Hi folks. Long time listener, first time caller type here. I've been reading nearly every post in each sub forum of these message boards for years. And I've maintained/repaired all my MM amps with knowledge gleaned from these very pages. So I owe big thanks to Steve Kennedy and several of the long time posters here for just being here sharing their expertise and insights to people like me. I learned a whole lot about these amps, and saved a bundle in repairs & maintenance - enough to buy more Music Man amps!
Which brings me to my new Sixty Five 112 recently acquired in a swap. 100% original condition so I got right to work and just finished replacing filter/bias/rectifier board caps & a few diodes & resistors. She looks/sounds great & ready to go another 30 or so years. That's what brings me here to brag about the amp, and all of my MM amps. Each has it's own personality within the Music Man sound. Most have beautiful clean tone and little breakup or overdriven sounds outside of the top end of the channel volume. Not this amp.
This one is a different animal than the others. Low or hi, there is still a little hair on the clean, if you know what I mean. I play telecasters mostly and the clean tone starts out a little rough on the edges. I like it. It's pretty growly on the low power setting starting from silence and increasing as the channel volume goes up. Once past the sweet spot, around 6-7, the tone definitely degrades like all my others do. But throughout the entire volume sweep, it's a more unrefined tone compared to every other MM amp I've had. More lo-fi vs. hi-fi.
I'm not sure it's the phase inverter tube because my HD130 has a tube p.i. and it's tone is much much cleaner. Maybe the LM307H opamps? Does this sound similar to what others have heard with the earlier amps?
And the tremolo on this model is great too, but strong. It's very square wave sounding by 3 and gives the helecopter sound at 5. From then, it's right into the doubled thing and then it's just craziness.
Anyway, this one will become one of my main stage amps now. At least it's in the rotation.
I have some photos. Here's the Sixty Five 112, a short stack, and the venerable HD150 212.
Nice collection. I"m envious
Nice collection. I"m envious. I don't play out much anymore so my stuff rarely gets used but my 2-10-65 also has a llittle hair in it. I actually like it that way. I could go in and fix it but it records well this way so it's staying that way! Mike.
They all get played too.
Thanks for responding, Mike. You're one of the longtime members I mentioned above. Thanks for being here all these years discussing these amps with everyone.
I've been slowly collecting amps over 20 yrs. to my wife's chagrin. Many Fenders too. Different rigs for different gigs, but none of them sit unplayed. The Sixty Five 112 saw about 2 hrs. practice time today and I think it's sounding even better now that it's had some juice flowing through the new components.
There was a high frequency artifact trailing behind notes that seems to have dissipated. It seemed more pronounced with added reverb, so I sent the reverb into the left channel (bass on 5, treble on 2). Now the amp produces a nice deep reverb with no harsh decay. Really nice tone and something I recommend if anyone wants to tame their reverb.
This is the only MM amp I've ever needed to keep on the hi setting for clean tone. It's got EH 6CA7 power tubes, and I've read they can handle the voltage. We'll see how it weathers it's first 4 hr. gig in a few weeks.