seaboy
HI,I just found this place about a month ago and this is my first post!I'm just getting into surf guitar after playing bass in radio rock for,well,WAYYY to many years.I'm trying to get a rig together and I keep on seeing the 70's musicman amps going for some pretty do-able $$$.What do you guys think of them?Also is there any surf music scene to speak of in the Atlanta area? I live about 30 mi. south.

                                                   Thanks-JB

I owned one years ago, traded it in on a 50W Marshall head, and never regretted it in the least (still have the 50W)

Don't get me wrong, they're an OK amp but they're very clean (might be good for surf) and when cranked the distortion leaves much to be desired.
They (or at least most of them) have a solid state preamp with clipping diodes for overdrive so they lack the sweet tone and dynamics of an all tube amp. They sound kind of compressed and brittle too as I remember.

I know country guys seem to like them...and they're built like a tank.

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Thanks, I'll stay away from them! However I just can't afford vintage fender.What would you suggest for a 40 yr. old guy who is on a "two teenage daughters budgett"?

                                            Thanks  JB

Maybe a Hot Rod would work for you, they're tube amps, they're in the $600-$800 range and I've heard them and they're really good for surf.

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spy
For surf music,don't even think about it!
They're crap!
Save your money and buy something else......

That's sort of what I was trying to say...just in a more laid back less direct sort of a way

WoodyJ
For guitar, and depending on your needs volume-wise, and considering that you are on the "family" budget (I've been there as well ) either a reissue Fender Deluxe Reverb or Twin Reverb are top notch surf amps. Clean ones can be found on eBay in the $500-750 range.

I've got a Deluxe Reverb but my concern with it is that in a band situation it might not have enough clean headroom/volume.

How about the Super Reverb? I've heard good and bad opinions about it for surf music. It seems to be despised by some almost as much as the Stratocaster is for surf but some guys use them, right?...

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They're getting higher in price, but if you can put together $750 to $1000, you should be able to find yourself an early SF Vibrolux, Pro Reverb or Twin. Better than the re-issues, at not much more cost, so that'd be my recommendation. You might save $200 with another amp, but you'll get way more amp for your money going with the SF.

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JB, all the amps that are suggested are far more better than Musicman. And are at the same price....
I think 70's Musicman are at the $600-800 range.Am I right?

Every word is like an unecessary stain on silence and nothingness.

specifically, what musicman amp are we talking about? i've heard the HD130 is the same circuit as a bassman only with more wattage, different power tubes, and a solid-state preamp... Leo originally wanted his Fender amps to be used with EL34's, so if anything, it is closer to his original vision than vintage Fender amps themselves. also, EL34's aren't good for the Musicman amps, i heard they cannot handle enough voltage; go with a big-bottle 6CA7 for the best sound out of them-they are higher wattage than a regular EL34.

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afaik musicman made amps with tube preamp and ss poweramp, as well as amps with a ss preamp and a tube poweramp as well as all-tube amps. see this chart

Ive heard a few, some lacked the typical tube warmth but had a killer clean slap-in-the-face sound, other did sound very warm. they're used quite a bit in jazz too. of course evryone you hear will use his amp the way it sounds best, so I may not have heard the bad overdriven tones and whatever, but I never heard a bad sounding musicman.
whether they give the sound you want is a whole other question, and completely depends on which model you'll want (and I wouldnt be able to advise anyway)

anyway, moral of the story: saying musicmans at large "are not good for surf" is just as pointless as saying "Fender amps are" (which as we all know is untrue for over half of what Fender puts on the market these days. Musicmans have a reputation of being very solid roadworthy amps though.

that said, if they are in the 700 range, a silverface fender combo is a better bang for the buck imo.

my 2 cts worth.

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JoshHeartless
EL34's aren't good for the Musicman amps, i heard they cannot handle enough voltage; go with a big-bottle 6CA7 for the best sound out of them-they are higher wattage than a regular EL34.

Yeah, the musicman hd-130 was not designed with the EL34 in mind, it was designed with the Sylvania 6CA7 (yes, 6CA7's are different tubes), so most people stick any crappy EL34 in it and expect it to work the same. It is meant to be an extremely clean amp, with a ridiculously high plate voltage that cooks lesser tubes, it isn't really meant to be a marshall amp with a great overdrive.
For bass though, an extremely clean amp is the ticket, and this is a great place to start.

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IvanP

ShaunNecro
For bass though, an extremely clean amp is the ticket, and this is a great place to start.

A bass player from my old Shadows tribute band (the Troubadours) used one of these for bass, and it sounded really great, very vintage and warm but with sufficient clarity.

Ivan

Did it have enough power to keep up? Thats my only worry about this amp. I would be using it with a 2X15 cab with high sensitivity speakers

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