ShortScale.org

Bad tubes can certainly make a difference - that may be all it is - that looks like an 6v6 model - takes two of those and one 12ax7 - the MMB does not need matched tubes - maybe bring a set and a 12ax7? Take you a minute to pop them in. Me, I'd scoop it for the 200-225 get it home and check it out.

I can only guess on american prices, but if it's complete it's a good deal I'd say. Reassembling is very easy, but on any amp of this age you should count in a checkup, and the cost of maybe changing the bigger caps and also the power amp tubes. But they are simple to service, not much in them.

I had one borrowed some times years ago. 15 W, 1x12, transportable, great home and compact gigging amp.

It is really weird how he seems to be dodging the question about whether or not the cab and speaker come with it. If it does then that is a good deal, and it won't be hard for you to put it together. All you have to do is screw the chassis back into the cab, and then connect the speaker. And replacing the tubes wouldn't be hard, even if you have to fix up any of the wiring inside the amp it should be pretty simple.

I am going to move forward. At $200, its pretty low risk, and as long as I can try the amp out I should be good. If I like it I will sell my Bugera V5 and something else or flip it.

I've seen some folks nix the cab and speaker and make a cool head of out of 'em

The seller sent me these videos. I am definitely going to pick this up.

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That's a great deal at $200. I'd jump on that if I had the opportunity.

I went out and picked up the Musimaster Bass amp tonight. The previous owner was a nice guy who was selling all his gear off, which is why I got it for $200.

I played it in my garage for about five minutes with my Squier CV Duo Sonic. The amp structurally is very solid, though somebody drilled holes in both sides of the cabinet, probably mounting brackets of some kind. The chassis is being held up by two screws because he didn't have the nuts for the other two screws. I think the speaker is original and it's a fender Special Design. The tubes are 6V6s and are Fender Special Design tubes. The volume pot turns very slow and smooth while the tone pot is quick and has very little resistance when you turn it. Not sure why that is except someone fiddling with the tone knob a lot. The jewel light turns on and the power switch was great.

The sound is classic Fender Clean sound. The tone knob does not change the sound much until you get up to about 3 and doesn't seem very smooth when adjusting the tone. The other thing that doesn't stand out is the volume. I have a Marshall JTM30 (30 watt with 12 inch speaker) and a Bugera V5 (5 watt with 8 inch speaker). At twelve watts, I expected this amp to be louder than the Bugera, but quieter than the Marshall. I cranked the volume and tone up all the way and it was about as loud as the Bugera. I may do a side by side comparison later on.

I would love to hear from other Silverface amp owners on this one. Any ideas why it's being so quiet? Could it be the tubes need to be replaced? I have not tried any pedals yet but I plan to very soon.

Anyone ever dated one of these amps? I found some numbers on the amp and I hope to determine when it was made.

B62363 (chassis)

013098 (black sticker on chassis)

12111 1 (speaker)

I have a Silverface Bandmaster and it will get loud enough to shake my house, and it's "40 watts." I've had the most problems with pre-amp tubes being bad or not performing well with the amp. If you have any preamp tubes on hand, I'd test others out. The amp was quite wonky and sterile with the JJ 12AX7s or Sovtek rebranded 12AX7s, but came alive with JAN-Philips 5751s. No clue what it was like with the stock 6L6GCs because they were smashed in shipping. If preamp tubes don't help, I'd move on to power tubes. If it's not tubes, I'm not sure what it'd be. My amp is running through a 4-10 cabinet (Deville speakers) and it's never been quiter than I thought it should be. Have you tried plugging it into different sockets to see if it responds better with a different power source?

foofoo982 wrote:I have a Silverface Bandmaster and it will get loud enough to shake my house, and it's "40 watts." I've had the most problems with pre-amp tubes being bad or not performing well with the amp. If you have any preamp tubes on hand, I'd test others out. The amp was quite wonky and sterile with the JJ 12AX7s or Sovtek rebranded 12AX7s, but came alive with JAN-Philips 5751s. No clue what it was like with the stock 6L6GCs because they were smashed in shipping. If preamp tubes don't help, I'd move on to power tubes. If it's not tubes, I'm not sure what it'd be. My amp is running through a 4-10 cabinet (Deville speakers) and it's never been quiter than I thought it should be. Have you tried plugging it into different sockets to see if it responds better with a different power source?

I don't have any tubes right now. It has two 6V6s (Fender) and one 12AX7 (Mueller?) and the previous owner never changed the tubes so that seems like the obvious first thing to try. I am not sure how firm the tubes should be in the sockets, but they can move pretty easily. I heard lot's of people changing out the speakers, but that won't make it sound louder just better. A previous owner also rewired the amp to have a 3 prong plug.

Any tube recommendations for 6v6 and 12ax7?

I found a post about dating Musicmaster Bass Amps

Quote:
Originally Posted by Sidney Vicious View Post
I found this:

Musicmaster Bass CFA-7010 (silverface)

A00100 to A04100 - 1972
A04100 to A07900 - 1973
A07900 to A09500 - 1974
A09500 to A09800 - 1975
A09800 to A10500 - 1976

Looks like you got a '75 - sweet amps indeed. I owned a couple and wish I still had one.
Since the MMBs were made up until 1982

From that same site:

Quote:
DATING TABLES
For mid to late '70s silverface amps and early '80s "blackface" models, the serial numbers are date encoded much the same way as Fender guitars from the late '70s:

A6 + 5-digits - 1976
A7 + 5-digits - 1977
A8 + 5-digits - 1978
A9 + 5-digits - 1979

B + 5-digits - 1975, 1976

F0 + 5-digits - 1980
F1 + 5-digits - 1981
F2 + 5-digits - 1982
F3 + 5-digits - 1983
F4 + 5-digits - 1984
F9 + 5-digits - 1979, 1980

My amp has B62363 on the chassis, so it was made in 1975 or 1976

Tubes shouldn't move easily when they're in the socket. Different tubes sounds like a good investment just for the fact that they aren't solidly in the socket it sounds, and that the previous owner never changed them. I don't know about that circuit, but JAN-Philips 5751s have been the best sounding and longest lasting tubes I've had. EHX tubes have worked nicely in my Deville until I found the 5751s. In the mean time, I would remove the tubes and use contact cleaner on the sockets. Poorly seated tubes will cause really bad sound quality and make the amp not perform correctly. Might just be dust in the socket causing a bad connection. Changing the speaker shouldn't happen until the rest of the amp is sorted IMO.

foofoo982 wrote:Tubes shouldn't move easily when they're in the socket. Different tubes sounds like a good investment just for the fact that they aren't solidly in the socket it sounds, and that the previous owner never changed them. I don't know about that circuit, but JAN-Philips 5751s have been the best sounding and longest lasting tubes I've had. EHX tubes have worked nicely in my Deville until I found the 5751s. In the mean time, I would remove the tubes and use contact cleaner on the sockets. Poorly seated tubes will cause really bad sound quality and make the amp not perform correctly. Might just be dust in the socket causing a bad connection. Changing the speaker shouldn't happen until the rest of the amp is sorted IMO.

What would you recommend I use as contact cleaner?

Electronics contact cleaner should do the job. I don't remember the exact band I used.

New tooobs. Make sure they're snug. I feel my bassman is now louder after new caps and tubes - which makes sense as those are power filtering. Check the innards and make sure everything is clean and the electrolytic caps aren't exploding.

Simplest fix for volume I can recommend is getting some pine amd closing the cab up.

Yea I also recommend new tubes and checking the caps. That's most likely the first thing that a tech would check.

The best 6V6 made today is the JJ. Don't know about NOs options because we don't have that many of them here If these are the original tubes they are def a candidate for swapping after 35 years. Preamp tubes don't need a definite changing after xy hours of usage, but if you order the 6V6s you may as well order one or two 12ax7 tubes too. I have al whole lot of them, and the older ones (Mullard, Philips, Siemens, General Electric, RCA) seem to have more juice to them. But the common Sovteks are not that bad in a Fender amp.

As said I played several gigs with a Musicmaster amp some years ago, it was well loud enough for that. On the other hand it's not necessarily a louder amp than a 5 w amp. It should be cleaner at the the same volume though. If it's not broken I would stick to the speaker. It may sound a little weak, but a speaker that has been played over decades has a special yound you cannot recreate with a new one, no matter how good it is.

yeah, whenever you're ready to sell that, let me know.

75 - 76 sounds right.

Some thought and observations:

The speaker baffle has been modified - looks like a baffle was installed inside the original baffle? What's behind the new add-in? I can see the original speaker hole peaking out in one of the shots. I wonder if the original baffle is blocking the speaker? The speaker as it is sits lower in the cabinet than in a stock configuration.

The tubes shouldn't be too loose - on the FDP there is a whole thread on cleaning and tensioning tube holders. Your tubes might be fine and tight enough - a little contact cleaner on the pins and some in and out might be all it needs.

The tone knob on MMB is pretty much useless - I leave mine at 3.5 or so as do I think most people that use these amps for guitar.

Finally, I didn't find my 12 watt MMB twice as loud as a 6 watt Champ - so yours might be just as loud as it was ever meant to be.

Cool amp.