$700 · MUSICMAN "RD 110 FIFTY" TUBE AMP - 1981/'82

Designed and built by Leo Fender, this MUSICMAN amp is a little power-house of tone. 50 watts, single 10" speaker. Solid state pre-amp and 6L6 tube powered output. It has a "clean" channel, and a "limiter/distortion" channel that easily adjusts from "just-a-bit-of-hair" to full on screaming distortion. Nice, old-school spring reverb. This one has an added XLR balanced line out that is post everything. . . . from Paul Bechtoldt - Vintage Guitar Magazine . . . "Another quality of the RD-50 that you will notice is, even when being played clean, this is a LOUD amplifier, which I attribute to [Leo Fender's] superior preamp section and post tone control. When the amp first debuted it had grill cloth identical to an old blackface Fender, then the grill cloth was rotated 90 degrees so the pattern ran vertical instead of horizontally. These variations occur in 1981 and 1982, then giving way to an all-black grill cloth by March of 1982. Do these amps deserve a "collectable" status? YES, they are a part of the Leo Fender heritage, sound great, are built to last, and Chet Atkins uses one — who's going to argue with Chet? The pre-1979 tube inverter models (65 and 130) are great amps and the RD-50 just goes a few steps farther. The RD-50 reacts with a dramatic difference in sound according to what type of 6L6 tubes you use. If the amp is biased with "old style" 6L6s, it yields a warm vintage tone, but if you set this bad boy up with a pair of "hot" 6L6s like a Mesa-Boogie uses, it will scream and get mean." This article originally appeared in Vintage Guitar March 1996 issue. Asking $700. Please call or text.