Musicman HD212

Re: Musicman HD212

as i'm going through the website... maybe you can tell me what you think? especially on the fact that this is a hybrid rather than all-tube?

i've read somewhere that this amp was leo's attempt to blend the fender cleans with marshall dirt?
 
Re: Musicman HD212

I can tell you this: you may have problems finding power tubes that work well in that amp, since the voltages run very high
 
Re: Musicman HD212

There are several models of this amp.

The high/low power switch is nothing but a capacitor.

Try Speaker Surgeon - Jeff is a magicman who know how to get the best from these amps.
 
Re: Musicman HD212

fretburner said:
as i'm going through the website... maybe you can tell me what you think? especially on the fact that this is a hybrid rather than all-tube?

i've read somewhere that this amp was leo's attempt to blend the fender cleans with marshall dirt?

I have a 112RD-100-EVM. The Fender cleans are kinda there, but the Marshall characteristics definitely are not.

The dirty channel is usable, but it's not great. If I had to use it for something, I would use it for that in-between crunch rhythm tone.

The amp is good for a very loud country or blues clean tone, IMO. They're also very dependable gigging amps. Use a pedal or two and I think that the amp would gig just fine. You can find them dirt-cheap, too. I would definitely recommend playing through one before buying it. You might like it, you might not.
 
Re: Musicman HD212

Yeah---it's not quite a BF Fender sound; a little honkier maybe. There was an early version that used 6CA7's, later versions used 6L6GC. All have solidstate preamps, despite the presence of a 12AX7 (for tremolo) that was used in some early models. They will last a long time until they go bad, barring small problems like preamp IC's, etc. But when they go bad, they're gone...
Check for rust on the PT laminations---supposedly a problem with these amps.
 
Re: Musicman HD212

They do not have a Fender clean tone nor do they have a Marshall crunch tone...they sound like a Music Man.

I actually like the tone of a MM amp for what it is...Old live Aerosmith was all MM amps as well as some Clapton from the late 70's or so...lots of tube purists will tell you that they all sound bad but they are just different.

As for the power tubes they use EL34's but they do hit them wiht some massive voltage so don't buy cheap ones!
 
Re: Musicman HD212

I think what made them popular is that they had a half dirty sound with a lot of presence and volume. The Peavey Classic series hybrid amp has a lot of the same sound and are even cheaper. Most people recommend 12ay7's or 12au7's to improve the range of tones.

Soundgarden up to Loud Love was a MM head.
 
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Re: Musicman HD212

the guy who invented fire said:
They do not have a Fender clean tone nor do they have a Marshall crunch tone...they sound like a Music Man.

I actually like the tone of a MM amp for what it is...Old live Aerosmith was all MM amps as well as some Clapton from the late 70's or so...lots of tube purists will tell you that they all sound bad but they are just different.

As for the power tubes they use EL34's but they do hit them wiht some massive voltage so don't buy cheap ones!

Electro-Harmonix EL34s are good right?
 
Re: Musicman HD212

I didn't the find the pair of EH EL34's I tryed to be very tough. They lasted about 6 months in a 50 watt Marshall.

You would probably want big bottle (..aka.."fat boy") 6CA7 tubes, not regular EL34's for that application. One of the Russian manafactures has a re-issue 6CA7 that has recieved rave reviews and found to be high voltage capable.

Remember, some MM's were 6CA7, and some were 6L6GC.
 
Re: Musicman HD212

6CA7 were used. However, a lot of guitar amp (So-called) repair guys switch to EL-34's claiming that there very similar tubes (Liar, liar, pants on fire), most notable are several of the tube resellers (The tube store, Groove tube etc...) There tubes are not the same. The HD212 uses much higher voltage / current with 6CA7 tubes and EL-34 can not REPEAT CAN NOT take that same voltage / current for long. Sure, EL-34 will work for a while, sort of anyway... But the tone is much different.
 
Re: Musicman HD212

sadly, i haven't seen any 6CA7 around here. maybe it's not a very good idea to buy this amp because oh this fact.
 
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