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Thread: Ultra rae 1962 fender band master amplifier found

  1. #16
    barnett468 is offline FACT ! I have no edit button Arm chair racerThe day begins with 3WW
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    Hope everybody had a good Christmas!

    Just got lucky and scored a cheap deal on an adjustable voltage transformer on Ebay . The amp I bought is designed to run on 110 - 112 volts and my house voltage (in somewhere USA ) is 122 . The extra voltage not only changes the sound of the amp slightly, it can also damage the irreplaceable 54 year old capacitors or some of the other components . This transformer cost around $200.00 when it was new and I got it for $40.00 which includes shipping . Once I have this I am ready to fire the amp up and see how it runs.

    The grill cloth for the amp should be here tomorrow or Thursday.

    Gotta love shopping on Ebay.


    .................................................. ...............



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  2. #17
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    There is little difference between 110-120v. Standard was 110. Then power companies realized they could run a little higher voltage using a smaller conductor, to accommodate the voltage drops that where occurring. It's very common today, to find voltages between 115v-125v, depending where it is from the sub-station. I'm not 100%, but your amp should work fine if your within 10% of the applied voltage.

  3. #18
    barnett468 is offline FACT ! I have no edit button Arm chair racerThe day begins with 3WW
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    Hey Jd110, thanks for the comments . I am definitely not an electrical guy and know very little about transistors and capacitors etc so I greatly appreciate any comments regarding it although I may not understand some of them . The comments I made about the higher voltage possibly damaging some of the components were what I found online on vintage guitar amplifier forums and the Fender forum and also from what a friend of mine said whom knows electrical stuff extremely well and whom also plays guitar . As far as the different voltage changing the sound goes, I have noticed that on other amps but it is minor and most people can't notice it . I am not all that concerned about that though . My main concern is that it could damage some of the components due to age and I don't want to take any chances because things are only original once and this is one of the only amps like this that I have seen that has every single original part and there is a lot of value in that for myself and vintage amp collectors even if it has lost a little sound quality as long as it still works properly.

    I have two other very small modeling amps that I recently bought that work perfectly for what I do now so I'm not concerned about the Bandmaster having perfect sound, plus the Bandmaster needs to be turned up pretty darn loud to make it have some nice distortion and I doubt my neighbors would appreciate that as much as I do, especially since I am definitely no Eddie Van Halen . The other amps have are a mint VOX Valvetronix AD15VT which has tubes in the pre amp section and an new discontinued Roland Cube 20GX that I got for a smokin deal on Ebay at only $60.00 . I bought both of them around 6 months ago after I decided to start playing a little again . I had stopped altogether for over 20 years and was surprised how rusty I got and how hard it was to get my fingers to work properly again, not to mention how much my finger tips hurt now because all the calluses I got from playing are gone.



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  4. #19
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    Hey, your welcome. I feel your right for being cautious about firing it up. I applaud you for trying to give it an extended life. It's a cool piece. Thank you for sharing it here. I haven't seen a step down transformer like that. Very cool.

  5. #20
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    It doesn't look like that transformer can be set to 110v. I would not use it for that amp. That's just me. Hard to see the picture as I can't click onto it and zoom in.

  6. #21
    barnett468 is offline FACT ! I have no edit button Arm chair racerThe day begins with 3WW
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jd110 View Post
    It doesn't look like that transformer can be set to 110v. I would not use it for that amp. That's just me. Hard to see the picture as I can't click onto it and zoom in.
    Thanks Jd, here's a better shot of one that is new . Yes it can be set from 0 - 120 or 0 - 140 based on the switch and knob position . The knob is scaled in percentage so 100 equals 100 percent of the current based on the position of the switch so one needs to check the output voltage with a volt meter then turn the knob until they reach the voltage they want . They can also easily be modified to read voltage with the addition of a digital volt meter . The volt meter in the one below is Chinese and costs $6.00 on Ebay . His knob is on the 96% mark and the switch is on the 120 volt position so if he turned the knob to 100 it would read exactly 120 volts . These are high quality units that were often used in the medical field . Some of their new models have volt meters built in.









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  7. #22
    barnett468 is offline FACT ! I have no edit button Arm chair racerThe day begins with 3WW
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    Been busy with other stuff but here's a brief update . Plugged the Bandmaster amp in with the variac set on a low voltage then slowly brought the voltage up to 110 and everything was fine...for around 30 seconds when a capacitor smoked, lol . Looks like I will have to get new ones installed, so that amp is on the back burner for a while.

    Stopped at Guitar Center to get a new chord and took some photos of their huge wall of guitars but I can't find the photo . They had a small used Marshall amp I am interested in but have been way too busy to go back their yet.



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  8. #23
    barnett468 is offline FACT ! I have no edit button Arm chair racerThe day begins with 3WW
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    Quote Originally Posted by 3 Wheel Drive View Post
    What geetar does the great kawasaki engineer jam with?
    My first guitar was a Fender acoustic F1050 that my brothers friend, whom worked at Fender, bought me for Christmas when I was around 14 . I wanted a drum set because I really wanted to be a drummer but my parents wouldn't buy me one and he didn't have enough money to buy me one so he thought the guitar would be a reasonable temporary pacifier, lol . I still have that guitar and have used it for some recordings and it sounds killer . I only use D'Addario Phosphorous Bronze strings on it . I also have a Takamine 12 string and a US made Fender Strat Lace Sensor model that is Maple with a natural finish that I bought out of the old Recycler Magazine around 25 years ago for $300.00 with a hard shell case, and last but not least is a Carvin CM130 Maple with natural finish that came with their version of Humbucking pickips, but I had my friend make a 60's style strat pickup and put it in the forward position in place of one of the Humbuckers . I saw a picture of the Carvin guitar in their ad and drove down near Vista in my old 55 Chevy to see one at their factory and bought it direct from their factory for around $300.00.

    This is the ad I saw for the Carvin and is the same style I bought.






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  9. #24
    barnett468 is offline FACT ! I have no edit button Arm chair racerThe day begins with 3WW
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    Quote Originally Posted by 3 Wheel Drive View Post
    Post up a video of one of your jam sessions!
    Saw this a while back but forgot to get back to it as I was waiting until I got the bandmaster amp working so people could hear it, but since it is going to be a while I'll probably do something on my Roland GX20 amp . It's not a tube amp so it won't sound quite like one but it is a modeling amp and actually does have a tube sound replicating circuit in it which sounds pretty tube like under some conditions if you listen closely, so I figure that might be somewhat interesting to some here, however, don't expect any fancy pickin or screamin Eddie Van Halen geetar solos, and ya might wanna have some ear plugs handy cuz I was just a B grade player at best when I was playing a lot and haven't even picked up a guitar for nearly 20 years until I bought the Bandmaster, so be prepared to be amused!



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  10. #25
    barnett468 is offline FACT ! I have no edit button Arm chair racerThe day begins with 3WW
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    Quote Originally Posted by 3 Wheel Drive View Post
    Post up a video of one of your jam sessions!
    Well, I finally made a short video....but I have no idea how to post it cuz I'm computer illerate so I guess your just gonna wailt until somebody can tell me how to do it.




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  11. #26
    fabiodriven's Avatar
    fabiodriven is offline Aspiring romance novel cover model, and the Official 3WW slayer of thieves and swindlers. Catch me if you can
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    Well you can upload it to YouTube very easily directly from your smartphone. It's so easy in fact, that those are your instructions right there. Then you just copy the link and paste it here.

    You could also use photobucket if you're uploading from your computer. Photobucket will compress your video and make it able to be viewed. Again, copy the link and paste it here.
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  12. #27
    barnett468 is offline FACT ! I have no edit button Arm chair racerThe day begins with 3WW
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    Quote Originally Posted by fabiodriven View Post
    Well you can upload it to YouTube very easily directly from your smartphone. It's so easy in fact, that those are your instructions right there. Then you just copy the link and paste it here.

    You could also use photobucket if you're uploading from your computer. Photobucket will compress your video and make it able to be viewed. Again, copy the link and paste it here.
    Thanks for the info fabiodriven, however, "The Great Barnett" is still living in the dark ages so he only has a stupid phone that half the buttons have fallen off of that is 20 years old . I downloaded it to my computer from my digital camera but have no idea how to move it to a file or convert it to a link that I can post.

    All the engineering drawings we did at Kawi were done by hand . We only got a CAD program the last year or so that I was there . When I was in grade school and high school you would get suspended if you got caught using a calculator . The year I graduated they changed the rules and you could not go to math class unless you had one . Now 5 year olds know way more about computers than I do.



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  13. #28
    barnett468 is offline FACT ! I have no edit button Arm chair racerThe day begins with 3WW
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    Ok, I figured out how to move the video to different files but the site won't let me download a video from my computer so I guess I will have to see if I can get it from my computer to youtube or photobucket when I get time.



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  14. #29
    barnett468 is offline FACT ! I have no edit button Arm chair racerThe day begins with 3WW
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    Ok, I uploaded it to you youtube and this may or may not be the link . Keep in mind this is NOT an exhibit of my playing prowress cuz I ain't got none no more . Plus I hacked the crap out of a finger on my left hand with a razor blade a few days ago so it was hard to play, then I had to stop cuz it started bleedin on my geetar.


    https://youtu.be/ufrT8OFm2Ko




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  15. #30
    fabiodriven's Avatar
    fabiodriven is offline Aspiring romance novel cover model, and the Official 3WW slayer of thieves and swindlers. Catch me if you can
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    Look at you Barn! Nice job! I envy your talent. Learning guitar is on my "to-do" list once I hit the road. I have a crappy Washburn acoustic and I've been practicing here and there, but very little. I'll have more time once I get on the road.
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