Anyone who’s well informed about Fender amps must have raised a brow when looking at these pictures, as during the blackface era a Bandmaster amp would have no Reverb and a much smaller cabinet. Well, this amp from 1976 is not by any means an accurately restored vintage piece but more a cool hotrodded players amp.

This amp started out as a ’76 Silverface Bandmaster Reverb (70W with Master Volume and Pull Boost). It was modified to look different with the custom blackface faceplate but also underwent some circuitry modding. On the back panel the amount of speaker outputs has been expanded to offer more flexibility when connecting multiple cabs. Also there’s an added line out and an external bias pot for easy adjustments. This amp currently runs on modern, mostly JJ brand tubes. It runs flawlessly with lower than average noise or hum.

The Normal Channel sounds similar to an early JTM/plexi Marshall amp. It doesn’t have a huge amount of gain but will crunch up even when driven with a singlecoil guitar when turned up. There’s not a huge amount of low end on this channel but considerably more mids than you’d get from a standard Fender preamp channel. The Brilliant channel however sounds very much like you’d expect from a classic clean high-powered Fender amp, ie. lots of lows, a scooped mid and a brilliant hi-end. This character is there even when played through a closed-back Celestion-loaded 4x12 cabinet. When turned all the way up this channel stays almost completely clean.

The Reverb and Vibrato effects sound beautiful with loads of depth and work on both channels. They are footswitchable with a dual RCA-plugged switch (not included). The Master Volume is much more effective and usable than the one you’d find on a seventies Fender, I presume it has been modified to a Post Phase Inverter setup. With an A/B switch it’s possible to turn this amp into a flexible channel-switching amp.

So, while not an accurately restored vintage amp and maybe a bit too bulky for the average jazz or semiacoustic gig, this amp offers wonderful sounds and versatility from both channels, works great with a 4x12 cab and could serve as a great clean pedal platform or a cool raw rock or stoner amp when combined with an A/B switch and a good fuzz pedal.