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Post subject: Any fans of Ampeg?
Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2014 12:39 am
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Last week, the Super Pawns in Vegas had their Black Friday events. It was pretty crazy. Although I only had enough time to stop by a few stores, I wasn't really running across much in the guitar sections until the last one I stopped in.

I was able to walk away with an Ampeg Superjet in very good condition for $200.

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Image

It's a single channel 50-watt 1x12.
2- 12ax7s
2- 6L6s

What a fun little beast this thing is. It doesn't really have a fender Sparkle, but I love the darker side of it. It still has a nice open crunch when you push the volume and unlike the Peavey Delta, it responds very well to a neck humbucker without getting too murky. The footswitch switches to an internal boost for an early breakup.

I liked it enough to swap the speaker with a Celestion V-30, and swap the preamp tubes to a NOS Tung Sol 7025 and Amperex Ecc83. What a cool amplifier! The reverb in it is crap, but I'll just use a pedal. Other than that, it gets some really good clean and raunchy tones. I love it.

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Anyone else sporting an Ampeg guitar amp?

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Post subject: Re: Any fans of Ampeg?
Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2014 1:57 am
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Congrat :D


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Post subject: Re: Any fans of Ampeg?
Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2014 3:09 am
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Nice amp. I know someone who had one of those a few years ago. Decent tone and pretty darn loud from what I recall.


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Post subject: Re: Any fans of Ampeg?
Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2014 6:37 am
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Wondering, were Ampeg and Crate once the same company? I believe both were made in St. Louis until Crate was sold and now made in China? The spring reverb on my old Crate is crap also, even after I replaced it. Later on read a review and they mentioned when the amp was new the reverb didn't work well turned past 1 on the dial.


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Post subject: Re: Any fans of Ampeg?
Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2014 8:08 am
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Ampeg's are awesome. Great tone... I had a vintage VT-40 (4x10 combo) I used to gig with... don't miss hauling it around... HEAVY amp... but it did sound great 8)

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Post subject: Re: Any fans of Ampeg?
Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2014 9:01 am
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Cool stuff. Those old Ampeg amps are practically bulletproof. Heck, ya...loud.

I once had a Gemini II...great amp, loved the detachable wheeled cart which made up for weight problem...but was still a bear to bring up out of the basement. Yes...the reverb was not up to Fender standards...

That series stayed pretty clean all the way up, but didn't mind being pushed hard by an overdrive pedal. I guess accordion players don't have a need for grit? Yes, it has an accordion input...useful to chain both inputs and overdrive the output section a bit more.

I saw one or two selling recently for over $500...

Yes...wish I still had it.

Cheers.

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Post subject: Re: Any fans of Ampeg?
Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2014 10:21 am
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With the footswitch plugged in, there's a lot of head room. When you engage the switch, it bumps the db and breaks up really good at about 4. If you unplug the footswitch, it runs db boosted.

I'd like to find a better tank for it. But I'm not so sure a long decay is a good idea for this model. The cabinet is really small ( like a Mesa Studio 22). If there's a better short tank, I'd consider giving it a try. But I need a pedal for the Heidkamp anyway. Might be a better solution at this point.

This amp sounds great. Really loud and punchy and ballsy when you push it. I'm totally diggin' it. But just as valuable is the smooth taper of volume from 0-2. It doesn't just all of the sudden jump from barely audible to "too loud to mic at a gig" by barely tapping it. That was always an issue with my past amps. So I can easily see myself wanting to gig with it just for that alone. From 0-2 is very manageable.

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Post subject: Re: Any fans of Ampeg?
Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2014 10:27 am
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great amp


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Post subject: Re: Any fans of Ampeg?
Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2014 8:22 pm
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Congrats Ted ! Cool amp !
I have used Ampeg bass cabinets in the past. Reliable and sturdy.

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Post subject: Re: Any fans of Ampeg?
Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2014 6:51 pm
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Nice amp! And when it comes to bass, I've always been a fan of SVTs.


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Post subject: Re: Any fans of Ampeg?
Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2014 7:28 pm
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tvr1979 wrote:
Wondering, were Ampeg and Crate once the same company? I believe both were made in St. Louis until Crate was sold and now made in China? The spring reverb on my old Crate is crap also, even after I replaced it. Later on read a review and they mentioned when the amp was new the reverb didn't work well turned past 1 on the dial.

The only affiliation Ampeg ever had with Crate is that they are/were both owned by the same mother-company but they both started out separately and remained autonomous. Crate was originally a holding of St. Louis Music before St. Louis itself was sold. I could be mistaken but I believe both Ampeg and Crate are currently owned by Loud Technologies.

FMIC does very similar things, buying companies and keeping the name(s) and letting them run as separate entities under the mother-ship. Sometimes FMIC simply dissolves a company they've bought and assimilates the designs and concepts into their own product lines. SWR Engineering is one such example. The early Bassman 400 combos for example were directly adapted from the SWR Redhead. Other companies just seem to cease to exist, like Tacoma guitars. Tacoma used to make what was arguably the best sounding acoustic bass guitar ever made. I have not seen a Fender replacement for that guitar.

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Post subject: Re: Any fans of Ampeg?
Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2014 12:39 am
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...and we have to give some love to the oddball basses and guitars Ampeg made.

I have an early 70's Ampeg Big Stud bass guitar...looks kinda like a 1st generation Precision Bass, but with an extra pickup.

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Post subject: Re: Any fans of Ampeg?
Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2014 4:36 am
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shred6 wrote:
Last week, the Super Pawns in Vegas had their Black Friday events. It was pretty crazy. Although I only had enough time to stop by a few stores, I wasn't really running across much in the guitar sections until the last one I stopped in.

I was able to walk away with an Ampeg Superjet in very good condition for $200.

Image

Image

It's a single channel 50-watt 1x12.
2- 12ax7s
2- 6L6s

What a fun little beast this thing is. It doesn't really have a fender Sparkle, but I love the darker side of it. It still has a nice open crunch when you push the volume and unlike the Peavey Delta, it responds very well to a neck humbucker without getting too murky. The footswitch switches to an internal boost for an early breakup.

I liked it enough to swap the speaker with a Celestion V-30, and swap the preamp tubes to a NOS Tung Sol 7025 and Amperex Ecc83. What a cool amplifier! The reverb in it is crap, but I'll just use a pedal. Other than that, it gets some really good clean and raunchy tones. I love it.

Image

Anyone else sporting an Ampeg guitar amp?


I used to have that same model as well as a J-12T - nice score!

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Post subject: Re: Any fans of Ampeg?
Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2014 7:10 am
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Ampeg amps are rock solid, amazing sounding amps. If you like tons of headroom, you made the right choice. They were a staple of tons of bands way back.

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Post subject: Re: Any fans of Ampeg?
Posted: Sun Dec 21, 2014 5:34 pm
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I use an Ampeg SVT-410HLF bass cab, and really like it. I don't care for their bass combos however.

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