Ampeg B-3158

Bought this new in Norway in 2000
The amp is OK when it is working. The drive button is a bit dull though, and I always have to mess around with the bass and treble controls. No plug and play here. It is loud enough for smaller scenes. Size and weight is OK

I use a 68 P-bass, a 74 Rickenbacker 4001, a 2002 Musicman Stingray and and old Ibanez jazz bass. Have been pro and semi-pro for 18 years. Mainly rock'n'roll.
The amp does what it is supposed to do; amplify, but not much more. It lacks balls and personality. I have had a lot of amps; HH, Acoustic, Trace Elliot, Fender, Peavey, Session, Mesa Boogie and a few more. All of these sounds better than the Ampeg.

Have had this amp for about 5 years. It has been in the garage for the last 2. Always some kind of trouble with it. Bad soldering all over the place. It has died on two live gigs, so I doubt I will ever use it on concerts anymore. Hell, I probably won't ever use it again.

No idea.

Cheap Ampeg = crap
Save your money and a lot of trouble. Buy the big tube Ampegs, they are OK. But I won't buy Ampeg again. Sorry.

Many features for a bass amp : XLR , channel switch , effects loop , 9 band EQ , drive and balance control for the speakers. I use all these features , but they are more than an average player would use . It has 100 watts to the 15 inch and 50 going to the 8 inch speaker. That does not sound like a lot of power for a bass amp but when I compared it to my Peavey 300 watt combo it seemed just as loud. Some players confuse the B-3158 with the B-3. My B-3158 says B-3 on the front but on the back it says B-3158. I'm not sure why Ampeg did this.

I use a Fender Precision which blends well with Ampeg. The one problem I have with this amp is when cranked to 3 o'clock position (there are no numbers on the knobs) on the master volume a nasty hum starts. At first I thought my cords were messed up. I muted my bass with a volume pedal and the hum was still there. On the 9 band EQ I turned off the 150 Hz , 600 Hz , 900 Hz and the 2 Khz. Turning the treble knob down eliminated the rest of the hum . Why would Ampeg produce a product that hums loudly when the volume is only on 3/4 ? Now , you might say , "You can't crank an amp and expect no hum" . But I say , "Not even 3/4 ?" I never thought the hum was that bad but in a PA the hum was very irritating. The sound guy was really pissed off. Anyway that was 4 years ago , my sound is now clean thanks to the EQ. A trick I learned from a guitarist is to turn the master volume off and slowly raise the gain knob as you play until the peak light starts to flash , then turn the master volume up to desired level.

I've had this amp for 4 years and use it 3 times a week with no trouble . It is good for small clubs and with the XLR out is also good for larger ones.

Been playing for 25 + years. Except for the hum when all levels are flat , I love the sound and portability. I like the idea of two on stage as the last reviewer does.

The amp has all the features one could want for the most part, with the exception of a devoted Tuner-Out. I don't use the FX loop, so I just plug my tuner in the FX-Send jack. There is a 9 band graphic EQ which is very useful. There are enough controls on the front where you can get a variety of tones.

It sounds good...for an all solid-state amp. The tone just seems harsh to my ears at times. The speaker combination works well together. Perhaps a 10 instead of an 8 would work better. But if you're a tube person (like myself), you probably won't be completely happy with this amp. It does make the switch from bass - guitar with minimal EQ changing as well.

I've never had a problem with the amp. I use two. One is new, the other has seen 5 years of being badly treated on the road. With the exception of rips in the Tolex, both are in perfect working order.

Never had to deal with Ampeg or SLM. So I don't know.

I've been playing for a couple of years and the amps work fine. They sound much better in pairs. I paid $250 for one used and $500 for one new. They're fine for what they are...big combo amps. They sound as good as you're going to get a solid-state amp to sound. They're portable. They're even stackable! All-in-all, if it weren't for things like SVT-II's, I'd use these for a very long time.

I use this amp for music like Tool, deftones, and Rage Against the Machine. It's a pretty versatile amp, I've played some jazz with it as well. It has a 7 channel graphic eq w/ an on or off nob, a 3 band eq w/ overdrive, and an effects loop. It has all the features I'd need for a bass amp. I use the amp for gigs and practices. It's 150w, 100w going to the 15" for lows and 50w going to the 8" for highs. It can be very loud but sometimes it's hard to be gentle and soft.

I use an Ibanez EDB600 w/ a Digitech BP500 multieffects processor. It can be a bit noisy when you have the treble turned up a lot. I've used it for rock, jazz, and slapping so it sounds good no matter what and it's pretty versatile.

I use it as my only amp, I'm not worried about it messing up. It's never broken down but I've only had it for a month so nothing's happened to it.

It hasn't messed up yet and I don't remember how long the warranty is.

I bought it on sale at Guitar Center for $400 but a week later they put it back up to the list price of $1100. I got a great deal on it :)
I've been playing for two years. If it were stolen or lost I would definately buy a new one, I really love this amp. I love how it has a lot of low but it also has plenty of high, it gives you a lot more to work with compared to other combo amps. I also looked at Crate and a Gallien Krueger combo amps but for my money this was definately the best deal. I could find a few things about it that I don't like if I was extrememly picky (very heavy, but it has wheels) but this amp pretty much has it all.

A decent 150 WATT combo amp - that is, 100 WATTS through a 15 inch and 50 WATTS through an 8. I bought this amp in mid-2000. It has a single input with two channels. The second channel, when engaged, adds a nine band EQ. Also, hidden in the back are an efects loop and an XLR out with a pre/post switch and -20db switch. I find this very useful. It has Low, Mid, High, Drive, Gain, and Volume nobs for shaping tone.

My biggest problem with this amp is its WEAK low end. I use it for rock, jazz, and Jaco-style harmonics. It is wonderful for the latter and better-than-average for the jazz, but i ind it unsuitable for rock. It lacks punchy mids and it is dificult to be heard when playing with either a guitar player or keyboardist (as i do in my rock band), due to the weak low end. However, This amp has incredable tone with both my YAMAHA TRB-4 and fretless '89 J-bass with custom alembic picups. You can hear hum when you stand close to it (which I find incredably annoying), however from farther away its sound is completely amazing.

Great sound.
Weak low end.

Never had a problem with it

I bought it from "The Music Store" in Webster, NY. The owner of the store is a wonderful guy and has fixed my YAMAHA TRB-4 (which i bought from him, off course) several times at no cost. If i ever were to have a problem, I would not find myself contacting Ampeg.

My customer support rating thus for "The Music Store" then is a perect 10. For Ampeg however, I have no idea.

I like this amp; however, I would not buy it again. The lack of volume and inability to persuade punchy mids turns me off to it. It would make a great practice amp if you could find one cheap, but I find it unsuitable for larger gigs.

The B3 is part of Ampeg's new wave of merchandise, put on the shelf just before the portaflex reissue- i think. Anyway, here's wat the B3 has to offer: It's a combo amp, and very heavy at that, 4 feet tall (at least) and about 85 lbs. The good part is that the B3 has integral roller wheels, like a wheel barrel or a dolly so you can push it along at a 45 degree angle. The amp itself has one 15 main (running 100w at 4 ohms), an 8" mid/highrange (50w at 8 ohms), and two ports. Dual Channel with footswitch port- Channel one is bass/supermid/treble with gain, drive, master volume, and balancing between the two speakears. Channel two adds a 9 band graphic eq to the mix, giving the B3 a great tonal variety. Inthe back, there's an XLR direct out for recording with your choice of 0 or -20 db to the mix and the main speaker. No extra speaker jack, but another speaker really wouldn't help the amp's sound. it's meant to be a loner.
Built for gigging, the B3 isn't the loudest amp, but for its pricerange and designation, it has more variety in sound than any other combo (the hartke combos are better... and 300 dollars more expensive at least).

I play an Ibanez ATK (with 3 band active eq and a bartolini style 3 coil humbucker). The B3 takes to the ATK very well, even though the active electronics make the bass-max light dance. I play funk, reggae, jazz, even metal through the amp and it sounds fine, it just isn'tthat loud. Seriously, it's very loud, just not as loud as some 15" speaker amp combos. Again, though, the versatility of the B3 outstates any other amp comparable to it.
Until both the gain and the cvolume are up, the amp is clean. at about 7, the bass starts bottoming out the speaker, but this happens on all amps. You can turn the -15 db switch on but what fun would that be? I love the clean highs and mids the B3 produces with the 8" speaker. Very unusual.

This is a great gigging amp. The B3 is very dependable- nice, reliable solid state engineering so the amp doesn't go apeshit like some peaveys i know. If the B3 does break down ever, the electronics are really easy to repair with a soldering iron, the layout of the ciruit board is simple and thought thru. I would and do use it without a backup, probably because my backup is a crate bx15 bass amp with a 6.5" speaker.

Never had to deal with Ampeg. I bought a crapped up Vt-22 guitar head once, but sent it right back to the used gear store i bought it from. I went to ampeg.com once and read about billy sheehan and all the SVT reissue bass amps but my mouth began to water so i left. No problems, as i said i bought the amp used and they fixed all the problems for free within the first two days.

I've been playing music since i was a wee kid (that was piano) about 14 years ago, and took up guitar (bass later) starting in 9th grade. Right now I own bits of gear from all my phases, an Alesis QS8, Ludwig Classic drums, LOTS of god-damn crate amps, a danelectro 59DC, my ATK bass (see seperate harmony description), and the B3 (among other musical instruments, amps, pas, etc) If someone stole the B3, i'd track them down and beat it out of them (or let the insurance company buy me a new one more likely). I love this amp. It could do to be a tad bit louder, but oh well- underthe mics of a venue, that amp is the best. Go Ampeg. That is all.