Ampeg VH-140C -- My First Amp

[Carcaridon]

Good morning everyone. I've always been a fan of SS amps, and normally oddball amps. My first combo was a Crate G40C and then my first halfstack was the Ampeg. I bought this brand new in, gosh, 1990 or 91. I saved like a maniac to get this and loved it from the moment I played on it. So, fast forward to now. I still have the head and slant cab, and a few years ago picked up a straight cab for it. The cabs sound awesome. They're loaded with Celestion G12T-75's and are rock solid. The head has had issues for a few years and I just stored it away. It plays for a while and then cuts out. I'm going to take it in for service and return it to its former glory. But now I've made it a mission to find a great condition combo version of this. Not sure if this is reliving the past or because it's just my favorite amp, but either way it's fun to have a mission and a hunt.

Anyone share a love for something from their past they just had to find again?

Thanks for reading my story.

[markD]

i miss a couple of my previous amps....some of them aren't too hard to find, but it is just a matter of having the $$$ to buy at the time i see them for sale!!! the first i'd like to re-get, though a bit on the pricey side now, is a blonde fender bassman. i got my first one back in 1990 for $125!!!!! on the cheap i have seen them go for 10 times that

next, i'd like to reget a 1983 marshall jcm800 2204. i sold my original one because it was just TOO loud to sound "good", but i do regret selling it.

after that, i wouldn't mind getting another boogie mark IV, even though it left a lot to be desired considering it was my "dream" amp. those go for a reasonable enough price that i could see getting one of those sooner than later.

but really, i could live without all of them because i have "my" tone, and have had it since 1990 also, in my rivera M/S amps - my trusty S120, M100 and M60. they have been the source of my tone for so long that ANY other amp just fails to deliver for me.

[Carcaridon]

I've heard nothing but good things about both the jcm800 and the mark IV. I hear they have some great tones, but I've never tried them myself. Are the rivera's tube or SS? I've been chasing the ampeg tone since the 90's with more SS amps, tubes, modeling. I need to just go straight back to the source.

[DonP]

Might first two I might want to hear once again (not purchase) is the Gorilla TC-25 and a Peavey Classic VTX. The Gorilla I gutted and made into a tube amp. The VTX, who knows what happened to that.

[Carcaridon]

Might first two I might want to hear once again (not purchase) is the Gorilla TC-25 and a Peavey Classic VTX. The Gorilla I gutted and made into a tube amp. The VTX, who knows what happened to that.

I think someone lent me a single speaker gorilla way back in the day. Forgot all about that amp.

[markD]

rivera's are all tube. my issue with the mark IV was that it was WAAAAYYYYYY too "touchy". breathe on a control the wrong way and the magical tone was wrong. i don't use a scooped sound, so finding something more hard rock than metal was difficult. i could NAIL the santana tone, but that was the only cool thing i could get out of it. the jcm800 had a killer tone, but on 3 it was rattling the windows. it was such a pure, bone-crushing tone though....i was also limited by its simplcity. i like effects loops and two channels. at least with the vintage fenders you can run input effects to one side and use an A/B box to switch channels....

yeah, if you like the ampeg, you might as well just get another!!! i always thought those heads sounded awesome for solid state. i would like to have one but with the lee jackson-era cosmetics....

[VanHoosen]

the jcm800 had a killer tone, but on 3 it was rattling the windows. it was such a pure, bone-crushing tone though....

You know what they say... PLAY LOUD!

But if you can't, Rivera does make attenuators that will give you the cranked tube sound at low volumes.

[Carcaridon]

My only brush with tube amps is a Crate BV300HB. It was cool, liked the tone, but nothing was close to that Ampeg tone I loved. Someone told me that the Crate GTX3500 Tidalwave is built off that tone but with 3 channels. Now I HAVE to find that thing.

[Cygnus X1]

I still own my first tube amp.
29 years later.

'67 Fender Deluxe Reverb.

The amps before it?
Absolutely forgettable, and fried in flames with no regret.

If you Google Image it, it shows up as #2, or at least top 10:

[Axegrinder87]

I'd like to have my Jackson Reference 100 back, she was a screamer.

[markD]

You know what they say... PLAY LOUD!

But if you can't, Rivera does make attenuators that will give you the cranked tube sound at low volumes.

loud is good - but there is also "retarded loud" and the jcm800 was in that category. getting onstage with that 2204 i was always being told to turn down....


also, the marshall didn't really give me anything the rivera can't do. the tone was great, but it was just too loud. i use a 120 watt rivera onstage, and while that sucker can get loud, it delivers the goods WAY before meltdown - unlike the marshall. i tried a few attenuators with it and it just wasn't the same. the sound lacked "clarity"....

i got ride of a rivera knucklehead reverb for that same reason. it was just unreasonably loud.