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fender bassman 135 or music man hd 130

Discussion in 'Amps and Cabs [BG]' started by contrabassie, Nov 25, 2005.

  1. Nov 25, 2005 #1
    contrabassie

    contrabassie

    Mar 11, 2003
    Belgium
    I was searching for a vintage bass amp and cab for a few weeks. And no, in two days, i got two offers:

    - a fender bassman 135 with the original matching 4x12 cab
    - a music man hd 130 with an eden 4x10 cab (8 ohms).

    Which one should I choose? The music man is a bit more expensive.

    This is an urgent one: I have to decide tomorrow or the day after.
     
  2. Nov 25, 2005 #2
    DeadRBassistNJ

    DeadRBassistNJ

    Nov 22, 2004
    Central Jersey Shore
    Which Eden 4x10 cab is it?
     
  3. Nov 25, 2005 #3
    ihixulu

    ihixulu Supporting Member

    Mar 31, 2000
    South Shore MA
    I'd go for the HD130.
     
  4. Nov 25, 2005 #4
    contrabassie

    contrabassie

    Mar 11, 2003
    Belgium
    You can put 540 watt on it, they've told me.
     
  5. Nov 25, 2005 #5
    The 0x

    The 0x

    Aug 24, 2003
    Timonium, MD
    Having owned both heads, i'd go for the Bassman 135. It sounds better when pushed, although the MM has a rounder low end. The MM however when pushed sounds horrible. Both are extremely hard on tubes. Quality tubes in these heads are a must. They're both excellent amps, but I prefer the Bassman 135, and feel stupid for trading mine for Ben Clarkes' HD130. :bawl:
     
  6. Nov 26, 2005 #6
    contrabassie

    contrabassie

    Mar 11, 2003
    Belgium
    Some extra info about the two combinations:

    the fender bassman is with the original 4x12 cab, but new speakers: blackwidow speakers

    the musicman hd 130 is with an eden D410-T cab.
     
  7. Nov 26, 2005 #7
    mike_v_s

    mike_v_s

    Jul 5, 2004
    an ignore list near you
    How is the 4x12 configured? Fender produced a Bassman 4x12 with all four of the drivers angled towards the center. If this is the cabinet offered with 135....have fun; I found it to be completely useless for bass.

    While I can't imagine that this cabinet was actually tuned for any driver, or that the Black Widows installed could actually make the cabinet sound worse...it is generally accepted that you just don't throw a new set of drivers in when the old ones ain't doing it.

    Another issue to consider: I don't recall Peavey producing a 12 Black Widow bass speakers.

    That is all.

    Mike
     
  8. Nov 26, 2005 #8
    contrabassie

    contrabassie

    Mar 11, 2003
    Belgium
    Thanks for the info. I think I go for the musicman with the eden cab. I've heard some other bad things about these angled cabs.

    The Musicman has a solidstate preamp. Anyone familiar with that? Are there two kinds of hd 130's? With and without tube preamp?
     
  9. Nov 26, 2005 #9
    jvb

    jvb

    Jul 11, 2005
    Canberra, Australia

    AFAIR all the HD Music Man amps had a solid state pre-amp. Early ones had a valve/tube phase splitter, later ones had a solid state phase splitter stage. The early ones are more collectible, but I don't recall they sounded that much better.

    There was a 50w guitar combo called the RD50 which had a valve distortion channel and solid state clean channel. I had one of these in the early 80's and the dirty channel was brilliant but the clean channel, um, wasn't.