![]() What Leo did, his genius, was to deliberately inhibit the low frequency response of the amplifier by diminishing the actual size of the output transformer. ![]() (That’s why an SVT weighs so much, its OT is the size of a Oldsmobile!). The bigger the stack, the lower it will go without saturating. In an output transformer, the low frequency response is largely governed by the size or mass of the stack. And here’s where the transformer comes into the equation. It’s elementary the lower you go, the more difficult it is for the electronics to swallow. Fender knew that the low frequencies were the factor most responsible for speaker overheating. ![]() Because of the basic physics of output transformers, he was able to solve the problem and create many of the classic tones we now treasure at the same time. Leo Fender’s problem was obvious: How to get the maximum from the available Jensen speakers without risking catastrophic failure. Eventually, the speaker overheats and fails, and when that happens, it can wreak havoc in a vacuum tube amp. It doesn’t take a genius to know that when you push 40 watts of amplifier through a 15-watt speaker, something’s gotta give. His wide range, high fidelity guitar amps were driven by two 6L6s, which by mid decade had evolved into a 40 watt power plant. A vintage P10R was a whopping 9 watts! This presented a problem for Fender. A high powered Altec industrial speaker was maybe 25 watts, and top of the line Jensen guitar speakers were rarely over 15 watts. To understand the role of the stack, a trip back to Leo Fender’s world of the 1950s is in order.īack in the day, the most common source of amp failure was the speaker. Both the stack and the windings will determine the performance of an output transformer. Folks, the size of your transformer matters!Ī transformer has two basic components, the stack, which is the steel part you see, and the windings, which are the thousands of turns of copper wire tucked around the stack. Comprehending the complexities ain’t for the faint of heart and mind! However, there is one attribute that is easily recognizable, and understanding it is surprisingly simple. In response, an entire cottage industry has arisen to provide tweak happy guitarists with upgraded power and output “iron.” Indeed, the choices for replacing the output tranny for a typical 6L6 powered amp are legion, and discriminating one from another can be confusing to say the least. As guitarists discover this critical link between your power tubes and the speakers, the important effect it has on your amplifier’s character becomes obvious. ![]() Weber 10A125 speakers, Mercury Magnetics transformers, Jupiter Yellow capacitors, carbon composition resistors.In today’s world, the role of an amplifier’s output transformer (OT) is well known. Maybe it’s the output transformer, maybe it’s the unusual impedance, maybe it’s the way those three 10″ speakers interact, but in the end the Bandmaster is a very special amp. Something special happens with that oddball 3×10″ speaker configuration. But regular players owe it to themselves to give this amp a try. The tweed Bandmaster is one of the holy grail amps among collectors, in part because of its rarity. Leo re-used this design over and over for a good reason, and the Bandmaster is pretty close to tweed perfection delivering warmth, punch, beautiful cleans, and a satisfying grind when cranked up. The 5E7 Bandmaster combines this circuit with an unusual 3 x 10″ speaker configuration. The Bandmaster is part of a trio amps that were all based on the same basic circuit with small differences supporting different speaker configurations: The Super, Pro, and Bandmaster.
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