Fuchs Audio Technology Music Man ODS Mod

These Overdrive Supreme Amps are inspired by the *umble Overdrive Special amps. Features as you will see them are similar to a fuchs over drive supreme head.

This started life as a Music Man 75 head. Fuchs pretty much guts the chassis. Everything is replaced, AFAIK except power and OT transformer. This is more a rebuild than a mod.

Controls include gain, bright, deep, rock/jazz switches, treble, mid, bass controls. Treble control pulls to drop range of treble control to be more middy, bass controls pulls to defeat tonestack in clean mode, boost to next gain stage in gain mode. "In" control controls boost to next gain stage, "out" control pulls to enable 2nd gain stage, and turns to set balance with clean channel. Master volume, reverb, and accent (which acts as a presense control).
4 12ax7 style tubes, 2 6l6 tubes. Effects loop that can switch between series/paralell. 4/8 oh speaker selection.

I give it a 10 because it gives you all the features you need for a good *umble overdrive special amp. This one also includes the effects loop which many *umble style builders do not. (Original dumbles almost always had to use a dumbelator to interface an effects loop). Reverb is also included, with a 6 spring accutronics pan.

There are some things inside (small pots) to tweak. I haven't done this yet. I don't know that this is as tweakable as the production ODS from fuchs. I'll probably have to ring them to find out.

I play blues, jazz, and rock. I go for classic vintage tones. I like to start mostly clean with a little hair, and progress to sweet singing overdrive. I largely play a tele with single coils with it. It starts at clean, goes to a roar with a little tweaking of the channels. The OD cleans up nicely when the guitar is turned down. I've been using a 410 cab with this. I see a lot of guys using 1x12 but have always liked the sound of this 410 cab.

The distortion is a smooth singing sustain. Not a gritty, metally, triple recto kind of thing. Think that nice breakup you start to get on an old fender as your turn it up - except here there is a master volume and lots of control over the breakup itself.

The killer here is that between all these boosts and switches, you can really play with the midrange and get it just right - it's hard to describe.

Even if you are 100% clean, if you hit a BB king like lick and shake your hand like a hummingbird, the note will just hang there, much more than on other amps I have used. It's not really compressed, it just seems to have a lot of sustain.

Does it sound like a *umble? I don't know, I've never played one. You can definitley get in the neighborhood of Robben Ford, Larry Carlton tones. Those aren't the only great tones it does though. This amp is in no way a "one trick pony".

Looks very well built. Contruction is largley PCB but it looks like a very beefy one with good traces. Pots and tubes are chassis mounted and wired in by hand. Components are very well laid out so that if it did need to be worked on, it looks as though it would be easy to get to everything.

On the chassis side everyone knows that Music Man Amps were some of the bright spots of the 1970s in terms of good old american built dependability - in a time when other companies were cheapening their products in response to foreign competition. These MM transformers are big and beefy and probably much larger than they need to be for a 75 watt amp.

In fact, *umble legend has it that when MM went out of business, HAD himself bought up a ton of transformers and used them in some of his amps.

I don't expect to have any issues for a very long time.

If repuatation serves this is an important area where Fuchs really shines. Before this amp had become available on ebay I inquired with him on what it would cost for me to send him a music man chassis and have the mod done. Andy responded in less than an hour with pricing and options.

Andy is very active in the internet community and has a great reputation for being very helpful with any issues. Just go check out discussion boards. Fuchs Audio is a small shop and I have no worries about their customer support.

I'd say that these amps are pricey but that you get what you pay for - great sound, great build quaility, great service after the fact. If this sort of sound is your thing, i don't think you will be dissapointed.

If you look at the community of boutique builders filling this *umble style niche, you'll see a lot of dedicated guys who get along personally and are constantly exchanging ideas about how to improve their products. (Check out ampgarage.com).