The thick end is home to the rear panel stuff, valves and power supply, housed on two non-through-plated boards. The Bandmaster VM electronics are contained within a sturdy wedge-shaped open-ended tray chassis, with folded returns on each side to improve rigidity.Īt the thin end, all the front panel components apart from the pilot light are fitted onto a single through-plated and double-sided PCB, with the DSP (Digital Signal Processor) on a smaller daughter board. One thing that's sadly become a tradition on modern Fender amps, is the flimsy cereal box rear panel material - how much does two square feet of quarter inch plywood cost? They'll work fine as long as they stay there, however, if one should fall out this mundane part could become a major annoyance. The tough screw-in three-piece glides that used to be found on the bottom of a Fender amp have also been reduced to steel studs, which are simply hammered into place. The Bandmaster VM head has a simple cut-out underneath which slots over the loudspeaker cabinet's handle, but it doesn't do a very good job of keeping it in place. While we're on the subject, a pair of the large knurled bolts that traditionally fixed Fender heads to their cabinets would also be useful.

This cabinet has just one strap handle - it isn't particularly heavy but it is unwieldy and being a closed back design there's no other way to carry it.įender should really consider adding a pair of grab handles to this box, after all it isn't supposed to be a re-issue. But it's unusual, as it costs more to build than the reverse concept, and the valves actually have to do something more than just glow red.Īs mentioned, the styling is closely based on Fender's classic 60s blackface amplifiers.īut Fender has added a small 'VM' badge to the front grille and done away with the metal corner protectors you'd find on a 60s blackface, although they're present on the 2 x 12 cabinet.

Fender bandmaster specs