Music Man 212HD 150

Purchased two of these new in 1980 on a whim. I believe they were made in 1979. I didn't even know at the time that Leo Fender was the designer or that the preamp stage was non-tube. I wasn't much of a gearhead back then. Two channels, one with no effects the other with footswitchable Reverb and Phaser. The Phaser filters can be set manually. There are two sets of tone switches configured cleverly to revoice EQ of the amp in a variety of ways; independently or in conjunction with each other(very cool and ahead of its time). A high/low power switch toggles between 75 and 150 very loud watts. Ground lift, Ohms selector, and Stand-by switches round out the controls. No effects loop. Additonal speaker outputs, and the speaker cable to the combos speaker is easily unplugged if you wish to bypass it and plug into something else. But why? Two massive MusicMan 12" speakers. I bought the optional casters which still work great today.

A single, medium sized old style top strap handle is all you have to lift it with. These amps are solid as heck and weigh a ton. The manual says you do not have to use matched 6L6 tube sets but the tech that just retubed mine says it's probably because the tube quality tolerances were so much better back then. Way ahead of it's time for quality, usable features. If you want to call this a Twin on steroids, I can live with that.

I've NEVER set the switch to run at full 150 watt power and have NEVER had the Master above 4 for classic rock, blues, modern rock, dance and country. All music styles are served really well except that even with the mids fully scooped and the gain all the way up, it's probably too polite for Nu-metal without assist from a pedal.

You know when they say 'it cleans up really well when you turn down the volume'? This is the amp that started poeple saying that. Killer for expressive styles like blues and even modern country. Ease off and it's clean and bouncy, dig in and you can bare your soul down to the bone. If you can find an amp that gives you a more beautiful, naturally compressed, sustain for years smooth overdrive, where your guitar becomes more responsive than it's ever been, then please buy it and let me know where you got it.

With humbuckers, mids scooped, and gain cranked it moves toward the nasty zone, but think a JCM800 narly tone. The amp tends toward the polite, and going out on a limb, sounds 'brown' to me. Also, it takes pedals very well. It can be noisy using high gain, so to minimize noise use a good power supply for your pedals, quality cables, keep the tubes fresh, the amp properly maintained, and I also power with Furman protection.

You shouldn't miss the pre-amp tubes (as I said, for years I didn't realize there weren't any). Think of it as one less thing to go micrphonic on you at the wrong moment.

I've gone the rounds with effects etc., plugging straight into the amp, then later into just a MXR compressor (for lead boost; this was my set up for 'years'), to 10 years of using a pedal board full of pedals, back to using a Boss EQ (for boost) and a Tonebone Switchbone to switch between the clean and dirty channels. The Swtichbone is the ticket for us users of older amps.

The amp is a 'sound variety' workhorse that you should be able to pedal up to whatever tone you need if the onboard controls don't take you there. But the sound is probably best suited to us old timers or other lovers of older style tone. Clapton endorsed these in the 70s (I have a poster ad with him playing through a couple of stacks), but he moved onto Soldano and then Fender of course. At least one of his album inside covers shows a MM combo in the picture.

I've been using the same two guitars for as long as I've had the amps. An Gibson ES355S, and Fender Tele Deluxe with split coil humbuckers. More recently I added a G&L Legacy and Ibanez RG3120. I mostly use Boss pedals but have a Dunlop Univibe, Budda Wah, Keely and MXR Compressors, Tonebone Trimode and Switchbone, and Ibanez echo.

Never failed. Hauled it around in my trunk for years and years in smokey environments. Sat in my hot attic for ~7 years without ill effects (wife hated me doing music, got rid of wife, took amp out of the attic, life is good). Just had both retubed for the first time; that was too long, obviously. One amp needed caps replaced due to wear. Would use without backup, but I always have at least a DI around in case of the worst. I don't think anything built today can touch it in the reliability catagory, but time will tell.

Never used them whhen they were around. Didn't need to.

Playing for 33 years, mainly guitar, but also take bass jobs. I have a 70s Teisco Checkmate 25 tube amp/cab that's another workhorse and a keeper. Had and soon sold a Vox Valvetronix (close to good tone, but not enough for me to keep it). Owned and regrettably sold a late 60s Fender Twin (the amp that started it all for me).

The best thing about these amps is the expressive tone, power, and reliabilty. The weight and potential for noise are the worst features. Drummer or bass player drowning you out. Not anymore!

my amp was as far as i know late seventies, the layout of the pots makes it a 212 as far as i can tell but this is where it gets wierder i used to use a silverface twin and loved it dearly but sold it when i stopped gigging regularly to make cash and hall space, anyway i felt the urge to get that twin sound back in my life recently and spotted a musicman for sale in a free add paper for #200 i took my telecaster along to try it, tried a few keef licks in g and sure enough it rocked loud and clean like the old silverface but different enough to be exciting, however, there was no vinyl on it or fabric over the speakers (tatty g12,s) the vendor claimed no knowledge of its life prior to his ownership.
on getting it home i realised the dimensions were all wrong, seems ive been done as it is housed in a homemade cab but luckily decently constructed well it looks crap but it still rocks, the bit i cant understand is why would anyone replace a cab as they seem too solid to be damaged beyond repair
the cab is 18" x 30" if anyone knows of a 212 in this size cab i would be grateful if you could post the details

the distortion is ok not as smooth as a jmp marshall i used to own but as good as a twin, better with an mxr distortion plus, not noisy, goes great with no distortion very loud eq full, middle and treble down a bit, on a tele custom both pickups on full

feels like it wouldnt go wrong nice and simple

I won't bore you with the features, because people seem to already have it covered. There is a master and channel volume, so I find that extremely helpful. I would give the features a 10 if I rated it, but I couldin't give my opinion, because it varies.

Heres my layout: Am. Std. Fender Strat (stock), Ibanez TS-9 Modded (Keeley electronics put a BAKED mod in it), Boss TR-2 tremelo, and a Boss DD-5 Digital Delay into the amp. Mind you, I bought the amp for 130$, but the speakers were shot. So, I have a Celestion equipped Fender DT-412 4 x 12 speaker enclosure to do the job. The speaker outs are standard plugs, so I find that cool.

I love the sounds that come out of this amp. I use the solo channel because it has the reverb on it. Well, I plugged it in for the first time, and man, it sounded lovely. Its so loud, but it sounds like a good old fashioned Twin. I play "emoish" music, but I love freeform jazz styles like Aloha, Nada Surf (kind of), The Mars Volta, Radiohead. Ect. All the good bands. Anyway, well. it has a nice vibrato... as I like to call it. It sounds weird and spacey. Might be what you want, might not. But I can assure you the tones and flexability of this amp will please you!

I can depend on it. Its a Musicman. Anything Leo associated is the prime notch. Its a hybrid; no stupid 12ax7s to worry about! Or any other preamp tube. Like everyone says, its the power tubes that count. Dont believe the jargon that these amps arnt pure tube power. Because by god, they are! So friggin' heavy, I'd hate to try to steal it.

I cant say... they arnt around. Ernie Ball has some helpful schematics on their website!

Get it. If you can find one, jump on it. Trust me, it'll be worth it!

1979? I bought the amp new from the HOG many years ago. It weighed as much as I did at the time. 2 channels, 150 watts, great reverb, pull out phase switch. Hybrid solid state and 4 power tubes. LOUD! Distortion is dialed in, so I play it clean with a Distortion +.

Played Gibsons/Kramer/G&L/Ibanez/B.C. Rich. Has a great clean sound. (Although recently I played a strat thru it, believe that's what was intended for it, God like) (Kindof an interesting story, had the amp, took it in for tube replacement years ago, and got away from the sound, bought a GK(Soooo much lighter!), and had several other amps over the years. However, since this was my first amp, I never parted with it. I just recently started jamming again, had my buddy, the Fender guy, take a look at it and he noticed the tubes were wrong, switched them to the proper ones, and I got back a sound I've been trying to find for 20 years!!!

Tank (actually probably weighs more than a tank). Found web sites very helpful. Schematics are still available. Over 20 years, still works, sounds great. (Find a Fender Amp Afeciando to hang out with, they'll take care of you!!)

as the company's not around anymore, recommend searching the net. Find people that get geeked on tubes. They'll keep it running smoooth!

Playing over 20 years. Own GK's, Create, Tech 21. Boss ME 33 and MXR Omni for effects. B C Rich mockingbirds, Ibanez RG, Yamaha Acustic, etc. This amp's still my favorite. If it were lost, I'd cry over the memories. Don't think I'd buy another one, just wouldn't be the same - - - - Well, maybe an RD, those look fun!

1979? 212 hd 150 with 412b cabinet. The combo looks new. 9 1/2. Sweet. The cabinet is a solid 8. paid 500.00 for both. The thing screams. I think Leo was trying to build something to smoke the Twin Reverb. I think he succeeded.One question. Most Music Man amps I've seen have a grey background emblem, and the guys playing guitars are black. Mine is the exact opposite. Black background, with grey men. Does this have any significance? Thanks for any info.

I don't know why I was able to find this thing so cheap...I guess I'm just lucky. Leo Fender knew he had made something great when he made the Twin. This is the same thing in a hybrid with improvments where it counts... POWER AND TONE! It's a simple amp with two imputs on a clean channel and two inputs on a lead channel but no footswitch to change channels. 2x12 Music Man speakers and lots of power. It is not an all tube amp but the tubes are where they count...THE POWER TUBES. (For info on hybrids see amp discussions at Harmony Central, 10 out of 10 pro's can't tell the difference if it's got power tubes). I have compaired this to many other more expensive amps that go for as much as $1200.00 and have been happy with this one. I have also played it right next to an old Fender Twin but prefer this one. It might not have all kinds of neat gadgets on it but it does exactly what an amp should do. Sound great

I play a US Tele and go through a series of pedals (made the board myself), including a vintage DOD 250 Overdrive, Rat, DD5, modified Dunlop Trem, and some others. I used an A/B box and two cords plugged into both lead inputs to bypass the effects. The result is wonderful warm and crisp clean tone as well as some great effects combinations. I mostly play alternative/rock stuff but pull in some country and blues licks. This amp rocks...it can make any sound you want and can be used for any style. It's got more power than I have ever needed and doesn't lose tone at higher volumes.

I have replaced the power cord and the RCA plugs on the footswitch cord that controls the Reverb and Phaser. That's all...It has taken a beating over the years and seems to sound better that ever.

Company is not around anymore....So call up Ernie Ball and see what they can do. But like I said, I've never needed anything cause it's so reliable

I've been playing for 10 years and this is my favority amp ever. I got a great price (the guy didn't know what he was doing) and I don't know what I would do if anything ever happened to it. Old, powerful, and reliable. The way Amps used to be made but aren't anymore.

Just bought this horse over the internet, and it had 1 broken tube and 1 missing. There are 4 6L6 tubes, with a solid state preamp section. 2 original 12" inch Music Man speakers and a " smoke stained" silver threaded grill. It has two non-switching channels, and some strange sounding phaser on the main channel, but a real nomenclature sound from Music Man. It would be great to have a line out so I could "daisy chain" the rest of my Music Man amps, for that "Wall of Death" sound. I play all styles of music and this "Truck" is run clean with great amounts of signal processing. Sounds are otherwise comparable with other reviews, ie. "Blues, Jazz, Country etc. etc. . . but can blare. . Metal, Hard Rock, and various other brackets of distortion. Tone controls are the same as other MM models Bass, Mid, Treble along with the usual Bright and Deep switches which do make a difference when flipped up or down. I play this amp onstage along with my other "Beef-Cake" 212HD 130's, but is used as a stand-by just in case something bizzare happens, ( like the urge to catapult our lead singer into the first row)_ anyway plenty of power, as most of us MM owners know. Good amp, although it needs inflatable tires instead of casters, to more smoothly negotiate the ruff terrain I take it on. It rates a 10 with me.

I have several Les Pauls, Fenders and also a Washburn "Nuno" N4. I have an Ovation and "Santa Rosa" acoustics and all gutiars sound just great through this amp. Like I said, I can play quite a few different styles very well, because I enjoy all different types of modern music, so this amp will cover alot of tunes. I know sometimes it can be a noisy amp when the gain is twisted full on, but I run it on about 2, and then crank up the master, and if you have a "noise reduction" system, it can be as quiet as 'Stand-By'. This question form I'm prompted by asks "What kind of sounds can the amp make?" Well, as many feedback wails and screams,twangs, hums, harmonics,and impressions that a good player can create, this amp will reproduce them. Yep, it can be clean and brutal and can "melt the cheap plastic logos" on a Marshall at 5 yards" when cuttin heads. So another 10 (imagine that)

Okay , I've been bragging for a couple of paragraphs but Music Man takes a "Knock'n and keeps on Rockin" as most of us proud owners already know. These amps are the most durable ever made, just take out the chassis and look at the workmanship of the board. Great design in the servo bias adjustments, no need to F-around with the "Shunt or Cathode" method, just push the tubes in the socket and get on with it. Now, I mentioned early that this amp had only two tubes in it when I received it from the UPS guy. Anyway, the box wasn't damaged at all so its not the fault of the UPS's dude, but when I opened the box up, it had been packed with store flyers and crummy bits of folded cardboard along with other of this store's crappy packing techniques. So this amp of 18 years went through the ride of it's life. A nice thing about tube amps is that, you can safely remove the tubes in order to diagnose any problems with the output section. So this amp has been abused by the idiots who thought they knew how to pack a tube amp, and so when I run all 4 of the 6L6's , two of them glow orange ,(which looks cool in the dark), so there is some sort of grounding problem or cracked socket, Geez I don't know I'm not an amp guru. But this diehard Music Man keeps on cranking on just 2 Sovteks, and I've been using it during rehearsals for a month and have had no problems, . . yet!(still being used as a back-up, but will get it to the "Amp Doctor" before the gigs start piling up. I own two 212HD 130's along with matching cabs and in twenty years, only the tubes have been routinely changed. I also own a 65watt head that was my first Music Man I bought back in high school,(Class of 80,yep still have all my hair and just as long) and that amp head just had new tubes put in 5 years ago, amazing but true. Can I depend on it? Would I use it on a gig without a back-up? " What kind of professional would go to any performance without a back-up"? Probably the guitarist who uses Music Man! Enough said.

Company is gone, yada, yada,yada so call Ol' Ernie and see if they will send you some schemes. Music Man amps(so I've been told) are very easy to fix. Most amp techs, will pay you, to have the honor to refurbish one.(Just kidding,check the labor scale)

I've been playing guitar too long, not to have made a Million by now, . . but then so have several other hundred or even thousand guitarists. I own way too much other gear to bore you any further. If it was stolen, I would hire the best damn detective in the Quad Cities and track the person down who stole it. Then I would have the Judge order him to lug the "BigAss 212HD 150 to every gig I play, that would be punishment enough! "I don't how you can lose an Amp that you drive to work in." I have played through and auditioned many Amps, but Music Man is my favorite, and from the other articles I've read, there are other Music Man afficiando's out on the Big Blue Marble. "Anything I wish it had? Yeah, padded sides, so when pass-out from playing on it too long, I don't get those bothersome dent's in my head. "Music Man 4Ever" Screen printed on all my grills.
Thanx for laughing at this review, one way or another.
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