Ampeg J-12T

The HC description for this amp is incorrect. The current J-12T is a 15 watt (not 35) powered by 2 EL 84s and two 12 AX7s in the preamp stage. It includes tremolo and reverb. No master volume. 12 inch Ampeg labeled speaker (Eminence??) with small 15 oz. magnet.

The amp for this review is brand new...probably made in 01 or 02. The best feature for me is the portability of the amp in relationship to its throaty voice. This Jet roars when pushed, but it only weighs about 30 pounds. The second best feature...the vibe of the blue checked tolex, brushed chrome panel, silver baffle cover, nickel corner caps, blue light, and leather handle. This amp looks fabulous!

The only feature that I would like to see on this (and other small tube amps) is some sort of tilt-back feature. I hate having to carry an amp stand around with me.

I tend to rate things pretty critically and I will reserve 9s and 10s for incredibly well-featured amps (perhaps Vox and Fender modeling amps, THD Univalve, high end Marshalls, Bogners, Matchelss amps with efx loops, multiple speaker impedence selectors, etc.). This is a BASIC one channel amp with no line out, efx loop, external speaker out or master volume.

I have a few guitars and have tried most of them with this amp. So far, my Rickenbacker 360/6 (high gain single coil pickups) wins the prize for the best match for the Jet. It sounds tight, focused, and unique. My Les Paul Classic 1960 reissue with PAFs comes in a close second. The humbuckers really push this amp into a nice crunch above a volume level of 3. I can turn this amp up to about 8 and use the guitar's volume and tone controls to get a very nice overdriven sound, nothing over the top, just very well balanced, complex, and detailed. Lots of harmonic overtones. The EL 84s loosen up above volume level 5--they remind me of my Vox AC 15 TBX a bit, but the Ampeg speaker has its own unique sound, very well suited to the design of the amp.

I have used the accordian input for cleaner tones. It works GREAT with strats and LPs. Obviously, you loose a bit of volume but gain some headroom.

The overdrive sound is surprisingly usable and authoritative at high volume levels. Some reviewers have stated that this is a loud amp for 15 watts. I disagree. With the small magnet speaker design, this amp does not even approach the volume levels that you can get from a Vox AC 15 with either speaker option (Eminence Bulldog or Alnico Blue...I have had both in my AC 15). Probably, it is the amount of volume compared to this amp's diminuative physical size that accounts for the impression that it is a loud amp. I also have a Marshall DSL 201 (2 EL 84s as well) and it blows the Ampeg away in terms of volume.

As you can tell, I love EL 84 powered amps, especially those rated at 15-20 watts. You can turn them up and run 'em really hot in your studio and still live to tell about it. On stage, hang an SM 57 in front of the speaker and you're in business. OK...it's not the same as a 4 x 12 stack with a 50 watt head, but I don't have a roadie and a semi to haul these things around.

The only downside to the tone is the slight hissing/rattleing sound that I hear pretty much all the time. I think it's one of the reverb springs. It's not bad enough to ruin the fun, but eventually I will try to fix the problem. The reverb springs may need tightening. It could be a bad tube, but I've given them the tap test with a wooden chopstick and they don't seem microphonic. The cabinet is solid and exhibits no rattles or hums even at extreme volume levels.

I'll get back to you on this one. I always gig without backups, but I do carry spare parts (tubes).

No experience with them.

The price of these amps keeps going up. I shopped around and everyone seems to be selling them for between $400 and $500. For an extra $100 you could get a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe (I have one of these) or a host of other higher powered tube amps. The street price of the Fender Blues Jr. is currently cheaper than the Jet, and Crate (same parent company as Ampeg) makes some comparably priced amps. My Vox AC 15 was more than double the price of this amp. All things considered, I think it was a good purchase. My aim is to have a variety of amps in my collection, and this amp certainly has a unique sound and fits with my collection. It doesn't duplicate any of my other amps that I own.

There is one caution related to this amp. From reading several reviews from various sources on the web, I think there may have been a design flaw in some of the older models of this amp. Apparently the EL 84s were did not have a retainer in earlier reissues, and there were some unidentified noises eminating from the cabinet. Apparently, Ampeg has fixed these problems on the current models. The hang tag that came with this amp states that the reverb is tube driven. I've heard conflicting information regarding this claim. Any insights?

Bottom line...good, solidly built amp with some very cool tones and a killer look. Tremolo and reverb very usable. Throaty overdrive above 5 (perhaps a product of the tubes that Ampeg is currently supplying with these amps?). Lightweight and fun to play. Some slight unidentified noises perhaps eminating from the reverb tank. Price keeps going up, but still reasonable for an American made amp.

Don't know what year this amp was made but I know that it is a reissue and that it has the simple plastic light showing power not a screw in jewl light. Supposedly this matters. It's a single channel amp but that doesn't seem to bother me much. The built in reverb and tremolo are quite good and I use reverb almost always and tremolo only on occasion but I am happy with both. I tend to keep things pretty simple so this is a good choice for me. It has all tube amp and preamp, usable reverb and tremolo, and a 12" speaker, what else could you asl for for $250.00!

I play contemporary Christian, jazz, rock and blues through this little guy and am very happy with it's ability to adapt. It's a really simple set-up and most of my tonal changes come from the guitar settings, although I do change volume setting for overdrive tones. I mostly play a tele w Lindy Fraline PU's or a Don Grosh Strat w Fralin PU's through it and I like it a lot. Very rich harmonically and quite a nice range of tones from bright and airy to dark and woody. The amp was quite noisy when I purchased it so I coated the metal amp chasis with an automotive sound deadner material and it seems to be very solid sounding now. I have changed the 12AX7 phase inverter tube to a 12AU7 in order bring the aggressiveness down a bit and have used NOS tubes for both preamp slots. Adding the sound damper material to the chasis and tube retainer bracket was the single best change though. I have a Rivera 2x12 combo as my main amp and this little Ampeg really sounds good even in comparison. Volume is limited but I always mic the amp to the PA anyway so no problem there. When using high level input and humbucker equipped PRS it really screams, very articulate sound in a compressed sort of EL84 way. I dig it!

Gig without backup? you gotta be kidding! I play in church and I don't want to irritate my boss so I come prepared. Seriously though it should be fine and I definately bring a backup,

I found a two page manual on the internet. That's all I wanted and they came through.

I've been playing for 20+ years and play regularly in my church praise band. I have Taylor and Alvarez Yari acoustics and several good electrics mentioned above. I like the fact that I bought it for practice and because it was cheap and I really like the way it sounds. It has a vey broad range of tones and with the mods I have made, very few faults. It compares very favorably to a reissue VOX AC-15 that I owned for a few years. Definately try the "Accordian" input and the 12AU7 tube in the phase inverter slot before throwing one out.

Simple lightweight and compact tube amp. Tremelo and Reverb included.

100% vintage, like a compact AC-30TB. Great distortion, great reverb, and it doesn't have to blow your eardrums to achieve the TONE.

Works great out-of-the-box. May need to tighten some screws after break-in, a lot of sound comes from this puny box.

The best sounding affordable amp period. Like a TOPHAT, H&K or Matchless but more portable and less expensive.

-Made about 1997
-It does the job it was designed to perform. This amp does a great job with overdriven blues with guitar
-One Guitar channel and One Acordian channel. No channel switching. No Effects Loops, No Headphone jack.
-A speaker out jack and preamp out would be a nice addition to this amp
-I use this amp for private playing, small jams, recording. It has enough power for what it was designed for 15 very Loud watts

-I use a Gibson Les Paul (P90s), Fender Strat (EMGs)
-It fills a gap in my sound pallet that my Fender Twin and Marshall Plexi doesn't fill. Well suited to blues and Psychodelic Surf.
-It's not noisy unless you stand in front with the single coil P90s in my Les Paul. I just stand aside and all is good.
-My amp is clean to about 4 when the sound starts to get creamy... then to 10 which is not much louder than 5-6... just sweet overdrive.
-The distortion isn't brutal at all. This amp has sweet lows and tight gritty highs. It Sings and Loves to do it all night.

-I can depend on this amp and have no problem using it without a backup if I was playing a strictly Bluesy gig...
-My particular amp was bought on eBay. I received it with as Nasty a sound imaginable from an amp in trouble. I pulled it apart to find most of the screws were loose... there was some padding stuffed in the speaker for some reason... I pulled it out and found the speaker was blown. I replaced the speaker (paid for by the eBay seller) with a Fender speaker from an early 70's Deluxe Reverb. I'm happy now with all my screws tightened and a, noticably, higher quality speaker. I don't expect trouble from the amp now... maybe tubes down the road.

-I've never delt with the company... web page gave me all the info I needed.
-Warrenty wasn't an issue with this used amp.
-Authorized service centers are all over the country.

-I've been playing since the Beatles made their first US tour! Dang!
-I would replace it imediately if it come up lost.
-I love the sound. It has Character! Nothing to hate if you tighten up the screws. A little preventive maintenance goes a long way.
-It could use a line out and a speaker out. (mentioned earlier)
-This amp does a good job recreating the vintage tones and feel of the old ones... uh... the ones that were new when I was playing in my first garage band. Don't expect more from this amp than what it was designed for. It's a treasure within itself and easy to buy... maybe replace the speaker with a bigger magnet. It's Truely a Fantastic Value!

First off let me state that this is the coolest looking amp I've seen(for anywhere near its price)...you can't help but like the diamond blue tolex, stove top chicken head knobs,chrome chassis,and the killer chrome "Ampeg" logo on the front of the amp! O K you ask but how does it sound? This is a great amp to play on 10,I mean, it isn't so loud that your ears will ring for days and it just sounds best when driven HARD. One thing I didn't like was there is no ext spkr. jack,very useful for recording direct,so I drilled a hole in the chassis and put in my own 1/4 inch female jack,now I can instantly switch between spkr or output to mixing console. Over the yrs I owned tons of really good tube guitar amps,most of which have been Class A/B output stage.Great for higher power output but... this is where the Ampeg Jet really shines, its Class A ! The 2 EL-84's voltage is constant no switching distortion or non-linearity's from using Class A/B output stage, thats why(in my opinion) it sounds so good as a recording amp(see above solution for using direct)By the way idf you choose to do the mod mentioned above You still must have a load on the amps output present,other wise you'll fry the amp.The amp alone doesn't have enough overdrive and gain in the preamp stage for my taste so I use a Mesa Boogie V-Twin Rackmt. for preamp stage first , then take the output into the Jet. If Ampeg releases another revision of this amp I hope they put the spkr out jack on the back and also pre and post gain controls instead of just the volume control. The Tremolo is cool, reverb on the amp just average.

See my long winded description above!

OK so you've stuck with me this far, As you've probably read elsewhere, these amps just aren't made very well,Too long of screws that won't allow you to tighten down the reverb tank ie rattles um cabinet resonnances that are intermitant buzzing and other anamolies, all I can say is if you plan to buy one of these take the back panel off when you get home, AND TIGHTEN EVERYTHING DOWN ,also Just replace the mounting screws for the reverb with shorter ones then it will mount securely . This helps alot. I know you're probably thinking I'm nuts telling someone to do these things to a brand new item but sometimes when people don't take pride in their work you just gotta do it yourself! So far I've encountered no problems with the circuitry of this amp. Only what I've described above.

I haven't had to deal with them.

I think once you get the bugs worked out , your unlikely to find a better sounding, and cooler looking amp, but again if your a gain fanatic that only wants to play through your 1 Amp then look else where... thats where Boogies come into the picture By the way check out my website! http://members.theglobe.com/shred109

1998, made in USA. This is the current "Jet II" Jet reissue with tremelo. 15 watts, Class A all tube (two Sovtek 12AX7s and two EL84s) combo. 1x12 Eminence, I believe, in an open back cabinet. Top-mounted controls on a chrome chasis -- volume, one tone, trem speed, trem depth, reverb depth. Two inputs, one marked "accordian" and attenuated -6db. No line out, effects loop, or headphone jack. On the outside, nothing that wasn't available in 1962. On the inside, the guts are a built around a PCB into which the tubes plug directly. Lots of silicon goop insulating the wiring on the board, and little inspection stickers everywhere. The diamond blue vinyl covering is gorgeous but not durable and will scratch easily. Short reverb tank.

The basic sound of the Jet is GORGEOUS. It's a lush clean, with or without some wetness from the tremelo, reverb or both. For pure clean it surpasses Fender -- good guitars, especially single-coil guitars, sound right at home. Distortion starts around 4-5 and is fairly subtle all the way up, somewhere between an AC15 and whatever the Stones used on Ya-Yas, as I think someone already mentioned. Highly usable tremelo for that desert feel, or dime it and you're in Radioheadland. THE PROBLEM is THE BUZZ, many notes on the A string with volume over 3. My amp has it, but it was worse on day one than on day three. This leads me to conclude, potentially, that the majority of the buzz is coming from the crisp new speaker cone and may go away with being broken in. Some degree of the buzz also comes from cabinet vibration, which can also be corrected. The reality is that no other amp anywhere near this price offers similar sounds, so in my view the buzz is worth trying to correct (an AC15, with which I would happily replace this, is more than twice the price). The basic tone -- the circuit tone if you like -- is a 10+ for clean and can always be muddied up with a preamp or effects pedal. The BUZZTONE is about a 0. The jury is out; if this amp turns out to be defective, the sound rating means nothing. If it turns out OK and I keep it, put it in the 9-10 zone for sure.

Don't know. The vinyl covering is pretty not-durable, but the knobs seem first rate and the chasis solid. The dealer I got it from has moved a whole bunch of Jets, SuperJets, and Reverberockets and the only complaint so far was from me. The PCB doesn't especially concern me, and the cabinet looks sturdy.

Goose eggs for SLM. However much support they give for Crate, a slew of emails went unanswered for Ampeg. Warranty is 5 years WITH original receipt. I like my dealer though.

Depends on how it turns out. If it breaks in and the buzz goes away, it's almost perfect for a smallish Class A tube amp. If not, it's a big blue doorstop.

American made, I believe, probably built in 1997. Two channels (guitar and accordian- padded input) with a very nice clean channel. No special overdrive voice; either crank it or use a pedal. Reverb on the trem model is decent; much better though on the reverb only unit. The trem sounds pretty damn cool- subtle to a very cool deep throb. Combined with a deep reverb, it sounds awesome. The trem is footswitchable, but had some glitches- read on for more. It has plenty of power for most applications. It looks great, too.

This amp has a really good sounding clean circuit. If you were to try to equate it to a more popular amp, it's probably closest to Fender, but still unique enough that no one will mistake it. The problem is with the hum and rattling you wil read so much about. It's really terrible- turn the amp above 4, and the reverb feeds back, the chassis shakes, and the trem starts to sound like the amp is shorting. The rating is for the sound with out the problems- if you factor them in, it's really pretty useless.

Here's the rub- it's so terribly built that it really is useless. If you can finds one that doesn't do all this wacky annoying excess noise, buy it- the basic tone is great. When I returned it to the store (I couldn't deal with it) the salesman told me 4 out of the last 5 they had sold had been returned for these same problems. I would have gladly paid another hundred or so dollars for a better built version.

Didn't bother

This would be such an amazingly good and overall COOL amp if only they would build it right...

Very simple, just a few knobs

As other people have noticed, this amp sounds great but has some construction problems. My amp had "the buzz". Certain notes caused an annoying vibration at any volume level. In my case "the buzz" was eliminated by getting rid of the small metal female parts that recieve the bolts holding on the back panel. They are very badly designed and either vibrate themselves or cause something else to vibrate. Of course the back panel can not be screwed on without some sort of replacement nuts. Try a similar sized nut with a rubber washer between the nut and the chassis. Once that problem is solved the sound is beautiful.

I have had it for one year with no problems beyond "the buzz".

I e-mailed the company to ask for a schematic and they replied quickly and sent the schematic quickly. I have had no other contact with them.

I really like this amp. Its cheap. It has a great small tube amp sound. You can run a modern style tube pre-amp into it if you want some beautiful super high gain tones. It isn't built great. If mine breaks I am going to put the circuit into my own chassis/cabinet and redo some of the weak links. It sounds like a much more expensive amp should.

Two EL-84 miniatures in class A plus two 12AX7. Reverb & Trem. One vol. one tone control. One channel, no frills. Great little 30 lb. vintage looking guitar combo amp w one 12" 20watt paper voice coil speaker. Lots of character. Plenty loud. First used outdoor concert (it was miked). Best sound for blues with vintage Fender Tele reissue pickups. Trem cool but don't use.

I use for folk, blues, early R & B, gospel, straight ahead jazz, classic rock, pop, & country. Works good in most applications. Can cover drums if drummer not slugging it out with rock sticks. A bit noisy when turned up with single coil pickups, but good signal to noise ratio. Could use more headroom for clean jazz, but has real authentic straining sound ala Charlie Christian. Excells at vintage rock and R & B sounds. Instant Steve Cropper. Seems great with single coils, removes harshness from Tele when cranked. Otherwise, nice funky crunch w P-90s, unremarkable with humbuckers.

First one blew out in infancy. Power down and grungy distortion. Fixed on warranty. Good turn around time, offered loaner, declined. Then popped its fuse (only one, internal) second time at bat. Dealer replaced entire amp with new one after second failure. Second unit hangin' in there at about 50 hours. So far so good. Kept spare handy for a few gigs, but now just take the one amp.

Dealt with company through dealer where purchased. Everybody very responsive. Fixed first failure and returned within estimated turnaround time. At second failure dealer immediately offered brand new replacement amp. 5 year warranty, 2 yr on spkrs, 90 days on tubes.

I really like this little amp. I'd horde them. Could probably afford fair sized collection. After playing it for awhile, I just don't want anything else. I've used lots of amps, some really outstanding ones, but this little sucker is a complete gas for the sounds I like. I don't expect clarity at volume with this amp, but it sounds good at all volumes I'm interested in. Its not really a "do-it-all" amp, but it does what I like: vintage sounds from early days of amplification.

This is a straightforward 1x12 15W almost-all-tube combo. 2x12AX7, 2xEL84. The reverb and rectifier are solid-state. It's got tremolo (depth and speed controls) and reverb (depth control, short pan). One channel, two inputs. One input is labeled accordion and is attenuated 6dB. No master volume or standby switch. One tone control. Old-fashioned Ampeg diamond blue tolex--really looks almost exactly like a vintage Jet, although the handle's a bit different.
I haven't tried gigging the amp yet, but its 15 watts are more than sufficient for my apartment--if I crank it past 3, the neighbors get restless.
A couple of features would be nice. A standby switch would ease my mind a bit. And a footswitch for the reverb and trem would be great. On the other hand, this is Ampeg's practice amp; the 50W Superjet has the footswitch. I wish they could have fit separate bass and treble controls, which they did on the tremolo-free J-12R model, but I'll live.

I play rock and folk-rock a la R.E.M., Archers of Loaf, Camper, Live, etc. My guitar is a mid-80s Peavey with those weird Peavey single-coil pickups. This amp produces just the tone I'm looking for with a little bit of room to grow. It seems to be unusually responsive to the dynamics of my playing--on almost any volume level, you can take it from a whisper to a scream, but it really starts to break up into a nice creamy distortion at about 4. I haven't had the chance to dime it yet--some Saturday at noon I'll do so.
This amp is exceptionally clean for a low-wattage combo on low volume settings, which is why I was drawn to it initially. I have a feeling a Ric 360 would sound great through it. The distortion is not screaming; it's somewhere between a Fender and an AC15.
The tremolo is highly usable, and the range on its controls is great. Unlike the many Fenders with way-too-fast tremolo, the Jet II goes from too slow to too fast and the depth from nonexistent to distorted. I like the idea that there's always a little more range available.
The reverb is among the best I've heard from a short pan like this. It blows away the anemic reverb on the similar Fender Blues Jr. It gets weird above 7, but what reverb doesn't?
Unfortunately, the great sound is marred by rattles due to poor construction. The culprit seems to be the back baffle covering the electronics and tubes. More on that in the reliability section. I'm going to give this amp a 10 for sound, because if the same circuit were in a better enclosure, it would rule the world.

This amp was made in the USA and has "tested by" stickers all over it. Their testers must be trained chimps, though, because it's built like complete shit--no other way to put it. As I mentioned in the previous section, there's this baffle covering the circuitry and the tubes. It's nice that there's a chunk of wood protecting the tubes. However, the baffle is mounted with five bolts that are too long, for one thing, and don't seem to quite fit right, because certain notes--even at low volume--cause the bolt joints to rattle. The tubes may be rattling also. It's hard to tell. I'm hoping to be able to track down this problem, perhaps with some washers.
However, the rattle is only part of the problem. The amp is built around a PCB, which is fine--plenty of good amps use PCBs. However, for god-knows-what reason, they elected to have the tubes plug directly into the circuit board. This means that if a tube gets bumped, sooner or later the whole board is gonna go. I suspect the strain from retubing isn't going to make it happy, either.
I'd like to try gigging with this amp--I think it could hold its own as far as volume and tone is concerned. But I wouldn't dare bring it along without a backup. My old guitarist had a silverface Twin Reverb which was constantly getting knocked over on its face. The only damage it ever caused was some broken knobs. Knock over a Jet II, and I'll bet it'll never sing again.
I'm giving it a 2, because it's not actually broken. But I don't suspect it'll last too long.

Ampeg is now built by St. Louis Music, which also owns Crate. They have an ostensible 5-year, transferable warranty on all their amps. However, you have to have the original sales receipt or the warranty is void. I bought this amp used, in like-new condition, hoping to enjoy four more years of warranty. (They only started making these in '96).
Unfortunately, the person I bought it from didn't have the original receipt, so I'm stuck with a shoddily-built amp and no warranty. It's obviously in brand-new condition and built last year, but SLM won't have anything to do with me. I don't want to pay to "repair" a brand-new, defective amp.
I can understand why they require the original receipt. However, in this case, they're leaving a customer out in the cold. I'm a longtime user of SLM products (my last amp was a Crate), and but if they're going to build shoddy merchandise and refuse to stand behind it, I'm going to discourage others from buying their products.

The Jet II has magnificent tone, great tremolo and reverb, and classic good looks. I considered a Fender Blues Junior but went with the Ampeg for four reasons:
* Lower price. * Better tone and reverb on the Ampeg. * I wanted tremolo. * It's one sexy-looking amp. (No, this wasn't a major consideration.)
I also considered--and even bought and returned--a vintage Jet from the early 60s. These are built like tanks and have even better tone (but no reverb). However, playing the vintage market by mail is frustrating, and I was without an amp, so I figured getting something new and cheap would be the way to go until I can hunt up a nice '62 Jet.
In retrospect, I should have bought the Blues Junior and later supplemented it with a trem pedal like the Fulltone Supa Trem. I'm going to try to hunt down and kill the Jet II's rattle. I'm not optimistic, though. If I can't get the buzz out of the Jet, I'm going to carry it to my local used shop and see about trading it in for the Blues Junior. I don't have time to worry about my amp. I just want to play some guitar.
I'm giving the Jet II a 5 in this category: an average of 10 for sound and 1 for construction.
I understand SLM is in a tough position--if they hand-built the amp with more point-to-point wiring, it would jack up the price tremendously. But isn't that better than selling a great-sounding piece of junk? I would happily pay $500 for this amp if it didn't rattle and the tubes didn't plug directly into the circuit board. Ampeg has a potential winner here: I haven't found anything currently on the market that sounds better, or even particularly similar.