Music Man Sixty Five Bass Head

[midnightsun]

I spyed a Music Man 65 head in a pawn shop for 240 dollars today. It looks like it is in pretty good shape. I can't find any information on this head. The face plate says BASS near the right jack inputs and NORMAL near the left jack inputs. There is a switch on the right channel that says DEEP. I am presuming that this is a 65 watt bass head. I would be interested. It appears as though it has a couple of EL34 and a couple of 12AX tubes. I am interested in getting a low wattage bass amp for studio recording or practice.

Does anybody know about the MM 65?

[midnightsun]

I couldn't resist picking this head up. This is truly a unique beast. It has a couple of 6CA7 National power tubes made in Germany and a single 12AX7 National tube made in Yugoslovia. The amp has a smooth warm tone but spanks hard. I think that the solid state pre amp section with the tube power section is unique indeed. I am glad that is is so totally different that all of my other amps. It works well for bass and for guitar.

[Benlittlejohn]

I just picked up the 1x12 guitar version and am really enjoying it. I dont know much about these amps other than the fact that Eric Claption used them and The Arcade Fire uses them. Driving the preamp hard and running them into bass cabs makes me a very happy man.

My old band used a 130 guitar head into a ampeg 4x10 and 1x15 for bass on our last album. listen to "Helicopter" Deliver Us From Moscow on MySpace Music - Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures & Music Videos

you got quite a good deal price thumbsup.

Enjoy your new amp!!!

[midnightsun]

On the internet I was able to find the Music Man catalog that included my head and it was from 1977. They described there philosophy on circuitry that is very unique and has apparently gone to the way side in guitar/bass amplification. They felt that it was better to have a tube power section and a solid state preamp section. I spent a great deal of time yesterday trying mind out with various speaker cab configurations and various guitars and basses.

For bass my favorite speaker was a 15 inch Aguilar with horns. I really liked the tone and I know that I will be using this configuration for recording with a mic'd cab. For guitar I used a 2x12 Guytron cab with Celestion Vintage 30 and a G12T75 speakers to get a nice blend of clean and dirty.

I have a nice collection of amps with a bunch of different flavors and I have to say that the Music Man 65 is totally unique and a definite keeper. This goes to show that good sound is not about the dollar amount one spends but about what the amp does for the listener.

BenlittleJohn, I went to your MySpace site and took a look and listened to some of your songs including Helicopter. Nice recordings, compositions, and performance.... keep up the good work and keep having fun.

[pan60]

dude!
what a score!!!!!!

congrats, i would love one of those in my little humble collection!
now you will have to post a photo.

[midnightsun]

Originally Posted by pan60

dude!
what a score!!!!!!

congrats, i would love one of those in my little humble collection!
now you will have to post a photo.

Will do with the pics.

FYI for Music Man owners:
The following is a website with a wealth of information about MM
Music Man Amps - Home

Out of Print Music Man Catalogs with good information:
Music Man Amps - Catalogs

[Benlittlejohn]

Originally Posted by midnightsun

Will do with the pics.

FYI for Music Man owners:
The following is a website with a wealth of information about MM
Music Man Amps - Home

Out of Print Music Man Catalogs with good information:
Music Man Amps - Catalogs

you rule!!!

thats goofy that i bought my amp for the list price when it came out.

thanks for listening

ben

[midnightsun]

Pics

[pan60]

Originally Posted by midnightsun

Pics

[Meriphew]

I have a MM Sixty Five Reverb head. It gets fantastic clean tones. Very Fender'ish, which makes sense, considering Leo was involved with these amps.

[teleharmonium]

I like those. They tend to have very high plate voltage on the power tubes, so you might want to have it serviced, to make sure the bias is set properly on the tubes and to check the plate current.

IIRC JJ/Tesla is making a "KT77" which is similar to but can handle higher voltages than most EL34. They used to make an E34L (maybe still do ?) which is a more rugged EL34. If the plate current is too high, a tech can do a mod to add zener diodes to bring it down. Otherwise, they can go through power tubes pretty quickly. In fact I'm pretty surprised that those "Siemens" (RFT) East German EL34s (commonly branded in the US as National or other names) are alive if they've been in one of those amps for any appreciable amount of time; they aren't the most robust of EL34s although they usually sound good.

Hybrid amps with tube power amps can sound great. I've never heard a great hybrid amp the other way 'round.

[midnightsun]

Originally Posted by teleharmonium

I like those. They tend to have very high plate voltage on the power tubes, so you might want to have it serviced, to make sure the bias is set properly on the tubes and to check the plate current.

IIRC JJ/Tesla is making a "KT77" which is similar to but can handle higher voltages than most EL34. They used to make an E34L (maybe still do ?) which is a more rugged EL34. If the plate current is too high, a tech can do a mod to add zener diodes to bring it down. Otherwise, they can go through power tubes pretty quickly. In fact I'm pretty surprised that those "Siemens" (RFT) East German EL34s (commonly branded in the US as National or other names) are alive if they've been in one of those amps for any appreciable amount of time; they aren't the most robust of EL34s although they usually sound good.

Hybrid amps with tube power amps can sound great. I've never heard a great hybrid amp the other way 'round.

thanks for the info

[pan60]

now i am craving another amp head!

[Klap]

Hey!

I joined this forum just so I could comment on your post

I've been playing a MM 64 for over 15 years and to me it's the greatest. It has so much character. When you set the amp to 'low' and crank it up, you'll get this great tube distortion . Probably not suitable for most bassplayers but I really love the amp.

[pootkao]

Love it!

I've got the 130 head.

Bass, guitar, always awesome.
Especially with an SG.

[Vitun_Krapula]

John Dwyer of the Coachwhips/Ohsees was using two Music Man 210 HD130s when I went to see them. Such an awesome garage twang!!! I had to have it! So I grabbed a 410 MM 65 combo off fleabay for just under $500. It should arrive sometime this week.

[SPACEAPE]

John Dwyer does things with those MM HD130s & RE-201 that are just unbelievable. I've got a 130 combo, it's loud as shit. looking to trade for a 65watter.

[John1982]

My uncle played his guitars over a MM 65 head in the late 70's.
The head hasn't been used for several ages now. My uncle don't need it anymore and he gave it to me.
That's the good part of it. The bad part is, that the amp isn't working anymore. I brought it to my local music shop. I hope it's not a big thing.

[Jayrawk]

I purchased a Music Man sixty five today which worked fine when I was at the shop I bought it at. Unfortunately, when I brought it home and plugged it in I couldnt hear anything unless the amp was turned all the way up and then it was just a very distorted sound that was still quiet? The ac light come on, the tubes are glowing, does anybody know what the problem may be and how to fix it? thanks.

[drbob1]

It might be a problem with the output jack being corroded... Try cleaning it with contact cleaner like Caig... Next try reseating the tubes after cleaning the pins with Caig. If that doesn't work, you might need a tech...

[Jayrawk]

Thanks for the reply, I'll give that a go.