Thanx for the great review. I`ve been thinking of trying one of these (the GVT52 212). I have a Fender deVille 212 - great clean sound, but thats it. I have to use several of pedals to get a good distoriton / overdrive sound. I`m looking for an amp with good warm crunch tones without beeing a Marshall. And the Ampeg sounds interesting... Do you know how the 15w sounds like compared to the 50w and do you know how it sounds compared to e.g the Vox ac30?

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nankerphlege
Ampeg may have missed the mark with these new amps. Made in china? 6l6 tubes? Those are fine tubes but ampeg should have used some of the crazy tubes from those past to help make these new amps a little more unique. 6550s, 7027, and my favorite the 7591. All are commercially available. I don't they could recreate the classic ampeg sound without them. I hope they aren't just twist on a fender circuit or something. If you want the svt or v series sound in a smaller wattage package try finding an old GU-12. They usually need work but mine nails the "exile" tone. Probably because they use it on exile.

I am on it.. Thanks for the idea...

Doom...
The other thing is to make sure you put vintage 7591 tubes in it. Mine took ALOT of work but it is the most awesome and unique sounding amp. I still insist it nails the exile sound. I have v2 as well as I used to own a vt22, and I can say this is amp is the only small/combo amp that sounds like those even of the Ampeg line

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nankerphlege
Doom...
The other thing is to make sure you put vintage 7591 tubes in it. Mine took ALOT of work but it is the most awesome and unique sounding amp. I still insist it nails the exile sound. I have v2 as well as I used to own a vt22, and I can say this is amp is the only small/combo amp that sounds like those even of the Ampeg line

Cool, I do allot of home recording and of course love the Exile tone especially for 5 string "G". The closest I can get to that compressed over eq'd sound is with a small solid state Roland Spirt amp, it gets pretty close I use a 62 reissue strat wired kind of like a tele with a Duncan Hot Rails in the neck position.. All from experimentation no need to be a complete copycat... I have a pile of weirdo amps but no Ampegs with the EQ switches. I will write back if I find one soon and we can analyze the tubes... Thanks again!!!!!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013-03-13 21:15 by DoomandGloom.

I had a friend who plyaed his strat through an Ampeg. It was huge, and had a great look and sound.

I've got a Marshall combo I play through a Marshall cab. I had a Twin, but was always getting overpowered by my former band-mate's Marshall so I traded it for the combo/cab. I love the fat, solid crunch of the Marshall and I suspect an Ampeg is probably the closest you can get. That was one of the options I considered recently when I decided to invest in a second amp. But instead I went with a Roland JC120, which I love. It's clean, but with volume and heft and I wanted something totally different than what already had and have had.
Can't really go wrong with Marshall, Fender, Mesa Boogie, Ampeg, Roland etc.....its all about how you use them and what feels right.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013-03-13 23:33 by stupidguy2.

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gibsonman
Thanx for the great review. I`ve been thinking of trying one of these (the GVT52 212). I have a Fender deVille 212 - great clean sound, but thats it. I have to use several of pedals to get a good distoriton / overdrive sound. I`m looking for an amp with good warm crunch tones without beeing a Marshall. And the Ampeg sounds interesting... Do you know how the 15w sounds like compared to the 50w and do you know how it sounds compared to e.g the Vox ac30?

No I didn't try any others. No where local had any in stock so I had to order on line. In the UK you have the right to return any online ordered stuff in 2 weeks of delivery and get your money back so I figured it was the best way to try one out.

When you try out the Ampeg remember to turn both the middle and the gain all the way up at the same time at some point to hear the range of gain you can get. Liek I say, the mid acts as a secondary gain control and this is key to understanding how to get different tones out of the amp. The tone controls can cut or boost unlike most amps and the mid is before the pre-amp wheras bass and treble are after it. Careful control of tone knobs lets you choose whether to have your mids more distorted with your bass and treble cleaner or all distorted by the same amount or your mids less distorted than the bass and treble. Other amps such as Marshall, Fender, Vox etc don't have this ability.

Check out about 5 minutes into this video.





Like I say, I'm still seeking that elusive GYYYO tone and this amp won't supply it BUT it's a good compromise. Maybe you should also consider a Mesa Boogie if you're after a higher wattage? I got this specifically because I wanted a low wattage amp. Higher wattage there's more to choose from.