Best deal I ever got on an amp

Jason Dumont · From: Bristol, Connecticut, USA

Hi folks!
I was looking for a good amp for my lap steels and I found this incredible sounding 1980(s) Music Man 112 RD combo in amazing condition for.........$275!!!!!

I'm not familure with Music Man amps at all. What is interesting about this amp is that it has a tube power section and solid state pre amp section.
The reverb is wonderful and the clean channel is exactly what I was looking for. It reminds me of a Nashville 400.
I don't play overdiven too much so I haven't really messed around with the "dirty Channel" I just got her Saturday.
Anyone else have experience with these?

Larry Robbins · From: Fort Edward, New York

Congrats on the amp! Musicman is good stuff!! Cool

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Twang to the bone!

Andy Sandoval · From: Bakersfield, California, USA

Jason, I used to own one of those, you got an excellent deal. Enjoy

Bill Creller · From: Saginaw, Michigan, USA (deceased)

Sounds like a heck of a deal Jason. Like what can you buy these days for $275!
Not much. Nice to hear you like the sound. I'm not a big fan of amps with so dam many knobs myself. When you get it tweeked in like you want it, make a note of the settings. Very Happy

Regards BILL

Brad Bechtel · From: San Francisco, CA

Moved to Electronics from Steel Without Pedals.

That's a dead ringer for the MusicMan amp I used back in the 1980s. I thought it was a fine sounding amp, especially on the clean channel. Usually these amps are pretty beat up. They're real workhorse amps.

That's an incredible deal - congratulations!
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Brad’s Page of Steel
A web site devoted to acoustic & electric lap steel guitars

Brint Hannay · From: Maryland, USA

I picked up a 112 RD a couple of years ago. It's an excellent amp! The clean sound is very Fendery, and the most surprising thing to me, considering that the preamp is solid state, is that the "dirty" channel actually sounds quite good, set for low to medium gain!

Al Terhune · From: Newcastle, WA

That's the exact amp I had when I was in NYC in the early 80's with a pop-rock band. What a great amp. Of course, wish I still had it.
_________________
Al

My equipment:

One heck of a Wife
The ghost of a red Doberman
Several pairs of reading glasses strewn about

Joe Butcher · From: Dallas,Texas, USA

MusicMan was the company Leo Fender started after he left Fender. Most of their amps are equivalant to Fender amps (Twin, Vibrolux, etc)
He also developed the MusicMan Stingray bass, whic has become just about the most widely used electric bass ever.
MusicMan is great stuff and can be found alot cheaper than Fender stuff, but you get the same quality, if not better.
Congrats on that one!!

Joe A. Camacho · Posted 27 May 2007 11:28 pm

If you can handle the weight, through en EVM speaker in there, they sound great with those amps.

Rick Alexander · From: Florida, USA, R.I.P.

Jason, congrats - you got a heck of a deal on that amp.
I bought my first Music Man in the 70s, an HD-130 212.
I played it on the road for several years, and it always sounded great.
I still have it, and I got another one just like it on eBay a few years ago.
I had them both recovered in blonde tolex and oxblood grillcloth.
They have recently been fully restored by tube amp genius Andy Oleas and they sound killer.

Music Man amps are probably still the best deals on vintage amps around.

I'd like to get one of the single 15 models . .

Amps

Jason Dumont · From: Bristol, Connecticut, USA

thanks guys, I was up until 2am playing her Very Happy

ahhh holiday weekends!
I seriously think I need to get in a band again!

My God Rick you have an incredible collection of gear. You must have a warehouse to store all your goodies. I have loads of room if you ever need to store some of those Stringmasters Wink

Jim Sliff · From: Lawndale California, USA

Differing opinions on the overdriven sound - IMO it's horrible, and most of the Musicman employees I knew ( I hung out there - my best friend was in QC) hated it as well. They were meant to be absolute clean machines, and the overdrive was an aftethought - Leo and his group didn't go for distortion at Fender, and they were trying for even cleaner sounds at MM. The RD's and HD's don't take OD pedals very well, since there's no tube preamp section to push - but with some distortion pedals you can get a good OD sound. I used a Dyna Red distortion with one and could get it to sing rather nicely. The "holy grail" Musicman amps are the ones with tube preamps - those are amazing amps.

If you listen to Albert Lee, or Eric Clapton's 70's work (the "I shot the Sheriff" and "Lay Down Sally" era) that's all Music Man, and for Clapton a total depature from his earlier Marshall "grind" tones.

MM's are built like tanks and that one was a superb deal. Just as an FYI, things you need to watch for are 1) the EL34's (I assume this is an EL34 and not 6L6 version...the 6L6 ones are rather rare) get slapped with astronomical plate voltages. DO NOT use any modern EL34's - you need good NOS power tubes, which will not be very cheap, but will last quite a while - buy them from someone like Lord Valve or Mike Kropotkin who test them and offer warranties. Russian and Chinese EL34's will flame out in minutes. 2) preamp power transistors have a habit of going bad periodically. If you notice a loss in volume coupled with ratty distortion and a slight hiss, that's likely the source - and it's a cheap repair. 3) the phase inverter (the one preamp-type tube) is critical. It has to be a perfectly balance 12AX7 or 7025 (pretty much the same thing) in order to drive the power tubes properly, Buy a good one that's tested for balance and low noise. 4) to sum up the tube issues, when you buy tubes for it tell the seller what amp the tubes are for (and always replace the driver at the same time as the power tubes) - it makes a huge difference in what they'll sell you.

Put good tubes in it, find a good distortion (not overdrive or fuzz) box for "dirt" tones, and that amp could well be the only thing you'll ever need except for low-volume home playing (the tone doesn't really open up until you hit "5" or so on the volume control, which is LOUD...but sounds tremendous).

Nice score.
_________________
No chops, but great tone
1930's/40's Rickenbacher/Rickenbacker 6&8 string lap steels
1921 Weissenborn Style 2; Hilo&Schireson hollownecks
Appalachian, Regal & Dobro squarenecks
1959 Fender 400 9+2 B6;1960's Fender 800 3+3+2; 1948 Fender Dual-8 Professional

Jason Dumont · From: Bristol, Connecticut, USA

Thanks for the great info Jim. I printed out your post and put it with the schematic in the back of the amp in case I have any of those issues you mentioned.

I agree the distortion isn't all that. I think I'll have some fun looking for some tube drive pedals in the future.
Usually the music I play calls for that clean "shimmery" sound. A very good friend of mine has some Cakewalk software he is putting on my computer so I'm hoping to be able to record some sound samples and fool around a bit.

My main need was for a good clean sound I can test my steels on. This amp is exactly the ticket in that department.

The only problem is I now need a Tele to go with it.
And a drummer....and a bass player and a.....

Jim Sliff · From: Lawndale California, USA

Jerry Hayes · From: Virginia Beach, Va.

Hey Jason, congrats on your great deal, I wish I'd find one at that price. I also have a MusicMan amp but I have the HD-150 212 which has been referred to as a "Twin on Steroids". I've used it on gigs where I doubled on steel and guitar and plugged one instrument into each channel and it sounded great. As far as the overdrive, I never use it as I like the stompbox distortions. My favorite to use with the MM is an old RAT unit that I bought used about 12 or 13 years ago.....JH in Va.
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Don't matter who's in Austin (or anywhere else) Ralph Mooney is still the king!!!

Tony Dingus · From: Kingsport, Tennessee, USA

Weldon Myrick used a Music Man on his Pedalman album. Sounded great.

Tony

Brint Hannay · From: Maryland, USA

Tastes differ, and of course there's no reason to "defend" my opinion, but regarding the distortion sound of the 112 RD:

I did say "considering that the preamp is solid state". Meaning I started out with the lowest possible expectations, and was thus surprised to find a fairly good overdriven sound.

Much depends on the EQ settings, which of course are shared with the clean channel. I don't know what settings you guys are using, but for both clean and dirty I have the Bright and Deep switches OFF, Treble 4, Mid 3, Bass 5, and the "dirty" channel Gain from 3-5. I find (using a Telecaster) this gives a nice Fendery clean sound and a tube-ish, "Stones"-y overdrive sound which responds to dynamic changes (pick attack or guitar volume), which I definitely didn't expect from what I expected would be a very cheesy solid state circuit.

I don't use the amp for gigs, just playing at home. I'll admit I couldn't rely on the overdrive for gigging purposes. Lots of clean headroom, though. I also have an RP100 that was my gigging guitar amp for a number of years, with external distortion. (The phaser--excuse me, "Phasør"--now that's cheesy!)

Incidentally, mine has the 6L6s and the EV speaker. And I got it, in 4 0ut 0f 5 condition, for $100!

Nathan Golub · From: Durham, NC

Jason, I have that exact same model amp. It was my first "real" guitar amp, and I still have it, though yours looks a lot better than mine does. It's a great all purpose amp that's built like a tank, and they can get LOUD. When I first got it I was using the distortion on it, but since then moved on to some nicer OD and distortion pedals. Recently I kicked the distortion back on again and it struck me as pretty harsh, but like anything else it has its place. There're some website forums specifically for MM amps if you search around a bit.

Congrats on the great find!

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