Acoustic Amplification BH200

It looks good, like the old Acoustic of yesteryear.

Sounds like a cheap amp, doesn't work well with other cabs , loud buzzing, & poor quality workmanship. GC buys the Acoustic name & old blue prints, sets up manufacturing in China, & now GCs making their own cheap amps & trying to under sell their competitors.

The products still too new, to tell how long this product will hold up. The amps are made very cheaply in China , so they can sell them cheaply & still make a good profit.

GC gives you a three year warranty on these amps , & will swap them out fast , if there is a problem. No questions asked. To me that spells trouble down the road, like after the warranty is up . They may crap out , or they might develop other problems, that are still unforeseen as of yet.

Some people have bought these, & love them. But time will tell. I've never really trusted big retail chains. Especially ones that sell their own gear under the name of a company, that at one time, had a good reputation but, has since gone under. GC bought the name , and are having the amps cheaply reproduced overseas. Then they try to under cut there competitors, by selling their own cheaply made amps, cheaper than their competitors. Products like this usually don't hold up past the warranty. Then you've wasted your hard earned money , that could have gone towards buying some good quality gear in the first place. Then again, It's more profitable to have something made cheaply overseas, sell it cheaper & make sure it holds together until the warranty runs out . Not a bad scam, but it still a scam. I tried out the amp, saw this for what it was & passed.

The Acoustic B200H as it is called was designed in the USA but built in China. I bought mine in May and it is a 2008 model. Single channel with 2 inputs, effects loop, DI out with adjustable volume control (a nice feature!) and 2 speaker outs. Rated at 200 watts but I believe this is a very conservative rating. The amp is as loud as my old GK 800RB. I bought the matching 410B and 115B cabinets with the head. For just under $750 for the whole stack is an unbelievable deal. Head is all solid state with a cooling fan.

I believe with the owners manual suggested settings you can get a good variety of tones with the head. I play in a band where we cover everything from Etta James to AC/DC and it is very versatile in that respect. It sounded great at the store and the amp does have some fan noise that you notice when practicing with it at home, but at the gig I can't even hear it. I use a Yamaha TRB5 and a USA Peavey Millennium 5 Plus with the setup and always get a great sound. The low B with the 410 and 115 stack is thunderous. I have not tried the head through other cabinets because I assume it is built to work with the Acoustic brand cabinets. The amp has traveled across Texas and has performed wonderfully.

I love the tone of this head. It reminds me of the older Acoustic stuff where if you push it hard the sound breaks up just a little. At lower volumes the sound is very clean. I never have the Master Volume past 2 o'clock and the gain stays around 10 o'clock. I use the Master Volume on my bass to control overall volume. I'm very pleased with the sound and it looks great on stage as well!

In the past 2 months I've used it for 10 gigs ranging from clubs to weddings, indoor and outdoors, and it has performed flawlessly. I use it without a backup which is pretty much the way I've always done things. The amp comes with a 3 year warranty which is great. I would rate the amp as very dependable because it has never given me any problems.

I've never had to contact support. I registered the amp with the company online for warranty purposes. Has a 3 year warranty.

I have to rate this a 10. I've been playing for over 30 years and have played through just about every brand out there. For $249 this is a deal. I knew if I was not pleased with it I could take it back, but I am more than pleased with the performance of the head. I'd buy another one if it were lost or stolen. I love that the head is portable and looks great. The only thing I've had a problem with is one of the silver caps on one of the control knobs came off which was no big deal. I pretty much fell in love with it when I saw it set up at the store and I had to buy it with the 2 cabinets.

Made-in-China 200 Watt @ 4 Ohm head. It features a sturdy vintage-style cabinet with tolex covering (which was not fully glued in one spot on the back side) and chromed-steel corner protectors (which are much better than the flimsy plastic crap found on nearly all amps made these days). Nice, simple front panel with passive/active inputs, gain and volume ctrls and six-band parametric equalizer with mid-frequencies notch filter. Rear panel with two speaker output jacks (4 ohm), an effects loop, XLR balanced Line Out with level crtl and ground lift.

I tried this head first at my local Guitar Center with an American Standard J bass, and it seemed to work well hooked up to its matching B410 4x10 cabinet. Considering also its refreshingly simple look and interface, and its potential road-worthiness, I thought it would be a great deal at that price as a backup head, so I bought it. The problem is, once I had it at home hooked up to my Hartke PRO 2200 cabinet (300W @ 4 Ohm), the picture changed radically: First, the head is way too noisy to begin with; second, it distorts very easily - the only way of making it sound decently for me was to set the gain sooo low that the volume I could achieve would have been OK for practicing only.

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Have not dealt with them directly, but I could return it to GC for a no-hassle full refund.

You get what you pay for: nice retro look and road worthiness, but possible severe sound limitations depending on what cabinets you plan on using it with.

Volume and gain, clip light,frequency notch knob, 6 knob equilizer, direct out volume level, etc.

I use this head through my Ampeg B series 115 cab, and it has a lot of power and clarity. Used it for a gig in a medium enclosure and it sounded great. I play Warwick Corvette standard fretless and japanese P bass with Di Marzio p/u.

Just bought it so still under review...

Haven not dealt with them so far.

I think this is a grat comeback for Acoustic. I have admired them from the 80's and I was sad when they went out of business. They are back and I hope more of their products will come.