# Music Man Amps



## pstratman (Jan 26, 2012)

I'm interested in a used Music man amp from the late 70's or early 80's. Has anyone got one, or used one, etc. Let me know what you like or don't like about these amps. Would they be suitable for small gigs, I hear they are loud and sound very good. Is this correct?


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## bolero (Oct 11, 2006)

I've got one of the RD 65 1x12 combo's, it's a great little amp!!


weighs a ton, so "little" may be the wrong term. but it's a 1x12 combo

gets killer cleans, it has a very cool trem/phaser effect as well

Mark Knopfler used one ( 212 ) on the first Dire Straights album. if you listen to that, it's "what it is" to quote MK himself


clip:

[video=youtube;sbIy_ay9TtU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbIy_ay9TtU[/video]


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## ElectricMojo (May 19, 2011)

They're great amps.
Clapton used them:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvyVCPKvGEc
Johnny Winter used an HD-410, I was half-deaf for a few days after I last saw him in concert though.

​


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## urko99 (Mar 30, 2009)

I had a RD-50 Head in a Blond Corduroy Tolex. Very sorry I sold that one. Great tone, Cleans with plenty of clean headroom. Took pedals very well.
Great value for the money.


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## grumpyoldman (Jan 31, 2010)

I have a first or second year issue MusicMan SixtyFive 1X12 combo with tremolo and reverb. Superb amp, with excellent cleans and takes pedals very well. Mine has the tube phase inverter, before they went to a SS PI. It is a bit heavy, but not too many older amps aren't when you think about it....Mine has a three way power toggle: middle is off, up is full power mode (according to my amp tech, mine puts out something like 75 watts) and down is half power mode (again, according to my amp tech, mine puts out about 30 watts), so it has power if needed but is also very flexible. Mine has the 'reverse' badging of white/silver background with black lettering/figures. If you can find an old, early one, grab it!

I love mine and it is on the 'no-sell' list.

John
thegrumpyoldman


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## gtone (Nov 1, 2009)

Solid, dependable workhorses that can cover a lot of ground. With a pedal or two, you should be able to play almost any style of music outside of metal. Like some BF/SF Fenders, they can be a little fussy with which dirt pedals they play well with, however.


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## dradlin (Feb 27, 2010)

Here is an artist that I recently became aware of, Joanne Shaw Taylor... you can see/hear her Music Man Amp being used in this small venue...

http://youtu.be/vUD530Oy3ck


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## pstratman (Jan 26, 2012)

Great sound from Joanna Taylor's amp. The 70's and early 80's models, are they hand wired, they don't have a circuit board in them do they?


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## jb welder (Sep 14, 2010)

They are all hybrid amps with solid state preamp, tube power amp. All with circuit boards. The earliest ones used EL34 power tubes with a tube phase splitter (12AX7). Then they changed to 6L6 with solid state phase splitter.

They are being resurrected as a partnership with the designer of the Markbass amps. I'm assuming they will use a switch mode power supply to reduce weight like the Markbass.
http://www.music-man.com/amps.html


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## jayoldschool (Sep 12, 2013)

If I am remembering correctly from live performances, Arcade Fire is using Music Man amps. If you want to see a bunch of them in a vintage setting, watch "The Last Waltz"!


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## Robert1950 (Jan 21, 2006)

The new reissues are tentatively scheduled to ship in September. But when they will arrive in Canada, who knows.


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## deadear (Nov 24, 2011)

Robert1950 said:


> The new reissues are tentatively scheduled to ship in September. But when they will arrive in Canada, who knows.


good news there is not much on the used market. Any idea of prices ? and models ?


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## Robert1950 (Jan 21, 2006)

deadear said:


> good news there is not much on the used market. Any idea of prices ? and models ?


This was posted earlier - http://www.music-man.com/amps.html

112RD50 Combo, 212HD130 Combo, HD 130 Reverb head, 4x12 cab

The RD weighs only 26 lbs - neo 1x12 spkr.


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## deadear (Nov 24, 2011)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEvkik_DvGc A couple of clips on these amps http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4t-wQM2MnVk


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## dradlin (Feb 27, 2010)

There are a couple on stage on The Band's Last Waltz show. Clapton is playing through one in this clip...

http://youtu.be/91Eg95vF72k


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## dtsaudio (Apr 15, 2009)

> Then they changed to 6L6 with solid state phase splitter.


Not quite. I just did a friends amp. Solid state phase splitter with EL34 tubes. However he was running 6L6GC tubes in it.


> I'm assuming they will use a switch mode power supply to reduce weight like the Markbass.
> http://www.music-man.com/amps.html


Man, I hope not.


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## jb welder (Sep 14, 2010)

dtsaudio said:


> Not quite. I just did a friends amp. Solid state phase splitter with EL34 tubes. However he was running 6L6GC tubes in it.


Thanks Dan, that's right, they changed over to SS cathode drive with EL34 before the switch to 6L6. The earliest versions with the tube phase splitter seem fairly rare, I think I only ever saw 1 of them.

As far as the switch mode power supplies, I think they must have them. They are marketing the HD130 head as "incredible lightweight package". 33 pounds for a 130 watt head. A JCM800 100W re-issue weighs 54 pounds. I don't know how else you could shave off 20 pounds.

Edit: I see the new HD130 has gone back to EL34 and original 12AX7 driver/phase splitter as opposed to SS cathode drive.


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## dtsaudio (Apr 15, 2009)

Not a fan of switch mode supplies (especially in tube gear). There were some Crate amps using SMPS and every time a tube went, the power supply failed. It also didn't help they had a small design flaw that would disable the supply as well.

I'd like to know how Music Man got away with using 6L6GC tubes in those amps. The one I recently saw had 620 volts plate to cathode.


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## jb welder (Sep 14, 2010)

dtsaudio said:


> I'd like to know how Music Man got away with using 6L6GC tubes in those amps. The one I recently saw had 620 volts plate to cathode.


They biased them very cold, almost into class B. Factory spec for the 50W 6L6 models was about 6mA per tube (25mA across the 3R9 resistor). So about 4watts at your 620V. This is about 13% dissipation. That's how you get away with going way over max. voltage specs. For the 100W 6L6 models, same voltage for each pair of tubes, resulting in half that idle dissipation.
This is a perfect example of why adjusting bias to the 60 - 80% "rule" without taking into account the circuit can be very problematic.


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## mrmatt1972 (Apr 3, 2008)

I had a 410 script logo sixty-five for a while. It was cool, nice cleans, unique bluesy overdrive. I'd consider the new issues coming out if I wasn't leaning heavily towards small and portable modelling at this point.


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## jayoldschool (Sep 12, 2013)

dradlin said:


> There are a couple on stage on The Band's Last Waltz show. Clapton is playing through one in this clip...
> 
> http://youtu.be/91Eg95vF72k


See post #10


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## dtsaudio (Apr 15, 2009)

> They biased them very cold, almost into class B. Factory spec for the 50W 6L6 models was about 6mA per tube (25mA across the 3R9 resistor)


 I was doing a bad job of being sarcastic. But that really is lightly biased. However I can do one even better.
I knew I had seen this output topology somewhere else, so I pulled out the schematic for my long gone Peavey Classic 212. The circuit is very similar. This amp's bias spec was 20 - 40mV measured across 5.6R resistor, with a plate to cathode voltage of aprox 485VDC. How's that for lean. It's amazing the thing even worked at all. But the tubes lasted damn near 10 years before I sold the amp.
With the cathode drive, it is a class B amp.


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