Craigslist near miss: Silverface Bandmaster

[Nightclub Dwight]

I was checking out Craigslist after I got home today, and someone was selling a Silverface Bandmaster head for $150.  I called right away but the guy said someone just picked it up.  If I only had checked when I first got home instead of watering my tomatoes, that could have been mine!

Dang it, I deserved it too.  Last week my computer crashed with a nasty virus, my paycheck bounced, and my truck got stolen from in front of my house.  I thought my karma was giving me a reward for everything that happened last week, only to have it snatched away just out of reach.

 

[Steve_Karl]

I wouldn't worry that you missed much. The silver faced ones usually sounded poor compared to blackface or tweed.
You could get a new blues deluxe that would smoke the tone of a silver faced fender.

 

[Nightclub Dwight]

That makes me feel better about it.  I was just excited to see an amp for $150 in Craigslist.

I have my blackface Champ so its not like I needed the Bandmaster.  I just was excited to see a good deal.

 

[hannaugh]

On the up side, you will soon have some delicious tomatoes!  :laughing7:

 

[AprioriMark]

I wouldn't worry that you missed much. The silver faced ones usually sounded poor compared to blackface or tweed.
You could get a new blues deluxe that would smoke the tone of a silver faced fender.

I'm going to disagree and call "toneworms" on this one.  I'll put my silver-faced Super against any tube amp, ever.  While some silver-face era amps are horrid, some are amazing.  Don't believe the hype and anti-hype regarding eras of Fender tube amps, kids.  Play each amp individually, and appreciate that a p2p wiring tube amp is a much better place to start than a PCB tube amp.

-Mark

 

[pabloman]

I wouldn't worry that you missed much. The silver faced ones usually sounded poor compared to blackface or tweed.
You could get a new blues deluxe that would smoke the tone of a silver faced fender.

Ever play one? We had one at our store with the 2-12 cab. That thing was awesome. I used to hook it up to a Marshall cabinet. It just looked so cool. That amp would take pedals very well. Hook up an OCD and it was amazing. My Keeley tubscreamers were like heaven. They wouldn't break apart the set otherwise I would have bought that head.

 

[Tonar8352]

Silverface Fenders are the best deal going. Some of the early ones still have blackface transformers in them and most of them can easily be "Blackfaced" by a good Tech. 

 

[Mor Paul]

Silverface Fenders are the best deal going. Some of the early ones still have blackface transformers in them and most of them can easily be "Blackfaced" by a good Tech. 

And once you go black....

 

[Superlizard]

I wouldn't worry that you missed much. The silver faced ones usually sounded poor compared to blackface or tweed.
You could get a new blues deluxe that would smoke the tone of a silver faced fender.

I'm going to disagree and call "toneworms" on this one.  I'll put my silver-faced Super against any tube amp, ever.  While some silver-face era amps are horrid, some are amazing.  Don't believe the hype and anti-hype regarding eras of Fender tube amps, kids.  Play each amp individually, and appreciate that a p2p wiring tube amp is a much better place to start than a PCB tube amp.

-Mark

This is true - IIRC, common Fender knowledge states that when CBS did the buy-out, they had to use up all the Blackface components
laying about before moving on to full Silverface production.  

So it's possible for one to get a transition amp with Blackface guts but a Silverface facade.  Other than that, like
Tonar states, a popular mod to Silverfaces is to Blackface 'em.

 

[Steve_Karl]

I wouldn't worry that you missed much. The silver faced ones usually sounded poor compared to blackface or tweed.
You could get a new blues deluxe that would smoke the tone of a silver faced fender.

Ever play one? We had one at our store with the 2-12 cab. That thing was awesome. I used to hook it up to a Marshall cabinet. It just looked so cool. That amp would take pedals very well. Hook up an OCD and it was amazing. My Keeley tubscreamers were like heaven. They wouldn't break apart the set otherwise I would have bought that head.

Yep. I've owned tweed bassman and 5 or more black face bandmasters and then 2 silver faced twins that were great but they were very early vintage.
The only silver faces that ever sounded ok to me were in the very early year or 2 after they switched.

I've played through quite a few horrid sounding silver faced fenders, but only for a minute or so each.

 

[Steve_Karl]

I wouldn't worry that you missed much. The silver faced ones usually sounded poor compared to blackface or tweed.
You could get a new blues deluxe that would smoke the tone of a silver faced fender.

I'm going to disagree and call "toneworms" on this one.  I'll put my silver-faced Super against any tube amp, ever.  While some silver-face era amps are horrid, some are amazing.  Don't believe the hype and anti-hype regarding eras of Fender tube amps, kids.  Play each amp individually, and appreciate that a p2p wiring tube amp is a much better place to start than a PCB tube amp.

-Mark

You've got an early year then for sure.
And you're right. Not all of them were bad. Just most all of them after the first year.

 

[AprioriMark]

I also think it varies on the type of amp.  Silver-faced Pro and Super Reverbs are generally pretty great.  I've hated the Silver-faced Twin Reverbs that I've played.  HATED them.  Like Tonar said, though, a good tech can make your Silver-faced tube amp into a Black-face for much less than buying an actual Black-faced amp.

-Mark

 

[Steve_Karl]

My brother still owns a silver faced super than is in the horrid category.
I guess I got lucky with the 2 twins I got. They were from the first year that had a master volume ... non push pull master.
Yea. I've head about the mods to fix them into good sounding sweet tone pumping amps. Much cheaper than buying a vintage black face.

 

[AprioriMark]

I wouldn't worry that you missed much. The silver faced ones usually sounded poor compared to blackface or tweed.
You could get a new blues deluxe that would smoke the tone of a silver faced fender.

I'm going to disagree and call "toneworms" on this one.  I'll put my silver-faced Super against any tube amp, ever.  While some silver-face era amps are horrid, some are amazing.  Don't believe the hype and anti-hype regarding eras of Fender tube amps, kids.  Play each amp individually, and appreciate that a p2p wiring tube amp is a much better place to start than a PCB tube amp.

-Mark

You've got an early year then for sure.
And you're right. Not all of them were bad. Just most all of them after the first year.

I've actually owned 5 different Supers, and this one I mention is a 73.  It's been lightly mod'd, but it's always sounded amazing.  I got rid of two Black-faced Supers after owning this, the second I'd bought because I had it in my mind that Black-faced was better.  I also have a Silver-faced Bassman 100 that's great, and a Blackfaced Dual Showman that I won't part with for any amount of money.  Over the years, I've gone through a number of tube heads and combos, and these are the proverbial mud that stuck on the wall.  The only amp I regret losing (to a flood) was an early Pro Reverb.

-Mark

 

[Steve_Karl]

I'm totally ampless now, but the only one I really regret selling was a tweed bassman head that had a presence knob on it.
It was a great clean amp.

 

[TBurst Std]

I wouldn't worry that you missed much. The silver faced ones usually sounded poor compared to blackface or tweed.
You could get a new blues deluxe that would smoke the tone of a silver faced fender.

Ever play one? We had one at our store with the 2-12 cab. That thing was awesome. I used to hook it up to a Marshall cabinet. It just looked so cool. That amp would take pedals very well. Hook up an OCD and it was amazing. My Keeley tubscreamers were like heaven. They wouldn't break apart the set otherwise I would have bought that head.

Yep. I've owned tweed bassman and 5 or more black face bandmasters and then 2 silver faced twins that were great but they were very early vintage.
The only silver faces that ever sounded ok to me were in the very early year or 2 after they switched.

I've played through quite a few horrid sounding silver faced fenders, but only for a minute or so each.

Very true, once you get past the AB1069 circuit, ugg.
I used to have a 69 Bandmaster Reverb

 

[-CB-]

I wouldn't worry that you missed much. The silver faced ones usually sounded poor compared to blackface or tweed.
You could get a new blues deluxe that would smoke the tone of a silver faced fender.

The silver face ones have the exact same "board" and iron as the black face ones.  You just have to remove a few components, switch a few component values, and its exactly the same as the blackface one.

I'd have grabbed a bandmaster silver or black, for $150 in a NY second.  The nice thing about all the "non-reverb" Fender heads, is that you can drive both channels at once and they dont phase cancel.  The result is a very thick and meaty drive.  Can't do that on the reverb amps.

 

[Cagey]

I wouldn't worry that you missed much. The silver faced ones usually sounded poor compared to blackface or tweed.
You could get a new blues deluxe that would smoke the tone of a silver faced fender.

The silver face ones have the exact same "board" and iron as the black face ones.  You just have to remove a few components, switch a few component values, and its exactly the same as the blackface one.

I'd have grabbed a bandmaster silver or black, for $150 in a NY second.  The nice thing about all the "non-reverb" Fender heads, is that you can drive both channels at once and they dont phase cancel.  The result is a very thick and meaty drive.  Can't do that on the reverb amps.

That's true. But, one thing you could do with the "reverb" versions was install an attenuated feedback loop across the reverb I/O, and get an extra stage of gain that was adjustable from the face of the amp and could be footswitched. There was even a product out for a while called an "Ice Cube" that looked like a plastic ice cube and had the RCA jacks molded into it.

Unplug that miserable Accutronics spring chamber, plug the little $20 widget in, and Poof! You had some monstrous tube-based overdrive. Problem was, there wasn't anything very good to replace the spring chamber reverbs with back in those days, so if you needed that effect, you were out of luck. Although, if you could afford an Echoplex, that was more than wicked enough to make anybody happy.

 

[Nightclub Dwight]

Never heard of the "ice cube."  That looks pretty cool.

 

[Nightclub Dwight]

I wouldn't worry that you missed much. The silver faced ones usually sounded poor compared to blackface or tweed.
You could get a new blues deluxe that would smoke the tone of a silver faced fender.

The silver face ones have the exact same "board" and iron as the black face ones.  You just have to remove a few components, switch a few component values, and its exactly the same as the blackface one.

I'd have grabbed a bandmaster silver or black, for $150 in a NY second.  The nice thing about all the "non-reverb" Fender heads, is that you can drive both channels at once and they dont phase cancel.  The result is a very thick and meaty drive.  Can't do that on the reverb amps.

I've always wondered about those amps where you can drive both channels.  I think I've seen it referred to as "jumpering."  How do you do it exactly?  Do you need a Y cord and plug into both
channels at once?