Fender blond Bassman vs Bandmaster tone and gain

[VintageCharlie]

Hi folks,

i'm reading more and more into the brownface/blond Fender amps and they seem to be a really versatile beast and i am considering a build somewhere down the road, or maybe i could find an original. I would be after the head format of these amps and hence the blond Bassman and Bandmaster come in play.

How do these amps differ tonally and gain-wise? I know the Bassman is famous due to Setzer's clean tone. But what about the drive territory? How do these compare?

The Bandmaster has that legendary brownface harmonic vibrato/tremolo. Do the extra 3 tubes for this also translate into higher gain capabilities of the Bandmaster? How similar are the cleans between the two?

Oh, and which would be the closest equivalents in the brownafe combo world to these amps? Bandmaster -> Vibrolux? Vibroverb?
Bassman -> ?

I heard this clip (though it is recorded with a Kemper Profiler, using a 63 brownface vibrolux profile): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3WzZx0a5Zc
This is amazing overdriven tone unlike anything else i've heard - so smooth and creamy - like a cross between Fender and Marshall. Which would get me closest to that tone?


Thank you very much!

Regards,

VintageCharlie

[Reeltarded]

The Fender amps are confusing to a point.

My favorite of the brown/blondes is the Bandmaster because it sounds like lots of kinds of rock and roll. Stones on up, plus you can back off add a little reverb and play on a western soundtrack with a Gretsch. Baaawwww. www www www.. It is the blonde amp that gets dirty in a good way.

Inside, I have no idea. The vib circuit on my blondes and browns are way better than the vib on the black amps.

The reverb is better on the black amps..

ahaha

[Timvox1]

Don't forget the old tweed 5E3 Deluxe.
Tons of hit rock records have been recorded using that baby.
I have a 6G6-b Bassman, a 5E3 Deluxe and a black face 65 Deluxe - all of them are great in their own way.
Three different types of distortion but all have been used on plenty of great recordings.
The 5E3 is great in the studio but a little under powered for most live gigs.
The blonde bassman is loud as hell but sounds great with just about every kind of pedal.
The black face is a cleaner sound.
I gigged for years with a Bandmaster - great amp but I really had to crank it up to get any distortion out of it which pissed off a lot of club owners...
I guess it comes down to what you need it for.
That Kemper box on the video sounded good but it's patches were really processed.
No amp sounds like that to my ears without doing a whole like of processing with boxes and or plugins.

[PaisleyTube]

Even with the vibrato switched off the Bandmaster does have one extra (low) gain stage so more clipping when overdriven.

I love them both; I really like the Bandmaster for old soul sounds and the Bassman more for 60s rock or slightly more open clean sounds.

[cbass]

There's a blonde bandmaster for sale at a shop in Springfield it looks unmolested hue's been sitting on it a while might be able to get a deal.he wants money for it though.