The Ampeg Sub Blaster

[Lemur Bassman]

Hello All!

Two questions:

#1: Can you still buy (new) the The Ampeg Sub Blaster effects pedal? If so, where?

#2: If this is not an item that can be purchased now, what has replaced it?

Thanks!
Bill

 

[gh0st42]

Hello All!

Two questions:

#1: Can you still buy (new) the The Ampeg Sub Blaster effects pedal? If so, where?

#2: If this is not an item that can be purchased now, what has replaced it?

Thanks!
Bill

Ampeg hasn't been producing them for years, so you won't find them new, but they do come up for sale on the Used Market from time to time, but are pretty spendy. $500-600 ish for the last few I've seen on Reverb.

John K made a few smaller form factor, but by all accounts very good clones of the Sub Blaster. They also show up on the used markets from time to time for a much more affordable price.

If you contact him, he's been known to occasionally make a new one of his pedals for folks.

 

[Alien8]

Hello All!

Two questions:

#1: Can you still buy (new) the The Ampeg Sub Blaster effects pedal? If so, where?

#2: If this is not an item that can be purchased now, what has replaced it?

Thanks!
Bill

Aguilar Octamizer is a very close design to the Sub Blaster. It adds better volume control, and adjustable tone controls for both dry and sub sounds.

 

[RJ]

The Sub Blaster reigns supreme to me. It currently resides on the shelf as it’s humongous and weighs one thousand pounds.

A JohnK clone is on my board now. It’s a quarter of the size, had an LED, and can achieve volume levels greater than unity. It can get a little noisey, which I attribute to it’s JFET boost but over all I’m happy with it. It wasn’t cheap but replacing an OG Sub Blaster would cost a lot more.

If I were to lose both I’d be inclined to give the Aguilar a try.

 

[Shamon]

How close is the JohnK to the original? Would u recommend it?

 

[kevmac]

Maybe the Meatbox?

 

[jamzcl]

The Ampeg SVT-5 PRO bass head has the octave built in (needs a footswitch) and was supposed to be 'similar' to the pedal when it was out. I've had both the head and the pedal and have found there are better octave pedals out there.

The pedal is cool though, but it does take up a lot of real estate.

 

[stenomattia]

FTElettronica SubOctave is an excellent Ampeg SubBlaster clone at a reasonable price. Their pedals are class and greatly underrated, check them out.

 

[cnltb]

How about octabass? I am told that it too gets quite close to the ampeg...