I view it as damage control PR. It's nice to see a custom shop type deal, but Ampeg isn't even building or servicing the new B15. Everything is being handled in-house at Metropolis Amps. It's "Ampeg" in name only. The amps they're making in Asia are priced way higher than old US made Ampegs and a lot of them are failing right out of the box. There's a thread on the vintage guitar forum where a backline company recently bought five new tube SVT's, three CL's and two II Pro's, and all of them are constantly malfunctioning. Mark's first SVT 7Pro blew up right out of the box: those stories aren't isolated. You can find literally dozens of complaints about new production Ampegs, mostly from repair techs, without even looking hard.
That does not speak well for the brand, so they're trying (and succeeding) to turn attention away from that and towards their very expensive US made-amps, most of which go to collectors and endorsers. They try to downplay that the "Heritage" SVT CL is made with cherrypicked Asian-line parts or that the US-made cabs are now the only ones with US-made speakers. I was never a fan of the SVT CL, but al least it used to be made in the USA out of US parts. SLM had its own quality issues, but they never tried to mislead people about who was making them. I've even seen the idea "accidentally" floated that somehow ALL new Ampegs are made in the USA.
