Ampeg B-2RE Head

This is the first year of production... 2004? I can't remember, really. The amp is versatile enough. I have used it to play in surf, rock, and punk bands. Combined with a good cab, it does a good job. It's pretty simple with the exception of the EQ band, bare bones. The one feature I wish it did have was a mute. The power level is loud enough to overpower any drummer.

I have used a lot of pickups though this head... all kinds, I can't even remember how many kinds... The head is really only one part of the equation though... I used to have a low end Ampeg 4x10 cabinet but upgraded to an Eden 4x10 cab a couple years ago and that was like night and day.

Anyways... The head unit. You can get a kind of overdriven tone out of this head, but it will not be the same as a tube head. Not as gooey and warm... peakier. I find that flatwounds help make this sound more natural. Overdriven through a high quality goldtone pickup with flatwounds it almost sounds like a 10,000 foot long moog keyboard, which is great. Can also handle a more distorted sound with a bass that has active electronics as well. Again, the quality is good, but it is not tube. The sound quality is better than many heads, but of all the heads I ever have played I would rank it as a B+. The best head I ever used was a 70's Ampeg at a club in Europe, it rocked my world, full tonal goodness. I played through the same setup a few weeks later at a different club, and it sounded like trash... the mysteries of sound!

It's been very reliable. I keep expecting something to go wrong, but nothing has. It has taken a few bumps in the rack but never a problem.

Never talked with them about it

I have been playing for 15 years or so, it's been a good head, if it were stolen, I might look for something tube driven, but for the money this is a hard unit to turn down. It's basic, but the basics are right.

I play bass in the genres of punk/pop punk/ska/alternative mainly and this amp is by far the best choice that I have made to make my sound really come to life. I use this amp for playing live with my band, which consists of a loud drummer, and two guitarists who use 100watt tube stacks. this thing still puts out enough power to hang with all these guys. I usually turn the head up to about a little past half way and i can hear myself pretty clearly and still blow people's brains out. It pushes out 450 watts and has a 9 band equalizer. I mainly just use the three band knobs for treble, mid and bass to really sculpt my tone though. Pretty simple, single channel solid state, nothing too fancy.

I use this head with an Ampeg 8X10 cab and an Ernie Ball Stingray. This was the first real upgrade that I had made after playing bass again in a band after about 4 or 5 years and it was probably by far the smartest decision. I had always felt that my tone was lacking with my old 100watt yorkville combo or my crate 220watt head. They just didnt have the mid range punch and clarity that I always wanted. Then I saw this bad boy on sale at guitar center as a floor model and for only $200 and I couldnt pass it up. I thought all along that the cabs that I had just sounded terrible. But through pretty much any cab I have (old peavey 6X10, Carvin 1X15, Ampeg portabass cab), this head just sounds phenominal and doesnt fart out when playing at high volumes which I had always hated. This thing will make pretty much any cab sound so much better

I have gigged with this head only twice so far, but I have it in a road ready rack case to protect it. It seems pretty bullet proof as far as Im concerned. As long as you dont like just drop it while standing up or your not careless with it, it should keep working fine. I mean, it stood up to being abused as a floor model in guitar center for at least a couple of years, so Im sure it can handle some road wear

havent had to deal with customer service

I have been playing bass for about 7 years now, and I am a total control freak when it comes to making sure that everything sounds good. I have to have a lot of control with my sound, and this head is great because it gives me enough control, but it just sounds so good all around that I really dont have to do any type of voodoo tricks to make it sound great. Just minor tweaking here and there. I also use active electronics, so the onboard eq on the bass itself is where i do most of my later tone tweaking.

I have a 2007 Model that was assembled in China. It has a 9-band graphic which works great,but I am able to find my sound just with
Bass,mid and treble dials. I had the B-2R, 350 watts,which I loved,
but needed a little more power. All the features have been listed
in other reviews, but the amp has all you might need for an amp
in this price range.

I use an old 69 Gibson EB-3 and a Hoyer, LP model, German made bass.
I work in a Classic Rock Band and this amp really give me the
deep bass 60's sound. There are times when we go through the PA
and then the sound man takes over on his board. I use a Crate box
with a Carvin 15" 4ohm speaker and a Aguilar 12" cab. I could not
ask for a better sound for the king of rock I play.

I always use a back up with this amp. The amp did break down on me on two separate occasions. I brought it to an Ampeg authorized repair
service both times. I was told that the soldering was not done
properly and that some connections vibrated loose. I was told that they used a "cold process" instead of a "hot proces" to do the
soldering. Not sure what that is. Just thought that I should mention
this in my review.

I had to have the amp repaired twice,as stated above. The service
was excellent both times. The warrenty was honered both times without
any problem. Can't ask for more than that.

I have be playing for 35 years and I have owned Ampeg, Peavy and SWR.
If stolen or lost I would look for another Ampeg that was made in
the U.S. I think the quality is much better. The B-2R, 350watt, that I sold for this one seemed a better unit. I needed more power so I purchased the B-2RE. I think we all have to accept the fact that
Made in China is here to stay

Mine's a 2005 model. The other specs have already been posted.

I play a pretty wide range of different musical styles: alt-rock, metal, ska, modern worship music, Pixies covers, the works. This baby manages to sound good on each and every one.

I like the 9-band graphic EQ, which does a great job of giving you tonal options. The effects loop works just fine and I've had sound techs at my church say how good the XLR channel sounds. To be fair, the amp they usually use is a Hartke, so yeah... not much of a comparison...

In the metal band I play in, I can easily get as loud as our drummer and guitarist, maybe even a bit louder. I play through a 4 ohm Avatar cab with two 12" Eminence speakers, which lets me get loud enough to cut through our guitars (which, in my opinion, are too loud anyways, but hey, that's rock and roll). I haven't used the setup at a concert yet, but I have used it at church gigs in front of about 2,000 people and I had to turn it down. So yeah, it gets loud.

As far as downsides go, sometimes I really think that the addition of a headphone jack would be really handy. I know that most pro-level amps don't come with those, but it really makes practicing a lot easier, especially when I feel the urge to play in the wee hours of the morning. Just a wish of mine.

I play on a Schecter Studio 5 for most of my metal stuff and a Reverend "Rumblefish PJ" (which is my pride and joy) for everything else. The Schecter sounds good through the amp, but the sound I get from that is more from the bass itself, not the amp. The Reverend, on the other hand, sounds absolutely incredible through this sucker. Reverends are very amp-sensitive, meaning that if you run it through a bad amp, it'll sound bad. I'm absolutely in love with how it sounds through the Ampeg, though. I've owned Fender and Laney bass amps, and this totally blows both of those away.

I'm not very good at describing exactly HOW it sounds, because it's got a pretty wide range as far as sound potential goes. Scoop the mids and you've got yourself a really nice warm, modern tone, which works well with pretty much everything. Pump up the mids a bit and play with a pick, and bam, you got yourself some nice Pixies tones. That's really the only way I can describe it. Like I said, I suck at describing sounds.

I don't have a backup amp, but that's just because I spent all my money buying this amp in lieu of buying two inexpensive ones. I don't think I'll be regretting that decision. I don't have a rack for it yet (which will be my next major purchase, along with a preamp of some sort), but I've still managed to transport it in my trunk and stuff like that without anything happening to it. It's definitely heavy (like 20 or 30 pounds), and feels really solid, so I don't think anything will happen to it unless I drop it. Which is why I need a rack. Yeah.

My warranty is freakishly long because I bought it on a credit card that doubles the manufacturer's warranty, and a Guitar Center warranty along with that. So I'm good for a decade or so.

I've had no experience with Ampeg's customer service, but I hear it's pretty good.

I've been playing bass for about five years now, and I've gotten to a place in the music world where I can discern bad $%^& from good $%^&, and this is definitely good $%^&.

If it were lost or stolen, I'd buy a Louisville Slugger and beat the crap out of the person that stole it, then take it back.

Made in 2005. Versatile enough. Sounds like Ampeg to me. And not only does it have it's own gain, master volume, bass, ultra-mid (?) and treble controls and a 9band graphic EQ, it has a preamp out and a power amp in, meaning you can use this unit as your preamp, your power amp, or both. man, that's a slice of pie.
Effects loop, direct out (with pre or post EQ switch, and dB drop switch), octocoupler limiter so you don't blow your speakers, and the input has a dB drop switch. solid state preamp and solid state (Mosfet) power amp. 250 watts at 8 ohms, 450 watts at 4 ohms

Well, i'm mainly a guitarist, although i play bass, drums, keyboard, you name it. I bought this amp to have a bass rig as well. the bass i run through this is a Yamaha RBX350. So far i haven't heard anything i'd call a limitation save for the fact that it's not 1600 watts. loud enough for band practice, but live i'd use the D.I. Not a noisy amp. the most noise it made i think was coming from the bass, not the amp. I need to replace the stock pickups in that Yamaha anyways.
I can't make this thing distort. sure, i can turn the gain up, but i've never heard it clip, save when i was running it through a GK cab that was 4x8s at 8 ohms, and the bass was turned up a little too high. 250 watts just don't cut it when you're popping & slapping unless you ease back the volume. Played it through a 2x12 w/horn JBL PA cab at 4 ohms and it sounded sweet. so in short, use a 4 ohm setup if you want to get everything out of this amp.
and again, this thing sounds like Ampeg. solid state ampeg, but Ampeg nonetheless. if i'd had enough money, i'd have bought the SVT-3PRO which has a tube preamp. but the power amp in function on the B2RE means i can still buy a seperate tube pre-amp later. so that's cool.
it still sounds good enough for practice. i'd probably want to use a tube pre-amp or a sansamp if i were gonna record, but that's optional.

When i first started playing around with it, it cut off one time before i realized that 250 watts wasn't enough to go as loud as i needed it. i was just pushing that GK cab to the limit and the amp didn't like it. so i cut it off, let it sit for a second then turned it back on. no problem since. not a whole lot goes wrong with solid state stuff anyways unless you're being stupid and not matching ohms or watts. (or pushing a cab too hard :)

warranty: 5 years on the electronics and 2 years on the speakers
never had to use it, but i've not had it that long.

-playing guitar since 1993, bass since 2000. i also own an Ibanez EX (i hotrodded with EMG ZW set), Squire Fat Strat, Pro-Audio B-52 LG100A half stack, a Sunlite drum set (the beaten and battered remains of how i taught myself how to play drums), and other various recording equipment and instruments. (i'm not a pro- but then again most real musicians have day jobs...)
-i'd definitely buy this again if it were lost or stolen, but if i had the money, i'd probably upgrade to an SVT PRO.
-gotta love the dependability of solid state.
-hands down this was the best bang for the buck in it's class.
-Bought it from the Atlanta Bass Gallery, which is operated by the most awesome guy in the world. Check it out if you're ever in Atlanta. Recommended for bass players!

I bought the amp in spring 2005, it's the same as the B-2R Head with 450 watts at 4 ohm. I do (basically) rock music and the amp suits perfectly for that style. More features can be found at the Ampeg Homepage.

It has all the features I expect from a bass amp.

I use two Fender Precision Basses made in the seventies and a 4x12 box which is build by a friend of mine. The amp seems to be a little noisy when boosting treble, but since I don't do that, I don't have any problems with it. :o)

It's loud enough for me, but we only have one guitarist, perhaps you should check first, if you're playing in a metal or loud rock band.

I also own a 'modern' Status Matrix I Bass and a '91 Gibson Thunderbird, but I don't play these two basses live. When playing in my living room at low levels the amp sounds pretty boring, but if I turn it up, it has a very nice, round bass and aggressive low mids (at least with my Fenders).

I tested it on stage and I was very pleased with what came out of my speakers. Normally I play a Peavey Classic 400 tube head, which I like very much, too. Perhaps you can say, that it's not so warm sounding, compared to a tube amp, but on the other hand it still sounds like an ampeg.

BTW, even the mixer guy was very pleased with the sound of the amp, too. ;o)

So I'm pretty satisfied with it. There may be an amp out there, that sounds better, but until I find it, I will play this one (and my Peavey). :o) So for the price this is a 9.

It's to new to say something about reliability, but it seems to be of high quality.

Have not dealt with them yet.

I have been playing Bass for 17 years, I also own a Peavey Classic 400, which is (still) my main amp. If the ampeg would be stolen or lost I would propably get another.