I suspect he had his share of supply issues too: running out of parts and using what was available. With regards to drilling another hole: don't worry one bit about that! After seeing tweed Fender amps for years I can say even Leo Fender did his share of experimenting therefore drilling extra holes, throwing new components in and seeing what the results were. I don't know the rating on those parts but I think this is a good thing: to go overboard like the original. Marshall amps happily used a large choke as well. The choke is significantly larger than what you find in a black panel Bandmaster. Second, the original 5E7, pictured here on my post and also here: The bigger choke will simply run cooler, especially when you crank it up for long periods. A bit overboard but it makes for a quieter system. Why? Two reasons: I never think you can have too much choke! My hi-fi builds, I use three of them in my preamp power supply.

I'm honestly not the most technical of techs so I will keep my response simple. 32-40 watts? How is this supposedly a 28-watt amp? I'm guessing this will drop under a load, though, right? Anyway, if you get this any data, tips, or opinions will be greatly appreciated. This is getting a Hammond 290DX power tranny, so probably about 400 for B+ times 80-100 mA (idling) equals. (Derp.) I'm just loking for an opinion or some advice about this choice, i.e., will it work okay? I looked at the later AB763 bandmaster schemo, and it has a 125C1A choke, so that left me feeling like, okay, your 40-watt amps might need the bigger choke. Then I began to wonder at the distance between the holes on the chassis and the little choke, but only after I'd already drilled a new hole for it. Also it seemed okay because the choke really only feeds the screens and the preamp tubes. Newb question: I'm building one and I followed the Hammond website's advice and got a 125c3a-style choke (4H, 50mA) and tiny, but seemed okay because so many later fenders use this, but then I see maybe the 6v6 amps were more commonly equipped with this. I could see it had Orange Drop Sprague capacitors throughout, not my favorite, and the work looked a bit sloppy. When it came to me I saw pictures or the insides and outsides. This amp belonged at one point to a rhythm guitarist who played with Muddy Waters. Too much of either direction and you lose me. A great sounding amp is a mixture of excellent quality parts and frankly, crap. I prefer to have a smaller part, I don't need all that clear bass! So hopefully someone out there makes a trashier part now. I think they call it the 'Fat Stack' or something like that. I believe only Mercury Magnetics makes a proper 2.6 ohm transformer for these. A friend had an even more rare Brown 3x10' from the early 60's and that had it's transformer replaced just like this one. Speaking of that mismatch, you almost never find one with the original output transformer. A Bassman is just a bit too big for any of my needs. The tone controls are a bit weird and the transformer to speakers is a good mismatch! (4 ohm transformer into a 2.6 ohm load!) That's a part of the sound for better or worse.

They don't work nearly as well in other words. They are part of the evolution to the more refined legendary Bassman amp. What do I like about these? They are raw and primitive. If I ever need to go 'big' again, I may build another one of these for myself, this may be the candidate for what I need. This is the first original one I've had the pleasure of playing, I built one when I had my shop in Portland and sold it soon after. A 1955 Fender Bandmaster with 3 10' Jensen P10R speakers.

Tweed bandmaster 5e7