#Musicmaster amp how to
#Musicmaster amp serial number

I was just going to go with exact spec replacements & leave it pretty stock. Thanks for the heads up about the voltages as well as another post mentioning the grounding scheme, not to mention the lack of a fuse (which completely escaped me when I looked at it but dang if there isn't anything to be seen). Especially since these amps were built to run on slightly lower mains power than most places have today. If you are going to recap it I would change that first 20uf at 300v cap off the diodes to a 80 or 100uf at 350v since (1) the amps power transformer is smaller than that of a silverface 5 watt champ and the circuit needs more reserve head room than that PT can put out, and (2) the 290 volts hitting that stock 300 volt cap is a blow up waiting to happen!Blowup - Geeze, I guess. It could be the tubes as well and I have a ton to swap out to A/B with but since it's already 30 years old I'm probably going to just resign myself to yanking the power caps first and see where that takes me. Sounds to me like it doesn't really carry the voltage through it when needed. It also has a fuzzy breakdown (not in a good way) at the end of long ringing notes so I'm pretty sure it needs a cap job. Not that I'm complaining - I don't play bass so this thing makes an awesome guitar amp. I'd think a bass amp would be a little cleaner than this. If I backed the volume on the guitar down to about 5 with the amp volume around 5, I could get it sort of clean but not what would pass for Fender spanky. It has very little in the way of clean which kind of surprised me. Very touch sensitive with a really rich balance of tone. Man! A Strat on the neck pup does Little Wing like I've never heard (or played) it before. Plugged it in today and let her breath a little. Kind of like Chris Farley used to say 'Fat guy in a little coat.'. The tiny magnet with the big frame threw me off. You're right of course - not a 15 in there, it's a 12. I might do it just to post more pics!Īll 3 of the tubes in this are dated 78-28 :: 28th week of 1978.

#Musicmaster amp serial number

Soooooooooooooooooooo, by the serial number on the chassis & speaker codes can this be dated? Do I need to get the the tranny numbers? From the looks of this, if I open up the chassis it will likely be the first time that's ever happened to this sweetie. Mic it up through the PA with just a hair back through the monitors to fatten it up (not that a 15' Jensen pushing guitar in a power trio needs a lot of fattening up). I gig miced up so I bet this will sound awesome with a Strat or SG, my homemade Bluesbreaker pedal, with the amp's tone on 5 and volume up around 7. Here are some hastily taken shots on my ancient Mavica thrown up on Photobucket.

Basically, the story told to me by the seller looks to be 100% correct by the look of the amp in person. Grill is flawless with just the slightest of normal darkening with age (as it should be IMHO). Handle is pristine and all the hardware is dead mint. Faceplate is perfect with maybe 4 scratches from plug inserts and not a single mark anywhere on the printing anywhere.

Tolex looks like it's never been touched with just the slightest of lifting on a couple edges in back - probably just from age since there's no fraying to be seen anywhere at all. 'Hey - first one's on me!'Īll original looking right down to the Fender labeled tubes & 15' speaker. He was thrilled to learn that I play in a gigging band and his amp will see stage time as a result of the sale. He said it sounds great but he never really learned to use it so someone else should put it to it's intended use. I drove the 40 miles to his place out in the country and bought it for cash on the spot without even plugging it in.

#Musicmaster amp how to

He bought it to learn to play guitar brand new years ago but never did figure out how to play guitar so it's sat in a closet 'for years'. Guy calls me back and says it works fine but has sat in the closet pretty much since new. The post was about an hour old and I figured it was probably already gone but what the hell. I hit reply & sent a message simply stating 'I'll take it' as well as leaving voice mail on both phone numbers listed in the ad. On a whim, I hit the local CL to see what was posted this morning.ĭay-um!!! A SF Musicmaster Bass amp for $100?! I took a personal day off to get some things done like hitting the DMV for replacement plates (oh boy), bank stuff and other errands I never seem to have time for. I work 6 days/week every week + play in the band + do some web design work on the side so I don't get a lot of time to myself.