What to do with a non functioning 1964 Fender Bandmaster

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jpistolas

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A while back an old family friend passed away. Not having any kids, his wife gave me his music equipment. I've sold some, kept some but still have a 1964 matching Bandmaster head & cab. Cab still works perfect but the head is another story. No tubes, the perfboard is melted & warrped. Should I sell it as is, attempt to rebuild (populated AB763 boards are plentiful) or just flat hot rod it with an JCM 800 board with mods (an idea I've entertained). Thing is, I'm not even sure if the transformers are good or not. I figure if they have to be replaced that would kill any value in restoring it. I'm at a total loss as to what the "smart" thing would be to do.

Any advice?
 
The older Fender amps used a fibre turret/lug board that used to flex and warp naturally and not cause any issues. They were wax coated.
If it is not damaged by fire or bad rookie techs, it should be a worthwhile option to restore it. ost faults were bad anode load 100k carbon resistors and capacitors.
A set of valves and possible capacitors in the dog house, is not expensive.
 
Thanks for all the advice! I finally got it out of storage & thought I'd share some pix.
 

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Thanks for all the advice! I finally got it out of storage & thought I'd share some pix.
That looks like it would be fine with some clean up. Inside looks normal for one that age.
First off, install grounded AC cord and lose the "death cap".
I would replace electrolytic caps, check tube sockets for corrosion, pots likely need De-oxit.
A good tech could put it back in service, I'd think, if you're not sure about doing it yourself.
 
There is a very high chance that if you clean the sockets and check the capacitors in the dog house (check for big bulges/blisters at the ends of the caps) and replace those caps (and the bias cap-very important) the amp will work.

I'm not sure the forbon board is melted, it's vulcanized fiberboard and looks very normal for this amp. I have looked inside vintage fenders quite a bit and most of them look like this, my 1ô65 Pro Reverb is like this so like others say, it's probably fine.

Don't go yanking out a bunch of "old parts" off the board!!! They're very likely fine. The cathode bypass capacitors for each preamp triode would be inspected for leaks but you actually have a post 65 here, those black and red dual caps are sealed and do NOT need to be replaced (same goes for all the blue ones).

Those caps (in my experience) started showing up in 66, that combined with the 66 at the end of your chassis ink stamp confirms the suspicion that your amp is a 1966 not 64. The pots will have date codes that also corroborate and the transformer EIA codes will also tell you this.

please do very very little parts replacing if you decide to repair this amp, this is a true vintage blackface fender and throwing parts away inside of the amp just because they're old is insanity.

the only caps that present a danger are the power supply caps and like i said the bias cap (underrated from the factory for some crazy reason). Someone mentioned the death cap and while a failure on that cap could be dangerous, it's a very robust capacitor (sealed blue fender ajax) and doesn't usually need replacing. i do recommend removing it from the circuit anyways as it's dangerous as a failure point. The rest are not safety issues. I'm sure someone will say I'm being nonchalant but trust me, the ones that are a safety issue I am quite pushy about people replacing. i recommend it at all times.

The sound of these parts are a real thing and changing them destroys a very key part of the magical fender sound (yes i know that sounds like bs, i promise it's not!)

Get her running with the bare minimum first, and then chase parts that are problematic. Don't shotgun it! You'll never figure out what's wrong when you finally do start it up. All the changes will throw your voltages way off etc etc.

I hope i have imparted a sense of reverence for the sanctity of the amp, these things are super magical sounding when you play them right. like seriously i can send a clip where residual harmonic content starts to ring out because of the unique characteristics of the carbon comp plate load resistors. it's insane.

please don't gut this amp for a "populated ab763 board". this is the wrong platform for that! you can do that so much cheaper with modern parts and a new chassis from mojo tone (transformers are half or less as expensive as vintage!!!).

like seriously I'll buy it from you to prevent that fate... it's awful and i don't have space for it but that's bordering on whistling diesel destroying Nissan skylines and vintage Toyota hiluxes.

at the end of the day i know it's not my place to tell you what to do with your property but please don't put a wing on that Gran Torino lol
 
Again, thanks for all the informed advice. That's just what I needed. Really enjoying the matching cab. It thumps with my Mesa! LOL! Can't believe it's still going strong.

I could have sworn the internal # on the tube layout indicated 64 but I could be wrong obviously. Woudln't be the first time today.
 
Again, thanks for all the informed advice. That's just what I needed. Really enjoying the matching cab. It thumps with my Mesa! LOL! Can't believe it's still going strong.

I could have sworn the internal # on the tube layout indicated 64 but I could be wrong obviously. Woudln't be the first time today.
Definitely glad to help, I have a big passion for vintage fenders these days, if the cabinet is original be very careful with the speakers, they're old and the voice coils are made of paper! Yeah it's insane. Basically vintage speakers are a ticking time bomb, it's best to shelf them and put some modern speakers in so you can open the amp up without fear of blowing the vintage speakers up. This happened to one of mine at only volume 5 totally clean sounds. It buzzes so i put them away for some c12q reissues from Jensen. Great sounding speakers!

it's also not a huge deal that you're unsure about the year, this is why i pointed it out because I'm very sure it's not a 64 (but i have been wrong before...) Mainly the 66 at the end of the ink stamp inside the chassis tells me its a 66 but also the bypass capacitors, I've seen them on 67s too.

Keep us posted if you feel like it, thank you for sharing this amp!
 
Wow... thankfully I didn't play very long or loud through that cab. Honestly, I may just try to sell the whole thing as is. Truth be told I don't really need another project, especially one that needs some true tlc I don't honestly have the time for.

Interested in a 60's Bandmaster with cab project?
 
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