Name: Steve Kennedy
Email: steve@pacair.com
Subject: Music Man 65
Thread: 84
Time: Thu, 24 May 2001 19:32:03 UTC
That "extra" tube is the phase splitter which "drives" the two output tubes in "push-pull".
This vintage of Music Man gives the warmest overdrive of any of them. However, since the amp was designed with a high-headroom solid state preamp, the only way to get "real" tube overdrive is to overload the output stage.
This is done by turning all Gain/Volume knobs to OFF or "0", then crank the Master Volume control up to FULL or "10" ("11" if you arein Spinal Tap mode).
Now, crank the volume control for the channel you are plugged into up until you start hearing output stage overload when you play. It WILL be loud unless you plug the head into a speaker emulator or load like the Groove Tubes Speaker Emulator, PS Systems Power Tool, THD HotPlate or Marshall PowerBrake.
These amps overload very gracefully and will be very dynamic and "alive" when played at "live" levels (through real speakers and loud).
Steve