How to find the value of an unknown exponent?

... and without logarithms or knowing any powers of $2$ other than the most trivial one ... \begin{align*} 2^{4x+1} &= 128 \\ 2^{4x+1-1} = 2^{4x} &= 128/2 = 64 \\ 2^{4x-1} &= 32 \\ 2^{4x-2} &= 16 \\ 2^{4x-3} &= 8 \\ 2^{4x-4} &= 4 \\ 2^{4x-5} &= 2 \\ 2^{4x-6} &= 1 = 2^0 \text{,} \\ \end{align*} so $4x-6 = 0$ and $x = 6/4 = 3/2$.

$2^{4x+1}=128\iff$

$\log_22^{4x+1}=\log_2128\iff$

${4x+1}=7\iff$

${4x}=6\iff$

${x}=6/4$

$2^{4x+1}=128$

$\log 2^{4x+1}=\log 128$

$(4x + 1) \times \log 2 = \log 128$ - from properties of logs

$x = \frac{1}{4}(\frac {\log 128}{log (2)} - 1) = 3/2$

note that you can use any logarithm, log base 10 or 'ln' - or any other 'base' of logarithms you might have (with log10 and loge being the commonly found ones on calculators, spreadsheets etc ) you have to use your chosen type of log consistently of course