1962 Fender Bandmaster Brownface Piggyback Vintage Tube Amp 2x12, Blonde & Wheat

Up for sale, a 1962 Fender Bandmaster in excellent condition and in perfect working order. This early "Piggyback" version of the Bandmaster is decked out in stock rough blonde tolex with wheat grillcloth and a pair of Jensen Concert 12" alnico speakers. The Brownface circuit drives a matched pair of Tung Sol 5881 (military spec 6L6GC) power tubes for 40 watts of pure tube goodness (not to mention that the preamp is stocked with a full complement of vintage valves too). Like the Tweed amps that preceded it, the Brownface circuits are very dynamic and respond well to picking dynamics with Fender's hi-fi glassy clean tones. The EQ controls have a huge range and after around 5 on the volume dial, the amp cascades into rich tube overdrive that compresses a bit and feels slightly loose and gritty in just the right way without losing too much clarity. It's the kind of natural tube overdrive that only comes from pushing a well-designed Fender circuit to its limit. The Harmonic Vibrato circuit is also a complex design only found on the top-tier Brownface models, utilizing three tubes and creating a lush pitch shifting effect that has more in common with a Leslie or Chorus than a traditional tremolo.The circuit is extremely original, and all of the famed blue Ajax tone caps are intact in the preamp, with stock Stackpole pots, carbon comp resistors and cloth-covered leads. All of the Schumacher transformers are original with 1962 date codes as well, and the power supply even retains a number of original Sprague Atom and Astron Minimite filter caps. The tube chart is fully intact inside the head cabinet with an "LK" stamp which translates to November of 1962.The speaker cab is loaded with a matched pair of Jensen Concert EM1250 speakers which date to 1965, a common factory replacement driver for Fender amps in the era. These alnico magnet speakers have robust wattage handling with clean frames and Jensen foil labels on the magnet bells. All of the original fiberglass baffling is also intact inside the cabinet too.The amp retains its original rough blonde tolex and wheat grillcloth, with darkening primarily of the cabinet cloth. There's a bit of requisite scuffing and staining, also primarily on the 2x12 cabinet, and the original faceplate is original and quite clean, complete with the full complement of original cream barrel knobs. The plastic "dogbone" handle on the head is original, and the cabinet handle is a modern genuine Fender reissue. The flat "Fender" logos, chrome tilt-back legs, nickel corners, and piggyback clip bars are also original.