Ampeg SS-140C 212 Combo

I bought this amp used in 1992 - it was a couple years old then.
Great amp for metal and blues , although tube sound is alot better than solid state.
This piece has been very dependable. I have had issues where the sound volume fades in and out. Easily taken care of with duster and rubbing alchol inside inputs and outputs. Only 2 times this has happened in 17 years! Only other problem was I blew out one of the celestian speakers.

I use a Kramer Pacer Floyd Rose and a Gibson Les Paul. Both guitars combined with this amp offer the sound i was always looking for.
The variety of sounds is unbelievable! From british tube to heavy metal to 70s blues - it seems to do it all. At higher volumes it seems to not have enough punch. But if your patching into a pa system doesnt matter much.

I would and do use it without backup. Has never let me down , other than when i blew speaker - but i was asking way to much at the time, and had been drinking heavily. Since then - no problems.

Never needed repair. However , when i ordered the speaker , i could not have recieved better service from ampeg!

I have been playing for 21 years. This is the best piece of equipment i have ever owned. I also have a Yamaha PA , keyboard , and a couple of acoustics. I also added another 212 cabinet that i bought for $300 back in 2000. I had a 80 watt Peavy that i got rid of - It was useless. The only thing I wish it had was a headphone jack that would kill the main speakers when in use. - due to baby in the house now . Other than that it was the best purchase i made , and if I had to do it again , ie... lost or stolen - I would buy another!

I got it new in 88.

It is very versatile, I am most impressed with all of the input and output possibilities, more than any other amp I have seen. Has more than enough power for anything from Jazz to metal.

Sweet studio amp as it is whisper quiet and you have stereo xlr outputs as well as stereo and mono fx loops to run outboard gear through it.

Plus you can run extra cabs off the back, surround yourself with 2x12 cabs for the ******* stereo effect.

Sounds great in clean, rivals my Rivera tube amp.

Distortion is brash and edgy, a little too surgical for my taste. That's where a tube amp earns it's keep. Works great for metal.

Most troublesome amp ever, I see I am not the only one. Most of the problems with this amp can be solved by re soldering EVERY spot on the pc boards. I have had drop outs, buzzing, signal loss and variable volumes surges sporadically. Just be careful not to let the new solder melt into connections it should not connect... had that problem as well.

I only contacted them once for a schematic, they were cool and gave me one for free.

This is a great amp despite the issues, mine has been re soldered and now works well. I think the first ones were not soldered well enough. Also, don't install wheels and roll this or any other amp as it rattles the components and will cause shorts in the board by breaking solder joints.

I have mine for sale if anyone is looking for one, don't have the room in the new studio so I'm thinning the amp herd. Search Craigslist LA if you want it.

I am pretty sure this beautiful machine was made in the mid to late 80's. I have never played an amp this amazing!
Check the other reviews for specs.
The Clean channel is unmatched! Sounds as close to a tube clean as you can get.
The Dirty channel is amazing! I play metal and this amp is perfect! You can play country to blues to jazz to metal even death metal heavy!
The built in chorus sounds great!
An added bonus : You can practice with it, play a show with it, and record with it. This thing has more inputs and outputs than most PA Mixers.

Best sounding solid state clean ever made.
Dirty is more versatile than most amps before the birth of this amp and after it.
I play multiple guitars.
Les Paul
PRS
Tele
Strat
All but the Les Paul have EMG's and or Hotrail pick ups.
I must say plugging straight in on the clean channel with the Les Paul is warm and rich ... almost as good as a clean tube tone.
The high output pickups make the amp scream, growl, and melt the faces off everyon it encounters!

Never a problem. I heard about the overheating problem people had when the would line out into a 4x12 ... so when I line out I just put a fan behind it just in case. I love this amp and she has never let me down. But I play a little on the safe side with my baby.

Never had to call. Although I should call to tell Ampeg that they would make the world a happier place if they would bring this amp back!

I would be very upset. I would hire a hitman to take the person out and then take back my amp and keep on trucking!

reverb, chorus, clean and DIRTY. came with two 12k-85 celestions. tons of features and loud enough to knock stuff over in the room just with its db's.

i use to play hard core music, the dirty channel was good for that. alot of gain and loud, i never had a problem with volume no matter who or what i was up against. also no matter how much gain i needed it was always supplied. aside from that, channel a sounds like ass. it has a kinda hollow sound that just seems to be lacking. now that i am older i have calmed down a bit, more ac/dc less neglect is my new style compared to my old style. channel b is awsome you can go to crystal clean, to ac/dc, to almost distortion. channel b is also a full tone not lacking anything and also adding a bit of tone that i cant really explain. my main amp is a line 6 tubetone hd half stack and i cannot get this sound from it, i wish i could. the reverb is a reverb, kinda noisy even though i put high quality rca cables and insulated the spring box. the chorus is ok, it robbs some lows when it is on.

reliability? lol um i dont know how to rate this. let me just say that i have had my share of problems but i have also abused this thing in the worst possible ways over the last fifteen years that i have owned it and it still works. when i first got it from a pawn shop the reverb did not work and when pushed it would over heat and cut out. i resoldered a broked wire in the reverb box, fixed that. i greased the heat sink contact points inside and out, fixed the over heating problems. a short while after that i added a cooling fan the rear heat sinks just for the heck of it. at the time i decided to start pushing my luck and i was running the stock 8 ohm speakers along with a stereo 4 ohm 4x12 cab. so i was pushing this amp with the gain maxed and the volume on 8-9 running it at a ohm and a half per side pushing 6 12's hahhaha. abused like a red headed step child. this was run like this for about 5or6 years, practice 4 times a week and shows on the weekends. this was my only amp and it never let me down. this amp was then put in storage in a shed outside for the last 7 years. i dragged it out a couple years ago to see if it still worked. the pots were scratchy. i just spun each one back and forth for about 5 min each, fixed. i was then having a problem with the pre amp cutting out, i would have to crank the volume and slam a chord really quick and it would pop back on. i honestly dont know exactly what was wrong but i took it apart and reflowd the solder on all of the boards and it works perfectly. i know that this was my own fault from leaving in a moist evironment for a long period of time. the speakers are old celestions and are still perfect btw. they held up great even with the humidity.

aparently ampeg has changed companies or something i emailed them about the cutting out problems, they were friendly and responded quicky but were kind of unable to help. i was refered to another company that originally made the amp. i still have not found a schematic for the amp.

now that i have renewed my love for this amp again in the last year or so, if it was stolen i was probably cry and hunt down the fools that did it. this amp brings back sounds of my childhood and brings me back to some of the best times of my life.

This was one of the first run of this design, made in 1987. I bought it new. It was designed as Ampeg's "Roland JC-120 killer," to directly compete in the same market; it did only a fair job of that. It has a transistor-bucket-brigade true stereo chorus and a long-coil reverb. It puts out another 10 watts than the JC-120 on each channel, the chorus works on both channels, and the distortion channel is better at making a distorted sound than the JC-120. It doesn't have vibrato. All of that said, it doesn't quite have the shimmering high end that the JC-120 can put out, and neither the chorus nor the reverb sounds quite as good as the JC-120. It does, however, have better bass than the JC-120.

This is a fantastic studio amp. The one thing it cannot do is make realistic-sounding tube distortion; however, the multiplicity of tube distortion pedals on the market fixes this lack quite nicely, and you don't need an expensive one- I use a Digitech Bad Monkey quite successfully in this role, and don't feel the need for anything more. If I want heavy-duty crunch (think Zeppelin), I crank the dirty channel and turn on the Bad Monkey and my compander; the clean channel with just the Bad Monkey gives me the "tweed" sort of light tube distortion (think Clapton, but avoid the "bright" sound, it gets a little nasty); and clean is clean, clean, clean (think Yes- and with true clean, you might even like the bright sound). The dirty channel by itself, not too cranked (about 12 o'clock, or 5, gain) with a little light flange on the Lexicons really gets that early-to-mid-80's AOR sound (think Rush and U-2).

The lo-impedance XLR preamp outputs on the back of the amp are the way to go for recording. I run these into a 12-channel mixer, and run the effects aux outs of the mixer through the Lexicons. I thus get stereo from the amp, and two pairs of stereo from the Lexicons, into six channels on the mixer. I crank the mix controls on the Lexicons and mix at the mixer. I send the output to my recording setup, or to the power amp inputs, or monitor the output of the recorder to the power amp. I have an RP-200, and I can duplicate anything it can do with this setup, and plenty that it can't do.

I play modern jazz, dinosaur rock, new age, progressive rock, Latin rock, and southern/country rock with this setup, and I have no trouble duplicating any of the guitar sounds any of these folks make with this setup. I have a classic three-single-coil strat copy and a dual humbucker 335 copy, both of which sound excellent through this setup, and both of which sound darned good with just the amplifier.

This amp also has a preamp mono-out, separate from the stereo outs. It has a power supply reversal switch, which operates only on the AC side of the power supply, so it's not a shock hazard. The three footswitch jacks are arranged with the chorus on a TS and the channel switching and reverb on a TRS (the R-everb is on the R-ing, and the S-witching on the S-leeve, if you like a nice mnemonic). They work fine with Boss FS-5L FET footswitches (make sure you get the FS-5L, not the FS-5U momentary switches!). Use a TRS-to-twin-TS splitter to break out the reverb and channel switch lines.

Finally, this amp can drive a second 2-speaker cabinet, and it is worth the trouble- the stereo chorus effects, either from the built-in BB chorus, or from a processor between the pre outs and power ins, are incredible with a little spatial separation. The two speaker outputs for each channel are wired in parallel, so you have to be careful that if you only use one output, the impedance is NO LESS THAN 4 ohms, and if you use both outputs, the impedance of EACH is NO LESS THAN 8 ohms. The speakers built in to the amp are quite nice, and I have had no trouble with them. I use a Music Man 2-12 cabinet wired parallel to present 4 ohms for the dry channel, and the internal speakers for the chorus channel.

The amp has plenty of power, and is more than plenty to come over the loudest unamplified drum set.

The real secret to this amp doesn't emerge until you put a graphic equalizer into the front-panel effects loop. All that is needed is a little 6-band footpedal EQ. I also run a noise gate after the EQ in this loop; this cuts off not only the hum from the guitar and input effects chain, but noise from the preamps as well. With that addition, you will find that you can have the deep, serious bass and shimmering top end that you really want from an amp like this. I have tried other effects in the front-panel chain and was not pleased with the results; YMMV. I put my other effects in the chain between the axe and the amp input, or in the pre-to-power loops.

The midrange controls on both channels give amazing tonal control; small adjustments of them can completely change the character of the sound, and anything you can't do with the tone controls is easily achieved with the aforementioned graphic EQ. These midrange controls are not just your standard up-down, but also change the rolloff; this is why they make such a big difference.

I recommend only the EQ and noise gate in the front panel effects loop, with wah, phaser, compander, and tube distortion, in that order, in a chain between your axe and the input, and with a multi-effects reverb/chorus/flanger/delay in between the preamp outs and the power amp ins if you feel you need to enhance the built-in chorus and reverb. I use a pair of Lexicon MX-200s between the pre out and power in; I like to be able to add the BB chorus in the amp to the Lexicon chorus and I like to be able to use a plate reverb or hall reverb sound in addition to the spring reverb in the amp. I generally leave the Lexicons with one set for chorus and reverb, in series, and the other set for flanger and delay, in parallel.

The one sound defect in this amp is hiss when the treble controls are turned up too far. OTOH, I have never seen an amp that put out treble at the level this one can that did not hiss, so perhaps it is the nature of the beast.

When Saint Louis Music bought Ampeg, their first runs on the wave solder equipment weren't too good. As a result, there are connectivity problems in many of these amps. Quite a few of them have blown up over the years as a result of these quality problems. I would recommend that you spend the money to have a qualified tech re-flow all the solder on the boards in the amp before using it, particularly at high volume (or do it yourself if you are a qualified tech- I am, and I did, quite early in my ownership of the amp). This may be beyond the capabilities of many people, and so as a result I have to downgrade the reliability figure of this amp. However, note that if you have it reflowed, you should have no problems with it; that's why it got better than a 5. I have heard that about 1989 or 1990, the quality of the workmanship increased dramatically, but have not inspected a later amp myself so I cannot speak to that.

I never have had this amp serviced, and never needed to, other than the reflow job which I did myself. I therefore cannot speak to the quality of support for the amp.

I have been playing for over 25 years, and have been playing this amp since I bought it new in 1987. I own an extensive guitar collection, an Ibanez Roadstar II three-single-coil strat copy with a Floyd, a Lyle 1962 335 copy with a knock-off neck and dual humbuckers (a Duncan Custom on the neck and a Bill Lawrence L-560 Lead on the bridge), a Dean Boca 12-string dual humbucker, a Takamine 12-string electric-acoustic (which I play direct into the mixer and from there into the power amps of this amp) and a "beach guitar" beater 6-string acoustic that I recently refitted with Fishman pickups (a piezo dot and a coaxial, with a preamp) which I also play direct into the power amps. All of these sound excellent through this amp.

I love the true stereo out from the preamps; I love the incredible versatility of connection; I love the front-panel mono effects loop; I love the tone controls; I love the true stereo chorus; I love the deep bass, and the bright, bright treble; I love the true stereo in to the power amps; and I love the very, very clean power amps. I hate the soldering job it originally came with; I hate the plastic shafts on the front panel pots; and I hate the hiss you get when you turn the treble controls too high.

I got this amp for less than half the price of a JC-120, and not only does it do just about everything the JC-120 does, but it does things it will not, and it suits my sound better. I found nothing in this price range to compare with it. The price/performance ("bang for the buck") of this amp was beyond any other I could find.

I can't imagine anything to add to it; it is complete in itself, and additions to it are the obvious things you'd need to add to any amp out there with the exception of the modern digital effect amps coming on the market in the last few years.

If I lost this amp or had it stolen, I'd hunt for another of the same type, but since they aren't made any more, I'd probably have to settle for something else. If I had the same decision to make again, I'd buy this amp again. I might look for something with better build quality. That IMO is the great fault of these amps. You will do much better with this amp if you are a tech.

Nice powerful amp with a decent amount of heavy gain on the A channel and a nice clear clean sound on the B channel. This is amp has chorus that is true stereo (amp is 70 watts per side). It has a preamp out and power amp in for both the left and right side. It has XLR balanced outputs for both the left and right side. It also has an effect loop, would make a great recording amp.

I am currently using a Peavey Predator (cheap strat look alike). It has a humbucker by the bridge, a sinle coil in the middle and a single coil at the neck, I usually use the humbucker, I like the heavy sound of it, and the amp suits my need very well. Great amp for playing heavy stuff, also has nice crystal clear clean sounds.

So far so good. seems very reliable to me, no problems at all.

Bought it used and Ampeg no longer carries this amp.

I've been playing for almost 2 years and have played through a good number of amps. The Ampeg has a nice sound, and although i have only played a few gigs and don't have the money for a back up amp I would totally trust this amp without a back up at a gig. This amp is very very loud. It cranks out 140 watts of total power. Very powerful.

Definately versatile, it even has XLR balanced line out, effects loops, pre in .. very cool EQ, channel switching. It has on board chorus.

For a solid state amp it has good distortion, and sounds best cranked, with the gain dialed back, which might be part of problems, prehaps being solid state she runs pretty hot and self destructive cranked. It doesnt like to have its Reverb very high, it starts to feedback. This is not a "warm" amp, its very edgy, but lack bottom end power. Basically its a glorified practice amp, or if cared for a good clean sounding amp. One very cool aspect is that the tone controls (especially MIDS) are extremely responsive and very versatile. I think it would make a better keyboard or clean guitar amp than anything, although my clean channel never stays clean at a loud volume any more , but I suppose mine is damaged. I think the distortion sounds much like an ADA, you know early Metallica kind of sound, but being solid state, it doesnt "sing" like a tube amp, theres no sustain from it. It also doesnt really give you and heavy chunk or compression-like effect from its power, the power simply isnt there for aggressive playing, although I admit when you hook up an additional 2x12, its more pumping. If you had a subwoofer with this thing and your unit was in good condition, youd get an ADA power stack sound. Myself, I'm going to return to using Marshall or perhaps Peavey 5150.

I have had a lot of troubles with this amp to be honest. I blew the main Sound Processor once about 8 yrs ago, and it cost $600. Now it has a new anamoly, the nice clean sound is gone and has static buzzing sounds in it, even though I had all the pots cleaned up and stuff, but it might be something simple. The amp is actually a really cool amp but has been pretty much a lemon for me, thankfully I never had to really rely on, as i am not a Pro. I also get dB dropouts sometimes, it lacks power then BOOM , back comes the dB unexpected.

It was easy for me to get schematics for this amp.

20 years playing funk metal, rock , blues

i love my ampeg. i've replaced the speakers a few times, the most recent set in there is a pair of vox greenbacks - a combo i highly reccomend.. i think i'm keeping those in. i run a stero setup with my boss GT-5 splitting to the ampeg and a JC-120, and it sounds awesome.. more than enough volume! excellent on it's own as well.
the only other mod i've made has been to add casters to the bottom so i can roll it around - it's pretty heavy!

playing a G&L F-100 - fixed string-thu-body bridge, G&L humbuckers - usually use neck pickup or combo of neck/bridge - into a boss GT-5, stereo split to the ampeg SS-140c and a roland JC-120, both into their clean channels. sounds like god. a little noisy sometimes, but i don't notice too much unless in the studio. good studio amp as well, despite the noise (there are tricks, you know)
i've used a similar setup in both hard-rock and alt-blues-rock things, everything from clean to dirty, and it's handled it all very well. i wouldn't reccomend this amp to someone who wants to play very distorted, hardcore-metal type stuff, because the dirty channel is more of a natural-overdrive sound than balls-out crunch and chunk. i found this amp years ago while searching for a JC-120, and i got this instead and haven't been dissapointed.

i use the amp at gigs without a backup. of course, i can always line-out of the GT-5 to the board, and cross my fingers that the soundguy won't hate me or be stupid, but i have total confidence in the amp - i've never had any problems.

never dealt with the company. all work that's been done on it has been done myself.

if it were stolen or lost, i'd look for another one, or another JC-120. i think the two amps are very similar in sound, but the roland chorus is much better, although i don't use it.
my dream amp is the vox AC-30 of course, but i'm not making that much money yet =) i wish sometimes that it was a tube amp, but i'm not torn up about it - it still sounds great.

This is to correct my first entry. I just sold the amp, and dug out the sales recipt. I paid $285 total, I forgot about a trade-in amp I used in the purchase. I ended up getting a Roland KC-300 Keyboard amp which works great for my needs, and only weighs 39 lbs.

I talked to a SLM support tech. by email, and he said the ss140c was made from 1987 thru 1991. I'm guessing mine is one of the older models. I bought the amp to play with friends or at church. The set up of channels is neat. You can plug into the back pannel of the amp and access two seperate 70 watt channels....one to each of the 12 inch speakers.I have also used the front pannel loop effect line in to connect my Yamaha DG-Stomp box. That hook up bypasses the tone controls, and gives you a clean sound.Built-in reverb and chorus are able to be used from this jack....but no volume control, that is done thru your external box. The main inputs, High/Low gain, gives access to the 140 watt lead A(distortion) or clean B channels. I weighed the amp on the bathroom scales at 64 lbs.(about what I need to lose).It has multiple speaker in/out connectors for great flexability.

I'm using an Epiphone g-400 (Gibson sg clone), that I refitted with Gibson Tone/Volume pots. I think the onboard reverb is a little noisy, but with the DG-stomp, I don't use it that much. The clean channel is really clear. The amp is definetly LOUD.

When I got the amp, the first problem I had,was it switched channels on it's own. Not nice. That turned out to be a cold solder connection I found by pulling out the amp and 'tapping the board' with a wooden handled screwdriver. A second problem...noisy control pots,was solved by spraying a LITTLE WD-40 in them and working them till they quieted down. That has held up for over a month so far. My most recent problem... the left channel was losing power, giving a really muddy sound to the amp. That turned out to be one of the power transistors. I did a temporary fix on it (a hard smack with the screwdriver, the heated it up with a soldering iron). IT WORKED!! Probobly not the recomended way to do it though. The good news is the parts are available thru SLM electronics (Ampeg) at 1-800-738-7563

I got in touch with an SLME tech named Chris, by email. The response was quick (1 to 3 days), and I got the information I requested. I was impressed considering the age of my amp, and the helpfullness Chris offered.

I have been playing guitar off and on for 40 years. A friend and I took about 6 lessons and started a band. You only needed three or four chrords to play 90% of the music that was popular. I think I would maybe get a lighter amp (64 lbs. is hard on an old guy to lug around). But I think it would be an Ampeg..... I like their sound.