Ampeg G-18 Combo

volume bass and treble. eq is actually the cut/boost type, which is cool. 8" speakie.

enough for a practice amp, which after all is what this was intended for. it doesn't stack up to modeling modern trash machines or whatever, but if you want one of those, you probably are not reading this.

though simple, i can't really think of anything else that it needs for its purpose. maybe a little reverb.

str8 forward clean amp. not as warm as , say, a jazz chorus, but if you have a little knowledge of tone structure, you can make it beefy.
the highs can get am radio-y if you are not careful.

it can get as loud as you want a bedroom amp to get. if you are trying to play death metal thras with a double bass drummer on 11, then i think you missed the point.

it sounds great for what it was intended. much better than a small crate or something.

20 or thirty yeras old. still works.

support is what my boxer briefs are for.

i hase been playing for 20 years or so - professionally for 10. i own tons of gear. i love its simplicity and cool vibe. it has way more tone and charcter than some little modern toy.

This is an Ampeg G18, I'm going to have to go with the previous submitter's dates (77-79). Features same as he reports. This is a very sparsely featured amp, but that's okay by me, so I'm not going to rate it down for that. I'll rate it for what it is. I use this amp in my bedroom. Maybe my ears are overly sensitive to loud noises, but this little amp can pretty much blow me out of the room. I am certain that if I kept it above 6 for about 20 minutes I'd have my neighbors call the police on me. I play mostly classic rock.
I've also got to say, this is one well-built little amp. The thing is 25 years old and the only boo-boo on it is the metal-ish Ampeg logo has some scuff marks on it. Looks like this thing did closet time. Nearly perfect.

I use a 2000 American Stratocaster with good old fashioned noisy pickups. I play mostly classic rock, some old blues, dip lightly into "white" blues, maybe better called old honkytonk country (Hank).
Anything bluesy or blues-based except Jazz. This amp in its natural state is what I'd call a "clean" amp. Running direct to the amp, no effects, you're going to get a very clean tone. Which is a-okay if that's what you're looking for. If I'm trying to pick out a pseudo-acoustic sounding piece, such as maybe Wish You Were Here by Floyd, or some of the Petty, then I'll run with this. The amp by itself has no distortion built in. Fortunately, I own (thank you Scott, wherever you are) a late 70's MXR Distortion + pedal. Put the strat on bridge pickup, turn the MXR to about the 2 oclock position, and run it through this amp, and you get honey buzz from 70's classic rock. I hear the main riff to Zep's Rock and Roll with this combo (as close as *I'll* ever get). I go to the neck pickup, roll out the distortion, turn the amp up more to *try* to go for more of a Hendrix sound. Really doesn't cut it for that. Still, this amp gives some interesting sounds. I am not a master of the High and Low input jacks the previous report talks about. I need to master that. There are probably sounds here I haven't yet unlocked. So far, I have not been able to get this amp to sound good with my Crybaby. Sounds tinny. This is a single channel amp. I'm rating this again, for what it is.

So far it hasn't let me down, but I've only owned it for about 3 months. I am just a guy who plays in my bedroom, don't gig, don't even have jam sessions (no time right now). I don't think I'd gig without backups for everything, but that is not because of anything I've seen with this amp. I am just a control freak. I'm rating this a 7 just because I haven't had it for long. I will say I feel much more confident with it than I did with the Squier 10 I had for 15 years. I feel like it's a professional quality amp, it's just that it's small, for practice.

My Squier blew up, so I was in the market for an affordable replacement practice amp. I knew someday I was going to start campaigning to get a nice gigbable tube amp, but the time was not now. So I went to my local pawn emporium and looked at what they had. They had the usual assortment of Peavey, Crate, a Park, etc., etc., and this Ampeg. So I jotted down names, model numbers, etc., came home and researched them here on harmony. I had a sneaking suspicion even before doing that that the Ampeg might win out even though it was the cheapest priced amp in the store. Sure enough, the G18 had one review in on it. The rest of the amps didn't have good reviews. I go back to the pawn shop, take my Strat with me, and A/B'd them right there in the store. The Ampeg clearly beat out Peaveys with 2-5x the wattage and price. Has wonderful bass. So, anyway, I talked the pawn shop guy down to $60 from $69, knowing I was paying a fair price, and brought her home. So, I'm on my own for repairs but there have been no problems. I'll put this as a 7 but understand, I've had no problems with this amp. I've read other places that Ampeg will help provide old users manuals for old models so if that's true that speaks well of them.

I got hooked by guitar at about 3, but didn't playing in earnest until about 15. So, I guess that makes 20 years of playing now. The Congressional Budget Office (my wife) has me on a shoestring budget for hobbies, but I've been able to snag a wonderful, beautiful 2000 American made Strat. I own the MXR Distortion +, a Dunlop Wah, the Ampeg amp. If it were lost or stolen, and if I didn't have the dough to upgrade to a vintage tube amp (one of my goals), I would definitely snag another one of these if I could find one. I love the quality of the amp. I've got an engineering background and really appreciate that Ampeg took the time to make a good product here and not turn out some junk even though it was going to be a practice amp. I wish my Wah worked well with it, it might be that with more experimentation I can get a good SRV-esque Wah sound out of it. I miss being able to get that sound. If you see one of these sitting on the shelf amongst other pawn store quality 10-40 watt amps (Nothing against pawn shops or other cheap amps), A/B this little dude with them. You may be surprised. And since it doesn't have all the bells and whistles built in, you can pick it up at a great price.

Small SS practice amp,(about the size of a SF Champ looks like a mini VT-22) mid 70's production. Single channel, V-T-B ; two inputs (H-L) Pilot light. 10 watts 1X8 closed back cab with bottom port that doubles as cord storage for the longish cord. Not much in the way of features compared to modern offshore SS stuff, but what it has works very well.

Two inputs allow SC and HB to be used with different gain structures, giving a wide variety of sounds. Tone controlls are the typical Ampeg H-Fi desigd (Baxanall Circut) that is flat at the middle position and actually cuts or boosts frequency..most simply boost, this has a nice effect on the mids giving both amp and various guitars distinctive sounds. Pretty quiet at idle, not a lot of gain on tap here..gets a bit fat as you turn up; but not a "Marshall Style amp" typical funky Ampeg dark clean..impressive for SS.

Well...It s at least 24 years old (produced 77-79) and it exhibits no real problems...Ampeg stuff from the Magnavox era (70-79) has a good rep for being tough. This is from a budget ss line (there was also a small PA and a few other small amps) that used particle board instead of plywood cabs, but it seems well made.

Made by Magnavox for Ampeg/Selmer in the god ole USA (TV plant in Tenn.!) a arrangement that has long since ended. The current owner of Ampeg (SLM/Crate) has some info on older products, but I have never contacted them. A few places on the web specalize older Ampegs (mostly tube stuff), but again no contact. A fairly straight ahead circut (Schematic provided on the bottom of the chassis...nice touch) most older techs should be able to suss it.

This is a cool little amp from a time when quality small amps were few and far between. In contrast to the present wher every "big" maker offers a wide line of usefull small amps; in the '70s most small amps came from budget lines like Premier, Kay..ect.
If you wanted something nice to start with you needed some $$
( I remember this being around $ 99 new..a.lot of money 25 years ago..around two weeks pay at the local fast food emporium) and you had a choice between this and the even more expensive Fender Champ. I really wanted one of these and a Tele..mini Keef!..no one played Fender then ....country amps! Of course I got a Kay, and a cheep no name guitar. The cool shop in town sold Ampeg..and all the big bands had them. VT-22, VT-40, V4-B...aah back in the day! When I saw this on "The Bay" I grabbed it. Too cool. Sound great with my Tele, and is a nice change from my SF Princeton. A little limited for the modern
kid, but still a nice amp, and true to its Ampeg heritage is great for jazz, blues and R&B.