The guy I bought mine from bought it new for that very reason. He calls me up and says "I bought an... AMPEG, dude!" He really thought he was going to make himself appear as a serious musician by rolling in with an entry level Ampeg combo. And this was to be his gigging amp! He quickly learned that a brand name isn't everything. LOL! For the same coin, he could have bought a used Hartke 3500 head and a 4x10 Transporter cab...
Only read the OP cuz I'm in a hurry, but want to say that I owned this amp for a while. Thought it sounded awesome but was unfortunately good only for real small gigs. I had to really push it to it's limits and then some at 3 out of the 4 gigs I took it too.
And how does it sound EQ'ed this way ? People expect more from it because: a) It's Ampeg, not Crate or Behringer. I've yet to meet a combo at this price point that did not do more or better. b) Ampeg describes the combo as being loud enough for gigs c) It probably isn't 100 watts anyway (bloated power rating even @ 100 watts, lol) d) It has major issues or design flaws: no l-pad, hissy tweeter, no tuner out, effects loop, etc.