Question Musicman HD130 210 Settings?

[indytone]

Hi!

I recently acquired a minty Music Man HD130 210 and am wondering what sort of settings you more seasoned players typically use to get different tones. I've read to be careful of the bright switch on these because you can overdo it and get pretty harsh tones from the amp (which sometimes is desirable, sometimes not).

So, I guess I'm looking for a few good ol' standby settings to start my tone search from. Anyone have any suggestions?

 

[douglasspears]

I got an HD130 2x12 a few months ago.

I use a much less trebly and more bassy tone than most probably would. That said, when using my Axis SS (usually on neck humbucker) I usually have the Bright switch off, Treble at 2-3, Middle at 8-10 and Bass at 7-8. A touch of Reverb, maybe 3. I set the channel's Volume knob around 4 to keep a clean tone while allowing some slight overdrive/gain (get my dirty from Tube Screamer) and use the Master to control actual level/volume. Noodling by myself I usually have the Master at 2, when playing with drums, bass and other guitar I have Master around 4-5.

I've been told over and over to turn Master to 10 and control "level/volume" with the Volume knob, but I keep going back to what I described above. I like to have a consistent amount of overdrive/gain regardless of what the overall Master level is set at.

I also have a hollowbody with humbuckers, it's more muddy than the Axis, so I flip the Bright switch on when using that guitar.

Good times!

 

[indytone]

Awesome. Thank you! Can't wait to start messing with tones when I get home.

 

[douglasspears]

now that I think about it, I may have settled on a little more Treble (3-4) when the Bright switch if off. I think.

Also, since these amps have 2 seperate channels....so you can run your guitar into input 1 of Channel 1, then run a cable from input 2 of Channel 1 into intput 1 of Channel 2 and get some interesting tonal options by tweaking both Channel's tone knobs. I've read that some people getting very unusual (good kind of unusual) tones coming from doing this, but honestly the little I've toyed around with doing this, I haven't really stumbled into anything that interesting. I just usually go back to Channel 2 and get the tremelo going!

I assume your's have the option of running at 65 or 130 watts. I usually just run at 65 watts, it sounds fine, and I think it'll allow the tubes to last longer.

Like I said, I've only had mine a few months, so I'm still tweaking and experimenting as well!