Ampeg Gemini 6

I've owned this amp since 1974. I've always believed this model was made in 1966. I've played every style of music through this amp. I was told this amp was originally rated at 35 watts. I did have mine checked out once and that's what the shop told me. I've used this amp in just about any venue. Small clubs no mic needed. Larger ones you're mixing through the PA anyway. Oh and there's a reason for that treble boost!

This amp was made to turn to above 7 and click that treble boost with humbuckers burning behind it. That 15" speaker is just waiting to blow your doors off on the bottom end. With a DS-1 distortion adding a boost, I will put this amp up against anything in it's wattage class and then some. But then if you want the smooth jazz tone, a simple adjust on the volume and tone and you're George Benson. And oh by the way, it's a two prong plug so pay attention to polarity. Sometimes you have to turn the plug around in those old clubs if you happen to plug into a wall socket.

This is a tough one. I've had this amp for over 30 years. I had to replace the speaker but never replaced any tubes. These tubes still crank but I also have to confess that I don't gig with this amp any longer and only use it in my home studio or for private parties. This was mainly due to what most have already stated and that is the availability of parts. I'm a vintage freak so if I had to reapir it, I would want original parts.

I've never dealt with Ampeg. There's some dude on the internet that posted the schematic for this amp so I downloaded it for future need.

As noted, I've been playing for over 30 years and this amp was my first purchase. I mainly play through a Musicman 212 since it's easy tp transport. This amp is heavy and I've carried this thing up and down stairs and though everything imaginable. You can't find anything new on the market like it so if I lost it, it's like a classic movie actor dying. There's no way to replace a legend.

( This a a revision of my 9/21/2007 review.) This amp was made in the 60's. The sound is great for blues & jazz.The reverb is lush; tremolo is smooth. It has 1 channel, all I need.I has the same size cabinet as the 22 watt Gemini 1, but has 30 watts & a 15" speaker. It is too loud for my house; it would be O.K. for a medium-sized room.

The sound quality is stunning for blues & jazz; the 15" speaker gives it growl.The Ampeg has more low end content; whereas my Super Reverb is cleaner and more revealing in the treble. Because of the 15", the sound can be muddy; the 4 X 10's in the Super are never muddy.Using the Gemini with my '69 Gibson 355 and a new SG Faded. The alnico pickups on the SG get better & more responsive tone with the Gemini 6 than the Super; with the 355 both amps sound great.The Super seems to have a cleaner sound than the Gemini 6 even though Hull was known to hate sound that wasn't clean.

After I had the amp checked out and the speaker reconed, the power supply went. So I wouldn't trust it on a gig.I think old Fenders are more reliable than old Ampegs, and tubes are easier to come by.

There's no customer support on 40 year old Ampegs.I can get tubes and repairs from the elderly Ampeg guy for now.

Playing for 50 years. I have a '72 Super Reverb and a silver Vibrolux Reverb with alnicos. I have a Brownsville Reso 101 for slide playing. I'd buy this amp again, but I'd try to get one much cheaper and have it checked out first. I love the sound, but hate the weird tubes. I chose it because I had a Big M as a teenager and like 15" speakers. To me,the Gemini 6 is a poor man's Vibroverb.

This amp was made in the 60's.The sound is great for blues & jazz; wouldn't be good for heavy metal. The reverb is lush & not tinny; tremolo is smooth.My playing style doesn't require more modern features.It's one channel works for me, because it uses the same size cabinet as the 22-watt Gemini One (12" spkr); so you get your 30 watts without the bigger Gemini Two (2-channel) cabinet.
It's way too loud for my house; I'm sure it would be loud enough for a medium-sized room.

The sound quality is stunning for blues & jazz, which is what I play. The 15" speaker gives it plenty of growl.Compared to my Super Reverb, the Ampeg sound has more low end content & guts; the Super is more brittle.The flip side is that the Ampeg sound can be muddy; where the Super (silver) is cleaner & more revealing in the treble.When I want it to sound more like a Fender, I flip the switch on my Gibson 355 to use both pickups instead of just the fingerboard pickup (which I normally use with the Super). The odd thing is that Hull was known to hate distorted sound, and Ampegs were designed to be cleaner than Fenders. But the first impression here is that the Super sound is cleaner, and the Gemini is dirtier.The distortion is not extreme in the Gemini(I don't play at very high levels.)It's fairly quiet in my house.

I's use it on a gig without backup. The speaker needed reconing because of age.Having used an Ampeg "Big M"on many gigs as a teenager, I'm sure if you don't blow the speaker nothing else is likely to go wrong.

There's no customer support on 40 year old Ampegs. The tubes can be hard to get. Right now I can get the made-in-Russia 7591's from the elderly Ampeg guy.

Playing for 50 years. I have a silver Super Reverb & a silver Vibrolux Reverb (Alnicos!).Besides my '69 (mono) 355, I have a Brownsville Reso 101 for slide playing, and a cheap Squier Tele.I'd try to find another Gemini 6 if this one were lost. I love it's sound.I hate the hard-to-get tubes used by Ampeg.Everyone knows how great vintage Fender amps are, but let's not forget how awesome the old Ampegs are and how potent 15" speakers can be.To me, the Gemini 6/2 is a poor man's Vibroverb!

'67 Gemini VI...Features are the same as everyone has stated, but mine is a dual 6L6 model from the get go.....Ampeg used whatever tubes were on hand....:) Its been nice though in terms of maintenance. I use it at home for jazz and everything else (pedals for OD).

I use a '99 Gibson ES-135 LE, a '97 California Strat, a '63 Jazzmaster, a 2001 DeArmond M77-T, a '72 LP Recording, and an '78 Electra Omega X-220 with this amp. I play jazz, blues, rockabilly, surf, whatever my current thing is. Amp is pretty quiet, tons of headroom, put new Svets in when I got it...idiot on ebay shipped it with tubes in place, old RCAs power tubes broken on arrival, pre-amp tubes survived. Speaker was shot too, though the seller portrayed this as 'working' on ebay....beware the 'bay...go into to it knowing there's more risk...I replaced the speaker with a new 15" Jensen Concert Re-Issue (C-15N). Sounds fab....I have the bass completely rolled off with my 135, and its still too bassy sometimes....super creamy jazz tones...the reverb is great too, as lush as my fender's. Nothing beats that outboard 'verb, but this is pretty good. Tremolo is very nice as well. I researched this beforehand, wanting a vintage tube sound with lots of headroom, but not as pricey as a Twin. Its a great amp for clean sounds, or with an effect or two...not the choice for heavy metal, or multi-effected setups, no effects loop, and too much headroom.

I spent $350 for the amp, and around $200 in repairs. I can't dis the amp for poor treatment, and now that everything is fixed...its rock solid.

The olde Ampeg is no longer, but the new Ampeg does try to help, directing me to some vintage pages...also GET THE AMPEG BOOK from Amazon...excellent resource for all your vintage Ampeg needs...

I've been playing off and on for 25 years..always 'on' in the last 7 though. I'd try and buy it again if it were lost / stolen. Love the tone, hate the WEIGHT. I compared to Fender Twin, and Gibson LAB series. I do wish it had and effects loop. Great amp!!!

This is a mid-60's combo, I think. Since Ampegs are made to be jazz amps, and since the original owner of Ampeg hated anything else, these amps are made never to break up at higher volumes. I play blues and I love the Mick Taylor sound, so clean is good, though when I need a little grit I use a Marshall Bluesbreaker II (this pedal is so good it makes a solid state Fender amp sound like it has tube distortion). It has only one channel but 4 inputs (guitar, mic, accordion, aux). Personally I like the mic input for guitar.

Features are straightforward: tremolo (speed and intensity), echo (reverb), treble, bass, volume. Tremolo and reverb both sound great, and a footswitch controls both of them. These are absolutely all the features I need... chorus might be nice, but on a vintage amp so classy as this one, why do that?

This amp gets loud, but then I've played pretty small rooms. Maybe with more air, it'd be quiet. Here's my one beef: the power tubes are 7591, which are only available from Sovtek, whose tubes I don't really like. What's more, the Sovtek 7591's have the pins of a 6L6, which means you have to either shop for expensive, discontinued, vintage 7591's, or you have to have the sockets in your chassis modified. The biggest shame of all is that the tubes Ampeg used in the 60's and 70's turned out not to be used nowadays... the 7027s are the most musical tubes, I think... but try finding them!

I use a Gibson reissue 61 SG and a Fender Fat Tele. The SG sounds great... it's very close to a Mick Taylor setup without having to lug around a Les Paul. The amp is very quiet... probably also having to do with the fact that it was specifically designed not to distort or fuzz. There isn't really too much tonal variety you can get from the amp... but I always figured tone's in your fingers anyway, and if your guitar has more than one pickup and a wide range of tones, it's fine.

Ampeg tone is great, that's all there is to it. I don't take points off for lack of versatility, because if you're considering this amp in the first place, you know what tone you're after, and you're going to get it.

Like most Ampegs, this is built like a tank. My concern is that in the event that it does have a problem, it'll take months to find someone who knows how to repair it, and I'm sure it'll be costly too. So I've really babied it. Mine came with casters on the bottom, but they don't take any shock, so whenever I wheel it around on anything but a hardwood floor, I cringe to see it shaking. If I ever had to take it on the road extensively, I'd buy a roadcase, but it might be better just to get a more modern, reliable, easy-to-service amp.

Ampeg has different owners now than it did when this amp was made. I imagine they could supply a schematic, but little more.

I've been playing for 6 years. I had a Marshall JTM612 that was a reliability nightmare. I prefer the Ampeg sound to the Marshall sound anyway, so good riddance. I got a $600 credit at Guitar Center for the Marshall, which I haven't used yet. I would most like one of the new Ampeg models or maybe a Fender.

This amp might be a 66 or 67 model. It has 1 15" Cts speaker. 7591 power tubes . 2 12ak7s,1 7199, and 1 6cg7 or something like that. It is the absolute best jazz amp I have ever played but it could be used for blues or especially surf stuff. 1 channel and 4 inputs for various instruments. Awesome reverb and vibrato. This amp will be used for almost everything I do in front of 100 people or in my home studio ala basement. It is powerful enough to play a small to mid size gig.

I am playing vintage full size archtops through this amp. 1 1962, and "67 guild x175 and x500. 1 "66 Epiphone Broadway and a "95 Heritage Golden Eagle. It fits the Jazz needs that i have because the Larger speaker actually enhances the bass notes in a superb way. The highs are expressed in a rich manner because of the smaller power tube. It is not noisy but it has a small tremelo thump. The amp distorts at about 7 or 3/4s of the way up, you really have to struggle to break up the Cts 15" speaker. Tube actually overdrives before the speaker does which is kind of neat. we turned it up to 10 once and got mega distortion. We actually placed it next to a master volume twin and the twin was louder of course but much more brittle than the Ampeg in tone.

I spent $140 replacing the reverb tank which some fool had removed and 1 reverb tube. Also the Tremelo needed a new oscillator and rewiring. Total purchase price for amp was $340 with repairs.

I have been playing since 1985. I have a Blonde Fender Bassman. 1 1965 Ampeg reverborocket. I would definitely replace with another vintage Ampeg. Would be lost without both Ampegs because they are both tone monsters. They are cleaner and more Jazzier than any Fender or Boogie I have played. I do hate that replacement parts are so hard to find.

BELIEVE IT'S A 65 THOUGH NO ONE'S REALLY SURE...NOT EVEN MY EX-GIRL FRIEND TO WHOM THE AMP BELONGS.INPUTS? GUITAR,MIC & ACCORDIAN OF COURSE. TREMELO & A GREAT SOUNDING REVERB. MASTER VOLUME? NOT ON YOUR LIFE BUDDY.THE SELLER OF THE AMP TOLD ME THAT THE 6L6S WERE NOT ORIGINAL AND WERE DIRECT REPLACEMENTS FOR SOME UNUSUAL TUBE THAT ONLY ASPEN PITTMAN COULD NAME OFF THE TOP OF HIS HEAD. PREAMP TUBES ARE GOOD OLD 12-AX7S.

A HELL OF AN AMP AT ANY VOLUME.LOW SETTINGS? THINK FENDER CLEAN. CLEAR,SPARKLING BUT WARM.TURNED TO 10? THINK.....CHRYSLER 426 HEMI V8 AT 6000 RPM. LOWER HEAD ROOM THAN MOST 6L6 FENDERS SO EXPECT MID VOLUME SETTINGS TO CRUNCH A BIT.15 INCH SPEAKER BY THE WAY. PLUG IN A TELE, TURN THE TREBLE KNOB ALL THE WAY TO BOOST AND THEN TELL ME A 15 INCH SPEAKER IS'NT BRIGHT ENOUGH. BIG 15 HAS GOT SOMETHING TO DO WITH THE AMP'S CRUNCH I'M SURE. AMAZING GROWL.TUBE SCREAMER BUT A LAME CARICATURE BY COMPARISSON.

I'M THE ONE WHO HAD TO CARRY THE AMP TO AND FROM GIGS SO I CAN ATTEST TO IT'S ENORMOUS WEIGHT. COULDN'T PUT A HOLE IN IT WITH A .44. NO ELECTRICAL PROBLEMS JUST BACK PROBLEMS.

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I WOULD HAVE PREFERRED TO PAY LESS FOR AN ODD BALL AMP THAT NOBODY {I KNOW} GIVES A RAT'S ASS ABOUT. ACTUALLY MY EX GIRLFRIEND OWNS IT AND SHE'S EATEN A FAIR AMOUNT OF COSTLIER AMPS WITH IT.