Our proprietor remembers making a personal phone call on behalf of Chuck Berry to facilitate a backline of Dual Showman Reverb and Bassman amplifiers for his Australian tour. ![]() Our association with Fender stretches back to the early 1970s and CBS Australia. A consortium led by Bill Schultz "The Man Who Saved Fender" acquired the company in 1985, and so began the incredible journey to Fender's place as the world's leading guitar manufacturer. These 'stacks' were heavily based on the 5F6A circuit of the 1950s Tweed Fender Bassman.īut in the early 1980s, Fender lurched toward insolvency due to management's failure to respect (in quality control or marketing) the company's unique place in music history. History tells us that the British Invasion was complete in 1967 when Jimi Hendrix arrived from England to appear at 'Monterey Pop' with his Stratocaster plugged into big English amps. ![]() But in 1965 (six months before Bob Dylan "went electric" with a Fender Stratocaster) the company was sold to CBS/Sony for $13M due to Mr Fender's ill health. Soon we saw the Stratocaster, Jazzmaster, Jazz Bass, and a wonderful range of high quality amplifiers. He saw the advantages of producing a bass version (economy of space, potential for higher volume, etc.) but he had the foresight to press frets into the fingerboard, thus aiding part-timers to pitch notes "precisely." For it's entire life, the Fender 'Precision' Bass has remained the "ground zero" of bass guitars. Similarly, a pickup repair inspired Mr Fender to try his hand at building a simple steel guitar, which eventually led to what we know today as the Fender Telecaster. Soon people were asking him to examine and repair their under-powered steel guitar amplifiers and, realising he could produce a competitive product, it wasn't long before the first Fender amp appeared. While tweed Champs and blackface Princetons are commanding prices of over a grand on Ebay, you can grab the little Musicmaster Bass for around $250, and those with the energy and desire to take on a search could very well turn one up in a pawn shop or used music shop for less.The story of Fender begins in the late 1930s with the introverted but fiercely determined Leo Fender repairing radios in his small workshop near Los Angeles. It should be noted here that, as is often the case, what is good for a guitar is also good for harp, and the Musicmaster Bass amp really shines with the sounds of a little tin sandwich being pumped into it through a decent microphone. If cranked, the clean becomes a fabulous dirty crunch with plenty of room to be heard in a smaller combo situation. The amp can provide excellent clean tones at lower volumes. Many players prefer to swap out the CTS speaker for something more to their liking, but the stock piece still delivers decent sound and is desired by some. Nothing fancy here, but it delivers in the sound department. There is a simple slider on/off switch, one knob for volume, one for tone. Laid out simply, the amp produces twelve watts with either 6v6 or 6aq5 preamp tubes. The Musicmaster Bass amp is a great way to get good tone from an honest vintage Fender tube amp without needing to take out a bank loan. Gradually the news spread that the Musicmaster Bass, while doing little for bass amplification, could flat scorch with a guitar, a situation which was something of a mirror of Fender’s initial bass amp offering, the Bassman. ![]() Somewhere along the line, however, a guitarist was hard up for something to power his six string, and a guitar got plugged into one of these things. Created as a practice amplifier for bedroom work, the amp really doesn’t do much at all for bass, with many bassists feeling that above 4 on the volume knob there really just isn’t much to it. One particular piece of equipment that illustrates this point well is Fender’s Musicmaster Bass amplifier. As is often the case, those low-dollar pieces of past years that got passed over so readily have become items of value to players these days. In the 70s Fender produced a line of budget music gear under the “Musicmaster” name. ![]() Looking for real vintage tube gear but not blessed with unlimited funds? There may not be a free tweed Champ or blackface Super Reverb sitting on ever corner, but there are still deals to be had straight from Leo himself.
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