Ampeg R-12R-B Reverberocket 112 Combo

Features already covered. Built in '63. Main features are that it built great, point-to-point wiring during the heyday of American amps...well that & the killer reverb & tone for days...real features for real players! I'd heard that the amp is capable of blowing the original Jensen pretty easy, so I swapped in Weber Blue Dog & oh, baby...

My main amp for decade has been my blackface Deluxe Reverbs (had 2), which is definitely one of greatest amps of all time. So my DR is my point of reference. The Ampeg is as flexible & nearly as good as the DR, though different. The Ampeg's clean tones are much, much fatter, which is what I sometimes really want. Though it can't get as glassy as my DR, the Ampeg also won't serve up the ice-pick notes that my DR will with my tele, if I'm not careful. Very cool drive when cranked. Cool tremelo & yeah, this Ampeg actually has an even better reverb than my DR!! Plus just as loud! Loves every pedal & every axe I throw at it.

After having mine for a year, I decided that it covered so much ground so well, that I sold one of my two blackface DRs! That says more than anything else I could write! These early R-rockets are awesome.

Fantastic! As solid as any amp ever made. I never gig without a backup. Like any old amp, it needs occassional maintenance (caps, resistors), but that's easy. Techs love working on old ampegs!

Original company is long gone. but lotsa folks still work on these. Not a problem.

Been playing clubs for 25 yrs. I don't think i need say anything more than I ended up selling one of my blackface DRs because of this amp! I coulda bought 3 Reverberockets for what I got for my old DR, if I'd a wanted. So these old ampegs are still killer deals. Most importantly, the Reverberocket covers a lot of ground really well. Like everything about it & hate nothing. If your a reverb-addict like I am, these are a must. If you like fat bottom tone, than they're a double must.

This amp was made in 1964 according to the codes on the pots and serial #.From the research I've done,this model was produced in '64/early'65 only.I'm a bass player by trade and am just picking up guitar.As far as I'm concerned,the less crap on an amp,the better.That's one reason Ilike this amp so much.Volume,tone,reverb,and tremelo depth and intensity.Three inputs,guitar,accordian,mic.Thats it.

Very clean at lower volumes,but distortion starts to kick at about 7.The reverb is sweet but the tremelo does'nt work at this time.After some time on my amp guru's bench I'll have a clue on that.This amp sounds great for the type of music I play(blues and roots-type stuff).Some noise but it does have the old-scool,two prong power cord.

Considering this amp is 43 years old and the only thing thats wrong with it is the tremelo, I'm impressed.After service and some major woodshedding on my part to lean how to play,yes I would gig with this amp.

JOKE, RIGHT?

I've been playing bass for 28 years but just got started on guitar.I have '96 Fender Standard Strat to play through this amp and it sounds good to me.I love the tone of tube amps and this little beauty is easy on my ears.If it were lost or stolen I would search for and buy a replacement.

This 1963 Reverberocket amp was at about as feature-chocked as could be found in its day, with incredibly spacious on-board footswitchable reverb and mesmerizing tremelo, three inputs with differing gain and brightness and a nice fat ol? Jensen speaker. All of it built to survive with high quality cabinet and bombproof point-to-point wiring.
Versatility is its hallmark...but more on that in the sounds part of the review. Channel switching, loops, etc?who needs that stuff? This amp is all about tone, flexibility, and quality.
Powered by one of the most musical tube lineups ever: 6SL7 (3), 6SN7 (1), and a couple of 7591s, which happily are in production again.
I rate it highly here because it is built so damn well with quality components, the ?verb and tremelo are awesome. Plus it is relatively light and loud for its weight.

I JUST GOTTA ASK, WHAT IS WITH THE ?PRICING? LINK TO MUSICIANS FIEND (SIC)???...THIS THING WASN?T MADE AFTER ?70!!!

It?s hard to get bad sound of this thing?at least I haven?t figured out how to do that yet, and gawd knows, that truly is my forte.
The Ampeg ?verb really is as good as everyone says. Lives up to the legend.
At lower volumes it is sweet and smoky. I?d always heard that the bottom end on these was good before I got one, but it surpassed what I?d heard. Really amazing for acoustic/electrics because of that.
Pump up the volume and it?s great for blues, vintage rock or edgier country. Sweet break up and really likes overdrive pedals. ?buckers really send this old box into drive mode, without pushing it with a pedal.
The single tone knob is surprisingly effective. Still surprises me with its flexibility.
I play axes with lipsticks, buckers, single coil, and, now and then, and acous-elec. and this thing delivers with all of ?em.
I?ve played a ton of amps new and old (probably 5 tons, by now), but its hard for me to recall a better one. Some do one thing better, but none do as many as well.

This thing has fared far better than our foreign policy over the same time period, which I guess is pretty faint praise...It still works without a hitch after 42 years!!! What more does anyone need to know? Change tubes when needed, and if it breaks down, the units are much easier to fix than the modern crap on the market.
I have and will depend on this amp. (Though I keep spare tubes around).

Crate owns Ampeg now, and their customer support is good, BUT they don?t support these old ones. But amp techs love these fine old amps, they?re easy to maintain, and the schematic is included in the cabinet!!

What I love about this amp is its versatility, its sound, and how damn well it is built. I?m not going to bore myself (or the twisted folks that read amp reviews!) with recounting the noise I?ve made and all the gear I own (sometimes up to 13 amps and 10 axes at time?yikes!!), but I?m still at it after a coupla decades gigging and recording. I?ve had this ol? amigo for a good while...and its brother. (Liked it so well, I bought another one a while back.) I?m keeping both.
They?re creeping up in price, but that?s no big mystery. They beat the trousers off many, many vintage and boutique amps that cost a whole heck of lot more. Hey, like the other, previous reviewer, I?d give this more than 10, if I could. There?s really not many (any?) amps that sound truly sweet at lower volumes and dimed, with acoustics, single coil, ?buckers, and lipsticks. This is a first class tone machine that?s built to outlive us. So lay down the tracks, boys and girls!

very very basic 3 inputs for guitar, accordian, and microphone. one tone knob, volume, reverb intensity, and vibredo dimension and speed. i'm giving it a six for siplicity which is what i like in an amp

i play a fender cyclone through a pro co rat->danelectro cool cat chorus->and a morley pro series II wah/distortion (which is really accented with this amp). this amp is great for blues tones with the volume at about 7-8 and my neck pickup on. but becuase i find myself playing more "grunge-like" music, i use my bridge humbucker,which really kicks this 40 watt monster into complete overdrive at 9-10. i like my "clean" to be slightly slightly dirty so i turn the volume to about 6-7 and turn the tone to about 5. of course i have to turn the gain down on my rat or i breaks up really bad but i've found "my sound" with this bad boy

for being made in, i believe, '61 it's a beast. it needs a new tank and picks up radio stations even when the instrument is not plugged in but that adds character. tubes are really hard to find being the really old rca clear-tops.

too old to deal with them

100! too bad it only goes to 10