HH Electronics vs musicman

billando

This is an amp that ive not really known of until recently. Its solid state from 1970s but some good bands have used these including T-rex as main amp. Its 100w.

I believe the 2x12 amp came with fane speakers but im possibly buying the head version. I have various combo amps i can play it through using their speakers including a 2x12 with g1265 creambacks, 1x12 with g12h100 and 2x12 with older g12t75s.

Anybody any experience with these and what of these cabs would go well with the head if any?

DiscoStu

This was my first amp, late 80s.
A great clean amp. The 'valve sound' didn't do much IIRC other than muddy the sound. 
Mine came with a Carlsbro PA cab so never tried it through guitar speakers but I imagine it would sound really good. 
I'd say pedal platform over standalone guitar amp. 

I got good money for mine when I sold it, they have quite a fan base.

NicoAdie

Gigged one with a closed 2x12 fitted with Vintage 30s for years and I LOVED it. One of my biggest gear regrets is selling it. Especially because I sold it to a mate and he reminds me periodically how much he loves it. I actually like the Valve Sound but I can see why it’s not for everyone. 

The clean channel absolutely loves pedals. Always thought it sounded like a halfway between Hiwatt & Orange whilst still being its own thing.

Make sure the one you get is serviced or get it serviced though.

ICBM

Massive dynamic and wide frequency response solid-state sound - you’ll either love it or hate it. About as far away from the pushed small valve guitar combo sound as it’s possible to get while still being an amp rather than a PA system.

The ‘Valve Sound’… doesn’t. It’s a fuzzy distortion that you may recognise from glam rock and early punk - and Big Country .

It will need a minimum of the two G12M-65s for safety, but might sound better through the H100 - or at least more like it was designed to. Be careful not to crank it right up though, even with a Celestion - the full 100W is only into 4 ohms, but it will be pushing it even at 8.

(The original speakers were HH’s own, but I don’t know if they actually manufactured them or contracted out to another company - it’s possible that the earlier IC100 model used Fanes, although I don’t think so.)

They were very high quality in their day - before solid-state became associated with cheapness - and were some of the first amps to use toroidal transformers. They’re very reliable generally, but most or all of them will need - if not already done - filter cap replacements by now.

There’s also a resin-encapsulated ‘tone module’ in some of the models, which can fail unrepairably - I’ve got a couple of spare ones if anyone needs one!

p90fool

Not to piss on anyone's chips but I just don't buy the hype or nostalgia, they sound utterly fucking vile. 

merlin

I saw Dr Feelgood with Wilko. Yes, he played an HH V-S Musician. 

TheBigDipper

p90fool said:

Not to piss on anyone's chips but I just don't buy the hype or nostalgia, they sound utterly fucking vile. 

I quite liked spiky proto-punk guitarists using them. Wilko Johnson (as noted above) and I'm sure I saw photos of Paul Weller playing live through one. No problems with their sound in the context of their music.

Me? I'm with p90fool. I hated playing through one. OTOH, the bass player in my first serious band used an HH Bass amp (with reflex port in the bottom of the cab) and that was great for what we were doing. 

billando

p90fool said:

Not to piss on anyone's chips but I just don't buy the hype or nostalgia, they sound utterly fucking vile. 

Thanks for your opinion.

Everybody has a different tone in their head...just now im going for a trashy 70s type punk tone that i can use for gigs unmiced..
.being solid state the 100w shouldnt be too overkill whereas a 100w valve amp for pub gigs would be....at lower master volumes too shrill.

Its just something to try something different. Can always sell it if not happy.

It might be just what im looking for or it might be "utterly fucking vile".....i suspect somewhere inbetween.

dcg

I used a 2x12" HH Musician combo in the mid/late '70s, and my (then) band also used an HH PA amp and slave unit.  The combo was a good clean platform, but the drive channel was - as has been said - a very on or off design, and a rather boneheaded take on saturation.  Pretty good trem and reverb tho'.  The HH amps were all reliable - until they weren't, and it then proved difficult to find a tech who could fix them satisfactorily. 
Musicman is (IMHO) a different proposition.  These were/are proper hybrid designs, and if they were good enough for Albert Lee and Tom Verlaine I think they're worth a serious look.   Heavy as I recall, and again the drive is an acquired taste - although I suspect can be balanced with judicious use of the gain and EQ controls.  Very well put together, as should be evident from their CLF pedigree.      

Creed_Clicks

I used to use a H&H through a big Marshall cab, and it sounded fantastic! Cannot remember the model name of the head though.

Roland

I used an H+H combo for years. Solid piece of kit you could knock around without risking the valves. Party piece was to kick it at the end of a song or solo, triggering an explosion from the reverb tank. Eventually gave it to a nephew when he was starting out. 

oh_pollo

EAE pedals do 'The Bard' which is a musicman preamp.

impmann

I had one as a back up for a while - as @ICBM says, *massive* dynamic/transients. They don't react like even a big valve amp - they have their own thing going on. Capable of moving massive amounts of air...

Voxman

I've played a couple of the HH IC100 2x12 combo & especially for the day these looked spectacular all lit up in green. These had Celestion speakers (Greenbacks maybe?) but I don't know which ones or whether these were stock or had been changed.  These were seriously, seriously loud. The first one I played was at our youth club and years later I played one at a mic night when I had a Boss GT3 mfx and it sounded pretty good with it. Huge, huge clean head room, built in reverb, and the ones I played had a horrid sounding 'sustain' switch that was like a fuzz. I remember these were impossibly heavy, & it took two strong people to lift them. Must have had concrete in them!  In fact, I don't think I've ever come across any other 2x12 combo amp that was that heavy, their weight was just insane. 

JCA2550

I Had an HH VS Musician head for several years back in the 80s, it came to me second hand with a huge 1 x 18'' de-tolexed (stripped) VOX cabinet and I used it for bass and guitar. Loved it, although it was a rather bulky rig for a 17 year old to cart around without a car, so I sold it to a band mate and bought a Marshall 2525 combo as I wasn't playing much bass back then. It had 2 great sounds, clean as a brilliant pedal platform and "Valve Sound" full lead guitar singing sustain.

A niggle but please can you correct the thread title from vs Musicman to VS Musician?

ICBM

Voxman said:

I've played a couple of the HH IC100 2x12 combo & especially for the day these looked spectacular all lit up in green. These had Celestion speakers (Greenbacks maybe?) but I don't know which ones or whether these were stock or had been changed.  These were seriously, seriously loud. The first one I played was at our youth club and years later I played one at a mic night when I had a Boss GT3 mfx and it sounded pretty good with it.

Replaced, they never used Celestion as far as I know.

They do indeed sound great with a multi-FX, although I’m not a huge fan of them even as a clean pedal platform with normal overdrive pedals.

Voxman said:

I remember these were impossibly heavy, & it took two strong people to lift them. Must have had concrete in them!  In fact, I don't think I've ever come across any other 2x12 combo amp that was that heavy, their weight was just insane. 

The cabinets are made from high-density particle-board - in keeping with the rest of the design philosophy this is not for cheapness, it was to make the cabinet as solid and inert as possible… essentially hi-fi/studio monitor thinking, and the exact opposite of what’s now the received wisdom for guitar amps.

There are heavier amps though - the Ampeg VT-22, Mesa Trem-o-verb and Heartbreaker, and Fender ‘Twin Amp’ (AKA the Evil Twin) are all heavier - but the prize goes to the Burman Pro 2000, a 100W valve monster with a similar particle-board cab. An amp so heavy it’s the only guitar combo I can think of which they didn’t even bother fitting with a top handle! I don’t actually know the weight but I’m pretty sure it’s over 100lb.

Danny1969

The first serious band I joined had loads of HH stuff. All the PA was HH and consisted of 4 x reverse loaded horn bins, 2 X 12" HH tops, 2 upper mid horns and 6 x tweeter top boxes. They had blown up the top boxes by the time I joined so our PA went from about 30hz to 6K

The mixing desk as HH as was the monitor amps, those long ones with the front handles that lit up green. The main PA amps were the famous HH 500D's which could drive 500 watts into 2.5 ohms .. serious power back then.

They never used HH guitar amps though, I mean back then you could buy an old Marshall head for £100 and nobody wanted old SS amps like HH.

All the drivers in the PA blew over the years and were replaced with Celestion as we had contacts there. I repaired the amps a few times. A couple of years after I left the band somebody nicked the whole van with all the HH gear in it. And I've never used any since.

billando

Ive had many amps especially marshalls...nearly all from last century. If we stick to master volume amps, say a jcm 800 combo or jcm 900 dual reverb combo or jmp 2104....yes they sound good at pub gig level but the master is quite low and 1. You are not getting best out of amp and 2. It can sound ice picky and too compressed in band situation unmiced. There is the option of lower wattage amps like vox ac15 which i use a lot...can get master up and work the amp. Then theres the solid state or valvestate option....there is more immediate attack and to me perform potentially better for certain scenarios.

Everybody will have their own opinion but for me im still undecided whats best for my needs...low master jcm 800 (or similar), solid state amp or lower wattage valve amp like ac15.

Everybody seems to love the 800 but there was something unsatisfying last time i used my 4010 combo at lower volume gig compared to a more "working" ac15.

ElectricXII

In the early 80s I played guitar in a spoof psychedelic garage band called The Subterraneans. The other guitarist had an HH combo, which you can see in this photo. The amp was loud AF and suited the swamp trash style of the band.

goldtop

Had one as my first amp. I didn't know any better and it was good enough to get me started. Mostly used a Boss OD-1 instead of the 'Valve Sound'. Sometimes get nostalgic thoughand keep an eye out for a head to come up locally.

Must have been a fan, because I even bought the two extra HH FX units - flanger and something else that I can't recall (unless I'm misremembering).

I think Mickey Ameson (MAJ in Birmingham) bought up all of the spares and is where you go for HH bits nowadays.

billando

I got the head looks in great condition..going to try it out later ill let you know what my thoughts are