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LOUD..going...going....GONE

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#101
seamonkey said:
Behringer 3500 employees strong. 20 Years in the business. Throwing big parties at NAMM. Leading sales in the industry. As everyone else tries to copy their business model (and fails).
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And do you know why that is? Nobody expects any great shakes out of Behringer. You buy a Behringer and you get exactly what you pay for...cheap stuff made with cheap parts. People DO expect great shakes out of a company like Ampeg, and when they don't get it, they react by not buying.
 
#102
stflbn said:
There's nothing wrong with being a private company.

Less people to screw it up based on greed and intent to grow then sell regardless of health of the company. IMHO private companies are more responsible than public ones.
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I tend to agree

growth is not always a good thing for a business's product quality
 
#105
debassr said:
Count me as one of the MANY. 18 month lead times are just unacceptable for a company who only offers a couple of bass models in a handful of colors.
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What Rickenbacker does is what many of you guys are asking Ampeg to be- specialized, niche products entirely built in the US. :hiding:

Anybody else remember the ad campaigns about the 'Great American Amp Company???" What really set me off was an Ampeg employee who wrote in on the old Dudepit forum, saying that the Vietnamese tried to kill him back in 1969, and now they've finally succeeded by taking away his job. Not the politics, but the total lack of respect for it's long-standing SLM workforce is what totally disgusts me about LOUD.

Looks good on them. I just hope that FMIC or US Music steps in to pick up the pieces before Gibson does...:spit:
 
#106
JimmyM said:
And do you know why that is? Nobody expects any great shakes out of Behringer. You buy a Behringer and you get exactly what you pay for...cheap stuff made with cheap parts. People DO expect great shakes out of a company like Ampeg, and when they don't get it, they react by not buying.
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Nope. Many won't buy at any price if it does them wrong the first time. People can slam Behringer all they want. They have good quality for the gear they make. It holds it's own against more expensive gear. Sure there are some lemons - just like LOUD has, but Behringer is surviving.

You can find old interviews from Uli where he points out that as a poor musician he'd look inside of gear and wonder why they were charging so much for so little. He and his poor friends couldn't afford it. I do believe this is his motivation. Make it cheaper and better for people to afford. He figured this out. He moved to Asia and setup manufacturing. This is also a big market for Behringer.

And I don't think Behringer would buy Ampeg. They're doing great with their Bugera line. (bad name though) I doubt the owners of Ampeg won't sell - the label name is worth too much. They could shelve it for a few years as an investment.
 
#107
seamonkey said:
Nope. Many won't buy at any price if it does them wrong the first time. People can slam Behringer all they want. They have good quality for the gear they make. It holds it's own against more expensive gear. Sure there are some lemons - just like LOUD has, but Behringer is surviving.

You can find old interviews from Uli where he points out that as a poor musician he'd look inside of gear and wonder why they were charging so much for so little. He and his poor friends couldn't afford it. I do believe this is his motivation. Make it cheaper and better for people to afford. He figured this out. He moved to Asia and setup manufacturing. This is also a big market for Behringer.

And I don't think Behringer would buy Ampeg. They're doing great with their Bugera line. (bad name though) I doubt the owners of Ampeg won't sell - the label name is worth too much. They could shelve it for a few years as an investment.
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from what i've seen of the Behringer/Bugera stuff, it's cheap, semi-disposable equipment.. some of it sounds good, to an extent.. but none of it lasts..

Loud destroyed Ampeg/Crate..

hopefully someone who actually cares will pick up Ampeg..
 
#109
El Tookay said:
Anybody else remember the ad campaigns about the 'Great American Amp Company???" What really set me off was an Ampeg employee who wrote in on the old Dudepit forum, saying that the Vietnamese tried to kill him back in 1969, and now they've finally succeeded by taking away his job. Not the politics, but the total lack of respect for it's long-standing SLM workforce is what totally disgusts me about LOUD.
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I remember reading that same story in a New York Times article around that time. Needless to say, by then I had bought my last Ampeg.
 
#110
seamonkey said:
Nope. Many won't buy at any price if it does them wrong the first time. People can slam Behringer all they want. They have good quality for the gear they make. It holds it's own against more expensive gear. Sure there are some lemons - just like LOUD has, but Behringer is surviving.

You can find old interviews from Uli where he points out that as a poor musician he'd look inside of gear and wonder why they were charging so much for so little. He and his poor friends couldn't afford it. I do believe this is his motivation. Make it cheaper and better for people to afford. He figured this out. He moved to Asia and setup manufacturing. This is also a big market for Behringer.

And I don't think Behringer would buy Ampeg. They're doing great with their Bugera line. (bad name though) I doubt the owners of Ampeg won't sell - the label name is worth too much. They could shelve it for a few years as an investment.
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Threads here would lead one to believe you are incorrect.

When a consumer purchases a $20 knockoff of a $70 product, they have a certain set of expectations, mainly revolving around the price itself and quality as it relates to that price. They will (try to) convince themselves that the product they bought is just as good as the $70 product they couldn't afford. When it dies in 12 months, they rationalize that they only spent $20 on a $70 product, and they buy another one.

Conversely, the consumer that buys the $70 product believes he is paying a premium price for a premium good. He expects that product to last significantly longer than the knockoff. If that product dies in 12 months, he is dissappointed and expects fantastic customer service to remedy the situation. If he doesn't get it, he doesn't buy that product again.

There is a difference.

Behringer makes a good product.....for the price......which is bottom of the market. The words "high quality" do not, however, come to the mind of the average consumer.

A company in financial distress does NOT "shelve" their premier business lines as an "investment". They sell it to the highest bidder in order to either provide cash to save the business, or to liquidate the company. This is especially true when an investment firm is involved. Why? Because the lesser product lines aren't worth much. If LOUD is truly in trouble, then Ampeg will be sold.

As an example, GM has been in financial distress for years. Every time they have a major event, they consider selling GMAC, their only consistently-profitable business line.
 
#111
while there are points I agree with and disagree with, the ADA8000 is a good piece of gear that has been working for me for a very long time. To do considerably better, I'd have to spend probably 4 times as much.

It helps that that piece never really leaves the house.....I had a guy I was playing with talking about getting an EQ with a rack, and then he showed up with a behringer eq. I said 10 months. It was 8. BUT, warranty kicked in, he got a new one, and we did the dance all over again.

I would not consider them road worthy. Now, if you want to handle them all delicately.......be my guest.......
 
#112
throbgod13 said:
from what i've seen of the Behringer/Bugera stuff, it's cheap, semi-disposable equipment.. some of it sounds good, to an extent.. but none of it lasts..

Loud destroyed Ampeg/Crate..

hopefully someone who actually cares will pick up Ampeg..
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For what it's worth, the band I joined about two years ago has been using a Behringer PA for 6 years. No problems, sounds good to me as far as a small, bar band PA should sound. In that situation, where you just need to cover the dance floor, I see no problem using a Behringer PA. Anything else is overkill.
 
#113
bongomania said:
Yeah that was the ultimate "no-no" from my perspective. I understand in tough times that corners get cut, but for pete's sake a company should never, ever nuke the customer support network the way they did.
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If any of you guys have an Ampeg problem, I live just down the road from LOUD and could deliver your messages, personally, to the staff there.:D

PS - Don't forget to attach the bricks!:ninja::eek:
 
#114
NWB said:
If any of you guys have an Ampeg problem, I live just down the road from LOUD and could deliver your messages, personally, to the staff there.:D

PS - Don't forget to attach the bricks!:ninja::eek:
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+1

However, that's not really the point. Look, I'm nearly 60 years old and for a large portion of that time, I have been a loyal, faithful user of Ampeg amps. I still use 'em to this day and will continue to do so until this one craps out on me.

The major source of my consternation with Ampeg is how the company was allowed to "go to the dogs" in the name of corporate interests. Again, whether the amps are built in the US or overseas is a relatively small concern. The problem, however, is that, in an effort to maximize profits, they abandoned their core philosophy of building great products at "fairly" reasonable prices, providing outstanding support by "generally" bass players/techs, cutting the workforce, leaving R&D behind and yet, offering (basically) the same products built in another location and charging MORE for products without the majority of the support that they were so famous for.

LOUD has done this to themselves and they get no sympathy whatsoever from me. If tomorrow, the news comes out that they are, indeed, closed - tough! I could care less. There are too many amp builders out there to be concerned about a company that imploded.
 
#115
The only probelm I have with LOUD is when they purchased Ampeg they said we are not moving production over seas. We are building the b-series over seas to be competative but are keeping the svt and pro lines in the USA.
Then no sooner than those words caressed our ears here comes the first veitnam made SVT 4 pro at GC. I thought I had died and gone to hell an asian built Ampeg!!!
 
#117
On the Behringer side of things I do not much care for most of their stuff and have heard many a horror story. Though I have owned a Behringer 32x8x2 Mixing Board since 2005 and have not had an issue out of it once.

I forget the Model Name but it is a Euro Desk something or other. It is a Recording/Live Board that does everything you would need for Recording as well as for running Live Sound. I have used it for Live Gigs, even outside in the summer time and have not had an issue.

I do move it in a Flight Case that it remains in at Gigs. I just remove the top and plug everything in. When I get it back to my Studio I remove it completely from the Flight Case.


I wanted a 32 Channel board with eight subgroups and eight aux sends/returns and I just could not afford anything else. I did get it as well as the rest of my PA gear at 5 percent above dealer cost so I came out really well.
 
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