I always had a feeling that these would sound good but never got round to trying one. When Dawg came down to London we hit a vintage guitar shop in Chelsea & had a little play with a blackguard through the shop's demo amp, a 70s musicmaster bass amp. I must say I was impressed with the amp enough to get one. No that's wrong, whatever it's a nice guitar, try this;
I got it for a song off the bay from Scotland with a "pick up only" which I reckon put a lot of people off bidding. So I got it collected by DPD through work. Pot codes date it to 1976 (a great summer for me) At 12 watts it's a great indoor amp & now resides in my office. I know 70s siverfaces get a bad rap but I reckon the cheapo speakers they were using was mostly to blame. This has a Fane replacement & it sounds excellent. I have a few 12" speakers kicking around & I will experiment with different drivers but the Fane sounds great.
I've never really had any opinion on Fanes. I know Dave Gilmour has them in his 4x12 wem cab that he's used forever. I'm a Brit & Celestions are everywhere & I've always been happy with them, especially blues.
Those make a nice platform for experimenting.Very simple circuit.Basiacaly a Champ with PP output and a transformer PI.Friend has one,a bunch of years ago we changed it to 6L6 from the 6V6 output,biased it fairly hot to get some grind out of that output.It was never real good as a bass amp so he wanted to use it for guitar,we put a more guitar friendly speaker in it and it made a decent guitar amp.
I did have one. Mine was kind of a basket case when I got it. It sat in someone's basement for a few years so there was some mold on it (thankfully not on the cone). All the metal (except the faceplate) was rusted, the handle was missing, the ground pin was broken off, as was the switch. Pilot light was missing too.
Once I got all that taken care of (never got around to fixing the switch, but a pick or cable would get it switched ok), it sounded great. It was a decent house amp, though still a bit loud. I really would have liked to hold on to it, but had an opportunity to make $300 on it, so it had to go. I'm still kind of kicking myself for it. The good news is I'm good friends with the guy that bought it, and he knows I want first crack if he sells it.
On input 2, it stayed relatively clean, but would still break up nicely toward the top end. On input one most of my guitars would break up around 12 o'clock and get down right distorted around 2 o'clock. Dimed with Filters or my Surf 90s it was a killer punk rock sound. The Mean 90s in my Gibson loved this amp. All kinds of P90s sounded good, but those really sang.
Mine had a different speaker (pics below), that had a tiny magnet, so that may be why it broke up more for me. The other thing is I set up my guitars as hot as I can. Definitely more output than those Danos (nice guitars btw).
I only had my MMB for a few months, and didn't get to play it as much as I should have, but it was a cool amp, and if I came on a deal on one again I'd scoop it up. The one I had I paid $50 for, and I know I'll never get one for that again.
Another thing I just remembered, it's wired on an eyelet board, and from what I read on a few forums is a really good intro to amp modding. That was my intent, but again, I couldn't pass up making that kind of dough on it at the time.
Damn, now I need to ask Paul if he wants to sell it back...
My new amp LOVES the dano on the left ('62 4021) sparkle & chime for days. I can't believe such a cheap set-up can sound so good. I've just finished fiddling with the '62 dano, a few bridge post issues & it's now playing & sounding great, so I want to enjoy it for a while but if I decide to let it go I'll contact you Tzar.
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I always had a feeling that these would sound good but never got round to trying one. When Dawg came down to London we hit a vintage guitar shop in Chelsea & had a little play with a blackguard through the shop's demo amp, a 70s musicmaster bass amp. I must say I was impressed with the amp enough to get one.
No that's wrong, whatever it's a nice guitar, try this;
I got it for a song off the bay from Scotland with a "pick up only" which I reckon put a lot of people off bidding. So I got it collected by DPD through work. Pot codes date it to 1976 (a great summer for me) At 12 watts it's a great indoor amp & now resides in my office.
I know 70s siverfaces get a bad rap but I reckon the cheapo speakers they were using was mostly to blame. This has a Fane replacement & it sounds excellent. I have a few 12" speakers kicking around & I will experiment with different drivers but the Fane sounds great.
What a fine sight in a budget but great sounding kind of way
Nice amp. With a Fane no less! I'd say you are definitely in "right place right time" territory.
I've never really had any opinion on Fanes. I know Dave Gilmour has them in his 4x12 wem cab that he's used forever. I'm a Brit & Celestions are everywhere & I've always been happy with them, especially blues.
Even flat out it never flaps out & loses the plot. Still pretty clean, just a bit more compressed & overdriven but not too much.
I think Ripley and Fauves have or had one of these and were pretty pleased with em.
Yeah I liked mine a lot, only got rid of it to get a guitar I wanted. If I saw another cheap there is a very good chance I would have another.
Those make a nice platform for experimenting.Very simple circuit.Basiacaly a Champ with PP output and a transformer PI.Friend has one,a bunch of years ago we changed it to 6L6 from the 6V6 output,biased it fairly hot to get some grind out of that output.It was never real good as a bass amp so he wanted to use it for guitar,we put a more guitar friendly speaker in it and it made a decent guitar amp.
I did have one. Mine was kind of a basket case when I got it. It sat in someone's basement for a few years so there was some mold on it (thankfully not on the cone). All the metal (except the faceplate) was rusted, the handle was missing, the ground pin was broken off, as was the switch. Pilot light was missing too.
Once I got all that taken care of (never got around to fixing the switch, but a pick or cable would get it switched ok), it sounded great. It was a decent house amp, though still a bit loud. I really would have liked to hold on to it, but had an opportunity to make $300 on it, so it had to go. I'm still kind of kicking myself for it. The good news is I'm good friends with the guy that bought it, and he knows I want first crack if he sells it.
On input 2, it stayed relatively clean, but would still break up nicely toward the top end. On input one most of my guitars would break up around 12 o'clock and get down right distorted around 2 o'clock. Dimed with Filters or my Surf 90s it was a killer punk rock sound. The Mean 90s in my Gibson loved this amp. All kinds of P90s sounded good, but those really sang.
Mine had a different speaker (pics below), that had a tiny magnet, so that may be why it broke up more for me. The other thing is I set up my guitars as hot as I can. Definitely more output than those Danos (nice guitars btw).
I only had my MMB for a few months, and didn't get to play it as much as I should have, but it was a cool amp, and if I came on a deal on one again I'd scoop it up. The one I had I paid $50 for, and I know I'll never get one for that again.
Another thing I just remembered, it's wired on an eyelet board, and from what I read on a few forums is a really good intro to amp modding. That was my intent, but again, I couldn't pass up making that kind of dough on it at the time.
Damn, now I need to ask Paul if he wants to sell it back...
Musicmaster Bass Amps do great sounding overdrive, and nice, warm sounding cleans. I seriously considered getting one a few months ago.
But, when they get dirty, they get pretty loud, which is not very apartment friendly. So, I decided not to get one.
F.Y.I. - not all of them use 6V6 power tubes. Some of them use 6AQ5s, which are nowhere near as common nowadays.
Great platform to modify. Common mod is to make it a 1x12" Champ.
Nice amp, and nice Dano's!
If you ever want to get rid of the one on the left, let me know!
My new amp LOVES the dano on the left ('62 4021) sparkle & chime for days. I can't believe such a cheap set-up can sound so good. I've just finished fiddling with the '62 dano, a few bridge post issues & it's now playing & sounding great, so I want to enjoy it for a while but if I decide to let it go I'll contact you Tzar.