... a (N)ew (O)ld (S)tock USA made B2-RE head. Good price, too: only $210 shipped & PayPal'd. The pictures only showed a stock photo of one as well as the pristine shipping crate which said USA Made by Loud Technologies. A bit of a pig in a poke situation as the seller said the box had never been opened and was uncommunicative about its origin story. However, he had a perfect positive feedback rating based on 30 transactions and offered a 30 day return policy with buyer paid shipping so I took a leap of faith. From what I understand, Ampeg moved their manufacturing over to Viet Nam sometime in 2007 so the newest this head could be is 14-15 years old. Can anyone envision possible problems I might encounter with it as a result of it not being used for so long? ... pots? caps? jacks?
From what I've read, these B2-RE heads are not super well regarded in high end gear enthusiast circles, but I believe them to be real sleepers in some ways. There used to be a local club near me that I played at regularly with multiple bands that had a nice house sound system and supplied a backline. The bass amp they had on hand was an Ampeg B2-RE with an Ampeg 4x10 cab. It sounded good, but not what I'd call great. I had a mini preamp rack that was loaded with a power conditioner, an Ampeg SVP CL and an Alembic F-1X that I started bringing to my gigs there and plugging their outputs into the "Poweramp IN" jack on the house B2-RE and it sounded quite good to my ears with either preamp. I think the power section on those bad boys is voiced very well for bass and they have plenty of power for my needs. I now have a coupla preamp pedals that I think might sound good through the front end of my new B2-RE ... an Ampeg Classic and a One Control Blue 360 (Acoustic 360/361 emulation). I should have it in my greedy little hands by next week ... should be interesting.
From what I've read, these B2-RE heads are not super well regarded in high end gear enthusiast circles, but I believe them to be real sleepers in some ways. There used to be a local club near me that I played at regularly with multiple bands that had a nice house sound system and supplied a backline. The bass amp they had on hand was an Ampeg B2-RE with an Ampeg 4x10 cab. It sounded good, but not what I'd call great. I had a mini preamp rack that was loaded with a power conditioner, an Ampeg SVP CL and an Alembic F-1X that I started bringing to my gigs there and plugging their outputs into the "Poweramp IN" jack on the house B2-RE and it sounded quite good to my ears with either preamp. I think the power section on those bad boys is voiced very well for bass and they have plenty of power for my needs. I now have a coupla preamp pedals that I think might sound good through the front end of my new B2-RE ... an Ampeg Classic and a One Control Blue 360 (Acoustic 360/361 emulation). I should have it in my greedy little hands by next week ... should be interesting.
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I put it through its paces over the past several days and it performs flawlessly and sounds pretty darn good ... not all tube SVT good, but plenty good'nuff. The B2-RE heads have a solid state tonality with a lotta clarity and growl that actually mates well with my Schroeder 1515L which is an old school, tweeterless 2x15 with one fifteen facing forward and the other facing sideways and has a deep sound. Like I was saying in my original post, B2-REs have a really good sounding power section and my new one doesn't dissappoint in that department. I have a bunch of rack mount and pedal preamps, all of which sound good through the POWERAMP IN or EFFECTS RETURN patch points. Oddly enough, the one that really shines with the B2-RE is my Ampeg Classic Analog Bass Preamp pedal. It's like they were made for eachother and sound kind of like an Ampeg Micro VR head on steroids. Me likey.
