Music Man HD-150

Two channels. "Normal" and "Bass"...just your standard amplifier EQ (that way I like it!)

Personally, I LOVE the way this thing sounds. I play a telecaster and have the head running through a JCM 800 cab with celestion speakers. Sounds so sweet when I play. It especially sounds great with a little bit of delay and reverb. For distortion, I usually crank the pre-amp to 8.4 to get the amp to flex and then use a tube screamer to get a little more boost out of it. Solid distortion and can get LOUD. I actually haven't had a chance to really push it, but I can tell you that it started to shake the things in my room with the master volume at 2! Vintage power!

So far, so good. When I got it, a transistor was broken but got it fixed for like 50 bucks. Haven't had a problem since.

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Great! I play guitar, but if I ever join a band to play bass...I'll be prepared. This thing has that sweet Fender tone for a very affordable price! The whole solid state pre-amp thing doesn't seem to effect it. This thing is loud, but you can adjust it to where you can play in your apartment at a nice level without getting an eviction notice. Definitely would recommend.

The HD 150s were built between 1980 and 1984. This one has two channels. The bass channel has treble, mid, and bass pots, a master volume, and a "deep" switch. The normal channel has treble, mid, and bass pots. That's all! For me, the best feature is on the back panel: switchable 8 ohm or 4 ohm speaker outputs. It's bare bones compared to modern amps. Unlike current practice, the pre-amp is solid state, and the main is powered by four 6L6s. It's 150 watts RMS, and it is capable of very high volume. No, it's not "flexible." It does one thing, and does it flawlessly.

I play a Fender Jazz with Seymour Duncan Antiquity II pickups. I play in an alt/country band, and the deep, warm, punchy sound of the HD 150 is just about perfect for what I do. I've never turned the amp up to the point of distortion--I've never had to, and have no desire to.

This amp is at least 25 years old, and I take it out without a backup. Leo Fender built these to last. I don't expect to ever buy another bass amp.

MusicMan went out of business in the Spring of 1984.

I've been playing for more than 30 years. I use only two effects: A BBE Sonic Stomp and an EBS Multicomp Compressor. If this amp were stolen, I'd hunt down the perps to the end of the Earth. I won't lose it.

I'm sure there are amps that sound better than the HD 150, and that are better suited to my kind of playing. If I ever run across one, and I can afford it, I'll buy it. But I'm not about to lay out $10,000, so I expect I'll stick with the HD 150, for which I paid the princely sum of $350.

Recently, I played through a Genz-Benz Shuttle 6.0. It was a disappointment--lots of power, but nothing like the warmth of the HD 150. I played a Mesa Carbine, and was impressed by its power, but the price was three times that of the HD 150. And frankly, I don't need that much amp. I'm not playing metal, and I'm not playing in stadiums.

Music Man Bass head. Very basic but damn near perfect design. Tube powered and I'd say the power rating was a little conservitive. I was playing in a "Heavy Top 40" band at the time (early 80's) and had two Les Pauls and two Marshall's on stage and could always hear myself! I gigged with this amp for several years sometimes two or five days a week. No problems, just yearly check up's and retubed.

I was using a P-Bass with a Duncan 1/4 pounder pickup, Bad Ass Bridge and it sounded great. Was playing mostly rock & blues with some R & B with another band I used to sit in with cause there bass player didn't show up from time to time!!!!!!!

As I said I used it several times a week and had no problems. I took it to my tech once a year for a check up and retubeing. Had a road case for it and didn't have a back up cause I could not afford one.

Never had to deal with Music Man since the amp just kept working great. If I had a problem the dealer I buy from would have taken care of it quickly.

Been playing bass over 30 years. I have kicked myself in the butt many times for selling this bass head. I was going through the big "D" and had to sell a lot of my stuff to raise funds. Would love to have it back. I currently use a Fender Pro 300 which is also a very nice head. It has a bit more power and features then the HD-150 and also has great tone. The HD-150 was very simple and at least for me, had all the features a bass player needs. Damn shame it's no longer made.

I think this amp is over 25 years old. This amp is a really versatile amp if you know how to work with it. I mostly play dark/melodic mixed with metal. There are 2 channels on this amp, 1 is normal and 1 is bass. They both have 2 inputs which is pretty cool. I tend to use the bass channel because it has much more features. The only feature I wish it had was channel switching. This amp has so much power, I can overpower the drums during practice/rehearsal and the volume is exploding for recording sessions. This is an all tube amp, but the preamp is solid state. So you get the best of both worlds. I changed the stock tubes to EL34 and it changed the sound DRASTICALLY. The features are pretty cool once you can work with them. It takes time to get the sound you want in this amp.

I use a Paul Reed Smith Custom 24 and a Gibson Les Paul with this amp, and it sounds amazing. When I use my Fender American customized Telecaster (with Seymour duncan humbuckers) it sounds like shit for some reason, there is just too much bass. This amp can be really noisy if you're playing distorted at really high volumes. This amp is very UNIQUE, don't even think about playing through it if you want to sound like every other metal band out there. The natural distortion on this amp is raw/clean but dirty. When you add distortion pedals to it, it gives it a boost. This makes the amp sound so dark and dirty at the same time, and it sounds nothing like a "mesa". It has it's own sound and if you're looking for this raw/dark heavy chunky sound then this amp is for you. Other than that you can get pretty good bluesy/old school rock tones from this amp too. The cleans sound really good, but no matter what you have to use pedals with this amp.

I could depend on this amp, but I would bring another head just in case for backup because i'm paranoid like that. This amp?has never broken down and I've had it for years.

I never dealt with Music Man.

I've been playing for over 5 years. I own a Line 6 Spider II head that is good for room volumes, but sounds like shit for rehearsal/recording volumes. If it were lost or stolen I'd definantley buy another one because of it's unique tone. I love the fact that noone else has a sound like me through this amp, and I love how it can sound unique but still heavy and dark as hell. So try to find this amp ASAP if you're ready to have ur own tone, and if you know how to work with amps and sounds.

The HD 150 is a power head that does not contain bells or whistles. It does not contain a reverb or other effects as its cousin the HD 150R. It contains two channels. One labeled normal and the other labeled bass. You cannot switch channels. I use the normal channel for guitar and keyboards. I use the bass channel for bass and keyboards. I generally use the HD 150 with a Music Man 412 GS cabinet (which means four 12 inch guitar speakers). The speakers are standard issue Music Man. The amp works exceptionally well with all makes of guitars except Gibsons. Going down the checklist, the amp has been used for all styles of rock, jazz, country and electronic/industrical. As I've said it's got two channels with no channel switching. Effects loops? No. Headphone jack? No. Features I wish it had? None. I've used this amp from auditoriums, to clubs, to my bedroom, to experimental music labs. The 150 stands for 150 watts RMS. Music Man did not fluff on the numbers like other amp makers. This amp is the loudest I've heard. The amp is a solid state pre-amp with tube power amp. The amp lacks in number of features but what it has it has in the highest quality I've encountered. In knowledgeable hands, this amp is one of the most versatile.

I've recently used it with a pre-CBS Strat, a Japanese Les Paul copy and a Music Man Sabre bass. I don't have a style. One minute I'll be playing Texas Playboys and the next minute will be Jimi Hendrix. The amp covers what I do. The amp not noisy exept when getting into heavy distortion. The environment does not add to noise. Noisy settings vary depending on the instrument. Sounds? I've always been able to mimic to a close approximation any sound. Does the clean channel distort at high volumes? Not unless you want it to. The clean or distortion can go to the fringes of those descriptions. The distortion can be very, very brutal. I have run a lot of effects between the instrument and the amp. The amp handles any category of effect very well.

I got this amp in 1980. I special ordered it. In transport it got a broken transistor. In the 18 years since then, I haven't had it repaired. It's built like a tank and weighs as much as one.

Music Man was a great company to ask questions of. Sadly, they are no more even though Ernie Ball is doing something with the Music Man name with the Sting Ray bass and new guitar models.

I have never heard a bass sound as good as my Music Man Sabre bass played through the HD 150 amp. I've never heard a Fender Strat sound better than the pre-CBS one I've played through it as of late. If you are a Leo Fender person and play an instrument that is pre-CBS Fender, Music Man or G&L, then you'd be a total idiot to not use Music Man amplification. I've been playing for a long time. I studied with Eldon Shamblin and at one of the top three music schools. I will buy Music Man amp in the future but they will be smaller models. It's got way too much power and size for what I do, but the sound is priceless.