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Topic: Music Man 115 HD One Fifty |
Tommy Detamore
From:
Floresville, Texas
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Posted 25 Jul 2000 5:22 am |
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I picked one of these up pretty cheap to mess around with. It has a newly reconed 15" EV speaker, solid state preamp and tube power section. Has anyone had any experiences with these amps? It sounds pretty good, but the tubes (6L6GC) are mismatched and look pretty old.This amp gets quite loud and while staying clean. The reverb stinks, and instead of tremolo the have this kinda goofy phasor thing. What would be a good brand of tube to go with? Would I need to rebias this amp? I have a schematic (downloadable from the Ernie Ball website, chassis #2275-150) Also, for some reason the low power setting has no effect. Any input would be appreciated!
Tommy |
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Robert Parent
From:
Gillette, WY
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Posted 25 Jul 2000 7:02 am
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I have two Music Man amplifiers and I am very happy with both the 50 and the 100 watt version.
The Music Man amps I own do not require rebias when you replace the power tubes. The only time I had to tweek anything was when one of the power transistors used in the tube bias circuit has to be replaced when it shorted due to a broken tube many years back. The transistor did not have an exact replacement so I had to tweek the circuit to work with the replacement.
I have tried various tubes of the years and like the old Sylvania (sp?) tubes which were the originals. The next best were some of the Russian tubes. I had bad luck with the Chinese produced tubes so I would avoid them. I can dig you up some names but they escape me at the moment.
As for the high/low power switch setting. I can't tell much difference with mine at reasonable volume levels. You will notice a difference if you push the amp a bit. The low setting will soft clip.
Good luck with your amp, I am sure you will like it. |
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Bill Terry
From:
Bastrop, TX
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Posted 25 Jul 2000 10:37 am
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Hey Tommy,
Nice to see you're around, how's things down your way?
I'm going to try some Svetlana 6L6's. A good friend of mine and fellow forum guy Rod Shuffler really likes 'em and suggested I give them a try. Not real expensive either, Rod buys his through this guy:
http://users.erols.com/bluestat/#a6l6
Drop me a line when you're gonna be working up this way some time, I'd like to come out and visit.
------------------
bterry.home.netcom.com
[This message was edited by Bill Terry on 25 July 2000 at 11:38 AM.] |
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Lefty
From:
Grayson, Ga.
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Posted 25 Jul 2000 4:36 pm
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I have 2 of the Musicman HD-130 2-12 amps. These were the models before the HD-150. With the 150 they added the "phasor" and deleted the tremolo, and I have heard they have sharper treble response. Mine have been good amps. I had each repaired once (a similier problem as Roberts).
One has a solid state preamp, and the other has a tube preamp. The tube is a bit warmer for guitar, but for steel solid state should sound fine. I have Sovtek EL-34 tubes in the tube preamp one, with 2 evm-12Ls and it sounds great. I have Groove tube EL-34 (Swetlana) with JBL's in the other and they sound pretty good. These are good amps, and a good value. With the EVM-15 it should be nice for steel, with a little tweeking. |
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Mike Fried
From:
Nashville, TN, USA
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Posted 27 Jul 2000 10:34 am
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| The 150 series runs much hotter plate voltages than its predecessor, the 130's. That's how they increased the output power from 130 to 150 watts. You definately need to be running high-quality, matched power tubes and it WILL need to be biased by a tech. While the 130's used EL34/6CA7 tubes, the 150's are wired for 6L6-types. (You should look at the tube chart in the cabinet, though, to make sure. If it specifies 6CA7's you can use either type.) I would recommend using military 5881's or 7581A's in this amp, as they will handle the higher-than-standard plate voltages better than the commercial-grade 6L6's. [This message was edited by Mike Fried on 27 July 2000 at 11:36 AM.] |
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Lefty
From:
Grayson, Ga.
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Posted 28 Jul 2000 4:02 pm
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| These amps were the choice of players in the seventies such as Albert Lee, Eric Clapton, Mark Knofler, Johnny Winter, and Alabama. I don't think they will ever be as collecable as Fenders, but are solid and fairly priced. |
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Rich Paton
From:
Santa Maria, CA.,
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Posted 29 Jul 2000 2:42 am
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I had a MusicMan "210-65" amp, which I should have kept. Some variations of MM amps using 6CA7's had the solid state preamp with a 12AX7 phase inverter/driver stage. Later built units had a transistor in this function. The general concenses is that the amps with the 12AX7 sound much better.
Mike is quite correct; the MM's with 6CA7 output tubes may have very high B+ values on the output tubes. The amp I had measured 725 Volts DC at the output transformer center tap (with no input signal). A Fender Twin Reverb amp, in comparison, has around 460 Volts DC at the same point.
I think an MM amp with the 12AX7 and 6CA7's
playing into (a) JBL speaker(s) would make an excellent rig for the clean, punchy, twangy Telecaster player.
[This message was edited by Rich Paton on 29 July 2000 at 03:46 AM.] |
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