Speaking of the B15 bandwagon

[OldManC]

Ampeg Announces NEW Heritage B-15 Amp

http://www.bassfrontiersmag.com/ampeg-announces-new-heritage-b-15-amp

Ampeg's Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ampeg/336838292271?ref=ts

There's supposed to be news of it on the page but I found mostly pictures. It'll be interesting to see what they build this time.

[Basvarken]

Sweet!

[jumbodbassman]

price point is supposed to be insane.  supposedly only small run of 50 is what i saw on TB

[rahock]

It would be such a kick to play small gigs using a 50 watt B15 and having guitar players running through a Fender Deluxe and a Tremolux with vocals running through a Shure Vocal Master. It would be just like being back in ninth grade again
Rick

[nofi]

i was in military school in ninth grade. i did have my own M1 Garand, however. thanks for the crappy memories rick.

[Pilgrim]

i was in military school in ninth grade. i did have my own M1 Garand, however. thanks for the crappy memories rick.

Brings new meaning to the old saying "Don't shoot the piano player."

[dadagoboi]

price point is supposed to be insane.  supposedly only small run of 50 is what i saw on TB

What's an original run these days?  I paid $90 for my B-18n back in the day...my first car cost $125.

[Psycho Bass Guy]

What's an original run these days? 

They run $800-1500, with the better sounding, later Theile-cab models still being cheaper than earlier versions. The 'reissue' willl street price at around $2500. The run of 50 will sell out to collectors but there's no way that thing will have a successful full production run. I'm curious to see what the small cab with a modern driver will sound like.

[rahock]

i was in military school in ninth grade. i did have my own M1 Garand, however. thanks for the crappy memories rick.

My parents were always threatening to send me to military school at that age, but I knew it was a bluff. Number one, it would cost money and number two, there was no way in hell they wanted me to get my hands on a gun .
Sorry for the unpleasent trip down memory lane.
Rick

[Chris P.]

65 Amps make the Apollo amp, what seems to be a Fliptop kinda amp...

[leftybass]

i was in military school in ninth grade. i did have my own M1 Garand, however. thanks for the crappy memories rick.

I was in ROTC, started on an M1 but graduated to an M14, beautiful piece.

[eb2]

I bought an old B-15n for $50 - no cab but the head on the flip-top board - and used it for small gigs in high school.  So it ran through good speakers, and sounded great.  Is this clone going to be made in China?  Price tag is a bit steep but it is great that they can pull it off.

I currently have a BT-15 that sounds great too.

[Aussie Mark]

Is this clone going to be made in China? 

Made in the USA

[stiles72]

They run $800-1500, with the better sounding, later Theile-cab models still being cheaper than earlier versions. .

I prefer the bassier sound of the Thiel cab 70's model myself, but a lot of my friends like my '63 because it isn't mid scooped and not as boomy.  I think  both versions are great in their own respects.  I'm glad to see them really makle an attempt at a more true version of the B15 using the origianl tube complement and tone stack, along with the correct cab design. I think the only thing that could make it better would be if they brought back Navy Random Flair for the covering - but the Black Diamond is pretty cool too.

[Psycho Bass Guy]

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.