However, they were overtaken by other higher powered designs as the demand for volume grew. These are great vintage amps, and were pretty high powered for the time. The head still has the original slides, however the original cabinet bolts are gone and replaced with other working units. On the bottom of the amp head, there are two slotted arms that slide out, and the cabinet has threaded ferrules to accept a pair of bolts. The Fender ‘Piggyback’ design includes hardware to couple the head to the cabinet. Here, the Tolex covering is in pretty good shape considering the realities of use, but the cabinet grille cloth has a few small holes visible in the cabinet-front image. The grille cloth and black Tolex coverings on these amps are the most vulnerable to wear and (literal) tear from normal use. The cabinet carries a pair of 1962 Utah speakers. Though it’s not pictured, a Vibrato footswitch is included. The head features its original, dated to 1964 transformers, and some caps have been replaced – this is ultimately necessary on virtually all amps as these parts do wear out. The head is in Blackface garb – white script logo lettering on a black panel, with black Tolex covering. Here we’re looking at a Fender Bandmaster head and cabinet set, built during 1964 at the Fender plant in Fullerton, California. This was immediately referred to as the ‘Piggyback’ design and every other manufacturer soon followed. This solution makes so much sense and became so common that it seems obvious now, but simply separating the amplifier and speakers into separate cabinets was a breakthrough. So a highly innovative solution was found. As power levels started to rise, physically repairing amps took more and more space. In the early 1960s Fender was realizing that combo amplifiers carried service issues in the ever-larger cabinets. Along the way it was also available, from 1955 to 1960, as a 28 watt 3×10 inch speaker combo. Contact us with any questions on other fine amplifiers or instruments we can assist you with!įirst appearing in 1954 and built to 1974, the Fender Bandmaster amplifier transformed from a 26 watt single-15 inch tweed combo to, in 1961, a 40 watt head and 2×12 cabinet set. We’re maintaining this post for reference. You may compare these with your own speakers to determine what you have.NOTE: This item has been discontinued and is no longer available. See our Buyer’s guide to vintage Fender amps for a guide and picture gallery of the known original speakers in the blackface and silverface amps.
There are also exceptions to the rules where Fender delivered non-standard speakers in special orders, Christmas campaigns etc. Even at we struggle with keeping a correct amp and speaker model overview. In the silverface era Eminence, Oxford, Utah and Rola were more often used and Jensen was phased out.
In a BF Vibrolux Reverbs you could have either Jensen, CTS or Oxford, the BF Super Reverbs had Jensen, CTS, Oxford or sometimes JBL, the BF Pro Reverb had Jensen, Oxford or Utah, ++. Lots of different speakers were used in the blackface and silverface era Fender amps.
Our Buyer’s guide to vintage Fender amps explains in detail how you can date your amp by looking at serial numbers, tube charts, transformer codes, speaker codes, Fender logo, etc.