Old Ampeg...

Can you get your hands on it? I'll be up towards Rog'ville sometime this week and would be happy to let you know if it's worth fixing up. I'm betting it's low powered, though and 200-300 watts is its power consumption. I could meet you at Music Palace. Email or PM me if you're interested.

 

Vintage tube Ampeg head?......[BEAVIS]Boyoinyoingyoingyoingyoing[/BEAVIS]

 

if it's an old one, I would definately get it...no matter what. I would gladly spend the money to get it re-tubed and serviced if it's an old one because of the track record of these units. Friend of mine picked up a mid-70's Marshall JCM800 at a pawn shop and long story short...after spending around 400 dollars he has an amp that once the first chord is played....well, heads are turning. Really makes you appreciate good "vintage" equipment.

 

Probably 6L6's. A pair of 6V6's would only put out about 15 Watts, and I can't think of any old Ampeg bass amps that use a pair of 6V6's. And the only ones I can think of that use a pair of 6L6's are fliptops! So you may be about to score a doozy.

Chris

 

I'm betting it's a B25. Anyone wanna wager?

Mark

 

You're probably right. In that case, it really should have 7027A's in it, but someone probably snuck in some 6L6GC's.

Chris

 

I'd bet that the amp is a flip -top (real designation - Portaflex) and that it is probably a B-15N or possibly a B-12N. Both these are 30 watt rms amps that use a pair of 6L6 outputs. The model that used the 7027s was the B-18. The B-15 used the old style octal based preamp tubes (6SN7, 6SL7, etc), featured a preamp output jack and had a plexiglass name plate in front of the tube cage that was edge-lit from under the chassis so that the letters glowed; Ampeg would engrave the buyer's name into this plate on request. The B-15N was a favorite among jazz, country, and studio players,l and was used in many rock bands of the '50s and early '60s - there were almost no other real bass amps available at the time,. (certainly not the Fender Bassman!) The amp came standard with Jensen or Eminence type speaker (everyone referred to them as "jensens" regardless of what company actually made them; the very old ones really were Jensens) as a special order option it was available with a Lansing speaker, usually an Altec 421. The B12N was the same amp, except the speaker was a 12", not a 15".... B12s were not that common.
I've owned several of these over the years, wouldn't mind another if one turned up.... this is amp that Ampeg made their reputation on, long begfore the SVT.

The amp is worth restoring regardless of condition unless both transformers are blown.

 

Really? wow thats pretty crazy seeing the JCM800's came out in the 80's

 

You know what's really weird? Newbies resurrecting three year old threads for no apparent reason... Anyhow, if you're going to comment, you need to get your facts straight:

Various year B15 models did use 7027's, which are NO different than a 6L6GC in the amp anyway.

The glow plate was only available on 60's B15's. Later 70's models did not have them at all.

Tha Eminence speaker company did not exist until the early 70's. Most Ampeg amps had CTS (Chicago Telephone Service) speakers stock. Eminence was later founded by one of CTS's head designers.

Power transformer failure is common in old Portaflex amps, but rewinding is a possibility and various suitable replacements are easy to come by. I don't think I've ever encountered a B15 with a blown output transformer. BTW, I never heard from DryWater'Bass about his amp, but I SERIOUSLY doubt that it was a Portaflex.

 

Yeah, you're correct. Series started in 81.

I was WAY off base.