ray, all the problems loud/ampeg has can be traced to one person who has been kicked to the curb...that is the former head idiot of loud, jaime engen. he is the one who moved ampeg to china and started putting out heads that don't work in order to rush them to market, he is the one who ordered design changes that turned out to be design flaws, and he is the one who fired the entire artist relations department in favor of his own cheaper idiots, and he is the one who bankrupted loud by trying to cut corners in an effort to put the extra money in his pocket. backfired on him bigtime, too.
so yes, a lot of longtime endorsers left. but a lot of longtime endorsers are still there as well. maybe they'll all leave when their contracts run out, maybe they won't. who knows? but i do know that the current head of ampeg, pyotr belov, is an actual amp designer who respects the ampeg legacy and i believe he's trying to put it back together for them. he moved them to a better factory in south korea, he started an american division of ampeg, and i believe he's working hard to get qc back up to a high standard. but it ain't gonna happen overnight. loud is in bankruptcy right now, and it's a lot easier to bankrupt a company flush with money than it is to build back a bankrupt company.
however, as someone who uses rented ampegs on a lot of my gigs, most of which are new, i can tell you that whereas the quality of loud products i've been supplied used to be hit or miss, all the loud products i've been supplied lately have been fantastic.
of course the damage has been done, so i really can't blame people for not wanting anything more to do with ampeg. hell, there was a time i was warning people on here not to buy ampeg as well. but i stopped because i believe pyotr is a much more honest, caring, and competent head of ampeg than jaime engen, and the results in the field have been much better (the times i've been supplied a non-working ampeg product, it has always had a date from where jaime engen would have been in charge). as for artist relations, i couldn't care less. never bought ampegs because of artists who endorse it anyway.
so yes, a lot of longtime endorsers left. but a lot of longtime endorsers are still there as well. maybe they'll all leave when their contracts run out, maybe they won't. who knows? but i do know that the current head of ampeg, pyotr belov, is an actual amp designer who respects the ampeg legacy and i believe he's trying to put it back together for them. he moved them to a better factory in south korea, he started an american division of ampeg, and i believe he's working hard to get qc back up to a high standard. but it ain't gonna happen overnight. loud is in bankruptcy right now, and it's a lot easier to bankrupt a company flush with money than it is to build back a bankrupt company.
however, as someone who uses rented ampegs on a lot of my gigs, most of which are new, i can tell you that whereas the quality of loud products i've been supplied used to be hit or miss, all the loud products i've been supplied lately have been fantastic.
of course the damage has been done, so i really can't blame people for not wanting anything more to do with ampeg. hell, there was a time i was warning people on here not to buy ampeg as well. but i stopped because i believe pyotr is a much more honest, caring, and competent head of ampeg than jaime engen, and the results in the field have been much better (the times i've been supplied a non-working ampeg product, it has always had a date from where jaime engen would have been in charge). as for artist relations, i couldn't care less. never bought ampegs because of artists who endorse it anyway.
It's shameful to see it in the shape Engen left it. It needs a good set of EA's from all genres to represent them too.
(ya, its framed)
