Description

Hopefully you’ve done your research by now and you know that when Fender said “bass amp” what they meant really meant was “small guitar amp”. Bass players never took these seriously, but oh my goodness, guitarists do!

The Musicmaster bass is a great amp for exactly the same reasons the Chap is so desirable – a fantastic crunchy sound when wound-up past number 6 on the dial. That’s really all you need to know.

This is a 12 watt amp (Champ is 6 watts and with its bigger speaker this is a louder amp) comprising two output tubes (or valves as we like to call them here). Still, it’s the number 6 that’s the sweet spot – clean sounds from 1-5, then the magic happens at 6 and beyond. Look out for the tone control though, it needs to stay in the middle position or slightly to the treble side as it’s a single control for both treble and bass. Yes, we guitarists need to learn to keep things simple.

This particular amp is the earliest incarnation of the Musicmaster bass having the Fender tail logo and knobs without numerals. It sounds the same as the later version and is in good condition with moderate wear.

It’s in full working order, all the capacitors have been checked and replaced where necessary and the US mains lead has been uprated to one with three cores. To run this amp you will need a voltage step-down transformer rated at 100Watts.

Quote

Quote from Unmasking Fender Silverface Amps at http://www.freeinfosociety.com/article.php?id=275

I guess that the best tone found in silverfaced amps are in the small ones...but isn't that true for most amps? The Champ, VibroChamp, Bronco, (6 watts) Princeton and Princeton Reverb (12 watts) retained tube rectification throughout the '70's. There were a few small changes made in them, but both retain basically the blackface circuit throughout the silverface era. The MusicMaster Bass amp (12 watts) was introduced in 1970 as a 12 watt bass practice amp. IMO, it is totally worthless as a bass amp, but is a little guitar tone monster. All three have a similar tone, IMO, with the Champ sporting the most distortion.

Fender Musicmaster bass

• Fender logo knobs with numerals on the fascia
• Sliver fascia with “Musicmaster bass” legend
• On/off switch built into volume control
• Mains indicator lamp
• Combined bass/treble control (mid point is max bass and max treble)
• 12” Oxford speaker
• Black tolex covered plywood cabinet with carrying handle
• Fender tail logo
• Replacement 3 core US mains cable and plug (runs on 110Volts)