Ultra rae 1962 fender band master amplifier found

[barnett468]

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Thought I would post this for anyone here that is into electric guitar and vintage instruments like I am . This is one of the Holy Grails of amplifiers . It is a brown face, blonde tolex, Fender Band Master that someone spray painted the original tolex black on.

I saw it advertised in an ad for an estate sale 2 months ago but they didn't have a price . The sale was postponed until today . I had called and texted the manager of the sale numerous times during this period and she finally told me yesterday that there were several people interested in it and finally gave me a price for the amp and a speaker cabinet . The price was way more than I wanted to pay and she said they would not sell the amp separately . The sale started at 9 am today and I showed up at around 2 pm figuring the amp would still be there because of the high price . Well it was there and no one was even looking at it so I asked one of the sales staff about it and made him an offer for the amp only and it took him around 1/2 a second to say yes which surprised me . I will be going back for the speakers on Saturday when everything will be 1/2 off and I'm guessing they will also still be there since the amp was the real prize and speaker cabinets are easy to come by.

I am going to take it apart over the next few days and check to see what, if anything, is not original . I only got as far as the tubes for the moment and they are very rare 60's or early 70's era REALISTIC 6L6GC from Radio Shack/Tandy . These were made by Mullard in Great Britain.

Feel free to post any instruments you have if you want.

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[Caminofeld]

Old fender tubes paired with either a Strat or Tele are a sound that's hard to beat. I'll never sell my Fender Twin!

[fieldy]

Great find there. Those old tube amps do something i cant find the words to explain.

[barnett468]

Old fender tubes paired with either a Strat or Tele are a sound that's hard to beat.

Great find there. Those old tube amps do something i cant find the words to explain.

You mean like this . Best enjoyed with your volume knob on 11.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=An4uDegHB8s



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[RIDE-RED 250r]

My dad's uncle has a Fender Twin Reverb amp I'm pretty sure he bought new in the 60's. Back in those days, he plugged his Gretsch Chet Atkins Country Gentleman into it and ran an old school tape type Echo-plex. Uncle Bob is one hell of a "picker" much the same style as Chet Atkins and Jerry Reed, a self taught phenom, the guy is amazing.

These days, the old Echo-Plex has worn out and nobody knows how or has the ability to source the parts to re-furb it. Now he uses a Boss digital delay and plays a Gretsch White Falcon. But he still uses that old Twin Reverb. I LOVE the sound, nothing like an old tube amp.

[barnett468]

My dad's uncle has a Fender Twin Reverb amp I'm pretty sure he bought new in the 60's. Back in those days, he plugged his Gretsch Chet Atkins Country Gentleman into it and ran an old school tape type Echo-plex. Uncle Bob is one hell of a "picker" much the same style as Chet Atkins and Jerry Reed, a self taught phenom, the guy is amazing.

These days, the old Echo-Plex has worn out and nobody knows how or has the ability to source the parts to re-furb it. Now he uses a Boss digital delay and plays a Gretsch White Falcon. But he still uses that old Twin Reverb. I LOVE the sound, nothing like an old tube amp.

Cool story and very cool that he still plays and still has his original amp . That amp model was hugely popular and I had one for many years that I bought used out of the old weekly Recycler magazine . I also had an Echo-Plex EP3 model but I only used it for vocals . I think the Beatles may have used one on some of their songs . You can hear something like it when John Lennon sings the bridge in the video below . George Harrison says the sound was achieved by using a double track but it's hard to know exactly what he meant since both can achieve virtually identical results.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TeqyovfJzE

As far as repairing it goes, almost anything can be repaired, and in fact, I know a few people that can probably do it and will gladly give you their contact info if you want, however, one of the problems with repairing this old equipment as you may know is that some of the parts that affect the type of sound an item makes like the capacitors are no longer available . These can be changed to a newer type but in some cases they alter the sound . The change is sometimes extremely small and barely noticeable to even a trained ear and sometimes it is so much than most anyone can tell.

As with many things, these old Echo-Plex's are still available at vintage instrument stores and on Ebay if he wanted to get another one, however, also as with most vintage instruments and amps etc, these units are substantially more expensive than they were back in the day as you know.

They even have the schematics for them online and yaegerb will be very happy to know that I did use Google to find these schematic's.







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[RIDE-RED 250r]

Thanks for the tip, didn't mean to jack your thread. LOL!

Uncle Bob has been using the digital delay since about 2001 when his Echoplex died. He managed to get the sounds he likes and still uses it. I'm not sure he would bother with trying to fix the Echoplex any more, he's one of those "retired" guys that seems busier now than he ever was when he was still working.

I was in a band with my dad and Uncle Bob for a few years awhile back. If I had some digital media of us playing I would post it up. Most of what we have is on VHS or mini DVD. We had alot of fun, made a couple CDs at a studio for demos to get jobs and whatnot. One of my favorite instrumentals we did was "Sleepwalk"... man how Bob can make that Gretsch cry on that song! There are dozens more instrumentals we did and had alot of fun doing it..

Cool find on that old amp

[barnett468]

Thanks for the tip, didn't mean to jack your thread. LOL!

Uncle Bob has been using the digital delay since about 2001 when his Echoplex died. He managed to get the sounds he likes and still uses it. I'm not sure he would bother with trying to fix the Echoplex any more, he's one of those "retired" guys that seems busier now than he ever was when he was still working.

I was in a band with my dad and Uncle Bob for a few years awhile back. If I had some digital media of us playing I would post it up. Most of what we have is on VHS or mini DVD. We had alot of fun, made a couple CDs at a studio for demos to get jobs and whatnot. One of my favorite instrumentals we did was "Sleepwalk"... man how Bob can make that Gretsch cry on that song! There are dozens more instrumentals we did and had alot of fun doing it.

Cool find on that old amp

No worries, it was not a hijack at all . I'm happy to hear any stories of vintage instruments and playing them etc and happy to help people out that need info or repairs done to them if I can . As far as the VHS tapes go etc, there are several paces than can convert them to DVD and Google says that Costco is one of them . Feel free to post some if you ever get any converted or download your CD onto youtube and post it here if you want . It would be fun to hear, and never stop playing . I'm sure you make others besides yourself happy when you do.

Also feel free to post photos of your equipment . It doesn't necessarily need to be vintage to qualify.

http://www.costcodvd.com/



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[3 Wheel Drive]

Did you get the speakers? Post up a video of one of your jam sessions!

[barnett468]

Did you get the speakers?

Well since you asked, I did get the speakers yesterday and I will tell you what happened . I went back yesterday to see what the new price was on them since some of these sales are more than one day long and many of them reduce their prices every day . They had a price of $500.00 on the speaker cabinet and the owner told the sales staff that it contained 2 JBL and 2 Altec Lansing speakers, so I felt through the grill cloth and could only feel 2 holes which suggested it only had 2 speakers, so I told a sales staff member that if I could take the back off and it had what the owner claimed it had, I would give them $300.00 for it . The owner said he did not want the back removed and would not take less than $350.00 . I decided to take a chance on it because I knew that at the very least it was a vintage Fender cabinet which had a little value, plus I needed a speaker cabinet anyway to be able to play the amp I bought the previous day because neither of my other amps have a dedicated external amp input for the speaker so I offered him $300.00 and he decided to take it.

Well my driveway is long and uphill and narrow and curved and I had the amp in my Dodge dually which is too wide and long to get up it so I backed the truck into the entrance then backed my Lexus up to the truck then slid the speaker cabinet onto the back of the Lexus and too it up the driveway with that . Once I got the cabinet inside I immediately took it apart like a kid opening a Christmas present to determine exactly what it was and what speakers it had and saw right away that the speakers were not jbl's or altecs and there were only 2 instead of four and they were both different . They looked like Fender speakers to me but they used so many different ones over the years that I didn't know exactly what brand they were or what year they were so I simply searched on Google (that's twice I used it for this deal yaegerb ) to figure out what everything was . This actually took me several hours which was WAY longer than I thought it would but I finally came up with the answers which are below.

CABINET - 1971 Fender Bassman.

SPEAKER A - 1971 UTAH which is one of the original speaker types used in this cabinet.

SPEAKER B - 1964 OXFORD which is one of the original speaker types used in the 1964 Fender Bandmaster and Fender Bassman cabinets.


I have located another 1971 UTAH speaker that I will probably buy to change out the OXFORD with so the cabinet will be correct for 1971 . The 1964 OXFORD speaker is actually fairly valuable because they used it on the 62 thru 64 Bandmaster and Bassman cabinets with the Bandmaster one being worth up to $2000.00 IF it has the original OXFORD speakers which are as rare as hens teeth.

Anyway, there is more to this story . I took the amp apart and when I turned it over, an old Fender guitar pick fell out along with an 18 KARAT GOLD RING WITH 3 DIAMONDS . Well, it may sound to some like I hit the lotto and that I should keep it since they grossly misrepresented the speaker cabinet and that thought did cross my mind for a second (or maybe a few minutes), however, I sent the sales staff a message this morning informing them that I found a personal item in the amp and would return it if the owner could describe it . For all I know, it could have been in there for decades before they bought it and even they didn't know it was in there, and after being misinformed (lied to) about the speaker cabinet, I am not in the mood to give them a free gift if the ring it isn't theirs . As far as the cash value of the ring goes, it is probably only worth around $200.00 at the most anyway, so if it turns out that it is not theirs, it's more like hitting the jackpot on a nickle slot machine than hitting the lotto, however, it will make the deal more worthwhile and will pay for that 1971 UTAH speaker I want to buy.

The cabinet with the correct speakers isn't worth much anyway but the 1964 OXFORD speaker has some fair value . I will probably sell the cabinet after I install the correct speaker because I no longer "need" huge speakers or dual stacks, and then have a smaller cabinet built and put the single OXFORD in it so the setup will sound more like it originally did . I can get reproduction tolex and grill cloth to cover it with and the original style hardware and emblem is reproduced by Fender so I can make it look period correct even though the size will be incorrect.

There is still even MORE to this story . When I went there yesterday, there was a 1973 Gibson L6-S Custom guitar next to the cabinet that the owner put out because he decided to sell it so I am working on that today, unfortunately he thinks it is worth WAY more than it is so I doubt I will be able to get that so I may go buy a post 1974 ATC90 that is a another sale not to far from me or I may just work on one of the Mustangs I have to get it ready to sell because the 90 isn't a great deal and I could use the money to go Christmas shopping with!



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[3 Wheel Drive]

I think I saw you on an episode of storage wars bidding aginst Jared & Brandy down in Ranco Cucomongo.

[barnett468]

.

I think I saw you on an episode of storage wars bidding aginst Jared & Brandy down in Ranco Cucomongo.

I guess you mean Rancho Cucamonga . Never watched that show but am aware of it . I don't do the storage thing . I have only recently looked into the estate sale thing because there are several near me and they sometimes have cars for sale and cars are what my main business is, however, if I see something else at the sale that interests me then of course I will go to it . As far as the amp goes that I bought, there is one similar with the original speaker cabinet for sale on Ebay right now for $5500.00 and the seller doesn't even know if the internals of the amp are original . The amp has the most value and I paid WAY less than 1/4 of what he is asking for both, and since this exact model is an ultra rare collectors item and nearly impossible to find at any price, I am quite happy that I got it and that I also only had to drive 10 minutes away to do so . You yourself do a lot of looking on Craigslist for things and have asked me about many of them so you seem to like shopping for deals too.

BANDMASTER FOR SALE ON EBAY

http://www.ebay.com/itm/132024580691...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT



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[barnett468]

.
Checked out the amp and fortunately it is 100% original which is virtually unheard of on one of these.

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Been looking for original grill cloth for the amp which is also ultra rare since someone "updated" it with the incorrect color and may have found some on Ebay or it may be correct for the earlier amps . The Ebay photo isn't good enough to tell for certain if it is correct but for only $30.00 a yard I figured I would take a chance . If it does turn out to be correct I may buy all he has.

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[3 Wheel Drive]

Yeah don`t let that hater diss on Rancho Coocamungee .....barn you sure are kind and courteous these days ......and i think your coming along nicely .......answering questions .....posting schematics ......and befriending those who thought otherwise of you .....and yes please do post a video of your jam sessions with your new amp ....thank you.....Dr. Glamy ...

https://youtu.be/3H50llsHm3k

I think he could head this ship in the right direction! Its time to drain the swamp! Barnett for mod 2017!!!

What geetar does the great kawasaki engineer jam with?

[barnett468]

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Yesterday I was lucky and scored an original Fender UTAH speaker on Ebay which is dated the same year as the speaker cabinet I bought so I can now replace the one that is incorrect with the correct one and the cabinet will then be period correct.

There is also an original 60's cabinet advertised that is correct for the amp I bought but it has no speakers, however, I can use the incorrect speaker from my 1971 cabinet in it and buy anther period correct speaker for the 60's cabinet and have a complete period correct bandmaster setup if I want but that would be way more than I need these days.



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