B-52 Pro Audio AT-212 212 Combo

All said before .This thing does everything .I have a MESA dual rectifier and the cleans espesially kick its ass ,,,espesially the sustain!
With this thing you dont need footpedals ,all the sounds you need are already in the box. 3 channels of everything you could ever need . The cleanest cleans to the most stupid Metal.
Weighs a ton !

If you spend a couple of minutes on it you can get any sound you want . The thing is noisy especially on the lead channel.The blues tones from the first overdrive is really well suited to a vintage strat .Great sustain ( Way better than my MESA ) . The lead channel can get waaaaay too saturated .I have mine set to the 12 o clock position . You have a feature ( for the metal heads , of which I am NOT! ) to scoop the mids to give you that modern Soldano Metal sound .
The reverb on this thing is subtle and could be more rich , but i find playing over a live band,you wouldnt need it more "wet" as the effectiveness to cut through the mix would somewhat diminish .
The footpedal is extremely solidano robust,NOT like tose LINE 6 "Toys" along with the construction of the cabinet (13 ply Birch); which is part of the reason this thing is BULLSHIT heavy . (Still way lighter than my recto). I bought this thing cos it was so cheap .Actaully I went in the shop to get a set of strings and heard this sound from the corner of the shop . I sat and watched for half an hour thinking this this was a boutique amp ,as I hadnever heard of them before . I ended up buying it for the same price as the LINE 6 twin valve thing next to it . Side by side there is no comparison ,especially for the price . Good thing is I'll get good money for the MESA thankful to the Brand whores ( which I am one !!) out there.
Any one who can't get a great sound out of this thing ,really needs to NOT blame the AMP !!It really does it all. I am concerned about the excesive noise on the lead channel though, I may change the valves if it pisses me off further!

I have been told the reverbs are dodgy !And the heat issues ,but I have been witness to none if this.I have the newer ones with the fan installed,( Which is annoyingly loud ). The valves are quality Electro Harmonix for most part. I dont know why they use Crappy chinese valves for the others . I think all the preamp valves are E-H valves.
I have also been told the internals are also a composite of chinese parts which i am a bit worried about !! At the minute.....all is well ,,,fingers crossed

Been playing since .....er 1985....Sheesh thats showing my age !and play mostly 80's Van Halen ,Malmsteen,Stevie Ray Vaughn,and most things in between , bar Death metal .I have a MESA Dual Rectifier ,That does some great things ,but not this versatile . I believe the build quality to be inferior to the MESA ,not externally ,but in the internal componantry of the amp. I hope it lasts and give same the trouble free nature of the MESA.Time will tell . The cleans crap on my MESA and the blues tone are on par if not better !I hate new age metal so apparently thats what this thing does better than a Boogie, But I couldnt tell you . I believe if your gain is so cranked that if you have a Les Paul or a mandolin pluged in and you cant tell the diff.....WTF !!I need to hear the srtings , the wood and most importantly my expression , and thats what this thing does .

TONS of features...EXCEPT a 100 W / 50 W powertube switch. Just too loud for a practice amp.

So I read all these glowing reviews of the AT-100 212 and I finally got the idea that I was going to walk into my friendly Guitar Center and buy this "poor man's Mesa". I figured that the worst scenario would be that I would have to but it and replace the tubes.

I really can't begin to describe how magnificently horrible it sounded. It had this hissing noise and the only time it didn't was when it was too busy blaring out feedback. At first, I thought I just could not figure out the settings. Then the guitar techs came over to the rescue and laughed at each other as they all manged to make it sound worse.

For gags I played the Line6 Spider Valve (which i didn't like) and it blew the AT out of the water just on the gain channel...all of a sudden that "sort-of" Line 6 tube amp sounded like a sweet deal if I was strapped for cash.

Bottom line...I'm just going to save up and buy the Mesa Recto. It's gonna hurt dropping that cash on an amp, but its better than being pissed that I threw away 500 for a footrest.

I really WANTED to like this amp ---especially for the $$$. I mean, it sounded like I was gonna end up with a Mesa Recto-esq combo that has a slight hiss - I could live with that! Instead it sounded like sloshing through mud (regardless of where the gain and presence were set). Don't believe me? Go try it.

I have no personal experience with this but I keep reading on here and other places that many of the units of these spend as much time in the shop as being played.

I was fortunate enough not to buy it; so I have no idea.

Assuming you can also find one with a scratch on it for 445 as well...I'd say that it's not a horrible deal - for the price.

That being said...there was no way I was spending any of my money on an amp whose only distinguishing characteristic was it's bad sound.

Kick Ass versatility, the direct out in the back has adjustable volume control which is a nice bonus and the sound from that is great for recording, much better than my freind's Marshall

It gives me the distortions of the Soldano Super Lead Overdrive (SLO) 100 watt that I love (ex: Mike Houser from Widespread Panic)

had it a year and it has never let me down

have not ever needed it

The only problem is that it is sooooo heavy...my wife had to get shoulder surgery after bringing it home for my Christmas present last year, and I think I hurt mine last month, they should do handles on the sides not the one handle on the top, but it comes iwth wheels and carries ok if you bear hug it from the back and lift with your legs not your back, the one handle on the top is dangerous to use...That said, I think other similar amps are just as heavy (fender twin)

Just bought this for my son at Guitar Center for 600.00 + 87.00 for a 7 year warranty in which everything except tubes are covererd and shipping for any repairs is also covered.

I had him grab a Gibson SG and a Schecter c-1 classic with genuine Duncans off the wall and he tried the allthe Fender tube amp combos, all the Peavy tube amp combos, a Mesa rectifier, a Marshall DSL 401, and an 800.00 Line 6 amp.

He owns the two guitars he auditioned with, and the B-52 seem to be the clear winner of all these amps as far as doing it all.
The clean class tones, and the rock, hard rock and even metal tones were only capable on this amp with no drive petals.

When we got it home, it took both of us to get this beast out of the truck.
We hooked up the brand new amp and my 14 year old son preceeded to play for hours non stop...which is something I hadn't heard him do with his Marshall solid state amp that we traded in.

This is the only combo tube amp in the entire stores stock that could do clean class A blues...to all out metal without pedals.

I never noticed it being noisy and it barely gets warm with the installed fan.

My sons pickups are Duncan jazz/59 in the C-1 Classic, and 490t/Dimebucker in the SG, and you can clearly hear the different pickups in both guitars.
It doesn't need to be turned up past 1-1.5 in his room for amplification thats short of hearing damage that is.

Its new, and we paid less than 700.00 for it with a 7 year warranty that includes free shipping back to the manufactuer..so I am not sweating any future problems.

My son is 14, and has been playing for a couple of years now self taught.
I did teach hime around 12 chords on his first acoustic years ago...but he has been a natural self learner ever since....and far better than I was at his age after pro lessons.
The sales guy was impressed with his playing, and he has a natural knack for it.

He owns a Langejans handbuilt acoustic from 1973, a Washburn d-10, and an older Blureridge dread that the previous owner tore the model label out of.
Numerous Boss pedals that will probably get sold now, and a few other gizmos.

100 watts of all tube power. This amp contains has a clean channel with treble, mid, and bass along with a bright switch which adds more treble to give you a "sparkly" tone, and a volume knob for that channel.

The lead channel also has treble mid and bass but has two gain knobs and allows you to switch between them. The second "channel" has more
gain than the other. It also had a countour knob that you can activiate for either gain channels. Individual eq for each gain channel would have been nice but isn't really needed. This channel also has an individual volume.

The amp contains and master volume also with is great if you are practicing by yourself and you don't want to disturb anyone else. It has a low-res knob and reverb.

The amp has 3 different rectifier modes with are tube a, tube ab, and solid state. Tube a gives you a more warmer tone and solid state gives you a "tighter" sound with is good for high gain stuff while tube ab is in the middle. It also has a tube driven effects loop and includes a footswitch which allows you to switch between gain channels, lead and clean channel, reverb on/off, and effects on/off.

I use an Ibanez RG321MH with a DiMarzio D-Sonic in bridge and the stock pickup in the neck.

This amp is REALLY versatile. It has a very good clean channel which is something most high gain amps do not have. It can do a wide range of styles. This channel also does not break up (start to distort) which for me is good but for others it may not be.

The overdrive channel is very good as well. If you want a sort of hard rock crunch, then the first overdrive channel is good. How ever if you want a brutal metal tone, then the second overdrive channel is perfect.
If you want a bluesy or jazz type tone, the first OD channel can do it very well. This is a very versatile amp however for some metal heads out there it may not be enough but a good OD pedal can fix that.

There is one problem though. Noise. This amp is very noisy. If you turn the amp's gain up high, you get loads of feedback. However its nothing a noise reducer can't handle. (ISP Decimator is a really good one)

The stock tube aren't the greatest and they are actually responsible for the amount of noise this thing makes. A good tube swap will do wonders for this amp.

Had it for a couple of months and it shows no signs of dying on me.

Haven't dealt with them.

I took a risk spending 750$ on an amp like this and so far it was well worth it. It is very versatile and can pretty do whatever you throw at it. The amp itself is pretty heavy however (~85 pounds!!) so you may need a couple of people to lug it around.

If you need an all tube amp for almost any genre and don't want to wipe out your bank account, then this is the one for you. Unless you go used, it doesn't get better than this.

Manufactured late 2006. Though, not my first one. That one was stolen from our van in August. 100 watt all tube combo with footswitch. Three channels with reverb. I use it for my metal band and my blues project.

The distortion channels are over the top. Tons of gain, maybe too much. Reminds me a bit of some of the modified Marshall JCM800s and JCM900s. The clean is nice a sparkley like a Fender. I use mine with an Ibanez RG570 with Dimarzio Evolution pickups.

I waited a couple months to write this. In the last 2 months, I've pused it hard. I never had the overheating problems. Though mine is a newer one with fans. If you have an old one, B-52 will send you a fan kit and set you up with a guy to install it for free. I couldn't be happier with the sound and quality. My old one also never experienced the heat problem either.

Awesome!!! I called just to see if they knew about the heat problem and to see if mine was one of the ones with the old design. He said anything with the serial # ending in 1200 as the last four digits would have the fans. On my first one, I bought used and called to see if I could order a footswitch. They sent one for free.

I've been playing for nearly 20 years. I bought this on a whim. I also have a Dual Rectifier and wanted a small combo. My Recto has broken down twice. I never had a problem with this one and I like the sound better. Not bad at all. In fact it's been nearly perfect.

As most high gain amps, this one features a clean channel, and two overdriven channels with shared EQ, this means that both distortion channels use one single EQ. On the clean channel you get bass, mid and high pots as well as a bright switch that will increase the high frecuencies more than just a bit, and volume. On the dist channels yoo dont get the bright switch but you do have a contour knob.

I do not think this amp laks on features, if you want more knobs, potentiometers and switches go get a Mesa Mark IV or a digital Line 6 crap.

Most of the time this amp gets used for recording purposes because it blends perfectly a expensive fenderish clean and a nonsense distortion that reminds me of a tripple rectifier.

There is a great option which is the Tri-mode rectifier, don't mislead this... this is not a tripple rectifier amp, it only has a knob that lets you switch between solid state, tube AB and tube A rectifier types.

You get a tube driven effects loop with I/O levels, a line out with level, OHM load switch (4, 8 or 16ohm) for exernal cab purposes, a ground lift swtich (which it does not seem to work at all) and a spring reverb tank, (which sometimes comes with the cables inverted and seems not to work, but switching its I/O cables will solve the issue).

I voted 8 because of the ground lift switch which seems not to work.

PD> it comes with a four button pedal, switch channels, effects on of, reverb on of.

Think of this amp as you would do on a Fender Twin, or '65 Reverb... just a clean channel comes to your head, there you go, a great clean channel with plenty of different tones to try out; plenty of dynamics, of power, of hours and hours of enjoyable sound.

Again, you may think of it as the Famous High Gain, for me nothing beats a mesa boogie when it comes to distortion, excep for this amp. I wish I had on my arsenal a 6505, and Tripple recto but as backup for this one. For all metal players, hard rock players, blues players, and even jazz players... try it out, get up your lazzy ass and try this thing out.

I used to have about 3 or 4 different distortion pedals until I got this amp, and got rid of them, now I conect the guitar straight into the amp and feel the pleasure of electric guitar dynamics right into your brain and body...

I haven't tryed it with an extension cab, but for a 100W amp, I think there is plenty of power to spread day and night.

I do not use backup even if my amp sucks... This thing is heavy as hell and ussually needs two people to be carried. Yes it fits your car backseat, it is an inch smaller than the Roland jazz chorus but twice its weight.

I haven't changed tubes yet, it came with Electro Harmonix tubes and I believe they will last for 2007 as it only gets used for recording and see no gigs at all. The only you need to be carefull with is moving ir aroung while still hot, you will damage the tubes right away.

It does get very hot, and a fan upgrade appeared right in front of my door to be installed on it, and I did, but still runs pretty warm.

As you would want everyone of them to be, attent, helfull, HONEST, and without horsing around.

They do their jobs, so they get a 10 here...

I've tryed several different amps, and this one is the one I kept, if stonel I would get the head version for splitting the weight, but I wouln'd get anything else... I could add more amps to my wishes, but this is one I will keep around until it totally dies or something better comes out, which I doubt.

I wish I could have a 2x12" extension cab to get a total of 4x12, but so far there is no need for it. This amp is really really loud so be carefull with your ears, try not to go deaf.

Bought this amp new in July 2006. 3 channels. 1 clean, 2 gain. Nice effects loop. This amp can get very loud.

Beautiful on the clean. Gain 1 gives you a nice overdrive and 2 can give you heavy distortion. Just be careful as too much gain on #2 will get a little noisy. Play mainly with a Kramer Pacer custom II and a PRS CE 24 with tremonti pickups in it. Get nice tones with both. Play everything from Waylon to Metallica.

I gig every weekend with this and it works great, however I am on my 3rd reverb tank. The reverb units are cheap but when it breaks, I call B-52 and they send me a new one. It's very annoying but as long as it's under warranty (5 yrs), I'll let them keep sending me a new one. Just call B-52 tech department and tell them you need a new one. Maybe if enough people complain, they will get a better reverb unit.

Speak to Daniel in the tech department. All others I have dealed with were idiots. Last time I spoke with him he asked me how I liked the amp, I told him it was great other than the cheap reverb and that it gets damn hot (like everyone else's). He told me that they have corrected that problem on the newer ones by installing a small cooling fan in the back and asked me if I would like them to send me one for mine. I said yes and when I received my last reverb tank, they sent me the coolong fan kit with instructions on installing it (free of charge!!). It was actually quite easy, other than you have to disassemble the amp. Only took about an hour to do and now the amp works great and doesn't get hot at all, barely warm to the touch on the front pannel.
I recommend that any of you that have this amp, call them and get a fan kit for yours.

I,ve been playing for about 25 years and for the money, this is probably the best bang for the buck out there as far as an all tube amp. Downside is it's heavy! I doubt if I would replace it with another one if this one broke, it's just too damn heavy to lug around all the time. I would probably replace it with the 1x12 model that just came out. Overall I think this is a great amp with great sound.

This amp has most of the features I was looking for in an amp. I like being able to switch between Class A/AB/Solidstate modes. The contour feature is nice.

This is a tough one because the tube sound is great, and the EQ offers tonal variety, but it is very noisy even on the clean channel.

Ok here's my B52 story...
So I had this important gig coming up in a month, but I was in need of a new amp and decided to try the B52 AT212.
The first one I got, the reverb didn't work so I took it back for another.
I rehearsed with it for a month, and I thought it sounded great, but it was noisy and it ran hot and I could smell the heat from 30 feet away. When I touched the control knobs they nearly burned the tips of my fingers.
I decided to research the amp a bit on the net and discovered others with this amp (including on this forum)having the same issue; sounded great but concerns about the heat & noise.
Others also seemed to be having other problems like the amp doing weird things, but for me no issues other than the heat & noise.
Oh, and the red power-on light on the front panel stopped working.
Now I'm thinking, I've encountered a bad reverb, bad power light, noise and heat. It got me worried about holding on to this amp.

Finally important gig day arrives. It's an outdoor festival and the weather turned out to be rather blustery and cold.
We go up to set up rigs and the B52 starts crapping out on me--that low voltage or low battery sound, or a loose jack connection.
I think it in my pedals but while I'm trying to track it down I bypass the pedals and run direct from my guitar to the B52.
The crappy sound is still there, cutting in and out. So it turned out to be the B52!!!! I'm pissed!!!
I had to go on with the gig using another bands amp.
I don't know why it was doing that... I can only assume it didn't like the cold air.
The guy at guitar center who sold it to me finally admitted to me that lots of other customers have had problems with it.
Bottom line... it's unreliable. A sweet sounding but badly built piece o crap.

No experience with customer service yet

I'm staying away from it. Too bad because it had so much potential.

All the features have been listed elsewhere. This is a re-review.

This is one of the areas I want to offer new info. It's very noisy. I guess I just didn't notice it at first. But I had to send it in for repair. While it was in the shop I went back to using my Peavey Delta Blues 210. And I noticed how quiet the Peavey is in comparison. The B-52 is just noisier than it should be.

Six months into using the thing it starts making this gigantic HONK sound. I turn it on, play for a bit and ... HOOOOOOOOOOOOONK. So loud it makes you wince. Like a cruise ship just went sailing by. So here begins my so far 3 month journey...

So I take it up to Guitar Center and they send it in for warranty repair. (I found out later that it sat in Guitar Center's back room for a month before it went off to the shop - very irritating. More on that and B-52's customer service in the next section.) This shop in Akron, Ohio, has the amp for 6 weeks, they replace the power tubes, and take another 2 weeks send it back to Guitar Center. Now I pick it up, take it home and I can't get any sound out of it at all.

It's now been three months I am without my main amp. So tomorrow I am shipping it back to Akron so that they can "fix" it again. I'm not sure who to blame for all of this -- the shop? the amp? All I know is the thing AIN'T WORKING.

I struggle with this one. Before I bought the amp I called B-52 with some questions. I got a guy on the phone who was very helpful, answered all my questions, gave me a lot of info on the amp.

I emailed B-52 once with a question about the amp -- no response.

After my amp had been in for repair for about a month I called B-52 intending to ask them to track it down (at the time I didn't know it had gone to the Akron shop). I got this lady on the phone and I would have sworn I was on candid camera. I explained the deal to her and then it was like "so who are you again?" I explain more. She says, "and you're with Guitar Center?" I repeat myself. She puts me on hold for several minutes then comes back on and says "So you bought the amp at Guitar Center?" I explain again. She puts me on hold again and comes back and says "So, where is the amp now?" It was all I could do to not freak out. Finally, she put me on with the director of operations who explained where my amp was likely to be and that I would need to get the info from Guitar Center.

When the amp came back from the shop and wasn't fixed the operations guy at B-52 agreed to cover the cost of my shipping the amp directly to the shop instead of sending it back through Guitar Center. They have been responsive to my problem. But the people who answer the phones there seem to have no conception of what's going on.

So I give them a 4 as a compromise between an 8 when dealing with the operations guy and a 0 when dealing with the receptionist.

Overall I'll give it a 5 because it's a good amp for all the reasons listed in my other review but my experience with it has been less than stellar.