Bought an Ampeg B18N, help me date it

[micahturner]

Just picked up a B18N head lastnight and I'm trying to date it. The serial number is 039283.

The head sounds amazing. The 7027A tubes are Sylvania. The 6SL7 tubes have an Ampeg stamp at the base of the tube. The 5AR4 just says it was made in Britain. The 7199 is an RCA. I think most of these are original. The only thing I'm going to have to get is a replacement for the non-stock bass knob.

An amp tech gave it a clean bill of health. I'll post pictures when I finish my move to Washington.

[coreyfyfe]

1966

The second serial number system was implemented in January 1965 and used until the end of 1969. This system overlapped with the previous serialization scheme for a period of about 6 months. These are also 6-digit numbers, which appear to have been applied sequentially, but they are not date encoded. Enough information (serial numbers, model, date codes) has been gathered to prepare the following guide for dating by serial number. Note that the year associated with a range of serial numbers is very rough and will likely change as more information is gathered for refining the estimates. The EIA date codes of original components should be used to confirm an approximate date of manufacture.
Serial Number Range Year
000001 to 020000 1965
020000 to 049000 1966
049000 to 075000 1967
075000 to 080000 1968
080000 to 092000 1969

[Ric Vice]

Originally Posted by micahturner

Just picked up a B18N head lastnight and I'm trying to date it. The serial number is 039283.

The head sounds amazing. The 7027A tubes are Sylvania. The 6SL7 tubes have an Ampeg stamp at the base of the tube. The 5AR4 just says it was made in Britain. The 7199 is an RCA. I think most of these are original. The only thing I'm going to have to get is a replacement for the non-stock bass knob.

An amp tech gave it a clean bill of health. I'll post pictures when I finish my move to Washington.

You've got yourself a great Ampeg Portaflex Head.
If you choose to keep it, you should consider either finding an orphaned B-15 Cabinet, B-18 Cabinet, or having one made by Vintage Blue. That heads gives you 55 watts RMS
which is double what the 25 watt RMS B-15N's produced.

[micahturner]

Thanks corey!

The head IS great. I've got two B15 cabinets that I'll use with it which will put me at 16ohms. I can't wait to get to WA and set it up.

Thanks guys.

[BassmanPaul]

Originally Posted by micahturner

. The only thing I'm going to have to get is a replacement for the non-stock bass knob.

Fliptop.net has them but I'm not sure which is the correct one, they have two.

[micahturner]

Well here it is in all of its' glory. It is ugly, very ugly. I have to say though, it's the best sounding amp i've ever played through. Even better than my SVT-CL. It is incredibly loud for only being 55 watts, and using two B15R cabs really helps to get more db.

[JimmyM]

Ugly? Bah! Just clean off the old paint and get yourself some black crinkly spray paint and spray them again. They'll look awesome when you're done.

[Bulltrout]

It has character. I like it.

[RobJ]

Nothing ugly about that man. Enjoy it and congratulations!

[micahturner]

Thanks gents.