Ampeg going down the tubes ?

[Jerrold Tiers]

Hmmmmmmm I personally don't see any major "crappy-ness" with the Ampegs.either cabs or heads....sure,the St. louis days are gone........ just as the Fullerton days are for Fender,but I'm quite content and happy with my rig.Matter of taste I suppose.

Ampeg club member # 436

I'm busting a gut laughing now....................... after that comment......

After years of being told how much armies of beancounters messed up Ampeg when SLM got hold of it........... I may not stop laughing for a week after reading that....... Times change, they do, they do.....

Dude, you made my week......... The St Louis days of Ampeg, in the same sentence with the Fender Fullerton days......... OK.

 

[fenderhutz]

Dude, you made my week......... The St Louis days of Ampeg, in the same sentence with the Fender Fullerton days......... OK.

Once Tobias gets outsourced it will be like praising the Gibson Nashville days.

That's awesome.

 

[rag]

Well looks like GK cabs are going down the same path, everything made in china but the speakers.

Go look on the GK community boards. Still good stuff though.

My rule with Ampeg? I dont couldnt care less where it was made.

GK is definitely not going down the same path!!! I make my cabinets and my speakers in my own factory in China. I have gone to great expense and spent much of my recent life creating this facility expressly to make certain that a GK amp is a GK amp. Unlike every other company mentioned on this thread I have gone the extra mile to make certain GK product quality is secure. These other companies use contractors who may or may not be good, but a GK product from China comes from my GK factory and is manufactured my way with the components I have specified. There is no quality difference between a GK USA product and a GK China product.
Regarding speakers I have designed and manufacture all but a few of my speakers in my China facility including the new Neo series.

 

[Red Planet]

Excellent. I have seen some products made in China that do cut the mustard. One good example of this is Celestion. They built their own factory as rag did and you cant tell a Brithish made anything from it's Celestion counterpart. My bet would be it's the folks that outsource to the cheapest production facillitys that end up with the junk.

 

[seamonkey]

That's exactly what good engineering is about. Not just designing a product but figuring out how to reliably manufacturer for a good value to the customer. The customer invests their good money in this gear, it needs to be good.

 

[alfredpunkjazz]

This is actually very cool. Having someone as rag posting this type of stuff over here.

 

[realdeal]

Once Tobias gets outsourced it will be like praising the Gibson Nashville days.

That's awesome.

One of my instruments is a Nashville-built Renegade 4-string.

I believe I paid about a thou for it new, and it's a superb instrument that compares with other makes at 2x the cost- or more.

I've HEARD of course that there were QC issues, etc, outta Nashville,I've only my instrument to judge by, and with it's Bartolini pups and pre-amp, it's a superb playing and sounding instrument, as well as having top-notch construction.

And while we're on the "subject"--- My SLM 3-PRO and SVT-15E, and SVT-48HE have made a lot of people happy- band-members, audiences,most of all me, performing without fail, sounding superb (IMO of course), and managing not to be "slayed" or "buried" by other makes of gear.

Hey- Lucky me, huh?

 

[Jerrold Tiers]

Ampeg, or at least Loud, may have a little more money now for product development or whatever.....

Apparently Loud just sold off the accessories, the cheap "Austin" line and the violin business to another St Louis distributor. Don't know what they got for it, but I am assuming not a lot.

Announced Friday. Stated reason was "not our core business", which is certainly true.

So far no help to the stock price, which is really odd.....

Sun Mackie wants to buy all outstanding stock at $1.45, but the stock is currently trading at 87 cents....which is DOWN since the offer of re-purchase was made. Go figure.

I am now assuming that Ampeg may be sold, as it can easily be argued not to be part of the Loud/Mackie core business either. Crate will probably be sold first, if there is anything left to sell in Crate aside from the brand name.

 

[Red Planet]

Thanks Jerold.

Are they even doing any manufacturing now?

Recently I was in GC trying out a Bass and 3 different Asian Made Ampeg Heads died right there in front of me. Two SVT-3PRO's and an SVT-4PRO. One of the 3's was just dead. It wouldnt come on at all. The other Played for a few minutes and shut down. It would not come back on. The 4 would play a couple of minutes and quit, then play a couple more minutes and quit again. Like it was going into protection mode or something.

The guy at GC said they just had put them out. I ended up playing through another amp.

Hopefully Ampeg will rise from the ashes and fly once more. It would be nice if someone in the States would buy them. Wonder how much they would take for it? I would love to have an Amp making company.

 

[anderbass]

One disadvantage to anyone purchasing Ampeg will be the need to fulfill both of the previous owners waranty claims over the next 5 years or so...

 

[newbold]

This is just a rough time for the Ampeg name and for ethics in a globalized economy.

Some of my dream gear is vintage Ampeg and I have a feeling that it will come back. There are countless Electronics engineers that would love to work at an ampeg factory in the USA and with a push for repatriating jobs I have a feeling that we'll see more Made in the USA from the names we hold dear.

Wish they still made the B-18, B-15, Scroll Bass, and the Scrambler. They reissued it but it went under the radar...I can't find it on their products page.

This company could see a comeback within our lifetime.

Fingers Crossed.

 

[Red Planet]

One disadvantage to anyone purchasing Ampeg will be the need to fulfill both of the previous owners waranty claims over the next 5 years or so...

I didnt think about that. It would be a major downside to anyone who picked it up. I suppose they could allways say they wouldnt warrant the Vietnamm stuff but that would probably upset some folks. I would not want to have to make good an inferior Product put out by someone else.

 

[Dave M]

Once Tobias gets outsourced it will be like praising the Gibson Nashville days.

It's already happend before. remember the Toby models, etc., of the MusicYo days?

 

[WarriorJoe7]

in before the lock? fingers crossed!

 

[Red Planet]

in before the lock? fingers crossed!

Ha!

Last one in is a rotten egg.

 

[Jazzman]

One disadvantage to anyone purchasing Ampeg will be the need to fulfill both of the previous owners waranty claims over the next 5 years or so...

I wouldn't assume that. Anything could be negotiated...they may require LOUD to cover the warranty costs of their products. Who knows.

 

[Guest043]

I have only been playing Ampeg for 20+ years so what do I know?

One thing I do know is that the Viet Nam made gear is not even close in sound as the USA stuff. I own tons of Ampeg.. but all MIA.

I will never buy any non-USA Ampeg.

P.S. I am not even being patriotic as I am Canadian!

im pretty sure you cant argue with this post..

not american, 20+ years worth of playing ampeg, wont buy viet nam ampeg..

end of discussion?

 

[ynie92992]

So by the time I save enough money for an Ampeg, it won't be worth the money?

 

[Red Planet]

So by the time I save enough money for an Ampeg, it won't be worth the money?

Yes it will. You will get a very good value in a used Made in USA Unit.

 

[anderbass]

I wouldn't assume that. Anything could be negotiated...they may require LOUD to cover the warranty costs of their products. Who knows.

Good point. I hadn't thought of that possibility, although at this point I'd certainly think the Loud stock holders would be much more interested in cutting their losses and completely washing their hands of any potental future expenses.