Awesome head. Truly a classic… awesome sound.

Grabbed these specs from Ampwares.com

Year: 1963-1967
Model: Bandmaster
Circuit: AB763
Config: Piggy-back
Control Panel: Black forward facing w/ white labels
Front Conrol Layout: Normal: In, In, Bright Sw, Vol, Treb, Bass – Vibrato: In, In, Bright Sw, Vol, Treb, Bass, Speed, Intensity – Pilot Lamp
Rear Conrol Layout: AC Outlet, Ground Sw, Fuse (2A), Power Sw, Standby Sw, Speaker Jack, Ex. Speaker Jack, Vibrato Jack
Knobs: Black skirted w/ chrome center, numbered 1 – 10
Head: 8″ x 24″ x 9″ (20.3 x 61 x 22.9 cm)
Head Hardware: Black strap handle, 4½” chassis straps, corner protectors, cab hooks
Head/Cab Covering: Smooth white (63) or black Tolex
Head/Cab Grille: Gold (63) or silver sparkle grille cloth
Logo: Grille mounted, flat (63) or raised, chrome & black, script “Fender” (head and cab)
Speaker/Load: 2 x 12″/4 ohms total (8 ohms each in parallel)
Effects: Tremolo
Output: 40 Watts
Preamp: 2 x 7025
Power: 2 x 6L6GC
Bias: Fixed Bias, bias adjustment pot
Rectifier: Solid State
Phase Inverter: 12AT7 (long tailed)
Other: 12AX7 (photoresistor)

We were really excited to get a chance to work on this vintage piece of equipment so we took extra special care in the detailing.

Here’s how it looked when it hit our bench…

Front

Back

We then disassembled and inspected everything. All the electronics were serviced and cleaned, all the chrome de-scurved and polished to a brilliant shine, all crud removed from the tolex, and everything left with a brilliant shine.

Disassembly

Bandmaster Insides

Tubes and Inside Label

Clean and Shiny Casing

After all that was done, each screw and nut polished, all pots cleaned, all dust expunged, all contacts cleaned, we re-assembled the amp and warmed up the tubes.

Final Product

The Bad

Well, not really that bad. This head was missing the back panel and the original foot switch. We’ve been on the lookout for a replacement foot switch, and will hopefully have one soon.

Mother Russia’s answer to the Marshall JCM-800. This head is BAD ASS with tons of power and tone to melt the crowds faces off. Nice warm tube tone, and ya can’t beat that tube overdrive. Not exactly a Marshall, but pretty close for the money. The other thing we really dig about this head is the simplistic controls – no B.S – Master, Volume, Presence, Treble, Mids, and Bass.

SRGuitars has one in stock that we began restoring, but ran into a plastics issue that we didn’t like that made us put this one on hold…

Here is the amp as it entered out workshop

Front

Back

We extensively detailed and cleaned every inch of the amp and the electronics, only to realize the downside of this amp…

Before/ After shot

The Downside of this Amp – Plastic

Yep, thats right. After we were done cleaning it up and began testing it, I realized that plastic input jacks and power jacks pretty much SUCK. Why, because when the plastic becomes old enough and over years of use, it becomes dry and brittle. I discovered this after I was finished testing and I went to remove the cable from the input jack – >crack<-. Then I went to remove the outs for the speaker ->crack<-. Finally, I went to remove the power chord…. and guess what happened…

Regardless, I sent this amp back down to the shop to have all the plastic input/output jacks replaced along with a new Universal power connector. This has not been done yet, I did however get some good shots of the amp cleaned up before I broke the jacks.

MIG-100 Detailed

This entry to be continued….