Ok, first off, just got back from about 2 hours in the practice room putting my Monique through the paces. I won't really have a good handle on things until I get a chance to play with the band, but I think I can give some insight and some of the nuts and bolts of things.
We'll start off with some crappy phone pics:
Invalid Link Removed
Invalid Link Removed
See, it's real.
Now...on to some general impressions and some specifics. First off, it does feel much more like its part of the Ampeg bloodline than the Fender bloodline.
At the same time, its certainly its own thing. For anyone who thinks that Ampeg means muffled and lack of highs, that's not the case. I rarely roll all the treble off on my bass, and I could get away with doing that with the monique and still sound good. The tone controls are simple, so they're not that sorta 'interactive-rubberband' of a Fender tone stack. I found my usual tone with the Bass at about 2 o'clock, the treble rolled almost all the way back and the mid either flat at noon or up to about 2 o'clock.
The real magic is that 'SENSITIVITY' control. Its not an input gain control per se. When it's all the way rolled off, its not 'no volume', and when you have it cranked its not like you've maxed out the unit. It works as a 'how much tube saturation' kind of vibe. Not in a clipped/distorted way, as much as it feels clean and clear and hi-fi in the before- 12 o'clock position, and after 12 you start getting big fat tube width more extreme tube harmonic richness and that sort of old school beef and saturation sustain, if you lean into it a bit you get that SVT sort of snarl out of it, but in a good way. I found that I best liked the sensitivity between about 12 and 3.
The overall feel of the amp is punchier than a 12AX7 preamp. It feels faster but then also gives a bit of sponge after the initial attack, again, a feel that I associate with an SVT run hot and hard. The more you hit the the sensitivity, the more you feel that. It DOES make it fun to play things tight and quick. Very different from the last few amp setups I've used, where I felt like I was lacking mids and the 'punch' or 'attack' that I wanted to hear.
The Sensitivity control is also a PULL pot, that when out give you a bit more input level (I think Jule said it's about 4db?). I sort of forgot about that for the first hour, then remembered and pulled it. I'll most likely always have it pulled even though my bass is active.
Some of the mechanics:
This is a well built box. It's not heavy but it's solid and has no vibration. After running it hard for two hours, the case was warm over where the tubes are (both the 6SL7's and the JJ that's in there) but not hot in the least.
I did tighten up three screws in the outside of the chassis that were pretty lose, that probably was temperature change and shipping.
The Output volume of the unit isn't as hot as my other preamp (the Kern). I found with the line out I was running it full out or nearly full up and my power amp attenuators, which normally sit around 1/3rd up I had at high noon to get roughly the same volume. For me with a 3000w amp, I still have plenty of headroom, but for guys with a lower input sensitivity on their power amps or have lower wattage power amps, that could be problematic.
I would guess that this is because part of the intention is that you can drive the input of a standard bass amp with this unit rather than a power amp. I only have the Kern to compare it to, but I ran both the pre and post on the Kern at about 2/3rds up and never had my power amp attenuators past about 1/3rd up even for large rooms or outdoor stages. The good news is that the Monique didn't seem to mind me running the line out full up and the Sensitivity fairly well cranked either. The unit is quiet with no noticeable noise with the output level pinned and the Sensitivity cranked too.
Just for a quick check, I did run the DI out into my power amp to see how hot it ran, and its definitely not aimed at feeding a power amp without additional gain stages.
So, two hours for me is sort of a brief getting to know you thing. I won't really have a good idea until I'm with a drummer at the very least. Definitely a fun unit and
I'm sure your awesome customer service has made up for the misfortune though! 
Looks like monique. Congrats!
