fender question

[guitargodad]

Question, I know that a twin reverb in a head form is the dual showman/reverb. did leo make a super reverb in a head, would that the bandmaster. also blackface bassman: is that 40 watts?

[jaysg]

Question, I know that a twin reverb in a head form is the dual showman/reverb. did leo make a super reverb in a head, would that the bandmaster. also blackface bassman: is that 40 watts?

I'm not sure whether Leo was around when they did the Bandmaster Reverb. (He did some contract work for them after the sale.) I don't believe that the OT is the big one like in an SR. I think it might be the smaller Vibrolux Reverb size. A BF Bassman would be about 40W. A VR would be 30 to 35, iirc.

[sliberty]

My SF Bandmaster Reverb (back in the day) was quite a weakling - in retrospect, it probably needed some bigger iron, but I knew nothing about amps back then (except what I liked and disliked, and the BMR was a dislike).

[guitargodad]

so did fender make a 50watt head in the blackface era? or is the only way to get 50 watts to use a super reverb. I currently play a twin reverb, and its too loud for my application. I like fender stuff but I want to have the amp around 6 on the volume not 2.5 .

[sliberty]

The Blackface Bassman is the only 50 watt head I know of from that era, but of course, no reverb.

[Zippy]

Have you tried pulling a pair of tubes to lower the output of the Twin?

[jimipage]

Question, I know that a twin reverb in a head form is the dual showman/reverb. did leo make a super reverb in a head, would that the bandmaster. also blackface bassman: is that 40 watts?

I bought a Bandmaster Reverb a few years ago that needed a little work. I took it to Ben Fargen and he worked his magic on it. I was after a certain sound quality that a friend was getting with his Super, which had been modded by Skip Simmons. Ben told me that my amp was basically the exact same circuit as the Super. It's been a while since I compared the schems, but I recall them being more or less exactly the same. Of course, both amps I mentioned are silverfaces, so obviously Leo didn't have anything to do with them, per se, but it can be said that one is the head version, the other the combo version.
btw, Ben did an awesome job in making the amp really come alive. I must have been a cool enough dude the day I called him since he hasn't been in the repair/modding biz for quite a while. He's one helluva nice guy who builds some fantastic amps.

[guitargodad]

If I were to pull some tubes which ones would I pull. Im not a really technical guy and I dont want to mess my amp up by taking out the wrong part you know

[jaysg]

Take out the inside pair or the outside pair. That makes it easy. If your amp has a bias level control, and you're into it, B+ will rise slightly and it may bias at slightly different point. Those amps are robust though. It's probably no issue. In a perfect world, your TR/DS would like to see an 8 ohm instead of 4.

[guitargodad]

thanks fellas, ill try that tonight. you all are great.

[guitargodad]

so I finally got an oppertunity to blast the amp in question. (silverface twin with a blackface conversion, origonal transformers) noticed I had 5881's on the inside and 6l6 on the outside. perfect I can experiment. so after about 20 minutes and some abused eardrums I cant seem to get the sound I want. I do prefer the 6l6 to the 5881's and the amp does distort sooner. I still cant get what I want. time to go shopping. NAMM on friday should narrow down the contenders. thanks for all the help chaps.

[unklmickey]

so I finally got an oppertunity to blast the amp in question. ...


...so after about 20 minutes and some abused eardrums...

sounds about right..............a Twin at half power is still LOUD!

i wonder if a Deluxe or Princeton might be about right-sized. and tube rectifier for some nice sag, too.

alas, no equivalent for those in a head-only.

[Zippy]

... but either a Princeton or Deluxe combo weighs less than a Super Reverb head would! And it's easy enough to chop a cabinet if that's really your need.

[guitargodad]

deluxe/princton is too quiet tried them. furthermorel I had another revelation in the form of the xotic effects ac booster. I thought the twin distorting was a little too "loose" in the low end. put the twin on 6.5 then turned on the ac booster. HOLY CRAP, tone for days. singing 3D sustain that could knock down a wall. Oh, I have to make a clip of this for you guys it sounds so so killer. now an attenuator hmmmmmmmm. there is always something else isnt there.

[guitargodad]

yea twin just died on me, oops maybe taking those tubes out wasnt such a good idea, can a power tube going out cause an amp to shut off completely, (light not working)? damn