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MusicMan 2275

I have always been into 4 by 10 combo amplifiers so it was a pleasure to receive this 2275 for servicing. The MusicMan brand as everyone knows was created by a group of businessmen including Leo Fender. There has been a truckload of MusicMan amplifier models and this 2275 is part of the earlier range of the brand. It employs a 12AX7 for the phase splitting duty (later ones use transistors for this as well as transisor drivers for the output valves) and twin EL34s for power. MM amps were very succesful in the 70's and early 80's to the point that Peavey based many of its own models on them, at least for the output stages.

Mr Fender's touch is all over these amplifiers from design to manufacturing. The circuit is very clean and is pretty much organised like that of a Silverface amp. The tone is geared towards clean and clear and this amp works well for many applications: guitar, organ or bass (with different speakers). The Deep switch has to be on all the time otherwise the tone is a bit thin for modern music. The tremolo can be very deep and isn't as smooth as its Fender counterpart. It remains quite pleasing nonetheless.

This particular 2275 was suffering from a very early breakup partly because of failing components and partly because the circuit headroom is insufficient for modern high output pickups. Apart from that, the high quality manufacturing has stood the test of time and provides a high reliability that so many modern amps fail to be delivering.