Is that a Musicman bass amp?

[Bunyo]

http://img15.allegroimg.pl/photos/or...7/1616233786_1

Guy selling it here in Poland says that it has SS preamp and 4 EL34.
Looks like Musicman but nthere is no name on it.

[JimmyM]

nope, not a music man.

[Bunyo]

So what to heck is that???

[coreyfyfe]

Sounds like a copy of a musicman amp. They had the sixty-five, which was a solidstate pre with 2x 6CA7/EL34s and the 130/150 which were the same but larger in size and had 4x 6CA7/EL34s.

[Bunyo]

Guys whats your experience with such a hybrids. SS on pre and tubes on poweramp?

[BassmanPaul]

IMO such hybrids keep the problems of a full tube amp and the sound of a SS one. Trace had a similar concept, a GP12 style pre-amp with a 300W tube output stage.

My preference is the tube front end and a SS power section. I feel it's a better way to transform power into a low impedance load.

[JTE]

At the time (mid '70s to early '80s) SS pres and tube power amps made a lot of sense. And I really liked my Music Man HD-130. Much better sound and more authority than the competing Fender Bassman 100/135. I was a Fender dealer, not a MM dealer, and still opted for the Music Man.

BTW, the amp in the original post bears almost no resemblence to the Music Man amps.

John

[T-Bird]

Hi.

There was no shortage of eastern block copies of the western amps back in the day, so another vote for a "clone".

That does NOT mean that it's a bad amp by default though. It doesn't mean that it shares anything but the outside appearance with the MM either.

It all depends of the price, and how the amp performs.

Originally Posted by BassmanPaul

IMO such hybrids keep the problems of a full tube amp and the sound of a SS one. Trace had a similar concept, a GP12 style pre-amp with a 300W tube output stage.

^What Paul said.

My experience of such hybrids are limited to the two MM guitar amp examples a guitarist buddies of mine had back in the day and the experience was not a very good one. There was some reliability issues (on the SS side) and the tone was not that good.

Regards
Sam

[kosmicwizard]

As a Valve nut, let me say that this head has nothing that an Ampeg CL pre-amp can't fix ... if the price is right. Try it out (LOUDLY), your ears will know if it has potential. All the best, Cheers.