug of the auxiliary power outlet. Good work Doug. And thank you for the proper use of Tremolo/Vibrato.

Just got 64 tremolux, attic find/bargain of a lifetime, planned to restore the case, but ended up bringing it to the playable condition, ordered parts for the tremolo, new caps. The sound is fantastic, and learned a lot along the way.

May I suggest Eurotubes to buy JJ.. They actually burn in all tubes for enough hours that the infant mortality will happen if its going to.... and then test and sort with a computerized testing system that does measurements under actual load. They do the fail culling in advance, not the customer. On 3 wire power cords, always switch and fuse the black... white is neutral and effectively in parallel with GND back in the service panel. Excellent video. Slide switch repair was great!!!

JACK IN THE BOX!

Great video! Bonus footage of a drone flight in sunny blue skies, which is a welcome sight seeing as I;m sick of the rain in Wales at the moment!!

Long vid, never, could watch 24/7, expert diagnosis, fix deployed and another satisfied customer. Thank you for sharing Sir.

You really got me Doug with the Ray Davies comment..

Barely awake as I watch this but I nearly spit some coffee at the Ray Davies non-approval regarding the kink. Do you think he ever used KT88s ? Probably not, eh ?

It is a pleasure to see that there are still techs that insist on things being done right! Good job! Tom

Doug, a marvelous video, and you are a great host and narrator..

Wow, I've never heard Jack & Ollie cut a mean blues before... pretty cool ...and thanx so very much for another great learning video. BTW, what does that ginormous 'A' stand for in the drone segment? Oh and, though I'm sure it's not necessary, I just wanted to mention that if my rent didn't utterly annihilate my fixed income I'd most certainly be donating to you, my most worthy and hard-earned teacher... who knows what the future may bring tho' Like "Don't bury me 'cause I'm not dead yet..." Thanx again and Cheers

Sounds like someone threw a lot of bad parts in a bucket the someone else built an amp from them! How bad does your luck have to be to get so many component failures in the same place? I'd love to see the completed restoration in its cab.

I was playing through the Studio City 50R and it was terrible when i got about a year ago, but had good volume. So i started in on it when i watched a few of your vids. Replaced all the filter caps, a lot of out-of-spec resistors, i put the reverb tank on, fired it up, at first erratic, no sound...,(&”#%,..., then no readings, no nothin’! So I followed your process of measuring the continuity of the ITs primary. Turned out to be the fuse contacts, just needed cleaning! Whew, . Now, the volume is very low, but plays at least, and the heater voltage is only ~3.15vac, hmmm, it does have a center tap surprisingly. Lots of fun!! Thanks so much for inspiring me. I owe you. PS love the car vids too!!! Your comments are priceless! Hah!!

After a two days of my own trouble-shooting on a new build, and getting nowhere fast, it was good to see this and realize that it happens to the best techs. Thanks Uncle Doug. (but of course, my problems will probably be due to something I did wrong:).

My first amp. Paid $25 for it...100% untouched orig., fully operational, with 100 cigarette burns across the top front edge of amp. I LOVED THAT AMP! Saw it years later in a pawn shop for $625. I didn't buy it...but I played it.😊😊😊

Love your cats!! Very talented! Thanks for your videos too!

Ray Davies would not approve a kinked power cord at 12:31. Brilliant ! At 17:24 "This amp finding new ways to torture me" and yet he remains so calm, what a gentleman.

I don't blame you on waiting on parts! If it's fixable, I'll fix it. I hate waiting. Once I get into one, I like to hear it. As always, Thanks!

wow , that was too cool Doug. What a life of tech. we now are experiencing. Praise the Lord! nice to see you and the misses. from the far south side of the Rockies. Im almost at the N.side 49 th. Parallel.

I just completed my own baptism of fire with a Twin that fell off of its extra 4X12 (Marshall) cabinet while it was cranked up and being played hard. I spent weeks tearing my hair out with cracked solder joints, output tubes with the same kind of intermittent shorts as this one, red plating one minute and ok a minute later, shafts broken off of the pots, pin no. 4 of V1 broken off in the socket and shorting against the cathode, pin 3, (sometimes) B+ voltage on the chassis, (sometimes) surprise! surprise! Gomer Pyle's in the house! How did I get way over here on this side of the room? Excuse me while I go change my drawers! Just lots and lots of fun. Like playing "whack-a-mole" blindfolded, and somebody's throwing firecrackers at you the whole time. Long story short, i finally chased down all of the gremlins, and she's whole once again and sounding great. The guy is picking her up tomorrow and I get $$$ The reason I tell you all this is because it's not only the toughest fix Ive done yet, but i honestly think that one of the reasons I got through it and finished the job is because of the troubleshooting tips I've picked up from you over the years. I almost gave up a couple of times, but now I'm glad I didn't. You deserve some of the credit for that. Thanks and God bless!

I've had JJs that were brand new fail in 2 different amps, and it seems a lot of the amp repair videos I watch have problems with them. I've now learned which tubes to avoid lol. I really enjoy your videos, I've learned so much about fixing these dinosaurs.

This was really great. When I was a teenager, I had a used 65 bandmaster. At some point it stopped working, so I sold it. If youtube was available at the time, I likely would have tried to repair it. What a great time we live in.

I have had so many faulty out of the box JJ power tubes that I will never use them or recommend them. Thanks for all your vids.

Uncle Doug, from the very start of my troubleshooting intermittent problems in equipment that used vacuum tubes, I learned that good tubes should be able to withstand moderately aggressive taps from a finger (or pencil eraser) without sparking or unexpected affect. Tubes are subject to flaking cathode material, and weld-fatigue from the repetitive heat-cycling, so I made judicious tube-tapping the rule, to avoid call-backs and unhappy clients.

You do nice work,I been working on tube radios but I watch your channel to learn some of your secrets I need to no ,to be someday safe as you .

Great job on the bright switch!

That was some great work! Very much enjoyed all the extra issues and your solutions.

Holy shit Uncle Doug. I grew up in New Mexico and I could see that "A" from my home miles away.

It blows my mind that you can get all these parts nowdays,Back in the 1970s you could not get a Fender 65 Faceplate.. Thanks to EVH lol and Boogie Bodies Thanks UD for all your time and help too

Fantastic Video Doug... Lots of Learning going on for me..

ローズピアノの８８鍵はアルミケースの中にフォトセルと半田付けされた電球が入った物が２系統のステレオでした。トレモロが効かないため、中を開けたら、電球はすでに切れていて、適当な１２V球とソケットも取り付けて組み直すと、トレモロは復活しました。音が左右に飛び回るあの音でした。この時代の回路はホントにシンプルなアナログ回路で惚れ惚れしますね。

Hey Doug, still hacking my way through your videos of various amp repairs and problems. Trying to gain as much knowledge as posible for and old head like mine..! This sure was an amp from hell. I'm glad you were on board to fix it..Great info and entertainment also..Thanks once again for these jewels of knowledge..Ed..U.k.

Excellent work Uncle Doug !

I own a 1969 Fender Bandmaster-Reverb amp that I bought new and it is genuinely a 50 watt amp that Fender installed a 35 watt output transformer into. The output transformer failed in the 1st year and was replaced with a 50 watt transformer. Since the transformer upgrade it is one on my favorite amps.

Thank you Uncle Doug, for your contribution to humanity. I had a firm grip on my beer during the level 10 tremolo testing.

Gary Moore going surfing at the end was cool!

Uncle Doug, You can rock it !

Beautiful amp! You followed a very nice procedure - very logical, no easter-egging. You clearly know how amps like this work, and so experience informs you on where to hunt down problems. Thanks for a clear and thoughtful presentation, I enjoyed it a lot!

Another excellent video. Great job on the troubleshooting with that cool old amp.

I completely restored a 1963 Twin Reverb, it had a power transformer meltdown, so I completely cleaned the board and chassis (totally black with soot), replaced a few caps and resistors, Mercury Magnetics PT, and found a pair of original blue back 1963 C12N speakers for it. It was beautiful. Upon coming to the fuse holder, the cap was wrong and would not fit properly. It drove me absolutely nuts haha!

I like when you said "I can't wait to get new part". I absolutely agree with you. Greetings from Australia

Such a pleasure listening to this amp and Jack and Olly rocking away.Once again thanks for the informative and entertaining content ,Uncle Doug!

One of your best videos.

Looks like Jack is stepping up his game. Rusty would be proud. A- Team player for sure! Awesome fix as always! Thanks for sharing.

you're the best uncle doug! i want to thank you for your videos. you are the reason i started to work on vintage amps and build my own amps from scratch. i also love your truck hobby! keep up the great work and thank you!

Fantastic video, this is how it should be done. Well filmed and well explained. Thank you so much for all your videos, Uncle Doug.

A good sense of humor is a priceless commodity..

Wow once again. I can't believe the nonsense this thing put you through but yet you remain undefeated! If it was me (a novice to intermediate tech) I surely would have had to ask you some questions with something like this. As you said, an excellent opportunity to witness what one can sometimes expect.

Sneaky resistor! Well found. Thanks Doug. Another few gems of wisdom to add to the toolkit.

It's amazing just how simple these amps are. I should have started a hand-build amp business in my 20's.

Thanks again Uncle Doug, glad to know it's not just me that those things happen to. A customer brought me a $5000 Bogner head for the installation and biasing of a new quad of power tubes that he had bought from a not so well known tube vendor. One of the tubes red plated during testing. In a panic, I killed the power and when my heart slowed down, I tested all the tubes on my Hickok AND TV7 testers. NO shorts. With my current limiter hooked up and watching the plate current, one of the tubes red plated again and I noted which one. I proved that it was not the amp doing it and advised the customer to contact the vendor. The vendor gave him grief and told him his technician didn't know what he was doing. I contacted the vendor and he told ME the same thing. I told the customer that I was not comfortable taking any more chances with his amp and he agreed to take the amp home and do his own testing, and then carry on the fight with the vendor. Sure enough, the tube red plated again on him and he was finally able to get a replacement. There you go. It's one thing to fool around with red plating tubes in a $200 amp, much, much harder on your blood pressure in a big dollar amp.

i could listen to you playing that guitar on an old amp like that for ever, it is so mesmerizing

The cats have learned a new song! Sounds like they've been practising too : ) Cracking job as always, this one gave you some gyp, still, it's nice to have a few odd faults as a bit of a challenge. Fair play to the lads at Antique for swapping the dud valves.

Uncle Doug, you and your cat are hilarious. You two just got a new subscriber.

Nice work on the Bandmaster and the camera work- clear images.

Well Done Uncle Doug!

Thanks very much Uncle Doug

You learned some new tunes!

It's amazing, after that simple lesson on tubes amps I have a good idea what you're doing here :)

Thank you for this. Very educational.

Hey Uncle Doug, if i were you, i would turn off and disconnect that amp, then throw some holy water and wait till is dry. Nice videos as always !

Thanks for taking us on a drone flight....great relaxing music and showing us your old Alma Mater ! CHICO ,DETROIT

Excellent as usual Uncle Doug...!!

"welcome to the world of madness." lol. That Immediately reminded me of a few repair projects I've worked on in the past. At least you have video so you you know you weren't going crazy... Probably just a gremlin..

Man, you really know your stuff

Thanks for all your hard work putting this video together ... I've used Fender tube amps for many years and really love the Sound they make ...

Just did a 1977 Bandmaster. Had one 6l6 gc and one gb to start off . Other than that and some tired filter caps and some bad resistors in the LTP it was pretty good. A few plate resistors had drifted up in value a bit as most of those old carbon comps do over time. One broken resistor lead from the tremolo circuit. Of course I put in new screen grid and stopper resistors. New parts and two tubes I matched up on the old Hickok 539c with some biasing she sounds great. I just used 2 33uf caps in parallel to make up those 70uf caps. They measured out about 68uf per pair. Saved my customer $$$ since I had a bunch in stock.

Another great video, Uncle Doug BTW, my Newcomb D-10 arrived. So far, all of the TIny Grief caps test bad. All the electrolytics test bad, save for one Zenith cap that appears to have been an old repair for a failed Tiny Grief. I've ordered new caps to replace all the TIny Griefs and electrolytics. Since this amp is missing all its knobs, I ordered brown chicken heads. Ordered a can of Deoxit to clean the pots and switches. Now, the hard work begins.

This is like the fifth time I have seen someone have problems with a new set of JJ tubes.

Great work and restoration,Uncle Doug!What a "night mare"! Good thing you have years' of experience! Amp sounds' great!Nothing like a "black-face" "Fender bandmaster"!

I'm glad you have an inspector like Jack. Electronics and a cat, I immediately subscribed.

parts express is probably the best source of speaker building components I've ever run across.

Another very entertaining video! Thanks.

nice job, and very well explained

Great video again UD!!! Tell Jack I said hello and if customs from the airport come to hire him to simply ignore them :)

Awesome restore. I bet you were shaking your head when they said retube it but thier loss your gain😁

Excellent video, thank you.

Unka D, Thanks for another fabulous video! They are top shelf when it comes to explaining the whys and hows of repairs/builds. Thanks for all you do! You're the rock star of electronics!