For Benson's ten year anniversary a very special project is being unveiled called the Benmaster.
The 2nd amp Christopher Benson ever built was a clone of the 5E7 Fender Bandmaster, a semi-mythical model from the tweed era featuring 3 10” speakers. Benson's clone was true point to point inside an old organ chassis. He came up with the layout and learned a TON about parasitics and grounding in that chassis - stuff he still uses today. When Benson finally got it working it sounded incredible. He made a mini stack cabinet set for it, and he picked out a striped fabric that he covered in some stinky finish, and it was done. After hearing it, bands started borrowing the amp for shows around town.
Later, after building and analyzing hundreds of circuits, Benson finally understood the exotic why and how of the 5E7 circuit’s majesty; on its face it’s everything the 5F6A Bassman is not. The Bandmaster has the worst power supply, phase inverter, tone stack, transformers, etc. for a clean and direct sound - everything about it seems custom designed to create a compressed, greasy bark with a glorious halo around it. It had to be an accident, but what an accident!
Benson shares an appreciation for this particular tweed era circuit with a long time customer and friend. The customer sent Benson an original Bandmaster to study. He then called and proposed that Benson go back to his roots, with the knowledge he has today, and make a limited run of his ideal version of this great amp for himself, for the customer, and for some of their friends. After thinking it over, Benson decided to go for it.
According to Benson, the process of creating this very special amp has been a joy and an adventure. The original example from the '50s had a capacitor value that is dramatically different than the widely available 5E7 schematic. It looks original, and it also sounds better than the schematic value. 5E7s are so rare in the wild, there is no way to know what is what, but Benson went with the better sounding one. Finding the right speakers was its own journey. Finally it all came together and Benson is totally thrilled with the gutsy, pure rock and roll tone this machine creates.
- Power: 35 watts
- Tubes: 2x5881, 2x12AX7, 1x5AR4
- Speakers: 3 Weber 10A125A lightly doped
- Transformer set: custom Soursound
- Cabinet: dovetailed pine w/ birch ply baffle
- Controls: Volume, Treble, Bass, Presence
- Dimensions/weight: 24" X 10" X 23.5" / 20.6 lbs
The 2nd amp Christopher Benson ever built was a clone of the 5E7 Fender Bandmaster, a semi-mythical model from the tweed era featuring 3 10” speakers. Benson's clone was true point to point inside an old organ chassis. He came up with the layout and learned a TON about parasitics and grounding in that chassis - stuff he still uses today. When Benson finally got it working it sounded incredible. He made a mini stack cabinet set for it, and he picked out a striped fabric that he covered in some stinky finish, and it was done. After hearing it, bands started borrowing the amp for shows around town.
Later, after building and analyzing hundreds of circuits, Benson finally understood the exotic why and how of the 5E7 circuit’s majesty; on its face it’s everything the 5F6A Bassman is not. The Bandmaster has the worst power supply, phase inverter, tone stack, transformers, etc. for a clean and direct sound - everything about it seems custom designed to create a compressed, greasy bark with a glorious halo around it. It had to be an accident, but what an accident!
Benson shares an appreciation for this particular tweed era circuit with a long time customer and friend. The customer sent Benson an original Bandmaster to study. He then called and proposed that Benson go back to his roots, with the knowledge he has today, and make a limited run of his ideal version of this great amp for himself, for the customer, and for some of their friends. After thinking it over, Benson decided to go for it.
According to Benson, the process of creating this very special amp has been a joy and an adventure. The original example from the '50s had a capacitor value that is dramatically different than the widely available 5E7 schematic. It looks original, and it also sounds better than the schematic value. 5E7s are so rare in the wild, there is no way to know what is what, but Benson went with the better sounding one. Finding the right speakers was its own journey. Finally it all came together and Benson is totally thrilled with the gutsy, pure rock and roll tone this machine creates.
- Power: 35 watts
- Tubes: 2x5881, 2x12AX7, 1x5AR4
- Speakers: 3 Weber 10A125A lightly doped
- Transformer set: custom Soursound
- Cabinet: dovetailed pine w/ birch ply baffle
- Controls: Volume, Treble, Bass, Presence
- Dimensions/weight: 24" X 10" X 23.5" / 20.6 lbs