Members ronnie rawhide Posted May 8, 2006 Members Share Posted May 8, 2006 curbside last week, serial #? A-39488, SILVERFACE; WITH VIBRATO, 200 WATTS, i'M GUESSING ITS MID LATE SIXTIES. hAVEN'T RESEARCHED THE NUMBER ON FENDER WEBSITE YET.After a cursory exam I found the following deficiencies, left channel is deader than disco, right works but it smells like an old Lionel train transformer after about 15 mins. The bright switch on left channel is missing, original cord plug has been repalced, it has original Bandmaster head cover, the grill is in good shape, no tears, there are the obligatory beer splashes on the face and top, i can remove them easily. the tubes appear to be original fender issue. I wondering if this old warhorse is worth a restoration? I'm sorta in quandry here, I was going to buy either a Vox AC 15 or 30 amp for my Ric 360/12 I also have a pre-CBS 15 watt Black face Fender Princeton tube amp in excellent shape that I bought at a yard sale for 50 bucks about 15 years ago, cover and service manual came with. Do you guys have any idea what I'm lookin' at price-wise to fix it up? I'm not good with electronics, wiring or tube replacing, I'm pretty good with cosmetics, I restore antiques, any help, tips suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tweed Posted May 8, 2006 Members Share Posted May 8, 2006 I dunno what its worth but I wish I could find something like that curbside. Damn. Good luck with it bro. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members RupertB Posted May 9, 2006 Members Share Posted May 9, 2006 Worth restoring? Depends on whether you're looking for a good amp or to turn a profit on it. Personally I'd be all over it. I love working on old amps & the Bandmaster, properly serviced, is a great-sounding amp. Whether its something you could restore and then turn for a small profit its hard to deduce and made more complicated by the fact that you're not inclined to do electronic work. If you want it to keep, it would be worth it IMO to pay a good tech to restore the electronics & do the cosmetics yourself. If you want to sell it, you may want to just put it up for sale as is. It could require as much $$ to restore than it would get for sale. Check what they're going for on Ebay, just to be sure. BTW, 200 watts is the power consumption. The output is 40-50 watts (2 x 6L6 tubes). FWIW, I would leave it turned off until you've had someone with electronics know-how go over it, especially if it makes a funny smell. Frying one of the transformers would send a good deal of its current worth up in smoke. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ronnie rawhide Posted May 9, 2006 Author Members Share Posted May 9, 2006 Tweed,thanks, I was thinking about knocking on the door where I found it to see if there is anything else available that they wanna throw out...hell, I'm pretty much known around my 'hood as "Sanford"anyway Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ronnie rawhide Posted May 9, 2006 Author Members Share Posted May 9, 2006 Originally posted by RupertB Worth restoring? Depends on whether you're looking for a good amp or to turn a profit on it. Personally I'd be all over it. I love working on old amps & the Bandmaster, properly serviced, is a great-sounding amp. Whether its something you could restore and then turn for a small profit its hard to deduce and made more complicated by the fact that you're not inclined to do electronic work. If you want it to keep, it would be worth it IMO to pay a good tech to restore the electronics & do the cosmetics yourself.If you want to sell it, you may want to just put it up for sale as is. It could require as much $$ to restore than it would get for sale. Check what they're going for on Ebay, just to be sure.BTW, 200 watts is the power consumption. The output is 40-50 watts (2 x 6L6 tubes). FWIW, I would leave it turned off until you've had someone with electronics know-how go over it, especially if it makes a funny smell. Frying one of the transformers would send a good deal of its current worth up in smoke.Good luck. thanks rupert, I'm not into making a profit, i just like old things, my house looks like a freakin' museum, picked up a oak victrola in excellent shape came out of the factory Oct 9th 1916, day my dad was born, came with 200 old records in their record books, I gave the lady a hundred bucks for it and helped her do some yardwork, I took the motors to a pro who cleaned them up did some repair, he cahrged me 150 bucks, i was offered 1200 for it at christmastime. Great website you have...I know you know your onions about amps. lateron Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BigBone Posted May 9, 2006 Members Share Posted May 9, 2006 Great find. Congrats. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 1big1 Posted May 9, 2006 Members Share Posted May 9, 2006 if it were me i'd take it to a tech and have it repaired. and yeah.. if it smells like something's burning i'd leave it unplugged until i could get it proerly serviced.if you do go back to that house you might ask if they know anything about the history of that amp as well. it's always nice to have that story to tell people when they ask about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Anvil Posted May 9, 2006 Members Share Posted May 9, 2006 Awesome score! I have a '66 Bandmaster and I think it is the greatest amp ever. I would definitely get it running and keep it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ronnie rawhide Posted May 9, 2006 Author Members Share Posted May 9, 2006 Originally posted by 1big1 if it were me i'd take it to a tech and have it repaired. and yeah.. if it smells like something's burning i'd leave it unplugged until i could get it proerly serviced.if you do go back to that house you might ask if they know anything about the history of that amp as well. it's always nice to have that story to tell people when they ask about it. my sentiments exactly, I always like to hear the history of things, this was an amp that came out during my british invasion garage band days, i know it was lower register compare to the Twin etc. a lot of rich kids had Fender, me? my first guitar and amp were Silvertone from Sears (Danelectro) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ronnie rawhide Posted May 9, 2006 Author Members Share Posted May 9, 2006 Danke gennimens, I feel like I really scored...hope i didn'y fry the transformer, always liked that smell though, "smells like ...victory." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 1big1 Posted May 9, 2006 Members Share Posted May 9, 2006 i feel your pain bro'. i'm from that era as well. we used to try to blow up this old sears silvertone 1484. we'd plug everything into it and crank it up. never did blow that amp.. or the speaker! i was in heaven when i got my dual showman. otherwise i was playing on this old lunchbox head that i plugged into a homebrew 1x12 cab with a jensen in it. the head was so old all it had was the screw on input connection. i had to cobble the input cable to the screw on end so i could use it. those were the days! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ronnie rawhide Posted May 9, 2006 Author Members Share Posted May 9, 2006 Originally posted by Anvil Awesome score! I have a '66 Bandmaster and I think it is the greatest amp ever. I would definitely get it running and keep it. do you have the original speakers and cab w/ the head? any recommendations what i should try to pair it up with should some Dr. Frankenstien be able to bring it back to life? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ronnie rawhide Posted May 9, 2006 Author Members Share Posted May 9, 2006 1BIG1, too funny, my dad built us a PA out of some old WWII US NAVY surplus parts, made the cabs out of scrap plywood and painted 'em Battleship Gray... (wish he was still around to fix up my castaway Bandmaster.) We used to get laughed at at a lot of Battle of the Bands, looked like something out of the Little Rascals shows they used to put on, (damn, I always wanted to Boink Darla)...but I digress, we won a lot of those battles though. My brother was lead singer, I wrote the songs, sang harmony, and played second guitar, he had one of those breathy Colin Blunstone of the Zombies voices and ALWAYS got laid after a gig, he'd disappear while we packed our paltry gear in the lead guitarists Hudson Jet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 1big1 Posted May 9, 2006 Members Share Posted May 9, 2006 i think you must be a bit older than me then. i'm trying to remember how we got all our crappy gear to those battle of the bands shows. none of us were old enough to drive! i learned to play on an old hollow body kay bass which we of course plugged into the silvertone. the only reason i got the gig was because they wanted to keep this other guy in the band because the girls thought he was cute. he couldn't play bass though and i could.. so they made him the lead singer instead. the silvertone was also the p.a. i think we plugged a guitar into it as well. hell it had four inputs? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ronnie rawhide Posted May 9, 2006 Author Members Share Posted May 9, 2006 1big1, of course ,you never left one input unused! the lead guitarist was older, he had a job, a Supro amp, an Epiphone ES 335 style and wonder of wonders a reverb box! as well as a car, I was 14 in 1965, so I'm so old my mother was a waitress at the Last Supper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 1big1 Posted May 9, 2006 Members Share Posted May 9, 2006 i was ten in 1965. i so wanted beatle boots and a vox. my dad worked at the local radio station. they used to have a rock music request line open from 7 until 10 pm. my mom would take dinner to my dad at the station. i'd make him play "heart full of soul" by the yardbirds almost every time i'd go there. lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ronnie rawhide Posted May 9, 2006 Author Members Share Posted May 9, 2006 oh, too MUCKIN FUCH, loved that opening riff on Heart full of Soul...dad workin' for a radio station? did'nt get any better than that, I got my Beatle boots from Thom McCanns shoe store in 1966, there is mention of them in my high school yearbook. SOMETHING TO THE EFFECT of was I gonna GIVE them to some poor kid in Viet NAM IF i GOT DRAFTED AFTER HIGH SCHOOL? GOTTA GO WALK THE DOG...POOR BASTARD'S BLADDER IS GONNA EXPLODE, I USUALLY TAKE HIM OUT "ROUND 9, IT'S 10 HERE ON THE RIGHT COAST. Lateron Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 1big1 Posted May 9, 2006 Members Share Posted May 9, 2006 nostalgia is wonderful.. but you gotta be old enough to enjoy it! later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ronnie rawhide Posted May 15, 2006 Author Members Share Posted May 15, 2006 Hay, I think I found some guy, be recommendation from some other {censored}ed-up local musicians, to fix up my curbside wonder...he's some {censored}ing Nazi from across the pond that keeps telling me it's "no big vork" to fix, still hasn;t giving me a price though. i think he knows what he's talking about, I didn't really like the way he was eying up the tatoo on my arm like he was gonna make a {censored}ing lamp shade out of it or sumpin'. I think I'll let him take a whack at it and put my purchase of the Vox AC15 on ice for awhile, to satiate my "jones" for gear lust i went to Guitar Center and bought some D' a {censored}in'dario classical guitar strings for my Fender acoustic, a guitar stand, and of course a Skull and Crossbones guitar stap to match the skull and crossbones pick-up on my black strat, precisely what a fifty ish old fart needs to do on Mutha's Day. Anyway, my question to your knowledgeable Gennimans is, what would you recommend I get or look for as a compatible match in the way of a speaker cab for the Bandmaster Head should it be brought back to life by Herr No Big Vork? DANKE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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