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Ampeg going down the tubes ?

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#87
Dang...... REALLY FUNNY to now see more love for the "big evil house of super cheap sell-out", aka SLM.

Doesn't that stuff HURT to say?

Don't you feel like you are longing for the good ol days of Richard Nixon?

I used to see so much about how SLM beancounters edited every design, that Gene K was really really cheap*, and that sort of stuff. Now with Loud to compare to, SLM is lookin good? Wow.......


*absolutely not true, BTW......
 
#89
nysbob said:
I know their bread and butter has to be affordable and competitive combos, but I'd bet they could also successfully market more stuff along the lines of what Jimmy was talking about up there. Since the all tube designs are still sought after and in use, why on earth not continue to make them?

If the price point was somewhere between entry (traynor & peavey) and the boutique-y stuff, I think folks would pony up for it if they could be assured it was built to the same rugged standard that have kept so many of us using these amps 30 years after they were built.
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People will always be willing to pony up for quality gear (like the fine folks at TB). I don't think they even need bread and butter products, if the quality is up there. Look at Mesa Boogie, or Rickenbacker. You pay out the wazoo for both of them, yet demand for them still exceed their production, and they are still profitable.

Of course, the problems arise when you want to fatten up your margins, and cut costs at the expense of quality....
 
#91
As far as the Ampeg brand as mfd. by LOUD being sold at BestBuy stores:
I admit it's somewhat demeaning to the name, OTOH, if anyone thinks that GC or Sam Ash, etc has stellar quality about them as musical instrument retailers.... I dunno about that (and I even used to work for GC eons ago...)
 
#92
This news about Ampeg at BB is very disapointing. They will probably sell, but IMO quality is going to suffer, and I shudder to think how bad the service, and low the knowledge bass will be from Best Buy employees regarding music gear.

I was hoping that Ampeg would be forced to sell to another Musical Conglomorate that can distribute and produce and keep quality up. FMIC or somesuch...
 
#93
Eilif said:
This news about Ampeg at BB is very disapointing. They will probably sell, but IMO quality is going to suffer, and I shudder to think how bad the service, and low the knowledge bass will be from Best Buy employees regarding music gear.

I was hoping that Ampeg would be forced to sell to another Musical Conglomorate that can distribute and produce and keep quality up. FMIC or somesuch...
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Ya know, I have no issues with buying very high-end audio/video or appliances, computers and such at BestBuy, it's a good source for that. BUT I wouldn't have any expectations whatsoever about the Sales staff having a lot of knowledge about the product(s) I'm looking at. I'd try and arm myself with that knowledge beforehand.

Similarly, I have little expectation that someone at GC (or most MI dealers) would have any valuable input for me on what I'm looking for in Bass gear....

If I wanted Ampeg (or Sony, etc) at BestBuy and the price was OK....sold.

BTW...I own use and love SLM 'Peg... V4BH, 3PRO, and an SVT-15E along with an amazing 4x8, the SVT-48HE....:D
 
#94
Jerrold Tiers said:
As far as continued existence of Ampeg..... Loud may sell it off, or maybe just close it down.

They have closed most all of SLM.

So far, Loud has closed down Crate, whether by default (they asked for NO new product for a whole year) or by intent. They closed down the SLM PA gear, they are selling off the SLM Violin shop and the Knilling line, if they can find a buyer, otherwise they'll probably close it. The guitar shop and guitar business they seem to be keeping, for now. The accessories biz they don't seem to know what to do with, it's partly in Seattle, and was supposed to be consolidated as an outsourced service in Memphis, but that seems to have fallen through.

Basically, they paid 38 million for a company, and have trash-canned most of it for a loss. Can Ampeg be far behind?

However, as I mentioned elsewhere, the head of Loud China ("Jonathan" Chen) has quit, and the Loud CEO (Jamie Engen) just left, apparently on only one day's notice........

If the new CEO is smart, and if he is allowed to operate, maybe something will happen. Otherwise, if the Sun Capital Partners beancounters are running the show, it will be curtains for sure. They might try to sell Ampeg, or they might just decide it isn't worth anything, and close it.

Odd how SLM made money and had good service, and Loud can't do either one, even with SLM there to make money for them, (if they had only just left it alone).
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Wonder how much stock is being bought/sold short?
 
#96
So far, the lowest stock price I have seen was $1.20 or so. It closed the week at $1.94, down from $376..... yes, the stock equivalent to one current $2 share used to be worth three hundred and seventy six dollars...... and that was attained some time AFTER the ipo..... So it is now at 1/2 of one percent of its best value.....

It does not look good. While I suspect Sun Capital is getting what they deserve for mis-management, that does not help some good brands which are getting dragged down towards a fire sale.

I just hope the owner of Behrenger (a very strange guy), or some other similar person, does not end up owning Ampeg..... or Mackie, EAW, etc.

The new CEO and other non-Sun Capital execs are apparently much smarter than the old ones. They seem to have actually been CEO etc of a company before (not true of the old CEO, as far as I can discover). But they are still apparently not music industry folks....... Music people, smart music industry people, are what is needed. They were needed 3 years ago, or more.

I am skeptical that Loud can be saved..... maybe I am too pessimistic.
 
#97
Jerrold Tiers said:
So far, the lowest stock price I have seen was $1.20 or so. It closed the week at $1.94, down from $376..... yes, the stock equivalent to one current $2 share used to be worth three hundred and seventy six dollars...... and that was attained some time AFTER the ipo..... So it is now at 1/2 of one percent of its best value.....

It does not look good. While I suspect Sun Capital is getting what they deserve for mis-management, that does not help some good brands which are getting dragged down towards a fire sale.

I just hope the owner of Behrenger (a very strange guy), or some other similar person, does not end up owning Ampeg..... or Mackie, EAW, etc.

The new CEO and other non-Sun Capital execs are apparently much smarter than the old ones. They seem to have actually been CEO etc of a company before (not true of the old CEO, as far as I can discover). But they are still apparently not music industry folks....... Music people, smart music industry people, are what is needed. They were needed 3 years ago, or more.

I am skeptical that Loud can be saved..... maybe I am too pessimistic.
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Cripes!! I had no idea that their paper had dropped to this point!?!?!:eek:

If this is true, and I have no reason to doubt you, (haven't checked today's quotes) then it is entirely possible that they will "bit the dust".....I simply cannot believe that any of the stock holders would actually hang on to that worthless paper....without demanding a stock-holders meeting and firing the BOD...........unbelievable......

My God! How the mighty have fallen.........too bad....
 
#99
JimmyM said:
I wouldn't want to live in a world without Ampeg. Ampeg defined bass amplification since 1948 and continues to do so, regardless of anyone's opinions of them. They could be a huge moneymaker for LOUD if they get their QC together (which seems to be happening since complaints are fewer these days).

The problem is that Ampeg can't be treated as just another big money generating machine to be successful. Ampeg has to be massaged by people who truly care about putting out the best amps on the market. That's why SLM was successful with it when a huge conglomerate like Magnavox struggled with it. SLM wasn't perfect but the people really cared about the product.

Also, Ampeg needs to get back to their roots with their tube amps. The only all-tube amp they make right now is the SVT. If I ran Ampeg you'd always be able to get a V4 and a B-15 (with the Thiele cab AND the double baffle cab), and maybe a 200w tuber as well.
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+1
Don't forget the original 69 with 500 watts, a guy in you tube has it , I wish they get one of those in production, the same weight and 200 more watts would be heaven
 
#100
Buster Brown said:
Cripes!! I had no idea that their paper had dropped to this point!?!?!:eek:

If this is true, and I have no reason to doubt you, (haven't checked today's quotes)
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It is, unfortunately...... Which means that Ampeg may be sold again, presumably losing even MORE "history" and ability to service older units. What would happen to warranties, I do not know.

If you want to see the "Loud story", just back out the graph of stock price for "Loud Technologies". Ticker is "LTEC"........

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If you have scripts enabled and click on the 1 year and 5 year views etc just above the graph, you can see where Loud is, and has been. The one labeled "max" gives the entire history, and you can see the $77 price right after the ipo.

When looking, you need to remember that some time ago, Loud has what is called a "reverse stock split".

When a stock goes UP in price, it may be "split" 2 for 1 or whatever, to get the price per share back down to a reasonable figure. If the stock were at $150, a 2 for 1 would give you two $75 shares for each one $150 share you owned.

LOUD on the other hand, had a "reverse" split, meaning that they took 5 $3 shares and combined them into one $15 share. This happened right about the time of the purchase of SLM, around 2005.

That is why the stock shows a peak of about $77......... the real value of a single share of current stock would have been 5 x $77, or about $385, since one share now would have been 5 back then.

A "reverse split" is normally already a really BAD sign. But Loud stock has gone down by a factor of 7.5 MORE since then.
 
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