Ampeg GS-12R 112 Combo

My Reverberocketis a 1966 vintage, at about 35 watts and is solid and clean sounding. I did some major rewiring and gave it a long overdue cap job and replaced the worn handle but other than this it is all original. I have also added a grounded cord and this eliminated a lot of the hum that the cap job did not remove.
It has a Ampeg 12" and the attached Reverb/Tremelo foot switch. Ther are two inputs, one for guitar and one for accordion. The tubes are all original. The reverb tube is dead and I need to replace them all from Fliptops.net where I have gotten all of my replacement parts.
The treble control does not have much of an effect and I am thinking about changing the supporting electronics and beef it up a bit, but over all it is a nice dark Smokey sound.
I own one I had bought new in high school and it gave me years of garage band enjoyment.

It plays good clean and loud in the 3-7 ranges but the (original) speaker breaks up over this range and sounds kind of frightening. As I remember the one I had 30 year ago (new) also did this.
For variety the Accordion channel seems a bit brighter than the guitar channel. And back then I use to jam with a couple old neighbors and one used a Ampeg to run his accordion through.
Early Ampegs were not built for distortion but for a clean reverb distinct sound. But put a pedal on it and it will over drive and the cabinets projects quite nicely.
I use it a home for rehearsal but I have a rig so I can unplug the internal speaker and connect it to my Marshall 4x1w cab and it sounds fantastic. This way I can over drive the full 35 watts for some amazing tube distortion.
I play a 1999 Gibson Blueshawk (with P-90s) and it screams thru this amp, and also a Dot-335 (with humbuckers) which gives a very solid (fuller) sound with some good controllable feedback.

As I said I played my first one hard for 5 years and this one being 40 years old I did some repairs and it now plays like a new one and I imagine it will last as long I keep playing.
I keep it a home for rehearsal and recording as I use a newer (re-issue) Reverberocket 212 50 watt tube amp for gigging out.

Ampegs are no longer made in USA so I imagine it is now a crap shoot.
But I did call their support line several months ago and got some straight answers for a tech who had worked at Ampeg.

I Love Ampegs, they have a different sound than most other amps, and I also like the blue checkered vinyl. Ampeg is(was)an American orginal with a history of innovations that lead the market for years.
I also have a 1996 Marshall VRS65 1x12 combo which is a work horse and a 1963 Harmony H303a which is a amazing 8 watt tube amp. I played one of these (new) in Jr High.
Would I buy another Ampeg RR2? I plan on it.
Next for me will be a 60s vintage bass fliptop I want to restore and play and pass onto my son, a bass player.

The Rocket 2 that I own was made in 1965. I do not know how long they were made but I suspect that 65 was the first year of production of this amp. I use the amp for kickin about to play at friends, record and the like. It is a 15 amp with A/B circuts like a Fender and very similar to the Princeton. This particular model has vibrato but not reverb. This has two channels, one for guitar and one for accordian. I play guitar through either and it seems as though the accordian has a little more kick, but I am not sure of that. It is a great tube amp with a slightly harsh tone versus the usual "warm" tube reputation. This partly due to the fact that I tend to use single coils only through this amp. I like the humbuckers through my fender amps but I use my Strat and Ric through this one exclusively, they sound better.

I play blues, rock, some country and I think the amp is great for this music. I play at low volumes for practice and it is full bodied. When cranked up most of the way it has a slightly harsh bite but breaks up nice, stays distinctive through all the strings with out that distortion blend low end rumble that some times occurs when an amp is pushed. I would say that the amp is limited to this general tone with in the range of the ability of the guitar pickups to create variations in the overall tone. As I noted above, it is great with single coils and ok with humbuckers but I am not sure I like the humbuckers better through this, I think not, probably the Fenders I use are better with humbuckers.

It is a work horse. I would depend on it when recording, It is a little too small (15 amps)for a medium/large venue. In a small bar playing mostly blues with it cranked it would be fine, however, the low volume may not push out enough variety in tone in a small club setting. In a studio or home setting it is great. A tremendous practice and travel around amp. When I got this thing the tubes were like gas giants but it still worked ok. It is built very well.

AMPEG is now a different company and really doesn't offer much in the way of advice, service, parts or support for these older relics. However, there is a wide spread AMPEG "culture" out there so parts are readily available when you search the web and amp repair guies love working on these old classics.

I have been playing since 1964 and an AMPEG Gemini II was my first amp, so I decided I needed to get an AMPEG from that era back into my life. I am very gald I did. I would certainly look to replace this if anything were to go wrong. I really love the tone, different from my Fenders but very nice with the Rickenbacker 12, Fender Strat and Epiphone Granada. I recommend as agreat alternative to the new version of Fender Blues Jr.s or even the vinatage Princeton amps. You can get them for half of $500 you need to pay for a Princeton.

1965 play mostly blues 2 channels no channel switching play mostly small clubs and at home this amp puts out 30 watts all tube i converteted to sovtek 6v6 outputs

i play a 99 tele fat american made in corona calif luv that axe it was noisy before i put in star grounds and put in a 3 prong plug now at 9 you can hear a thing. this thing wont distort for# $ % @ $.I use a ts9 for that. its got the greatest sounding reverb ever if you like verb you cant beat an old ampeg better than fender imho

its37 years old i got it for free . i just retubed changed over to 6v6s no easy mod changed filter caps star grounded everything and put in a 3 prong power cord. it still has the original jensen 12 in it

1969 I believe...20 watts of pure tube through a 12" Alnico speaker. Originally it came with a Reverb/Tremelo foot switch, but I didn't get it with mine. 2 channels (one at a time- no switching), Normal and Bright. Bright is a little more trebley and normal has a little more power and mids. NOS Westinghouse 7591s, not sure about the other tubes. No effects loop or headphone jack - doesn't even have a grounded plug, whaddya expect? Knobs are Volume, Bass, Treble and Speed, Intensity (for the tremelo) and Echo (reverb). I was told the reverb tank on mine is from a 65 fender twin and it's more than enough 'verb- at around 8 it sounds like you're in a cathedral. Possibly the single coolest thing about this amp is the After-Effects switch which adds a slightly percussive slap to the tremelo. Adds a very psychedelic tone when milking the feedback. I live in a very small apartment and rarely get to turn this thing up past 5, but it is just the right amount of power for jamming in my friend's basement. It also has a polarity switch to compensate for the non-grounded plug.

I play a '99 Epiphone Joe Pass with dual humbuckers and get a very nice jazz/blues tone with this setup. I've only been playing guitar for about 3 years, and that's been mostly acoustic, so I'm still mostly learning and messing around. I have a Zoom amp modeler (a poor man's Pod) which I'm going to put in front of the Ampeg to see what kind of distortion I can get. As far as the clean tone goes...this is right up there with best of them. I've heard a lot of Fender Tubes (Blues DeVille, Hot Rod Deluxe, Deluxe, Vibrolux, 65 Twin Reissue, The red-knob 80s Twin, Super 60, etc) and they have nothing tonewise on this Ampeg. Maybe a Vox AC-15 has more "authentic" tone, but I'm not as familiar them.
This amp is extremely quiet. Crank it up to 10 and you really have to squint to hear any hum. This may be the result of the Westinghouse tubes. The sound gets pretty cruchy when the volume hits 7, but I have to keep my guitar volume turned down when doing this (small apt.) so I have yet to get a chance to really crank it. This amp is not really about variety of tones, it's about CLEAN TONE, which is gorgeous. For the variety, use pedals.

Lost the fuse cover in transit, but since it's a standard 3 amp fuse, I was able to get a replacement at Radio Shack for $3. I've only had it for 2 months, but no troubles yet. Certainly feels solid - it's about as big as a Twin, but probably weighs about 60 lbs, so there's a lot of empty space in the cabinet.

Haven't had to deal with Ampeg (St. Louis Music) but I've heard god things about them. For vintage replacement parts, try http://www.fliptops.com

As I mentioned, I'm still a beginner so I don't know that much about gear. But I have heard a lot of different guitar tones in my life and this is one of my favorites. I love its clean tone and it is inspiring me to learn more Joe Pass style jazz. Originally I has wished it had a headphone jack, but at 25 watts, it's quiet enough to play late at night without waking the neighbors. If it was stolen, I'd probably try and find another vintage Ampeg Reverbrocket. For the money, this is a fantastic amp, it just depends on what you want to play...it aint for shredders!