I'm a 50 year old musician and I've played everything from bluegrass to metal. In my years of playing I've owned a '65 Bassman, Silver face Twin Reverb, Music Man RD50, Peavey Bandit 65, Twin Reverb II, a Princeton Reverb II, and now this amp, the Bandmaster VM. This amp may well be the best I've ever owned. I don't understand the comment "lacks real tube tone". I've owned a Fender amp nearly all my life and this amp sounds as good as any of them. I admit I was skeptical about the amp having a partially solid state preamp. But after playing the amp for 3 days now, my skepticism and worries are gone. When you play this amp there's no doubt that it's a Fender, and there's no doubt that it's tube. I played my Strat through the clean channel and just couldn't stop playing it. I'm using an Avatar 2x12 closed back cabinet loaded with two Celestion V30s. (Nothing against the Fender cabinet, but I already owned the Avatar) The clean channel starts getting a nice little break up at around 6 on the dial. It's full, rich, and percussive with a nice touch response. I love the OD channel and it would be great for Blues, Country leads, classic rock and with the mid turned up to 10, and the gain on 10, a nice harder rock tone. The amp is quiet even with the gain on 10 - just the slightest amount of hiss. You're going to get a little preamp hiss with any amp when they're cranked to 10, but this one is one of the quietest I've heard in a while. I'm using the amp for hard rock / metal by using a Boss Metal Zone through the clean channel. I've got a Boss NS-2 inserted in the effects loop and the sound is just incredible. The tubes really warm up the Metal Zone pedal and when I palm mute - it's dead silent. I could go on and on about this amp ... the effects are the best I've used on an amp, and you can fully adjust them. You can also get a nice tape effect by adjusting the time on the delay while playing. You can get the weird sounding pitch shifts ala Pink Floyd. If you're looking for a medium sized tube head - this is a good one with plenty of power for any club gig.

I thought this amp would be great. It lacks real tube sound (no beautifull chime and no depth). Nothing like the real Fender tube amp. If you have ever used a real Bandmaster you will probable be disapointed. Hard treble and all round stiff sound. Power tubes can be BIAS'ed so this is a plus. Putting a 5751 tube in the second socket helps the amp, softens it up and gives more of a tube feel. The distortion is tight and not fizzy and is not that bad, no over the top distortion but enough for mainstream rock. You do not get that real Fender reverb sound but reverb is okay and the effects are nice. Amp will breakup early on clean channel until a 5751 tube is in, then you get a cleaner clean channel and one thats pretty loud. It's not a bad amp on it's own but don't think your getting a classic tube sounding amp just because it has tubes.

This amp is the best I have ever used. I would not recommend this amp to metal players but as I don't normally play metal this amp is ideal for everything else. The effects are awesome. As for volume I wasnt dissapointed. I like the sound of this amp so much that I am now awaiting the arrival of a second cab so I can stack it I doupt I will ever have to buy anything else.

I was looking for a new system to replace my curent one (2 Hot Rod Deluxes in stereo) because my bandmates complained of volume. When I used just one Hot Rod and my old Bandmaster cab, the complaints stopped. I tried out Bogenr, Egnator, Vox and new Fenders; I thought this new Bandmaster would be the answer, but I think that the drive channel is too much like a Peavey or a cheap Marshall; overly saturated and artifical sounding. I wanted it to be a Hot Rod in an amp head format, and it just isn't. Instead, I bought a 67 Bassman head, and I'm using that with the cab and stompboxes, and it sounds incredible - ironic that I came all the way back to where I started inthe '60's! MORAL: if you want authentic, go authentic.

This is my third Fender guitar amp, following a Jazzmaster Ultralight and a Blues Jr NOS. I was looking for a tube head to drive a 15" speaker cab for my ES-335. The Jazzmaster was fine for my Les Paul, with that compressed, focused Fender sound, and the BJ has a great bluesy sound, but I wanted something mellower and rounder for the 335. With a Hartke 115TP cab, it turned out to be what I was looking for. It has the chime of the Blues Jr, but -- unlike that amp -- that sound works equally on the lower pitched strings. It can sound very jazzy, which isn't really my thing, but mostly it has a round, full, rich tone that brings out the best in the guitar. It sounds less "electric" than my other amps. The reverb has a shimmer to it, but (and this is typical of my Fender amps) it's easy to go over the top with it.It also features delay and chorus, which I don't use. There's also an included four-button footswitch, with its cable, and a speaker cable. Although it's fairly large for a head, it's only 22 lb, so it's easy to pack. I wish Fender made a matching 1-15 to go with it.

I got it a few days ago, and I've pretty much been playing it since, and I expect to be using it for a long time.