When I'm Sixty-five...

It could be argued that 65 was a significant number for Leo Fender; after all, it was in 1965, on the 5th of January, that he sold the Fender Electric Instrument Company Inc. to CBS for 13 million dollars (along with his associate Fender companies). Perhaps that’s why he chose the name 'Sixty-five' for his next series of amplifiers. But then in 1974, when the Music Man company produced that first line of 65 watt amps, Leo Fender also happened to be 65 years old. The output wattage might not have been the only reason for their Sixty-five monicker. 

Leo Fender started making amps with Doc Kaufman back in 1945; by the time CBS bought Fender, Leo’s amps had taken 20 years to reach their zenith in the Blackface range that are still acclaimed today. It should come as no surprise that the first Music Man amps were the next evolution of that renowned marque. The Sixty-five series of amps were designed by Leo Fender and Tom Walker as a hybrid of the now world-famous valve amps Leo was known for with the new, rapidly developing, semiconductor technology. Solid-state devices were, by the early 1970s, far more complex than mere diodes and transitors. There were new, tiny operational amplifiers built into integrated circuits (which would become the basis of the next generation of 'fuzz boxes' in a whole raft of different overdrive & distortion pedals). The new range of Music Man guitar amps used op-amp IC chips in circuits that embodied typical Fender pre-amp architecture & time constants, to drive a push-pull, valve power amp. These early Music Man amps used metal-can ICs (rather than the more familiar Dual In-line Chips), which were socketed to allow for easy trouble shooting and maintenance.

Unlike most Fender amps, built on a 6L6 or similar tube power stage, the new amps used the 6CA7, or EL34 valves, more famously used by companies like Marshall and HiWatt. The clean tones were huge and bright with natural valve distortion when the power stage was pushed hard, an effect which could be replicated at lower volumes by the cunning dual mode selectable from the power switch. On the "Low" power setting the plate voltage was dropped by half but all four output valves were still in operation, giving a wonderful rich, harmonic overdrive at lower levels. This is a far more effective way of choking the power of an amp and retaining complex tone than the more common practice of achieving such attenuation by only employing half the power tubes*.

There was no mistaking the heritage of these new compact combos. Cosmetically they more than resembled the pre-CBS Fender models: two separate pre-amp channels, each with dual jack inputs, controlled by silver-capped black 'witch hat' knobs, on black face plates, above a silver grill cloth and all wrapped up in a black tolex covered pine cabinet. As befitting the next generation of Blackface amps the Sixty-fives had lush spring reverb and rich tremolo on channel two. However these Music Man tremolos can often confuse players used to Leo's older Fender circuits — you can't just dial in the numbers you'd usually aim for. That's because they had a double feature whereby the second half of the Intensity pot was wired to simulate a rotary speaker. Dial it up past 5 and the effect went from tremolo to Leslie. The Speed control also had a much wider sweep than it's Fender forebears**. This made for a much more versatile effect but required a lighter touch than the old Black- and Brownface circuits. The Sixty-five amps also had a "deep" rocker switch, for colouring the tone (much like the Blackface Bassman, but on the second channel) alongside the traditional Fender "bright" switch; and, again like the Blackface Bassman, they were solid state rectified.

And on top of everything else they were even made in Fullerton, CA. Imagine the excitement generated in 1974 by the rumour that Leo Fender was making amps again! The stable of Music Man amps soon expanded, getting larger, louder and more complex. They were rich, full and above all loud — and the range of artists who adopted them was wide — Nile Rodgers, Joe Strummer, Mark Knopfler & Eric Clapton, to name but a few. They were also built like the proverbial tank and their reliability on the road became legendary. Now 21st century players are starting to recognise just how great those early Music Man amps are and prices are steadily rising as a result.

*      The Boogie MK.I is a classic example of this approach (though Mesa would experiment with different low-power switch circuits over the years), and the 2/4 output tube switch can still be found in use today in amps like the Orange TH30 which has Full and Half options on it's standby switch that takes two of it's EL84s out of the power amp stage.

**    From the original 1974 Music Man catalogue:

"INTENSITY

The tremolo intensity control provides a double function. At settings from zero to five, modulation varies from zero to 100% respectively. At settings above five, a second modulation pulse is added giving a Doppler effect that simulates a rotating speaker.
SPEED

The speed control determines the rate at which tremolo occurs. It is an extremely wide range control and produces some unusual effects."

***   Going by the newest pot code I can find inside, though most of the pot codes are earlier, so it could be a repair. The banner picture for this blog was taken inside our 210 Sixty-five. Component dates are pretty much the only way you can date Music Man amps, I can't find a resource anywhere that decodes the serial numbers.