Ampeg SS-70C

Solid state 70 watt guitar amp (stereo twin 35 watts on output) made in the 1980s. For features see the first two reviewers as these pretty much cover all ground. There seems to be two versions of this amp. Both are combos with a pair of 10" speakers, but one of them has Celestions and the other has stock Eminence. Mine has a blue flecked spangly grille cloth and a blue aluminum trim across the bottom of the controls; the other is black and white and is nicely trimmed with white piping. Mine has the Eminence speakers and I think the other one has G10L-35s. Other reviewers might confirm this.

There seems to have been problems with the first run of these amps which made them unreliable. Refer to these reviews and also the reviews for the SS-140C which is the bigger brother of this amp. I got mine second-hand and apart from a bodged repair to the jack socket for the footswitch and one blown cap, it has been fine.

People have been saying this is the amp that Ampeg made in order to take on the Roland JC120. You can understand that when you compare features but it really isn't much like the JC120 in sound. Make no mistake this is a rock amp - it does dirty in lots of ways but doesn't get anywhere near the sparkling jangly bits like the JC120. Actually I like it. For thrashing around you get a wide choice of sounds and effects - definitely more than your average amp.

This amp and others in the same series seem to be Ampeg's forgotten amps. They aren't on the website you won't find much about them anywhere else but here. You can find a few schematics for some of them on specialist amp doctor sites (will charge for them) but that is about it. Sorry I tend to ramble on with technical bits, so skip to the next review if it gets too much.

I have to correct a few of the earlier reviewers here. Firstly the amp is not built like a tank. The cab is made of chipboard with a ply baffle and then the metal chassis for the amp is made of a medium thin gauge of steel which flexes when you take it out of the box. The metal chassis sides are simply folded and bent around from a cross shape and the whole thing is hung from 4 skinny bolts through the top of the cab. On mine the weight of the transformer was already making a tear in the sheet - not good! The unit gains a bit of rigidity from the PCB which is bolted in place via the heatsink for the output transistors and the many control knobs along the front. But this is the electronics we are talking about - so if you drop your amp from a height you can expect broken contacts and tracks. A number of pots on my amp needed resoldering after impact damage. The PCB, by the way, has a hell of a lot of electronics - remember that after the chorus effect, everything gets doubled-up for the twin output stages. Taking the PCB out is a real pain the first time, but you keep at it and get used to it.

OK the other misconception is that when you connect-up additional speakers the output jacks at the back of the amp are run in parallel with the combo's own speakers. Actually they are run in series. So any additional speakers will increase the impedance to the amp and reduce power. The mute button on the back will silence both sets of speakers. To silence only the internal speakers you need to disconnect them and then connect together the clips. But you can only do that with speakers connected to the external jacks - otherwise you will blow-up the amp. The minimum impedance is 8 ohm. A side effect of all these switched jack sockets everywhere on the amp, is that there is an increasing possibility of the signal-dropping out. Make sure the contacts are still good!

Rock - Punk - Rock! It can be brutal and raw or it can clean-up and go all 60's on you. It sounds like more than 35 watts per side and perhaps it is! The output transistors can handle a lot more! I would not be surprised if there isn't much difference between this circuit and the 140 watt version. I didn't like the Eminence speakers. They were OK for a while but I was finding that there wasn't much response in the highs except for an increase in hiss as I turned-up the treble. The sounded a bit flat, but admittedly, did get a lot better with the volume up. Anyways I knew that the amp originally came with G10Ls so I spent about 7 months with a search on ebay looking for a pair of these. When I got them it I found what I was missing with a definite lift in the high end. They are also louder and a lot clearer.

The distortion channel is worth playing around with to try out different sounds. Along with the gain for the normal clean input, you get two more which put an edge on things, the lead comes on by pulling out the third knob, but you will notice a drop in volume from what you expect from the first gain, and have to compensate things with the others. I have a feeling each gain stage is driving a different type of op-amp in the circuit. Theres a lot of chips in there and they aren't all the same!

The chorus is pretty good but you only really get the full effect with extension speakers placed a short distance apart. Then you get all the swirly stereo you could ever want in your sound. Add reverb and things get swirly echo-tastic. Buts its not an effect you would want to overdo. The chorus can loose a bit of definition in tone. The reverb tank is a full size 4-spring accutronics which gives a long deep reverb.

As described by another reviewer the chorus has a soft thump to it, or on mine a kind of a skrit-skrit-skrit. Knowing it was there really started to nag at me, even though it is only really noticeable when theres nothing playing. I tried to get rid of it by upgrading components in the signal path, replacing electrolytic caps with poly's and using metal resistors instead of carbon. After a lot of work the thump was till there and I can't tell if there has been much improvement - so if you are thinking about doing this yourself, don't bother.

I have issues over amps that look like they could peg-out and give trouble, and this one had things I knew I had to fix. First to go was the faulty jack socket on the front footswitch. Replace that to free-up the clean channel (the amp had been stuck on lead). Found a blown cap and replaced that. Re-solder the volume and tone pots. These are possibly the most feeble looking pots I have ever seen on an amp by a reputable manufacturer. I then found I had to crimp the casings on a few of them as they were loose and were causing problems with loose wiper mechanism. The pots are non-standard with skinny plastic shafts and impossible to find replacements or even new knobs to fit the existing ones.

The amp was made for the export market so it has a 230 volt transformer fitted, but on the chassis it still says 120v 2A. I don't know if this means I have to replace the fuse with a 1 amp or what - the sticker inside says 240v 2a so its misleading. The power comes into the amp through a longish lead and the ends are soldered in place on the PCB, then taken out again to the transformer, and then back again with clips - a real messy job. There is a fuse on the mains but this is located on the underside of the PCB and you have to take the whole thing apart to get to it. It is a major job and you cannot have this happen in a gig. I removed the mains cable on mine and replaced it with a IEC inlet cut into the back panel. I also took out the fuse and added a screw cap holder on the back, which is what it should have had all along. For good measure I reinforced the corner of the chassis where the transformer is, and now also the mains inlet, and I would advise anyone to do this (metal corner piece, drill, rivets, job done).

Lots of cheap caps in there which I replaced with poly and tantalum as a matter of course. The inside of the amp looks a real dogs dinner at first sight (did I mention judicious use of a glue gun) but take things a step at a time and it soon starts looking tidier.

Found two small metal-can transistors which had signs of getting hot, so clipped on a heatsink just in case.

There were reliability problems with the early models and looking at this one I can see it ain't so tough. I could say that Ampeg resolved their problems or I could say that I had just been lucky, but so far there hasn't been a major catastrophe.

I bought the amp second-hand off ebay, mainly because at the time Ampegs were hard to come by in the UK. It has had its quirks but kept going. I have tried to contact the email address for technical support that is listed by Ampeg on its website, but have not received any replies. I have a feeling they want to forget about these amps, which is a shame cos with all the features on them they are a real bag of goodies.

Its a good amp to doodle around with and does the bone crushing stuff very well. You can turn the distortion right up if you want to, but its a clipped distortion from solid state circuitry so different to tube. The chorus is pretty cool too.

Replace your speakers! Remove the power cord and install an IEC inlet to tidy up the back of your amp... and your act in times of trouble.

I haven't heard the SS-140c to compare but it seems from the reviews here the SS-70c is looked upon more favorably than that one. I have a feeling that the amps are similar and the SS-70c has a better tone because the output transistors aren't being pushed to their limits, so have more headroom/less likely to overheat.

Also its Ampeg and there is some cool kudos in having one.

two ten in celestions, 70 watts, chours, reverb,high and low inputs, effects loop, headphone jack, very loud for 70 watts , was using a crate gfx 1200h and this ampeg is just as loud as that was and that was suposed to be 120 watts. i give this an 8 , i dont realy use a lot of effects though..

i have had 2 of these amps one ten years ago and one i got today , and i was thinkinig why did i sell the first one i had?? one of the best sounding chourus on any amp. very vesitile , can go from an old, blue oyster cult sound, to some in your face sepultura. you name it i can make the amp sound like it......... i use fender start with custom humbuckers..

cant say i ever had a problem with either one.

never had 2 use it...

i think this amp is a great amp for many styles of music and will use this as my main amp for awhile, i honestly dont have a bad thing to say about it , but keep in mind what i think sounds great may not sound great to the next person, but i am sure this one does ,lol...

I think it is a late eighties model. It is great for the size, I use it for rock, rockabilly etc. I use a celestion greenback in an extention cab along with the 10's. 2 channels, effects loop.
It is loud enough to play with a ampeg 8x10 WITHOUT the extra cab.
Ive played a club with this and a SUNN 80 watt tube amp with a 4-12". I forgot to turn the standby on the SUNN and played half the gig with only the Ampeg, It was amazingly loud and cutting tone. SOLID STATE!

I used it with an SG Standard for quite a while, I've been playing an Ibanez Electric Archtop and it sounds good. I like it's easy to deal with EQ. It is not noisy, but the lead channel is a bit thin sounding, it has a cool presence control to remedy this.

I bought this amp in a music store parking lot from some dude for $40. It had an input jack problem so it fixed that and bought some HOSA foot switches for the chorus and overdrive. The guy was trying to sell it back to an Ampeg dealer and they didn't want it. I think I scored.

N/A, I fix all this shit myself, solid state is the working musicians friend. If you are a tube Nazi, go buy a Saldano and spend $200 a year for service. Buy a Roland or one of these babys. Bob MOuld of Sugar and Husker Du swore by solid state twins in the eighties, or check out the Cure's gear in the eighties-Peavey-SOlID State.

Ive been playing for 25 yrs. I've owned over 50 amps from every imaginable company, high and low end, Tube and solid state. Sure there are better amps, but does your amp make you a better player or improve your ear, I don't think so. This one was a good find and a practical amp for those not wanting a 4x12 and Head set-up.

8 I think my amp was made in the early 90's, so an amp tech told me. It's a very good quality solid state amp with some nice features. It's got 2 inputs, which is nice to hook up two electric guitars at the same time, reverb, stereo chorus, and a mute switch to allow you to play and not disturb family members late at night. It has 2 channels, regular and lead, which is the way I usually go. The speakers are two excellent Celestian G10L-35's. The amp is rated 70 watts total and if you turn up the gain and master volume to 3 o'clock position, you can rattle the windows if you want. I play just loud enough to hear though. I like blues and some country and if things are tweeked right with the amp and guitar it does it all, including a slight jazz sound.

9 I have an American Series Tele, Standard Strat and Guild D25 and they all sound great from this amp. I have found that I have to turn up the gain and master volume to about 1 o'clock postion to get any real volume, but that's ok since I don't usually play loud. The amp tech who checked out the amp recently said all the knobs are set just perfect. I have a friend who can coax some great jazz sounds from my Guild and his Taylor 310. This amp is very quiet, no hum, buzz, nothing. This amp allows you to dial in a variety of sounds from crunch to fat to distortion. It has more features than I need most of the time, but it's nice to have the options if you want them.

10 I bought this amp used (mint condition then, and still is) in 1997 for $100 from a friend and it has never broken down. It's like that bunny on tv. I have taken it on the road once for a concerts in Idaho/Montana and it was miked and for 2 four hour shows for 2 nights and it held up fine, both nights. One other thing about this amp, it's built like a tank, a little on the heavy side to lug around, mine weighs 44 lbs, but, not to bad to carry short distances. I had the amp checked out recently, jsut for the heck of it, and the tech said it's in great condtion, could find nothing wrong at all, everything works like it should. Can't ask for any more than that.

10 I've never dealt with the company for anything but getting a couple of extra knobs, and they were friendly and fast. The thing never breaks down, but if it does, I have a good repair tech in town. Warranty ended a long time ago I'm sure.

9 Hey, for $100, mint, used, I could not go wrong with this amp. The guy who sold it to me, told me if I ever want to sell it, he'll buy it back right away. It's small enough to tuck in a corner of my bedroom, loud enough to play small halls without miking, sturdy enough to haul around. I've been playing off and on for 37 years, and this is the second best amp I've had. The best was a Fender Deluxe Reverb. This amps suits me just fine. It's solidly built, black tolex, and looks very classy with the black/blue speckled grill cloth. I had a friend make me a cover to match the grill cloth and I get compliments on it all the time. I've looked at other amps here and there, now and then, but for my needs this amp is darn good. I'm not a picky type of guitar player and don't obsess about tone and stuff. I like to think I'm a plug it in, tune it up, play kinda guy. My buddy could have sold this amp for $350 easy, but he was nice enough to give me a good deal on good amp for $100. I don't abuse my gear, so this amp will last a long, long time and still look like new. Ampeg made a real good one with the SS-70C. I would recommend buying one if you see one for sale in good shape in a pawn shop or music store. It's got a lot of nice features for just about any guitar style, and this amp is well built.

I know this amp was made a while back. If you are planning on buying a used solid state amp with a good built in chorus, nice speakers, distortion that can be tweaked well, and a spring reverb this is a great amp (especially for the price I payed.) My speakers haven't blown yet, but I haven't had a chance to take this amp gigging. The amp is flexible enough to get any sound The Velvet Underground Makes (- effects) on their first album. It's got 2 channels, regular and lead. It has a level control that tailors the volume on the lead channel, then you've got a general gain control and a master volume. Pull out the master volume switch and you get brite sounds. Personally I have really eclectic musical taste, and like anything from Sonic Youth, Pavement and Beck, to Massive Attack, The Stone Roses, Radiohead, and Mansun. I also love Jazz. Thing won't do Jazz. At least not like an Arch-top and a Polytone. Has an effects loop, 2 Celestion 10s, and Stereo speaker outs and line outs.
Wish it had as many built in fx as another amp I'm considering trading it in for, the Behringer Blue Devil. Has two inputs, one is 0db the other -6.

I use an American Strat Plus with 3 gold satin pickups. By switching pickups and messing with the controls on my amp and my guitar I get a great variety of sounds. Will have even more if I get the multi-fx I want.

Dunno exactly how reliable it is. Like I said, the speakers haven't blown yet, and I've had it for 3 years. Mine in particular needs servicing for the 0db input.

Great amp, great sound. Not tube though :(

Basic Features. I like the clean channel best. I have read the other reviews. I'm not sure if they have the same model. There were a couple of these that were similar. One of the models blew up speakers all the times because of a bad groundign problem (happened to me on 2 of these, the original and a replacement). The factory told me it was rare, but I heard otherwise.

Basic functionality

Using a GIbson Dot with 2 hummers. Get some screach unless the volume is way down./ Again, I don't know what these other guys were listening to, but mine sounds tinny.

First one blew out the speakers, second one lasted a little while longer (about 3 months) but blew them out too. Watch out for these amps with replaced speakers.

Great. They replaced the original amp no questions asked. The second one I just replaced the speakers and sold. Got a Marshall Classic 30 instead. Much better,

I would not buy another one of these. I like the Marshall mucho better.

A killer solid state combo amp equipped with two Celestian G10L-35 original speakers. FRONT PANEL: Hi & low input jacks with gain knob/ Lead Channel: 3 knobs; gain-level(pull on)-presence with LED/ 3 band EQ knobs; low-middle-high/ effects loop in & out/ master volume knob(pull bright)/ footswitch input jack/ reverb knob/ chorus knobs; depth & rate(pull on) with LED/ headphone input jack/ power swithch with LED. BACK PANEL: Extension speaker jacks right & left/ speaker mute switch/ line out right(balanced & unbalanced)/ chorus footswitch input jack. This versatile combo amp is STEREO CHORUS and covered in black tolex with black-blue speckled grill cloth.

I play a variety of music including classic rock, surf, metal and punk, and this amp does it all. It cleans up well for the old stuff and can get down right nasty for the chunky metal and punk stuff. I play a couple US Strats with singles and humbuckers, and a Dano U-2 for classic rock and surf tunes.

A very, very good all-around amp, which requires no effects pedal. The distortion rocks right out of the box, and with built in stereo chorus this amp is perfect for playing all your favorite Nirvana tunes.

Enough volume to gig with, but mobile enough to haul around in the back seat. These are hard to find now days. You'll find them tucked away in recording studios, etc. and if you get your hands on one -- buy it!

Rock solid. Play it everyday, and it goes to practice once a week, and gigs every month or so. I've never had a problem with this amp, it just goes and goes. We always have backup gear, amps, mics, guitars -- I'm an old boy scout...

Never used it.

I've been playing with this amp for about 5 years now. I've got an old Fender tube amp, which stays in the home studio, lots-o-effects and recording gear...

If it were stolen I'd find another one. In fact, I found another one at a local shop and recommended it to a friend, and he promptly bought it and agrees, these little combo's rock!

this amp is one of the best i've played. 70 watts of power through 2 celestion 10" 35 watt speakers give it an attitude. it's got a very good strero chorus built in and a suprisingly good built in reverb that really amazed me. (Because i hate reverb.)

Sound is amazing. The dist can get as raunchy as required or get the amp as clean as you need it.

i bought it used from a friend. but the speakers are about 3 yrs old and the amp is about 15. so it'll last for a while. and being that it's a soild state, i wont be replacing tubes every time i turn the amp on.

bought it used so there is none.

Great amp for small or medium size gigs. i would use it for recording if i got the chance. this amp for someone who wants a 1/2 stack sound but w/o the 1/2 stack itself.

This amplifier has some great features. It's a two channel amp, featuring a nice clean channel and a ripping "lead" channel. A nice (if a little over the top) spring reverb is available, as well as stereo chorus, and "brightness" setting. Lead channel can be selected with a standard footswitch, and chorus with a separate footswitch. The controls, from left to right are; Gain (lead channel:) Gain, Level (lead on/off), Presence (equalizer:) High, Mid, Low Level (brightness on/off), Reverb (chorus:) Depth, Rate (chorus on/off)
The amp has 2 imput ports, for standard and active guitars I assume, and an effects loop. There is also a headphone jack, and various speaker / aux outs on the rear pannel. The 2 10" speakers can also be muted using a switch on the back. The amp is solid state, which is always a plus for me (i have a thing against tube amps). The amp is rated at 70w, and it quite loud. It is loud enough to play in a small hall with my band without extra amplification though the internal speakers. In larger settings, and outside, it really does need a mic shoved infront of it. When the main level is set to 7 or 8 the amp really starts to rip, and the speaker distortion sounds great.

I play through this amp using a strat copy, with humbuckers at bridge and neck, and a single coil in the middle position. My band plays a diverse mixture of punk, ambient, rock etc. and this amp is able to offer a wide variety of sounds to suit our style. The clean channel sounds nice, and really stand out when you add a bit of reverb (about 3/10) and chorus (low depth, high rate). The brightness really needs to be turned on the whole time. This creates a very full, nice sound. If you turn the pre-gain up to full, the clean channel begins to distort slightly. The amp's greatest feature, however, is the lead channel. This can produce anything from a smooth bluesy overdrive (high presence, low gain), a full on crunch rock (mid to high presence, mid gain, neck pickup), to my fave, a full on industrial / punk / metal kind of sound (zero presence, full gain). With a bit of tweaking this amp can produce great metallica or nine inch nails tones. Totally brutal. Palm muting sounds cool. The presence control is the real key to tailoring your tone. The inclusion of a pre-gain and a separate gain control for the lead channel makes it easy to alter the volume contrast between the lead and clean channels. One problem with the amp; the chorus tends to be quite noisy. If you just turn the chorus on, and don't play, the amp makes a quite noticable "thump..thump...thump..thump..." sound. This isn't a great problem in a live setting, but could be a problem when recording. This MIGHT just be a problem with my individual amplifier, however.

I have never had any problems with this amp (apart from one time when i knocked a cable off a speaker at the back, but that was my fault, not the manufacturers). The amp has never broken down.

This is a great, with some wonderful tones and features. While the amp isn't "perfect" i really can't find any specific faults with it. I love the variety of tones this amp can produce. It's easy to get a nice sound out of it, and the brutal force of the lead channel can introduce great dynamics and contrast into your music.

Well, first of all, this amp sounds great. It has 2 celestion 10 inch speakers, which sound great. It has 2 channels,(clean and lead) the clean is also overdrivable when cranked (both the lead and clean channels have pre-volumes). With a footswitch you can switch from clean to lead, but this also turns the reverb on/off *(it probably just needs a stereo footswitch, i don't have one). It also has stereo chorus which is footswitchable also. It has an effects loop, headphones out, speaker outs, and line outs for recording (both 1/4" and XLR.

If you are looking for tones this amp if for you. The clean channel is good on it's own,but throw in some reverb and, even better, chorus, it can be awesome. If your into classic rock, just turn up the cleans preamp gain and you get a nice "Go Go Godzilla" growl. But distortion is where it shines, It is great. It starts out like a regular fuzz, but then add some gain from the clean channels pre (don't ask me, they work together somehow)and it gets better, throw on some presence('round 10 o'clock)and it is even better, switch on some chorus and then you are awe-inspiring. The only down fall is if you play in a band where loud is the rule the "awe-inspiring" setting can cause a little problem. The 10" speakers cannot handle such bass at the high volumes, they start to fart. I generally use this amp for recording, and it is a great amp for that. I have both Laney and Marshall tube heads, and although the Laneys drive is more gritty and the Marshall is more punchy, This one gets the most distorted and all the while it remains focused, not bottum end flab. If you really need loud, it DOES play well when hooked up to a bass amp (line out) and can get a pretty good mettalica sound with the right bass amp. I love this amps tone.

I bought this amp used from a guitar shop where I live, and one of the stores employees were selling it, so they gave me a 3 month store warranty. It blew something after about 2 months, and then it took them a while to fix it. In the meantime I had emmased a small collection of amps and forgot how good it sounded. i got it back about 10 months ago and its been fine since.

From what the store told me, they were not really that helpful. took 2 months to get schematics, but they did eventually get them (not sure if this was the stores fault or the companies).

Well, at 350, I initially thought i paid to much, but now, after gaining experience with various amps, I found that it was not so bad, especially with that warranty. I do not think you could better this amp for less than 1000$, perhaps more. Maybe a dual rectofier or a Dual super lead, but those are both real high-end. If you can get your hands on one for less than 350, it's a deal and a half.