That looks pretty legit to me. Lots of them don't have the COA so I wouldn't sweat that.
You can check the S/N here:
https://www.music-man.com/serial-number-database
Well that's great to hear- thanks :) The amplification issue is mostly what's holding me back. I have my current setup dialed in perfectly and the idea of starting over is daunting. Though I get the sense it'll be worth it in the long run.
95% of the time we're doing our own sound for smaller...
I've been on the fence with this for a while. I love gigging with an amp + cab (I LOVE my main amp), but it would be so much simpler with an FM9. Might have to bite the bullet and play with one for a while.
I've had both, still have the Mercury. They kind of meet in the middle sonically, but I find the Mercury the more versatile of the two boxes. (That said, it depends on your style a bit.)
If you get the "Midi1" adapter then you can use MIDI to change a bunch of other parameters that are handy.
I went to a Morningstar switcher to avoid tap dancing and then replaced any non-MIDI pedals with a HX Stomp. Made life so much easier for gigs. Zero regrets.
The speaker outputs are in parallel, so you're fine using the second speaker output rather than putting it in-line. It's effectively the same thing.
(I do the same thing with an IR loader I use at gigs.)
This is one of those amps I've had a few times ... and wish I'd held on to. The OD channel is fantastic.
I do wish the clean channel on the Duel had evolved to be a little more useful- I found it too bland to use for anything. Imo, being able to switch the Hi/Lo inputs would have been more...
Hah- I was just watching a recent vid of them in the studio. There's my Guytron, sitting behind Simon :)
Buddy of mine is their tech, so I leant it to them for the sessions. I had a chance to spend some time with them during rehearsals which was pretty cool.