I almost bought a silverfaced Fender Pro the other day...

Scott_F

Scott_F

Flushologist
Staff member
but the more I studied up on them and the mods you can do to take them back to Blackface specs and beyone, the more I came to the conclusion that I just want to build another Tweed Amp. 35-40 watts this time. Maybe a 3x10 Tweed Bandmaster.

Why pay 500-600 for a 30 year old amp that needs new speakers, new tubes and maybe new trannies, when you can spend the same amount that you would have spent on the amp and the upgrades and you get high quality parts that you put together yourself, that will be around for your grandkids to play in 50 years.

You follow me? Can you smell what the Transformers are cooking?

:smoker:
 
Re: I almost bought a silverfaced Fender Pro the other day...

You can always use one more, Scott!
 
Re: I almost bought a silverfaced Fender Pro the other day...

Scott, you might want to check into Bruce's tweed Super kit. (http://www.missionamps.com) I LOVE tweed Supers! 35 watts and two 10" speakers. The only thing about buying a Fender amp and tweaking it is that when it comes time to sell the Fender you'll be able to get more for it than an amp built from a kit. Lew
 
Re: I almost bought a silverfaced Fender Pro the other day...

Tweed Bandmasters are cool! Three speakers can be overdriven a little more easily than four, like the tweed Bassman has. Or you can just buy a tweed Bassman and disconnect one speaker. That's easy to do in the old ones as each speaker has it's own plug. The tweed Bandmaster cab is about the same size as a Bassman cab so it's not like buying a tweed Bandmaster is going to get you a smaller cabinet. MY Super Reverb is set up so I have three of the four speakers on one plug and the fourth has it's own plug which I plug into the extension speaker jack. Then I can have all four or just three. Works perfectly. Lew
 
Re: I almost bought a silverfaced Fender Pro the other day...

I think a tweed Super would be, well, super! I'm really into the 2x10" sound now. I think it's close to perfect. My Turbo Pup is a 35w, 2x10" combo and it has tone out the wazoo :D
 
Re: I almost bought a silverfaced Fender Pro the other day...

That's funny Lew, but I've already been talking to Bruce this week about beta testing his new kit. I'm not sure if it was a 2x10 or a 3x10. But I'm sure I'll love it either way.
 
Re: I almost bought a silverfaced Fender Pro the other day...

Yeah, i'd stay away from silverfaced stuff, unless its a champ or vibrochamp, which were never changed from the blackface circuit. But tweed stuff seems like its got more mojo anyway.....

So scott, i gotta question for you... you started out building the 5E3 kit, which is a tweed champ, right?? That'd be a fairly simple circuit, i imagine... do you think someone who didn't do that would get lost if they tried to start out with a tweed bassman kit?? Mind you, this person is fairly sharp on electricity, but not an expert by any means....
 
Re: I almost bought a silverfaced Fender Pro the other day...

The 5e3 is a Tweed Deluxe. I really don't think that it can be that much more difficult to build a Bassman 4x10 tweed. It's only one more preamp tube to deal with. That and a few more control knobs, maybe what, two more?

Go to the Fender Field Guide and look at the layouts of each. They are not that different.

I'm pretty high on the kit from Bruce at Mission Amps because it's so well documented with actual PHOTOS of the build process. He provides you with a color coded layout sheet that show exactly what parts go where, etc. You don't have to read a schematic to do this. Just patience and you have to learn how to solder (which isn't hard, btw).

Since I don't think Bruce offers the 4x10 yet, if I were you, I'd build the 3x10 Tweed Bandmaster. It's going to sound very very similar.

The thing about Bruce's layouts is that they are slightly tweaked from the originals. Why? Well for one thing, his layouts are quieter. My little Deluxe is dead quiet. Secondly, he has done a lot of work on getting the Trannies right. Speakers and Transformers have sooooo much to do with the tone of any amp. Third, for the 5e3 is he turned the now-useless ground switch into a standby switch. The other kits out there might offer that as well, but I'm not sure. I won't comment on Mojo or Marsh because I haven't built their kits. I do love my 5e3.

I told someone else this yesterday, but build a 5E3 Deluxe because you want that low-headroom, bedroom/garage/studio distortion that sounds so darn good. Don't build it simply because many feel it's the best kit for a beginner. Dont' build it to simply save money. It cost me about 650 bucks to build mine. I'd be happy to build one for someone else, but I'd have to charge them 850 bucks to even consider it.

That's my take on it. There is a lot of help out there besides Bruce (who is very accessible). There is the 5e3 Forum and then guys like Curly and myself that have gone through it.
 
Re: I almost bought a silverfaced Fender Pro the other day...

Ok, thanks for the info scott!! I had thought you got yours from mojotone.com... but it looks like if i end up building a kit, i'll go to mission amps like you did!! I saw your other post, a 35-40 watt tweed with a 15' would be pretty darn cool. You say its based on a bandmaster??
 
Re: I almost bought a silverfaced Fender Pro the other day...

Well, if you look at the circuits, the old Tweed Pros, Bandmasters, and Supers were darn near the same circuit. THe Bassmans were a bit different.

I really recommend checking out the Fender Field Guide. http://www.ampwares.com/ffg/

you can see the actual layouts and compare the dfifernt amps. When you look, look for the words Narrow Panel Tweed. That pretty much covers the ones that we're talking about.

I have spent a lot of time there recently. Also, you need to buy Gerald Weber's Guide to Hip Guitar Amps or something of the like that name. It's got a lot of great old Fender info in there. In addition, there's a zillion schematics and layouts.

I'm getting waaaaay to into this stuff. :)
 
Re: I almost bought a silverfaced Fender Pro the other day...

yes, this amp stuff is lots of fun... thanks for the reccomendations, i've already spent some time at the fender amp feild guide... I'll check out that book, too!!

:)
 
Re: I almost bought a silverfaced Fender Pro the other day...

but back on topic (sorry for getting side-tracked), are you speaking of the silverface pro reverb?? Cuz, i just remembered... i stored one of those for a freind for a summer at my house... it was one of the earlier silverfaces, without the mastervolume. It had pretty gorgeous cleans, but distortion was kinda nasty.
 
Re: I almost bought a silverfaced Fender Pro the other day...

yeah, i almost bought a sliverfaced pro reverb. I would have converted it back to blackface and disconnected the tone sucking vibrato. probably disconnected the normal channel as well.

I got weber's 2nd video where he completely takes you through converting a silver back to black. Great video by the way.
 
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