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Ampeg Heritage Line

#221
What a poor try of loud.
:p
"Designed & Assembled in the USA"!

"Designed in the USA" is every new Ampeg gear. It has been designed by the SLM guys in St.Louis years/months before loud took over. Even the Chinese/Vietnam Amps ARE indeed designed in the USA - its an "old" design.

Or have I missed any new Ampeg-design from loud?

What changed are the parts (transformers no longer made by electrical windings, chinese electrical parts and ready made pcbs with chinese machine soldering work, enclosure and tolex differs, etc...), the assembling and the final quality control.

What now happens is, that they ship over all the SAME asian parts, just assemble them in the USA, put some fancy tubes inside and thats it. And - yeah finally put an ugly cloth on them.

And the assembling MAYBE is done by a small group of the SAME team that is already doing work in the chinese factorys.
Would make sense at least...

Loud must think that their customers have no brain at all.

What a charming bunch af ********.
 
#224
Sartori said:
SVT's were never point to point.
Click to expand...


Theres a lot of point2point wiring in an original SVT together with PCBs.

Today they put EVERYTHING on boards which lasts in cheaper production and worse durability. Things stressing the board that suppose to be fixed on the chassis and soldered separately to the circuit.

Nothing against PCBs! If they are thick, well made and properly soldered - its the way to go! But you cannot put EVERYTHING on them. Its the perfect mix of both.
On the other hand it would not make sense at all to design a complex amp like the SVT all the way point2point.

With the ready made PCBs I meant that they send over the cheapo cards from china and some dude sticks them in the chassis and connect the plugs. ;)

Thats "assembled in the US". Got me now?
 
#225
Hoss said:
What now happens is, that they ship over all the SAME asian parts, just assemble them in the USA, put some fancy tubes inside and thats it. And - yeah finally put an ugly cloth on them.

Loud must think that their customers have no brain at all.

What a charming bunch af ********.
Click to expand...

I am thinking you are guessing this and are not stating known facts but I may be wrong. I'd guess that they are not using the same exact parts as they're other gear. But not many of these types of components are made in the USA anymore, so I wouldn't suspect them to be 100% USA made.

Maybe you kmnow something the rest of us don't.
 
#226
I just know what everyone else should know reading on ampegs webpage.

"Designed and assembled" just MEANS what I wrote.

Otherwise they would state: "Made in the USA".

Why do you guess they use different parts? Because they are cheaper in the US and therefore make better profit?

The inerts of modern SVT consist of 5-6 PC Boards all connected with plugs and two transformers.

Letting someone construct new boards or new tranformers for a small amount of US ampegs would cost a ton and would NOT make any sense at all for a profit-only orientated company like loud.
 
#232
Hoss said:
What now happens is, that they ship over all the SAME asian parts, just assemble them in the USA, put some fancy tubes inside and thats it. And - yeah finally put an ugly cloth on them.
Click to expand...

I'll quote your same statement again!

All I'm saying is that you say this as if you know it for fact and you don't you are assuming that this is the case. I'm not stupid and don't think the boards are going to be hand built in the US nor do they need to be.

Now if they are just shipping they're stock parts from Asia and assembling them in the US, I will totally agree, but you don't know that. If this is what they are doing it will be quickly recognized when they hit the street and I'd guess would be a big flop.

I am hoping to give Ampeg the benefit of the doubt and will not jump to conclusions.
 
#233
Hoss said:
What a poor try of loud.
:p
"Designed & Assembled in the USA"!



What now happens is, that they ship over all the SAME asian parts, just assemble them in the USA, put some fancy tubes inside and thats it. And - yeah finally put an ugly cloth on them.

And the assembling MAYBE is done by a small group of the SAME team that is already doing work in the chinese factorys.
Would make sense at least...

Loud must think that their customers have no brain at all.

What a charming bunch af ********.
Click to expand...

Even the USA SLM Amps had asian parts inside them. Both of the Torroidal transformers in my 3-Pros clearly say "Made In Taiwan". As many of the SLM folks I'm sure can attest, outsoucing of some parts was, is, and always will be, unavoidable.

Regarding the cosmetics - would I have loved to see some Navy Flair or something else from Ampeg's distant past? Of course. But I'm pleased with them. They at least are making them look different than the other SVT lines, but at the same time sticking to a familiar look which backline folks and the general public will probably like. When Dino had posted that the grill cloth was going to be a "black sparkle", I thought maybe they were just going to re-use the Diamond Blue/ Black & Silver cloth. But it's clear they are using something new and different - so let's wait and see what they look like under stage lights. And I'll give them a +1 on the "Heritage" logo itself - to me it harkens back to the script Ampeg logos of the '50's.
 
#234
stiles72 said:
But it's clear they are using something new and different - so let's wait and see what they look like under stage lights. And I'll give them a +1 on the "Heritage" logo itself - to me it harkens back to the script Ampeg logos of the '50's.
Click to expand...

Personally I think the black-sparkle cloth is also a throw back to the mid-50s style, I was flipping through the ampeg book last night, and it was sort of reminiscent of the mid-50s black/white (not the more extreme later-50s black/white swirl).
 
#235
stiles72 said:
Even the USA SLM Amps had asian parts inside them. Both of the Torroidal transformers in my 3-Pros clearly say "Made In Taiwan". As many of the SLM folks I'm sure can attest, outsoucing of some parts was, is, and always will be, unavoidable.
Click to expand...

I never cared too much about the SS Ampegs.
All transformers in my 2002 SVT-CL are US Made electrical windings.
Just as in my ´75 SVT.
Took a Vietnatm VR home to the studio for test once - the iron looks definitely different - sound was ok, but not quite as I am used to from SVTs.

Single resistors or small caps will always be from SOMEWHERE. But the Board manufacturing, the big caps and trannies must be of high quality in a tube amp.

Ampeg Heritage is nothing but a joke.
 
#238
Hoss said:
I never cared too much about the SS Ampegs.
All transformers in my 2002 SVT-CL are US Made electrical windings.
Just as in my ´75 SVT.
Took a Vietnatm VR home to the studio for test once - the iron looks definitely different - sound was ok, but not quite as I am used to from SVTs.

Single resistors or small caps will always be from SOMEWHERE. But the Board manufacturing, the big caps and trannies must be of high quality in a tube amp.

Ampeg Heritage is nothing but a joke.
Click to expand...
how do you know they won't use american made transformers? the story about the b-15 reissue is that they will use usa made transformers. i'll be the first to call it a joke if it turns out to be one, but you're way premature.
 
#239
Well....I am now sort of convinced they are trying to save Ampeg and doing a fairly good job.

I opted for an all Orange setup in the end, but then again I love the 200W UK built amps like that (Orange Matamp etc etc). They are SO loud, yet can do 8 ohms, and have brilliant low level grit. In addition, the weight is better.

The Pro 7 looks cool...but cool enough for me to go from a TC RH450? Nope, not yet. Id probably also take an Orange Bass Terror instead as well.

If the Pro 7 is nice n gritty, with a proper 1000W, then thats fantastic.

Neo cabinets? Bout time, but the only neos I like are Berg / Tecamp, and still Im not convinced. Ceramic all the way for me.

I would love to test all of this gear at a gig.

No doubt none of the Heritage line will hit the UK!
 

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