music man amps?

[Sub1 Zero]

i have seen a few music man all tube heads on ebay recently. what do you think about them? would you choose them over brands such as B52, peavey, carvin, marshall, etc.? thanks for your time

 

[John C]

i have seen a few music man all tube heads on ebay recently. what do you think about them? would you choose them over brands such as B52, peavey, carvin, marshall, etc.? thanks for your time

Being that I'm something of an "old timer" (and how I hate to type that) I had a Music Man RD-50 back when I was in college - I owned it from 1981-1986.

Never really got to crank it up much, but I remember it having a lot of clean headroom. The gain channel on mine was decent, but not great.

Regardless of what anyone says, these are not all-tube amps; they are hybrid amps with a solid-state preamp and a tube power amp. Some series had a 100% solid state preamps circuits for both channels; others, like my old RD-50, had one preamp tube for the gain channel - kind of like having a Tube Driver-type overdrive box built into the amp.

Here is a site on the old amps:

http://www.musicmanamps.com/

 

[Dakine]

Depends on music/tone/sound that you are going for dominantly.
Unfortunately not heard of an amp that covers ALL tone so what tone are you leaning towards? Clean,Jazz,Rock,Metal,Thrash,Pop etc. Will help to advise

 

[Sub1 Zero]

i play a lot of heavy stuff, but i also like lyrical stuff, so i don't like things to be one-track. thats why i will never buy an amp for its distortion, instead i will use a pedal

 

[Dakine]

Depends a little were you live too I guess.
I am moving back to the UK and some makes are more accessable there.
These are ones I am checking out (by what I mean);
ENGL
Metamp
Cornford

All tube amps with ALOT of range and stunning reviews.

 

[Colin]

Depends a little were you live too I guess.
I am moving back to the UK and some makes are more accessable there.
These are ones I am checking out (by what I mean);
ENGL
Metamp
Cornford

All tube amps with ALOT of range and stunning reviews.

Are Cornford expensive in the UK? Here in Australia they're ridiculously expensive

 

[spkirby]

Cornford aren't cheap in the UK, but since they are built in England they are considerably cheaper than the other (imported) high end brands such as mesa boogie, soldano, thd, rivera,bad cat etc

Have a Cornford Hurricane and love it!

 

[Dakine]

I am leaning towards an ENGL Screamer combo but keep hearing amazing things about Metamp so dunno.
Guess will wait and see when I actually return to Ole Blighty this summer.

 

[fbecir]

Hello

Steve Morse is now using ENGL amps with Deep Purple ... I think I will have to check one
ENGL is a german bradn so we can expect quality.

Bye

 

[beej]

If you're into heavy stuff, MM amps may not be your cup of tea.

You can find lots of great channel switching amps that will cover all the ground you need - clean to heavy. (Or yeah, use a disortion pedal if that's the sound you're going for.)

 

[Dakine]

Cool Soundclip site for ENGL/Splawn/Madison;

http://www.rocksolidamps.com/sounds.php

 

[JDouglee]

I had an HD 130 head that I played for years & years. Sounded great.

But I used it with pedals only for gain.

 

[Sub1 Zero]

thanks guys. i went with a carvin 100 watt tube head, got a steal on it on evilbay. cant wait to plug it in and play!

 

[goldsilo]

I have a 210-65 and an HD-150 w/ a 15 inch EV. I love them both. They are very versatile just not on the fly. So if you need quick tone changes at a gig these wouldn't be the amps for you.

Ryan

 

[Tim O'Sullivan]

I am leaning towards an ENGL Screamer combo but keep hearing amazing things about Metamp so dunno.
Guess will wait and see when I actually return to Ole Blighty this summer.

If you get one that works, they sound amazing. The UK distributor is very poor at after sales service, and does not have a UK warehouse. The goods are shipped direct from Germany. I had a very poor Engl experience and lost over a grand.