1961 Fender Bandmaster Vintage Pre-CBS Tube Amp Blonde w/ 1x12 Tone Ring Cab, Oxford 12M6
Up for sale, a 1961 Fender Bandmaster in excellent condition and in perfect working order, loaded with a full vintage tube set. Extremely original and complete right down to the matched pair of original "dogbone" handles, this is the very first iteration of the "Piggyback" Bandmaster with a head/cab configuration, decked out in original rough blonde tolex and oxblood grillcloth. What makes this early Brown Panel Bandmaster stand out from the pack is the Tone Ring 1x12 speaker cabinet, loaded with the stock Oxford 12M6 speaker. An elegant and ingenious idea (yet not cost effective for Fender), the Tone Ring design was dropped in mid-1961.
This Brown Panel circuit drives two matched Tung Sol USA small bottle 5881 (6L6GC) power tubes for 40 powerful watts. Like the Tweed amps that preceded it, the Brown Panel circuits are dynamic and responsive, delivering Fender's hi-fi glassy clean tones. The EQ controls have a positively huge sweep, from thick and mellow to biting, twangy snap. After around 5 on the volume dial, the amp cascades into rich tube overdrive that compresses a bit and feels slightly loose and gritty in just the right way without losing too much clarity. It's the kind of natural tube overdrive that only comes from pushing a well-designed Fender circuit. The Harmonic Vibrato circuit is also a complex design only found on the top tier Brown Panel models, utilizing three tubes and creating a lush pitch shifting effect that has more in common with a Leslie or Chorus than a traditional tremolo.
This Bandmaster's ported Tone Ring speaker cabinet is a 1x12 enclosure designed to deliver the clearest, most pure Fender tone via the Oxford speaker, and as such utilizes a dual baffle board design in which the speaker floats between the baffles, mounted to a metal "tone ring." This design makes the cabinet work as a closed back, ported enclosure and you'll notice greater range of your EQ controls, ample bass response, and an overall sweeter, balanced tone that you simply can't get with any other Fender cabinet. The Oxford has an extremely clean silver frame, with a date stamp from the 21st week of '61.
The circuit is very original and has been well-maintained and recently serviced. The full complement of original Triad and Schumacher-made transformers are intact, with date codes spanning late 1960 and early '61. The preamp is virtually untouched, with all of the famed yellow Astron and blue Ajax tone caps intact, along with all of the original CTS pots which have visible date codes from the 8th week of '60. A couple of the main filter caps in the power supply and the smaller electrolytics in the preamp have been upgraded with modern components, sleeved in the original Minimite wrappers. The power cable is the original gray two-prong, and a three-prong cable can be installed at no additional cost at the next owner's discretion. Tubes include a pair of matched small bottle vintage Tung Sol USA 5881 (6L6GC) power tubes with all vintage valves in the preamp, mostly manufactured by Amperex.
Cosmetically, this is an excellent and well-kept example of one of Fender's rarest Pre-CBS designs, with clean and original rough blonde tolex and oxblood grillcloth. Both the head and cab feature original unbroken brown "dogbone" molded Fender handles too, a true rarity. The Tone Ring cab retains its original baffles, ring, and fiberglass insulation sheets, and the back panel has the distinctive vertical slats only seen on Tone Ring cabs. The tube chart is intact inside the head with a K-prefix stamp translating to 1961. The faceplate and backplate are in great shape, and all of the original cream barrel knobs are present. Both flat Fender logos are original on the head and cab and all additional stock hardware is present too, with tilt-back chrome legs, leg stops, sphinx glides (feet), nickel corners, and piggyback clip bars.
Original: $4,099.99
-65%$4,099.99
$1,435.00
Description
Up for sale, a 1961 Fender Bandmaster in excellent condition and in perfect working order, loaded with a full vintage tube set. Extremely original and complete right down to the matched pair of original "dogbone" handles, this is the very first iteration of the "Piggyback" Bandmaster with a head/cab configuration, decked out in original rough blonde tolex and oxblood grillcloth. What makes this early Brown Panel Bandmaster stand out from the pack is the Tone Ring 1x12 speaker cabinet, loaded with the stock Oxford 12M6 speaker. An elegant and ingenious idea (yet not cost effective for Fender), the Tone Ring design was dropped in mid-1961.
This Brown Panel circuit drives two matched Tung Sol USA small bottle 5881 (6L6GC) power tubes for 40 powerful watts. Like the Tweed amps that preceded it, the Brown Panel circuits are dynamic and responsive, delivering Fender's hi-fi glassy clean tones. The EQ controls have a positively huge sweep, from thick and mellow to biting, twangy snap. After around 5 on the volume dial, the amp cascades into rich tube overdrive that compresses a bit and feels slightly loose and gritty in just the right way without losing too much clarity. It's the kind of natural tube overdrive that only comes from pushing a well-designed Fender circuit. The Harmonic Vibrato circuit is also a complex design only found on the top tier Brown Panel models, utilizing three tubes and creating a lush pitch shifting effect that has more in common with a Leslie or Chorus than a traditional tremolo.
This Bandmaster's ported Tone Ring speaker cabinet is a 1x12 enclosure designed to deliver the clearest, most pure Fender tone via the Oxford speaker, and as such utilizes a dual baffle board design in which the speaker floats between the baffles, mounted to a metal "tone ring." This design makes the cabinet work as a closed back, ported enclosure and you'll notice greater range of your EQ controls, ample bass response, and an overall sweeter, balanced tone that you simply can't get with any other Fender cabinet. The Oxford has an extremely clean silver frame, with a date stamp from the 21st week of '61.
The circuit is very original and has been well-maintained and recently serviced. The full complement of original Triad and Schumacher-made transformers are intact, with date codes spanning late 1960 and early '61. The preamp is virtually untouched, with all of the famed yellow Astron and blue Ajax tone caps intact, along with all of the original CTS pots which have visible date codes from the 8th week of '60. A couple of the main filter caps in the power supply and the smaller electrolytics in the preamp have been upgraded with modern components, sleeved in the original Minimite wrappers. The power cable is the original gray two-prong, and a three-prong cable can be installed at no additional cost at the next owner's discretion. Tubes include a pair of matched small bottle vintage Tung Sol USA 5881 (6L6GC) power tubes with all vintage valves in the preamp, mostly manufactured by Amperex.
Cosmetically, this is an excellent and well-kept example of one of Fender's rarest Pre-CBS designs, with clean and original rough blonde tolex and oxblood grillcloth. Both the head and cab feature original unbroken brown "dogbone" molded Fender handles too, a true rarity. The Tone Ring cab retains its original baffles, ring, and fiberglass insulation sheets, and the back panel has the distinctive vertical slats only seen on Tone Ring cabs. The tube chart is intact inside the head with a K-prefix stamp translating to 1961. The faceplate and backplate are in great shape, and all of the original cream barrel knobs are present. Both flat Fender logos are original on the head and cab and all additional stock hardware is present too, with tilt-back chrome legs, leg stops, sphinx glides (feet), nickel corners, and piggyback clip bars.
