Music Man RD Fifty

Already discussed below, good old-fashioned American amplification!

I play in an avant-garde garage/stoner rock band, playing Gibson Melody Makers almost exclusively. I actually run two amps on stage, the RD-50 through a celestion-loaded Fender 4x12, and an Orange Tiny Terror through an Eminence loaded 2x12. This combination allows for a super-saturated, Brittish sludge tone (from the orange) and a traditional clanky/percussive American Tone (from the Music Man) simultaniously. It is really cool to have 6l6 and el-84 tone at my fingers. I agree with other users that the gain channel on the MM leaves a little to be desired, but a TS808 and the incorporation of the Tiny Terror solved that. This amp brings home the bacon on the clean channel. No excess noise, no shennanigans, simply awesome and dependable tone

The word Tank seems appropriate. I had a little trouble with the speaker output jack a couple months ago, but that was a 35 dollar fix, not bad for an amplifier that is 6 months older than I am. Befriend a tech if you are going vintage I suppose! This has been thrown in and out of a van and has seen 15 states or since I bought it, no signs of stopping.

Company is apparently kaput, but with a reputable tech and this here information super-highway you should be ok.

This amp has been terribly fun to have around. I got it immediately after launching my most recent band, and it's been critical to finding a unique, personal sound. This was also my first vintage amp purchase, and have been very happy to have a classic amplifier that has given me little to no operational issues. I think I would have been heartbroken had I bought an over-priced silver face bassman or something that died two months later. Stability rules, man.

See other reviews for details.

A standby switch would be good. Plenty of power and not a burdon on the back. I gig with this amp all the time.

I love the guy below that plays an amp for an hour and has an expert opinion to offer. I'm the original owner of mine and have had it for 27 years so hear me out.

If your looking for heavy mesa mids for your Korn fix like that guy forget it. He was right on one thing though, channel two is nothing to write home about in the gain department. It requires some tweaking. Certain guitars bring out the best especially lp's but overall I've found it best to put a pedal in front of the clean channel. It's a very pedal friendly amp.

The clean is neither to bright or without shimmer. Everything I put through this amp brings the best out in the tone of my guitars.

I replaced the speaker five years a go and retubed with nos jans probably 12 years ago just as preventive maintenance. I think that's pretty good for 27 years of steady gigging.

I have a repairman and he's one of the best. RIP Leo...

Been playing 42 years.

This is an old standby that I would never sell. Versatile, powerful and light. I played it for about an hour when I first bought it and knew right away it would be with me for a long time and here we are.

If it were stolen then I would simply find another and hope to the high heavans it didn't suck as badly as that one that other guy reviewed. I'd be sure to check the tubes for that red color he was talking about too. You know, just in case that might be an indication there just may be a problem with the tubes. Now that I think about it, I'm sure hot flaming red tubes aren't any big deal.

Made in Dec,1980(Date on pc board)2 Channel with Reverb Tube power stage (6L6x2) Hybrid preamp(12ax7& 2 opamps)50 Watts into 8 ohms

This amp is made for Blues! I play Les Pauls and Strats. I use it through a mid 60's Fender 2-12 Piggy back cab. It still has the original Phillips tubes. I can get any where from Allman Brothers to Clapton to Hendrix out of this thing. For me it's simply amazing!

I feel confident this amp will not fail on me but I always carry a backup amp.

Leo Fender owned them when this one was made,then Ernie Ball. No way to get company support. But My amp tech knows this amp and there are a lot of Music Man sites.So no worries!

Bee playing 30 years. Way too many guitars to list. Other amps include Fender ,Yamaha and Line 6.By far this is my favorite amp.
If it were stolen I would hunt the criminal down and do all kinds of unmentionable things to him.

I think the amp i bought should have been bought between '81 - '83
I owned the amp years ago and sold it to a friend of mine. I recently bought it back from him. I sold it to him for $150.00, but i bought it back from him for $200.00, after he had some work done on it. It is an RD-50 head with a music man 1-15" cab. Pretty Fat. It has 2 channels, clean and distortion. Spring reverb. Channel 1(clean) has volume, treble and bass: Channel 2 has same with a gain control. This is a hybrid amp: solid state pre-amp w/ tube power section. It comes with 2 6L6's and an 12ax7 to control the distortion(i think). Although the controls are simplistic, sometimes simple is great.

Channel one is great. For a clean sound, it rates among the best. I play a Carvin DC-100 guitar(sim. to a paul double cut), so the sound is fat to begin with. But i get a workable sound this way.To me, the sound is close to a fender deluxe, except a hell of a lot louder.Nice clean blues sound, that really breaks up nice at high volume. With the blues style i play, i'm very satisfied.

Channel 2 has a really saturated distortion. It sounded kinda muddy to me, but i wondered if the cabinet is my problem. But i changed the 12ax7 with a 12at7, and that gave a little more clarity to the dirty side. I think i have found the sound i was looking for.

In both periods of ownership, i personally have never had any problems. But one time, i was playing a gig and the amp fell from about seven feet and it still fired up like a champ with no problems.
Seems indestructible.

There is no company support. The company no longer deals with amps. You can get schematics from the music man site, i think.

I'm approaching 40, and with the blues style i play i dont think there is any better. I am satisfied.

Two channel amp, one clean, one overdrive. Solid state preamp with 12ax7 driver. 26L6 tubes in poweramp.
Came with footswitch. Has reverb.

Thanks to the 12ax7 driver tube, you can get a whole lot of different amp sounds from the amp, just by changing that tube with another. For a more metal sound, use the 12ax7wa, for a more full fidelity sound, use the 12ax7wb, for a harsh all mids rock and roll sound, use the 12ax7wxt. Depending on the tube, it has quite a bit of preamp gain.
The power amp breaks up pretty quick on the clean channel after you turn the output above 4 or 5. The reverb sounds good, and the amp can do killer 80s lead sounds..with the right preamp tube, of course.
The clean is Fender like. I used it for HardRock..and you can use it for shred and neo classical metal, but you have to pick alot harder than with a Mesa Boogie to make it scream and become super saturated.

This amp held up forever...it went through preamp tubes pretty quick because it's only 50 watts so you have to crank it to get it loud enough for a loud rock drummer and bass player, but the power tubes lasted years. I crank my amps and use them alot.

Never dealt with them.

It's a great little amp. Plus, you can get a ton more gain from it by pulling back on one of the reverb wires, so it's center pin stays in contact but the ring is not. It will still have reverb, and the reverb control will work as a gain control. You can also just jump the revrb connections if you want. Makes the amp 2 times louder.

this amp head is a 50 watt hybrid head, i.e., solid-state pre-amp with tube power amp (6L6x2). There is a 12ax7 tube for the reverb. There is a footswitch for reverb and channel switching, clean channel with a lot of headroom, and an overdrive channel which sounds better with the
gain set below 5, and a lot of volume. There is no standby switch. They dont come much simpler.

I use an SG with 490 series humbuckers, and a strat, and play classic rock and southern rock. I color the sound with a TubeWorks preamp pedal (blue tube) and keep the gain low on the clean channel, while turning the amp up fairly loud. I run a 4x12 cab. with Eminence speakers, and this gives me a good ballsy rhythm sound. For solos, I switch to the overdrive channel, with the volume set around 5 and the gain on 3. I use a little reverb. With humbuckers the amp has a nice controllable feedback.

I've used this amp HARD for a couple of years now, and I've had no trouble with it whatsoever. I keep spare tubes on hand for gigs.

I never had any dealings with music man. They are no longer in business. However, the amp is so basic it would be easy to repair or have repaired.

I've been playing for 20 years, and I have owned Fenders before, and a combo Marshall, a Laney and a Peavey Classic. I like this amp. It is simple, you have to know what sound you are going for. A tube preamp is very helpful in warming up the sound, but the solid-state sound is also very nice when you want to be super clean. Country pickin sounds good, for example, with the amps own pre-amp sound.

It's a hybrid head with a solid state preamp and a power stage using two 6L6. It delivers 50W of power. It has a clean and a distorted channel which are footswitchable. The reverb is also footswitchable. You can get some cheesy kind of distortion at low volumes as it has a master volume by dialing up the gain control.

The clean channel has a somewhat acceptable sound but the distortion is simply disgusting. It's a muddy kind of distortion. It might be usable as some kind of crappy blues distortion at very low gain settings but as soon as the gain is increased past 5 it gets very crappy and begins to sound like a starting motorboat. This amp hasn't a very beautiful clean sound nor has it a good sounding distortion. If you want to get a good clean sound try a vintage Fender for a good distortion there are loads of good amps: Old Marshalls, Mesa Boogies, Peaveys, Riveras...

I don't know if it's reliable. I played only for an hour or so because the sound was so disgusting. The output tubes' filaments were glowing very bright so they experienced a way too high heater voltage or were just bad.

Haven't dealt with them.

Both channels just suck. It might be a somewhat acceptable amp when it is used in conjunction with a distortion FX. If it were stolen I'd laugh about the idiocy of the thief.

50-watt hybrid (solid preamp, tube (6LG6x2) power amp, 12AX7 for overdrive) guitar amp head. Two-channel with master volume, LED footswitch, universal reverb. Separate tone controls for each channel.

I use this amp head to drive a Music Man 2x10 folded horn speaker cabinet. The combinaion is great for anything from clean jazz to blues. The clean channel has a moderate amount of headroom before distorting (depending on your pickup output). The lead channel sounds warm and sweet in the low-distortion range. For mega distortion you need additional gain (from a preamp pedal, for example). This amp is not for metal, but sound great for everything else but.

It has never given my any problems.

Bought used, and Music Man is out of business.

The price is not an error. I saw it in a pawn shop in mint condition, but the lead channel did not appear to be working. I offered $75, knowing that I would have to put in more to have it fixed. However, when I brought it home I noticed (and the pawn shop salesman did not) there was a pedal neatly stashed way inside the amp. The footswitch was on the normal channel. I would have paid over $200 if the salesman had shown me everything was in working order. It's compact, solid, powerful, and toneful. I only wish it had a standby switch.