B-52 Pro Audio AT-212 212 Combo

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.

This is the most versatile amp I've ever played. It has 2 separate gain channels, with independent eq's, plus a contour knob. I play mostly hardrock and little metal, but Im also an avid blues player. Its got 3 different volume knobs - gain 1, gain 2, and clean, plus a master volume. I use this amp in my room and at band practice, but this amp could EASILY fill a good size venue with its 100 watts of all tube power. This is LOUD. I havent turned it past 3 since I've had it. What I really like about it, is its three rectifier sections, Tube A, Tube AB1, and Solid State, my favorite is tube AB1, I think it sounds the best, but Tube A sounds very very warm really good for blues and stuff. My second favorite thing is the low res. knob on the amp, it adds a really nice low end to the sound. This amp has everything for me.

Like I said, with the 2 gain options and the contour knob, theres all kinds of sounds you can get out of this thing. Gain 1 is really good for blues and stuff, if the gain knob is kept down, but when its cranked to the max, it can handle metal very very well. Gain 2 is a little has a little more dirt than the first gain. It suites hardrock and metal very well. You can just go crazy with this gain. The clean channel is amazing, I dont like the clean channels that break up at high volumes, I like crystal clear clean sounds, and this amp definitely has it. I own a couple guitars, a modded Ibanez RG470, with a dimarzio X2N in the bridge, and a fender Red Lace Sensor in the Middle, my other guitar is a Fender Deluxe American Strat, with a fender dh-1 humbucker in the bridge, both deliver the styles that I play. Of course, all amps have a little hum to them until you get a noise suppressor, but it doesnt bother me at all. I think its better than the Marshall JCM2000 I played at the same place. The only reason Im giving this a 9, is because it doesnt sound as good as my digitech gnx4 does through the clean channel, BUT its very close, I give it a 9.5.

So far, nothing has gone wrong. I was a bit skeptical about getting this brand, because I had never heard of it, but wow, Im so glad I got one, I wouldnt play anyhing else now. Nt much else to say since it hasnt broken down yet.

Never had to deal with them.

I've been playing for about 4 years. The last amp I owned was a Peavey Bandit 112, needless to say this was a huge upgrade. I love everything about this amp, I really wish everyone would try one, I think most people would like them. If it were stolen, I'd for sure get it again. This is the best amp for the money, hands down.

Two channels, contour, EQ, Reverb... Not too many, just right.

The reason I traded in my Marshall that I had for over a decade. I couldn't believe how good it sounds! Waaaaarm OD and a clean channel with a lot of depth.

Uh, oh.... I wouldn't believe this story if I didnt experience it myself. In short: After playing the floor demo.. I bought one, brought it home, turned it on, and no sound. Dead. Guitar Center had to have a replacemment amp shipped. A week later, a new one arrives... brought it home, turned it on and NO SOUND! Same thing. Guitar Center overnights one for me from Chicago. As I'm driving over to GC to get it, the manager calls to tell me the thing just started smoking as they checked it in the store. WOW!!!! 3 brand new amps in 8 days. NO THANK YOU!

Hats off to Guitar Center for trying to make it right.

I absolutely love the sound of the B52, the best I've heard. But there's obviously some reliability issues. (It's the whole reason I'm doing a review). I'm getting a Fender or Crate.. I'm DONE WITH B-52. They suddenly scare the hell out of me! Too bad I can't recommend one, because it was the sound I was looking for. I'll give it an overall rating of 2 with hopes they win me back one day.

Features I found to be great.

Using an Ibanez RG 570, The sound from the amp is great. I did find that it did have quite a bit of un wanted noise, especially when using different overdrive pedals in front of it.

Well, heres where thing's start to suck. About 1 1/2 months after purchace from guitar center I turn the amp on one day and the back of it lit up, blew the fuse, and basically died. This just day's before a scheduled recording project was supposed to start.

So...I call Guitar center and they refuse to do anything being that it was after their 30 day responsability cut off. So I call the company, after a series of question's, they tell me I have to take it to a repair center 1 1/2 hour's away from me, ONE WAY !!. So, I do, well it's been 3 week's, they still havent figured out what's wrong, B52 is basically saying too bad!!, won't return phone calls, and so on. I gotta say, this is the worst service I've ever got.

I've been playing for about 20 yrs. Recording for 5. I would definitely NOT do business with this company again, but would save a little more and go Marshall. I've hade probably 10-15 amps in my life and this one sounded great, but if it only last's 2 month's for $700.00 ...NOT worth it. I just wish that B52 would stand behind their product, but after talking to a few service techs about it, I'm sorry thet I bought it. Don't waste your money, because if this is the quality of workmanship and "customer service" we can expect, then It's not worth your hard earned money.

This is a re-review. After playing through the amp for almost a year, I started noticing some problems.

First, the reverb starts to feedback a lot when I'm switched to the overdrive channel. Very annoying.

Second, I took the grill off the back to access the tubes and left it off for a couple of weeks. Much to my dismay, part of the cabinet had cracked just beneath the back control panel. Not very sturdy construction.

Third, I still get a lot of humming from the clean channel even after replacing all the power tubes and five of the preamp tubes. Can't can't seem to figure out why this is happening.

I called and sent a couple of e-mails to B-52 about the before mentioned problem. When I called, the lady didn't sound like she knew where to send me and she said the only had one tech support rep. So I sat on hold for about fifteen minutes then hung up. I think they need to hire somemore reliable people. Also, my e-mails were never answered.

Looks sexy. Nice layout on the channel config. Was hoping for a stereo effects loop. No go on this model. Maybe a quiet cooling fan would be a nice addition to future models. Nice low end resonance adjustment. I like the Freq contour knob between the channels also. Reverb sounds good to me. I like the fact you can plug in a second cabinet and still have the speakers on. Nice impedence selection option, ground lift, and the independant gain pots for the effects loop add some balancing options. The effects loop does seem to make the signal thinner when used. Plugging into the front with your effects of choice inline seems to offer the best sound/signal.

I play through a dual humbucker, neck and bridge positions respectivly. Amazing sound across the channels. Clean is sweet and smooth, you can color it up with the right tweaking. I also pipe a Roland VG-8 guitar emulator into it with decent frequency responce. GODLIKE overdrive in the all tube (A)mode, METAL HEAD EXTREME. I was sold on that alone with no effects. This one just filled up the tone gap the best. LOUDER THAN HELL..

On my second one. Had to take the rear grill off due to cabinet resonation vibration on certain notes. And during low tremolo bar dives, there are certain points of the signal that cause an anoying cabinet buzzing. Not great for the miked studio performance. Acts as a room heater on cold winter days. Yes, It gets VERY HOT! Hotter than I expected. The first one I bought got hot, so hot, the power lamp blew out and then I started getting noise/humming/buzzing without the guitar plugged in. It started to smell like something was cooking. Yes, new electronics smell until burned in, but this sucker will keep your coffee warm. Use it in a well ventilated area.. The power switches are hot enough to not want to keep your fingers on them more than a few seconds.

I called there CA office and asked for some operating temperature specs. They did'nt have an answer for me. Worried. They told me to take it to one of their service co-ops. I just bought it and don't plan on leaving it there for a month. Kind of a brush off after the rep stated that if I am getting noise, to take it in. Must be a common problem, too hot and induced noise. If it bursts into flames, we can write it off as stage effects.

22 years of wire pushing & plectrum grinding. If it got stolen, I have the police do a thermal scan or could watch the local news for burnt down homes and find the thief. I would definatley buy another if they work on the thermal problem. My first REAL TUBE combo. The sound is not comparable. IT IS KILLER. Can't beat the price either.
It simply surpasses Marshall, Mesa, Fender. I tried them all for a week. The THICKEST metal crunch ever. This amp has some serious power and will rattle the picture off your wall! No lie. Hate the HEAT problem. Maybe because it is just really juiced up. Hope your electric bill doesn't double.

You've read it all before. Very versatile. Would be nice if the bright switch on the clean channel and the contour control on the overdrive channels were footswitchable, so it gets a 9

I play a lot of 80's thrash metal such as Slayer, Megadeth, yada yada, Class A/B this bad boy and scoop some mids and contour and BAM. Thats all i have to say. BAM.

I also like to jam on some Beatles, Jimi, SRV, Dead, moe., EC, etc etc and It works for those too. Class A is nice for these.

Clean is so sweet, i love it. I really reminds me of an old 69 Fender Bandmaster I had a few years ago.

The reverb is nothing special, but I am not one for tons of it, and to be honest, what it gives on 10 is perfect for me. For others it might be lacking.

This thing is LOUD. Beware, your bassist will do nothing but cry to you that he can't hear himself. :)

Here's where I was a bit concerned. Out of the box, the reverb channel was dead. Just plain did nothing. So I returned it and picked up the floor model I tried before I bought it and so far so good. I've had it for about a month now without problem.

Called up with a few question, things were good, they handled all my questions well. Can't complain here.

I am not one for buying something just because it has a certain name on it, nor am I one for buying something thats cheaper and less worthy of my money thats doesn't have a big name on it. I research stuff and then I try before I buy, regardless of name.

The b-52 met all my expectations, and exceeded them in terms of certain things ( clean channel is very sweet, bell like even. )


Very happy, and for 700 bucks, you just cannot beat it. Hell, even for 1200 bucks you can't beat it

3 channels - Clean, OD1, and OD2. Tri-Mode Rectifier lets you pick between Class A, AB, or Solid State output. Reverb, effects loop, master volume. Oh yeah, it weighs a TON! Get a roadie!

My main guitar is a Highway 1 Tele with a Seymour Duncan Hot Rails at the bridge. I'm in a gigging band playing all original hard rock (kind of like Clutch, Queens of the Stone Age, Pearl Jam). I use mainly the overdrive channels but like some clean with a bit of break up every now and then. This amp has absolutley no break up on the clean channel, which is good for some, but not for me. I rarely use the clean channel but am thinking of running a dist. pedal through it and using the OD channels for my clean tones. I'm also thinking of swapping out the stock speakers for some Celestion V30's. The stock speakers sound good, but I just like the breakup of the Celestions.

Anyway, the distortion sounds great and it's quite versatile. You can go from a light blues tone, to heavy Dual Rectifier type distortion. There is a bit of a "hissing" sound that comes out of the amp when I'm switched to OD2. Of course, this is only when the guitar is idle (no strumming), so it hasn't caused huge problems for me.

And of course you have the MASTER VOLUME control. This allows you to have the tubes cranked and burning at their hottest. And having three independent volume controls for each channel makes for a lot of diversity.

It does get really hot, though. So if you decide to get one, don't be surprised if you burn your hand when you reach to turn the thing off (just kdding, it's not that bad).

Overall, I'm very happy with the sound. Just not the clean; too clean for me.

I've had this amp for about six months and gig at least once a month. It's held up very well and performs great everytime. However, I do think it's already time to change the power tubes (that's what I get for buying the floor model).

N/A

I've been playing for eleven years, gigging for five and this is definetly one of the best amps I have got for the price. I fell in love with it as soon as I tried it out. It sounded awesome and had everything I was looking for in an amp. And I thought the price was very, very reasonable if not a steal.

If it were to be lost or stolen, I would consider buying another one if I don't have more money at the time. Otherwise, I might buy an Orange or a Mesa.

There are three things I don't like about it: It's heavy as hell, I'm not too keen on the stock speakers, and the clean channel is TOO clean for me. But other than that, it's a great amp at a great price.

Too many. Look at previous reviews, nothings changed since the last one.

Hmmm. I'm still trying to make up my mind. It does sound good, I just don't know if it's for me. It's my first tube amp, i was using a Peavey XXL prior to this with a Boss GT-6. I felt that the XXL colored the GT-6 sound too much and was looking for something with a nice neutral clean channel. I played it and found it to be "Fenderish". Which is ideal for me. I use an ESP Eclipse with Seymour Duncan Mayhem set, Jackson RR V with a Dimebucker and a bluesbucker and a Frankenstrat with Lace Sensor Holy Grail in the neck and a Hot rail in the bridge. They do sound very different now, on the XXL they sounded very close. I just plugged straight in to he amp with only a wah pedal and I felt like Slash. The sound was dead on. Hard Rock tones seem to be easy to dial in. Metal takes a little more tweeking. The reverb should be deleted. I can barely tell it's on. I've e mailed them twice and still no response. I won't rate it sound wise because I need a little more time to dial it in.

I hope it will be reliable. I'm not worried about tubes, it's like buying tires for a car.

So far I'm a little disappointed. I have emailed them twice and no response regarding the reverb. I still have 3 weeks to my return policy.

I've been playing for 20 years. My gear is simple as mentioned above. I also use a BBE sonic Maximizer and ISP Decimator. If it were stolen I'd probably get a Fender Twin amp ( Ultimate clean tone ). I don't love it or hate it. I wish it would Wow me though. I compared this to the JC 120 ( my search was for an amp with a good clean channel ).
I only wish it had more gain it's good but a little more, like going to 12. Hot is an understatement, it's brutal. Use a fan and start lifting weights, this thing is heavy.