Music Man Amps – More loyal than your dog

Music Man Amp Catalog from 1977

Leo Fender’s second act produced some of the most reliable amps ever made

When I was about 14 years old, I bought a poster at the local record store that was the cover of Eric Clapton’s “Backless” album. I don’t know why I bought it, it just make me think that it was what a musician looked like before he did a gig… all alone, warming up on his guitar before the show.

In this photo, he is sitting in a hotel room, and to his left (your right) you can catch the corner of the amp he is playing through. I always thought that it looked like a Fender, but I knew it wasn’t because of the odd looking logo. I always wondered: “What kind of amp is that?” I think I must have stared at that poster for 6 months, maybe more. For some reason I just couldn’t figure out what kind of amp that was.

Well, I soon discovered that this is not always the case. The problem was that I spent just about all of my money on the head and didn’t have much left for a speaker cabinet. So, I purchased a very cheap 2X12 cabinet. The speakers were horrible and overall, the amp sounded terrible. Fortunately, I was mowing lawns at the time and was able to quickly save up enough to purchase a great speaker cabinet. I’ll never forget the sound of that amp through a good cabinet. It was like I had just bought a new amplifier. Man, that thing sounded so good. It was then that I literally noticed the logo on the outside of the amp. I turned around slowly to look at the poster of Eric Clapton on my wall, and then it hit me: The amp that he is using in the photo is a Music Man. I honestly cannot remember how many different Music Man amps I have owned since 1980, but I’m sure it’s between 10 and 15, if not more. I have been a loyal disciple ever since.

Tone

In m opinion, Music Man amps have one of the most underrated and overlooked clean sounds of the last 35 years. Of course it’s not surprise as they were originally designed by Leo Fender, founder of Fender Instruments. One of the things I like most about the Music Man clean sound is that it is very tight. This is a result of the solid-state pre-amp. In the first few years of production, they used a 12AX7 tube for the pre-amp stage. Shortly after, they switched to a solid-state pre-amp. Many are fooled by the sight of a 12AX7 tube in all Music Man amps. That is the rectifier tube for the reverb, not the pre-amp. I think it is a nice balance. The solid-state pre-amp give you a nice tight, snappy sound, but the tube-based power stage gives you that nice compression and sag that is commonplace with tubes (or “Valves”).

I must admit, I’ve never been a huge fan of the drive channel of most music man amps. If you use the drive channel as your main source of overdrive, I think it’s maybe not their strength. I almost always just use the clean channel, and use an overdrive pedal. Music Man amps have so much headroom, this is, for me, the best option. I will say, you can get some pretty good sound if you use a wee bit of the drive channel in conjunction with a good overdrive pedal. That takes some experimentation, but I’ve gotten some pretty cool sounds that way.

Options

Another really cool aspect of Music Man amps, and a feature that I feel was a bit “Ahead of it’s time”, is the Hi / Low power switch. Most Music Man amps have this feature. The only amps I’ve not seen it on are the small “RD 50″ series combo amps and heads. This is somewhat commonplace today, but usually on the high-end boutique amplifiers like “THD” and Mesa Boogie. What amazes me about Music Man is that back in the day, a reasonably affordable “Working Man’s Amp” had such a cool feature. As many of you know, when you can cut the power in half on your amp, you can get a warmer tone at lower volumes. With the high power setting, you get all the balls and headroom associated with high power amplifiers. What a great feature.

Reliability

Here is where Music Man amps really stole heart. These amps are built like a brick “You know what” house. I have never, ever had one let me down on stage. They are really solid amps and particularly realizable.

Cost

With all this said, I still can’t believe that you can usually get most Music Man amps and heads on eBay for under $600. I’ve gotten a few for quite a bit less than that. Most of the 2X12 models are damm heavy, so you are gonna get killed on shipping. But, other than that, Music Man amps are pound-for-pound, truly reliable, great sounding and affordable amps. I highly recommend them if you play music such as Blues, Rock, Funk, Etc..