B-52 Pro Audio AT-212 212 Combo

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.

- 100 watt 5881/6L6 tube amp with 2 gain channels and 1 clean channel, reverb, contour switch, independent EQ for clean and gain channels, speaker line out, adjustable ohm for speaker load, effects loop with adjustable levels for send and return, selectable rectifier, actually quite a lot of goodies for the money.

I use a PRS custom 24 with stock pickups and a Les Paul studio w/ ebony fretboard and stock pickups and both guitars sound impressive through the amp, but a little dry sounding even with the reverb turned up half way, but still very usable sounds. I tend to use heavy distortion and this amp is a little noisy with the gain turned up past 7, but I deal with it. Clean channel is nice and chimey, actually the cleans are what sold me on the amp. I also own an older Mesa Dual rectifier running through a Marshall 4x12 1960BV cab and in comparison to that setup the B52 combo really can't compete, but I did take the speaker line out of the B52 into my 4x12 cab @ 4ohms and the sound was actually very tight and the distortion sounded very full, actually since both amps sound so different, I think I've got the best of both worlds. So if you can run it into a 4x12 celestion cab with vintage 30's, you'll probaly be very happy.

It gets very hot near the output transformer running in class A mode, but it's never cut out on me or caused any issues. I'm a tube junky and I've got plenty of tubes laying around, so if there's a problem it's an easy fix. I don't gig out, and all my gear is studio kept. I had the amp 2 weeks and have used it almost everyday. No problems.

Actually I've never had to call any manufacturer about any of my gear, so I feel lucky. I setup my guitars myself and try not push my amps to much, trying to keep everything reliable. But from what I've read, the guys at B52 care about their customers.

I've been playing 17 years and I've used quite a variety of studio gear, amps and probably could open my own music store if I kept everything I ever bought (ha..ha). Overall the amp is well worth the price tag, actually after playing it for only 20 minutes I bought it. If it were stolen, I'd proably buy the 100 watt head version instead, but having a powerful combo amp does come in handy. The only thing I'm not sure about yet is the headroom on the distortion channels. Seems to get noisy if used for heavy music styles, but does have a great AC/DC type sound with little hiss. When used for guitar solo's the amp has nice harmonics and cleans up nice when rolling the guitar volume down. I'm happy with this purchase. Did I mention it's heavy?
Good tube amp for a good price...enough said.

I been looking weeks for an Amp to replace my JCM2000 DSL-100 head that was stolen from a gig. Don't ask how, I have no clue and I wasn't wasted either, for once. I figured I would buy another JCM2000, ($1500) but wanted to check out what was out there. I stroled into Guitar Center the other day and played a few Voxs', wasn't impressed at all. I saw the B-52 AT-212 sitting alone and decided ah what the heck, let me check this out. After about 20 minutes of playing it, I bought it. I ran the speaker out at 16 ohm to my Marshall 412 cab, and man what a f***** sound, makes my nuts rattle. This Amp has it all,,the clean channel is extraordinary clean and brite, even going into hi gain, you got all the sustain you want, and still hear every note. The only problem I have is trying to find which settings I like the best, because it all sounds great. I bid farewell to Marshall.
I have an 86 Gibson Les Paul Standard, an 87 USA Fat Strat, and a 98 Fernandes Revolver Pro. They all sounded great, from Playing Eric Clapton blues style to Angus Young Balls to the Wall Distortion,, and the B-52 did it all with no effects added. I might stick a chorus in the EFX loop, but not sure if I really need it, the harmonics this Amp puts out is just above and beyond any Amp I ever played. It makes the peavey Classic 30 sound like a toy,,

I love it,,

2005 Model. This area is where the AT212 really shines. It has a boat-load of features. (And the price is amazing!)

100-Watt, all tube, 2x12 combo amp with a switchable triple rectifier (Class A, Class AB, or solid state). Clean channel and two overdrive channels. Master reverb. Master resonance (like a master low-end). Effects loop (tube driven) with input and output level controls. Each channel has an independent volume control, making it a great choice for someone who needs to quickly switch between a variety of tones. Bright switch on the clean channel. Presence control which can be engaged on either gain channels. 3-band EQ for the clean channel and a separate 3-band shared by the gain channels.

It's a tweaker's dream. You can dial and dial to your heart's content. It runs REALLY hot in Class A mode. Class A does produce the most waste heat by definition - even with no signal the tubes are still drawing 50% of their maximum power. But it is still a little surprising how HOT the face of the amp gets. It's almost hot enough to burn skin. I mean HOT.

I was a little concerned to purchase a 100 watt amp until I played it. I forget the exact formula but if you think of how wattage/dB works, a 100 watt amp is not double the loudness of a 50 watt amp.

American Standard Strat w/ SD hotrail in the bridge.

Three channels plus switchable rectifier makes it very versatile. The clean channel is purposely designed with a ton of headroom, so there's really no breakup. Some people like a little breakup in their clean, but I set my gain channel 1 to a very light overdrive and my gain channel 2 to a medium overdrive. (I don't use a super-saturated high gain sound much.) You have a great variety of tones right at your fingertips.

So far I have not used the class AB or solid state rectifier settings, just class A.

The distortion is very nice. Warm, class A tube distortion - you can't beat it. It will go to a very high gain and it's not too noisy.

My only complaint about the sound is a bit hard to describe. Somehow I feel the sound is lacking in depth. As if some higher order harmonics were missing. It's just not a ... "rich" sound. A little flat. Just a little, don't get me wrong. Overall it's a pretty damn good sound. But its strength of sound is in versatility rather than tonal quality per se.

I just got it and it's also a new product. And B-52 is relatively new to guitar amps. So it's hard to say.

I know a number of people have voiced complaints about problems with the reverb tank. I called them on the phone before I bought. (An actual live person answered, by the way.) They told me they were aware of the problem, had taken steps to fix it, and would totally cover any amp that had the problem.

Seems to be well built. As a matter of fact I think it's likely to survive a head-on collision with a Hummer quite well. It's hard to say which weighs more, the amp or the Hummer.

Based on my phone call described above I can only say I'm hopeful.

Have been playing 22 years.

If it were stolen today I would likely get a couple more models to line up next to it and compare them. And I'd still probably end up with the B-52 because the features for the price are just unbelievable.

To sum up...

PROS
Features/variety of sounds

Footswitch functions


CONS

Did I mention it gets HOT?

Cost of a small boom truck in order to move it from place to place. I want to take it up to my den but haven't gotten up the gumption to tackle the stairs with it yet.