Music Man RD-100

my 100 rd is a 1981,it is a amazing clean amp ,so i'm sure country jazz,blues are what it was set out to do,the distortion was kinda bad as most have discussed on here,it does have channel switching between the 2 channels,yes a effect loop that is not the easiest to deal with as been also explained.the only feature i wish it had would be separate eq sections both channels share the same one so one channel may sound great the other has to deal with the settings.the amp is so loud its crazy i have never totally unleashed it.mine is also the hybrid solid state preamp tube power section

only if i had to rate this on sound by the way i got it i would say maybe a 5.but i did do things to make it a 10.first i replaced the tubes many times ,6l6,5881,6l6str,all sounded ok,but nothing special.until i tried kt88's,man what a difference,check them out if you have or want to get one of these amps.next i changed the mid pot from a 10 k to a 25k that helped the mids ,i also changed the bass pot but i can't say that changed enough to suggest that .these thing did not hurt the clean sound at all but the distored channel came alive,kinda like a really killer mesa boogie.also i haven't tried this yet ,but you can also tinker with the op-amps,shows ya kinda how flexible this amp can be,on this amp i usally use guitars loaded with a hot humbucker,but single coils sound great too,be sure to try out the low input for those ,this amp may be one of the quietest tube type amps i have encountered,i had a randall that was shockimgly quiet at loud volumes but it was solid state.the thing that i will say about the clean channel is you can turn that thing up to brutal levels and it stays clean,my distortion channel will sustain for days now.

this thing is built like a tank,i have never gigged with it ,but i would.this amp has never once tried to break down

well,there is no more musicman amp company ,its Ernie Ball.they have supplyed the scematics thats about it.if you want real help check out http://www.musicmanamps.com/ they are great!so Ernie i gave you a 3 steve at musicman amps.com you get a 10

i have been playing for over 30 years,if stolen i would first cry,then start over looking for a new one ,i love what mine is now,i hated the distortion right out of the box ,so be warned.but i will say if you have no use for distortion and love the cleanest amp you have ever heard this baby is for you ,if you want a great distortion ,use a pedal,or try the steps i layed out ,you might be amazed as i was.remember kt88's if you wanna rock stick to 6l6str if you want the biggest clean sound ever.

I think mine's a '78. All the features are listed in the other reviews, they're bang on. The only thing nobody seemed to mention was the gain and volume for each channel. These can make a lot of difference to your sound, the gain initially seems like a secondary volume switch because it barely breaks up without pedals, however, once you're running it as part of a band you'll have to crank the gain eventually, and then you'll get the best of this amp: The crushing tone of a guitar tuned down to standard B through a Rat, delivered in full! Playing it through a 15ohm Orange cabinet with V30's right now but it used to run a fullstack of Carlsbro's with G12-75's, loud as hell!! Mine has no footswitch but I don't miss it, the onboard distortion is crappy on these amps anyway, and I use pedals for fuzz etc. SS pre, EL34 Power... sounds way better than it sounds, heh

Using a 2003 Ibanez IC200 "Iceman" right now. Not by any means a great guitar but it sounds fine to me and has been reliable so far. Stock pickups. Previously running it with an epi SG with Fender Lace-Sensor pickups, sounded ok but was difficult to use with that guitar, it's hard to describe but it was just lacking in mojo. Getting a Tokai Love Rock MiJ any day now so that'll be whats going through it next (SD '59 in the neck, JB in the bridge)... should be sweet. The band I'm in plays Sludge... think Buzzov*en, Cavity, Weedeater, EyeHateGod, Iron Monkey, Mugwart etc. But within seconds of playing that stuff I can be bluesing it up old school, it does most styles, my brother even uses it occasionally in his death metal band (albeit... it's not the amp for DM, even with pedals... but it's useable). The inbuilt distortion, as I said before, is poor. Pedals are sweet with this amp

Never had ANYTHING wrong with it and I've been playing it VERY hard for 3 years now. Before I had it it had been scrapped, the owner of a local shop had fixed it up and added an extra hardwired cable for the footswitch, but it doesn't have a footswitch so that's pretty pointless... But he did a nice job anyway, the amp is holding up just fine. Tubes get a bit hot, but never been worried about it, this amp is tough.

I doubt there even is any, I'd just take it back to Wizard guitars where I got it from and have the shopkeep work his magic if it were broken. I'm sure he could do it easily.

I have a Matamp minimat, have had a Laney Supergroup, and a SS Sunn amp, so I can tell the difference between valve tone and SS tone. I can definitively say, this amp is without doubt on the tube side of the fence. Sounds great for blues, rock, doom and if there's any other kind of music that matters then I'm sure it'll do those too. If I lost this amp, I would probably cry... then I would go looking for it. I probably wouldn't replace it because this is the only one i've ever seen. I would probably buy a Matamp GT120 instead, but that's another story. Nice amp, my favourite so far in fact. If you see one, buy it. But give me first dibs if you're ever selling it.

I don't know a whole lot about this amp. The guy who sold it to me didn't realize what he had and was selling his guitar stuff. If this makes you cry, i'm sorry, but I got it for $40. It came with a matching speaker that has an open back cabinet for a little storage. One of the tubes didn't work, and I had to replace the 3 amp, 125 volt fuse, but other than that, it is in excellent condition. I haven't had a lot of experience with other guitar amps, but this 100 watt amp is far superior to my little 15 watt amp that came with my Ibanez. The foot pedal, permanently attached to the amp, has a reverb switch and a distortion switch, both are controlled by knobs located in the front of the amp. The reverb is incredible, espescially when paired with the distortion, to create a full, spatial sound that kicks butt on the few solos i try. There are two Inputs. I have discovered that 1 is louder than 2 when you plug in two guitars at the same time. Next is the Bright switch, which, when paired with the distortion, creates an awesome screaming sound that annoys the dogs to no end. The Deep switch is good when the bass is pluged in and needs a little help. Next is the Gain and Volume. No need to crank these up unless the downstairs neighbors are giving you trouble at 2:00 in the morning. The next two Gain and Volume are for the Distortion switch on the foot pedal. For practicing, i like to keep the gain at about 6 and the volume at 3-4. Next, Treble, Middle, and Bass. Need i say more? Reverb is controlled by the next knob. it can be turned off and on by the foot pedal. All knobs go from 0 to 10, an excellent, nearly idiot-proof design. Next are the Lo level and high level line ins and outs. Two places to plug things into, which i discovered act strangely when you plug in headphones into them. On one side of the headphones, the guitar comes out. However, if you talk into the other side, it comes out of whatever speaker you have pluged in! A very strange and awkward function. The last two switches are the on/off and the power usage switches. Pretty self explanatory. On the Back of this lovely machine is a 300 watt, 120 volt, 60Hz plug that comes in really handy, espescially if you only have one outlet to plug into, and you need to plug in an effects pedal, or something. Very useful. The Fuse is a 3 amp, 125 volt fuse that is easily replaced. I don't know too much about the Ground switch, so i don't mess with it. Next is the Speaker Impiedence, 4ohms or 8. I leave it on 8 because that is what the back panel says. This whole thing sits on top of a monster speaker that easily handles anything i throw at it. I often pair this rig up with a Zoom 506 Bass effects pedal, an it doesn't phase it one bit (no pun intended). This amp can be plugged into two speakers at a time for double trouble. It has done me well.

As i said, i usually us a Zoom 506 Bass effects pedal with the volume and gain on 3-4. It's enough to fill a small auditorium, or a large, packed, high school gymnasium. It handles the extreme distortion, as the band Disterbed uses, and has no problem kicking out ACDC style riffs on its own. It is very versitile. Adding pedals just makes the ride exponentially more awesome. When i plug in the acoustic/electric, i have had some trouble finding the right settitng to do the guitar justice, but lately, i've been getting very close. It picks up every little thing and lets you know if you screwed up.

All in all, i would say this amp has been a very dependable amp. i've had it for four years, and it is outstanding. I did not expect the tubes to last this long. It occasionaly eats a fuse, but it doesn't phase me. It's my own fault and it still works like i would imagine it being new. It's a little heavy, but it is a small price to pay for the rich sound it carries with it. the front, silver mesh look has become a little undone with age, but that is purely cosmetic. It has never failed me when i needed it most, and i don't forsee any substantial future mishaps.

I wouldn't worry about it, but just in case you need to find a guy, good luck.

If you have one of these jewels, don't let it go. The sound that these old tube amps make is very classic and unique.

Music Man ANSWERS. owned rd100 since "83 brand new.Wonderful amp. Quit once needed new zeners in the 15v.supply i think. The two jacks that seem to baffle everone are simply FX loops. the 3v is before the master volume,the 100mv is between the eq and channel volume controls. both use ring/tip/sleeve or stereo 1/4" plugs. center tip is always return, just like a mixer insert jack. so now you know.also you should commit the following sin: get a qualified technician,hold him at squirt gun point,and insist he install 3.3k resistors from the outputs of each op amp to their respective positive supply. Ignore the yelling.I'm none of those names!! This simple little mod.causes the op amp to run out of it's linear zone,which it will fight tooth and nail to maintain.Presto,now you have some tone in your preamp.by the way no 6l6 was ever made to run at 100 watts(700 volts in this amp!!!)so run it at 50 watts, use good (vintage 30) speakers,maybe run a pod into the 3volt (or if not loud enough use the other i/o jack)and you have a reliable monster of an amp. I use two metal 6l6 late '50s westinghouse in mine.built better than a Fender....it's cold in Canada,so we work on our gear...

'56 les paul jr. somtimes a silver series Ibanez with lace sensors.these are the guitars God would use.Amp is really loud at 50 watts.I use a pod because even though i'm a tube guy(my other main amp is a '65 bassman modded to a plexi sound,very beautiful) Pods give me a better preamp than the Music Man has,even with the changes.The Music Man is ultra reliable.I think the tube preamps weren't as reliable,but had a super chunky sound.I've played one tube version combo,same as Clapton used in his early '80s comback tour.Wow...then he started on his Soldano era,my favorite of his sounds.

This is my backup amp.Totally Dependable.

Haven't had to support a customer yet!!-kidding

I have no idea when this amp was made some say the 70's while others say the 80's I have only owned this amp for a few months now. I knew nothing about this amp at first as I just bought it off ebay one night for like $300.00 and then found out weeks latter it was a hybrid amp not a full tube amp. Kinda pissed me off a bit but then I got a chance to sit down and twist some knobs and crank it up. It just blew me away in more ways than one.

I was looking on Ebay and found some info on a 65 Music Man amp that might answer a few questions here its posted below.
I'm not sure of the year, the serial number is ANO1799, but it is an earlier
version because it has a pre amp tube. The later ones have an all solid state pre amp section. It has a pair of Groove Tube EL34 power tubes. It has two speaker
output jacks and is switchable from 4 to 8 ohm. It also has a Hi/Low power switch that can run the power tubes at half power for earlier distortion.

I use a Fender 4/12 cabinet that I think came from a Fender Rock Pro setup. And a Fender USA Stratocaster, Japn Stratocaster, Custom Made Stratocaster. They all sound great on it. I prefer the blues and a bit of rock SRV / Hendrix I found that SRV Twang sound in this amp and I also found the Hendrix Fuzz Face in it. But the fuzz is a little much. A little bit of fuzz goes a long way with this thing. It needs a knob just for the fuzz. And a knob just for distortion. Im sure its just the type distortion built into the unit but I do like the fuzz and found it nice to hear but like the others here said its kinda strong to quick. The reverb is faint but crank it up and the louder the reverb gets. It does have very good feedback abilitys and harmonics seem to be triggered only from the feedback. The clean side is very clean and has warm tone in its belly when cranked.

Built like a tank just like a Fender I doubt it would fail under the stress of gigging out due to the solid state side of this amp.

I wouldnt even try to just find a local repair shop to tweek around with it.

Ive owned Fender Twin after Fender Twin and Marshall after Marshall and even a Peavy now and then. I feel pretty good about this amp and the sound of this amp I wouldnt part with it at all. I have looked for a long time for that SRV sound and its in this amp. Without buying into more amps and pedals try one of these its real close not dead on the money but damn close. Maybe the best pickups and high dollar tubes in this thing and you might hit it on the head. Just a tight little amp much cheaper than Fender and real close to being one. I love it and would buy another one if I found one just like mine cheap enough to run a split into from my Digitech GNX3 for the real tremelo SRV vibe.

-late 1970's
-dual volumes and gains--one clean, one fuzz, footswitchable. three band eq, reverb
-bright and deep switches
-dual speaker outs, switchable 4-8 ohm impedence
-100 watts via two 6l6 power tubes, ss preamp
i have no clue what the front panel in/outs do. haven't really been able to figure that one out yet. if you know, let me know. especially if it's an fx loop. i'm a little afraid to try and just plug shit into it. i've had bad experiences w/ improper fx loop use.

i really love this amp but it has taken me forever to figure out its sweet spots.

the gain and volume interaction had me fairly baffled till recently. i'm very used to marshalls in this respect. turn up the volume to be loud--turn up the gain to be distorted, turn it down to be clean. i was using that logic and running into probs. the core sound was good, but not very clear and very poor cut w/ the volume on 7 and the gain around 3-4. well, after 6 months of owning the rd-100 i tried running the gain at about 5-6 and the volume on 4-5. the difference was night and day. it was like taking cotton out of my ears.

my main guitar is sg special, cab is bandmaster 2x12. i only use the clean side of the amp with a turbo rat as my distortion sound. this has served me superbly thus far. have also tried stock ds-1s, ibanez tube screamers and big muffs thru it and all sound great as well in their own respective ways.

i also use a boss tr-2tremolo, a boss ps-3 pitch shifter, and a danelectro dan-echo. no mud in the effects section with everything in line especially after correcting my volume/gain prob. my pedals are the source of my noise. the amp itself is extremely quite. one of the best things about hybrids.

i do not like it's fuzz section at all. no harmonics, no definition--just crap. maybe it's just mine, but i hate the fuzz sound. anything but "brutal" or good for that matter.

reverb sounds as spacious as i've heard them. a little artificial sounding--but to your average bear, very soild.

the clean will break and certainly does not sound bad at all. as a matter of fact, that's the logic of my current settings. slightly pushed clean, then the pedal takes it to high gain. very good. works well with front end drivers also. it gets me compliments on my tone all the time.

a lot of ppl say these sound like fenders. while they do lean more towards fender sounds than say a hiwatt, it still sounds nothing like my old prosonic's clean. the sound is definitely less rich, though still very, very good. just a little less strident, more shimmer than twang. seems to want to get raunchy faster than most fenders, too.

i just found out that leo had nothing to do with the design of these (or any of the musicman amps for that matter) in aspen pittman's tube amp book. so keep that in mind. if you want a fender, get one. you can find them very reasonably priced these days. this is completely different beast.

no amp gets a 10. this amp does kick ass, though. gets a nine for having a great sound and tons of wierdo "what the hell is that?"/"they made amps?" character.

it's already fairly old so it must be a trooper. i replaced the tubes once very recently. it made a HUGE difference. so i imagine it hadn't been retubed in a while. that speaks volumes about the amp, especially since the tubes look to be about as old as me (22). i haven't had the caps checked yet b/c it sounds just fine at the moment. no scratchy pots, i/os, etc.

i have a couple of friends who also use mm's (hd 130, 65, and a 75). only one has had a prob and he said it was his own damn fault. other than that, i've never heard of anyone calling these anything short of workhorses.

mm would sooner spit in your face than answer questions about these today.

great amp. bottom line.

does everything i need it to do while still having it's own voice, which is the way an amp should be. you can't make a fender twin sound like a jcm 800, you can't make an orange sound like a dumble, etc. nor should you be able to. a lot of ppl talk a lot of smack about versatility when they talk about amps. i see the kind versatility that modern gizmos have to offer a bane to creativity. too much convenience.

an amp that has its own voice, while being a good and useable voice is a sign of a classic. which this amp truly is. enjoy.

This amp is a 100 watt hybrid amp with footswitchable distortion and reverb. It has high and low gain inputs, though I have trouble seeing a huge difference. It has a switch for High, Low and Standby, and then a seperate main power switch with on and off. It is technically one channel but the footswitch sort of makes it two. It has a bright switch and a deep switch that really change the sound, they are very useful, and both can be turned to normal. It has 3 band eq. for the whole amp and seperate gain and volume for each "channel" and one reverb knob. All knobs go from zero to ten. Also on the front it has two curious outputs. One says 100 millivolt, "Lo level line in and out." I'm GUESSING this is for headphones, but I'm not sure. The other one is a 3 volt "Hi level line in and line out" which I am GUESSING is for a monitor of sorts. Now onto the back, it has a 3 position "ground" switch and I'm not sure what that does but switching it during play doesnt seem to do much or anything at all. It also has an electrical outlet that says 300 watts max. which i assume is for additional heads. And finally, it is switchable to 4 or 8 ohms and has two outputs, in parallel circuit, that say extension speaker and main speaker. When using one cabinet you use the main speaker output. I play this amp through a 4x10 and it is plenty loud for any clubs, parties, or small sized gigs, like a bar or auditorium. You might have to crank it, but it sounds better then anyways.

I play through a Marshall 1965A 4x10, 8 ohms cabinet with 4 celestion G-somethings and I play a Fender Standard Stratocaster (mexican). The clean on this amp is very very versatile and still stays clean at high volumes. I can get sparkling tones like Canned Heat's "Going Up the Country", really strong cleans (use the bright switch) like Stevie Ray Vaughan and "Hot Rod Lincoln" type country twang. The clean can also be really bassy and saturated (use the deep) or very shrill and "offensive." BASICALLY you can get a whole lot of tones out of this using different pick-up positions and settings. The reverb sounds really great and at 10 is pretty strong, but by no means overpowering. At 2 it is barely noticable and really fills the gaps. Now onto the distortion. The distortion really reminds you that this amp is part solid state and at high volumes can be noisy, especially if you have single coil pickups. The only reason this amp is getting a 9 is because of the distortion. At 10, it is very strong and kind of muddy yet a deep fuzz type sound, especially with the deep switch on and on a neck pickup. At low volumes the distortion sounds very saturated and complete fuzz. But at high volumes it can sound really great. At about a 3 in the volume (which is really loud) and 8 on the gain on a bridge pickup it becomes a really aggressive White Stripe's "Fell In Love
with A Girl" tone. There is so much I could say about the various distortion things I could fill a whole page. But you can certainly make it sound good. I like to utilize feedback in my playing also and this amp CAN sound good, but sometimes you'll get a really awful high pitched squeal almost electronic noise, which I think might have to do with the solid state aspect.

I think the reason this amp is solid state is so it can be reliable, and i have certainly had no problems whatsoever. It is built really strong and weighs a crap load.

Music Man, the amp company is out of business, atleast I think it is. But everything on it is basically Fender so you shouldnt have too much trouble finding replacement parts. And ebay always has stuff that will do great.

I am really pleased with this amp, it can be utilized in almost every style of music, except maybe hardcore, but I don't think anyone should be playing that crap anyways. I've seen it on stage with Johnny Cash and I'm pretty sure Eric Clapton played the combo version of this exact amp. It is an amazing amp ESPECIALLY for the price. I never doubt that I got a great deal.

I picked up this amp at a Rummage sale as a newbie to tube amps. I used the opportunity to learn about Music Man and the product. I am very impressed with the features.... Dual channel with separate pre and master volume....HI-stdby-LO power switch.... dual in/out monitor 1/4in plugs .... cool reverb unit....dual speaket jacks 4ohn-8ohm switch ... 100 W output.

I use this in my basement studio (occasional gigs) hooked to a custom built 2/12 cabinet w/ Eminence speakers. Nice tight punchy sound. Usually use my Les Paul through a BlutTube tube preamp (to get that nice overdrive - the solidstate pre in the RD100 is not that great). Les Paul has Seymour Duncan pickups. Old LP humbuckers were retrofitted into a 335 copy Ventura hollowbody (same Rummage sale)and gives a great sound through this amp.

Amp has performed flawlessly since I got it. I have done preventative maintenance on it - had new Svetlana 6L6 put in and biased, recapped entire unit (nice difference in clarity), had a tube out jack put into rear of the amp for recording purposes (front only taps off preamp). This unit is built like a tank - would take it anywhere!

Shematics pulled from Ernie Ball website (they purchased company, and kindly kept the schematics available) My amo tech has serviced many of these units and has great opinion of them.

PS- I got the amp for $50 but am listing the full price that I have invested so far as $250

This amp is the centerpiece of my home studio - I run a PC based digital recording setup with Guillemot Maxi-ISIS, and I am capturing some awesome sounds from the tube out jack. Would highly recommend this mod for those with the amp. Next step will be some power attenuators so I can drive the tubes hard without deafening the neighbors! Good luck to anyone who finds one of these gems. You'll love it!

Bought brand new in 1979. Haven't seen many like it. It's a 'switching' amp with two input channels, both having separate 'gain and master' controls. Tone controls are common to both channels as is reverb master. There are low and high level 'amp in/out jacks' which I never use. The front end (pre-amp section and driver) is solid state. The output is 2 6l6's. I use this amp head exclusively on all gigs and in the studio, driving a Music Man 2-10 cabinet (George Terry design) equipped with two JBL K-110 guitar speakers.

I play mostly a Les Paul - occasionally a Strat. The amp is relatively quiet. My only critical observation is the non-linearity of the distortion/overdrive sound as the master volume is increased. With the master at 2 or 3, the distortion is creamy/thick. As the output/master is increased, so does the distortion. Still stays distorted, but becomes a little more 'brittle'. I guess this is common in most amps with 'drive'/'master' controls. There is no channel labeled 'clean' or 'distorted, but the left side is generally the cleaner side. Again, there are two input channels (foot-switched) both with 'gain' and 'master' controls. I wish there were a 12AX7 in the front end, but then the amp might not be as quiet, and I'd be dealing with microphonic tube problems.

The most dependable amp I've ever owned. Took a 6 foot fall on to solid concrete and still worked perfectly. Only repair in 19 years was the ON-OFF switch. Music store charged me $50 for that. I didn't change power tubes for nearly 12 years and wondered why it was sounding bad. Changed tubes and she is just fine. Am contemplating having the amp 're-capped' as after nearly 20 years, some of the caps may be going.

Glad to say I've never really needed it.

I've been a professional musician for 35 years. I wouldn't think of using another amp except maybe the Fender Tonemaster which I can't afford. Just wish there was a tube pre-amp option for this amp. Bought it on recommendation of store. I needed something quick and didn't have time for a lot of 'test-driving'. Just wish the distorted sound was the same with Master at '7' as it is on '3'. My friend has a head just like it that's 'dead-mint' - never been out of his studio. If mine dies, he'd better hide his.