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Post subject: Vintage Musicmaster Bass Amp - Speaker and Tubes query
Posted: Sat Dec 28, 2019 7:02 pm
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I understand that these amps were produced between 1970 and 1982 and during that time the Musicmaster Bass Amp saw 3 main changes:

1. A change in their design resulting in the earlier amps using 6aq5 tubes and the later ones using 6v6's.
2. The introduction of a dedicated on/off switch rather than on/off switch being combined with the volume knob.
3. A change in speaker with some having a CTS12 speaker and others an Oxford 126PJ4.

What I would like to know is this; what were the years that these changes were made and did the 3 changes occur at the same time in the amps production? Hoping that a Fender expert here can shed some light on this for me please.


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Post subject: Re: Vintage Musicmaster Bass Amp - Speaker and Tubes query
Posted: Sun Dec 29, 2019 4:29 am
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Location: Province de Québec, Canada
See no answer on those books;

Fender Amps, The First Fifty Years. Musicmaster page 121

The Fender Amp Book ,Musicmaster page 82

The Soul Of Tone, Celebrating 60 years of Fender amps pages 337 and 459


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Post subject: Re: Vintage Musicmaster Bass Amp - Speaker and Tubes query
Posted: Sun Dec 29, 2019 10:18 am
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An acquaintance owns one of these amps and he asserts that it's a '76 due to the orange-stripe grill cloth (it may in fact be a '77) and he's pretty sure the OEM speaker was an Oxford. It's long since been replaced with a Weber. IIRC the changeover from 6AQ5's to 6V6GT's occurred late in the '75 model year and the Vibrochamp-style on/off switch appeared at the same time.

Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY


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Post subject: Re: Vintage Musicmaster Bass Amp - Speaker and Tubes query
Posted: Sun Dec 29, 2019 4:06 pm
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Retroverbial wrote:
An acquaintance owns one of these amps and he asserts that it's a '76 due to the orange-stripe grill cloth (it may in fact be a '77) and he's pretty sure the OEM speaker was an Oxford. It's long since been replaced with a Weber. IIRC the changeover from 6AQ5's to 6V6GT's occurred late in the '75 model year and the Vibrochamp-style on/off switch appeared at the same time.
Arjay

It does seem highly likely that the dedicated on/off switch was introduced with the re-design and change from 6AQ5 to 6V6 tubes. I know that both the CTS12 speaker and Oxford 126PJ4 were used in these amps but any idea if Fender alternated between these speakers during the production of the amp or if there was a defined point of change-over between one brand and the other?


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Post subject: Re: Vintage Musicmaster Bass Amp - Speaker and Tubes query
Posted: Sun Dec 29, 2019 6:09 pm
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Can't say definitively about the speaker. Fender sourced them from a number of different manufacturers over the amp's production run (including Utah and Eminence) so any of them could be considered as "correct" regardless of the actual year in which the amp was made. In any case, none of them IMO were what I'd call a sonic asset.

Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY


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