Ampeg VL-1002

[khabibissell]

Anybody ever play one of these? My bass player is really a guitar player so he's got a ton of guitar stuff. I had him bring over a few things when we practiced last night so I could check them out. One of them was an Ampeg VL-1002 Lee Jackson head from the early 90's. I guess he bought it new back in the day and had it all these years. Pretty cool amp! Even with all the dials at noon it sounded great. It also has an interesting feature where you pick a mid frequency with one knob and boost or attenuate it with another. Tonally, it had a modded Marshall thing going on, and was really punchy and smooth... Cut like a knife too. I will have it for a few days so I'll be able to really put it through its paces. I've heard that they have some reliability issues though, so I'm not sure I'm gonna try to buy it off him.

[broken_fusion]

Is that the one with the light up logo? If so I bought one new around 95 or so?? I liked it. Played maybe two gigs with it and it blew up. I don't think I owned it more than two weeks. I returned it to the store for warranty repair. They said it could not be fixed?? They gave me store credit and I got a Crate Blue Voodoo. The sound on the Ampeg was pretty good.Not mind blowing or anything. I had tried the Blue Voodoo first but went with the Ampeg. After a few days when the honeymoon was over I was kind of wishing I went with the Crate so when the Ampeg blew I was not that upset and ended up with the Crate. Those Ampegs were famous for breaking down. I think the trannys were weak. I'm pretty sure thats what happened to mine. It was a neat amp with the light up logo and the key switch and all.

EDIT- Ok that it. Here you go-

http://www.leejackson.com/VL1002.htm

Lee has a mod to fix part of the reliability problems somewhere on his site.

[DonP]

Anybody ever play one of these?

No.

It also has an interesting feature where you pick a mid frequency with one knob and boost or attenuate it with another.

Sounds like a standard parametric EQ.

Don't know about any issues with these, but if it sounds good to you...

[khabibissell]

Is that the one with the light up logo? If so I bought one new around 95 or so?? I liked it. Played maybe two gigs with it and it blew up. I don't think I owned it more than two weeks. I returned it to the store for warranty repair. They said it could not be fixed?? They gave me store credit and I got a Crate Blue Voodoo. The sound on the Ampeg was pretty good.Not mind blowing or anything. I had tried the Blue Voodoo first but went with the Ampeg. After a few days when the honeymoon was over I was kind of wishing I went with the Crate so when the Ampeg blew I was not that upset and ended up with the Crate. Those Ampegs were famous for breaking down. I think the trannys were weak. I'm pretty sure thats what happened to mine. It was a neat amp with the light up logo and the key switch and all.

EDIT- Ok that it. Here you go-

http://www.leejackson.com/VL1002.htm

Lee has a mod to fix part of the reliability problems somewhere on his site.

Yep, that's the one.

[Racerx2k]

My buddy had one of those in his store. I LOVED that amp! I'd love to pick one of those up, one day.

[fuel0707]

I used to own one of the early VL-1002 halfstacks. Straycat now owns it so maybe he can chime in with some info for you.

The amp was pretty cool and that "mid frequency" selector knob REALLY altered the sound of the amp. Some of the settings were better with 'buckers and others with single coils. The dual reverb knobs were useful, too.

The amp is selectable between 6550 and EL-34 output tubes. I believe they all came stock with 6550's, at least mine did. I did replace the 6550's with EL-34's but it didn't make a huge difference in the tone when using the attenuator (which you would expect if you're not cranking the power tubes hard.) Still, it's handy to be able to slap different tubes in and only have to flip a switch on the back.

I traded emails with Lee Jackson many years ago about the amp and the one corner that he said Ampeg cut with his design was using a solid-state effects loop. Lee offered to convert my amp over to the original tube-driven loop but I didn't do it owing to the cost, which I think was around $200.

[Firebird V]

I owned the 50w version a long time ago. ALos had the Lee jackson Version. The Lee Jackson Version was built much better and also was less hissy but did not have as much gain. I remember many of these catching fire due to the tolex on the inside was not secured and would touch the tubes and catch fire. Quite a few had outout tranny's die too. I would look for the LJ head over the Ampeg.

[Robbie Dane]

I have one and it is awesome. Basically it is a JCM 800 with two extra gain stages. They do have some inherent problems but if you fix them before they happen you are good.

[Strangletooth]

I used to have the VL502 (50 watt version) as well, and actually had 2, one was my main amp for about 3yrs giggin and shit back in the day, never had a problem with it. and then once I got back into playing 8-9yrs ago, I bought another one, it was ok, but didn't last long around here, no problems, just too much other stuff out there that's better now. But if you can get it cheap, I'd snag it, it is a good amp with some old skool tone! Shouldn't pay more than a few hundred for it tho.

The attenuator on those is very cool, you can crank the tubes at bedroom levels.

[Shawn Lutz]

those are pretty cool. I'm not sure if its the same amp but but I saw Mr. Big in a little club in Houston and Paul Gilbert was using the Ampegs with the lite up logos. I actually thought he sounded better live than he did on the albums.

Some models would go up in smoke...really catch fire from the tolex too close to the power tubes

[Strangletooth]

those are pretty cool. I'm not sure if its the same amp but but I saw Mr. Big in a little club in Houston and Paul Gilbert was using the Ampegs with the lite up logos. I actually thought he sounded better live than he did on the albums.

Some models would go up in smoke...really catch fire from the tolex too close to the power tubes

Yes, those were the same, I seem to recall Paul using them for a while.

[Robbie Dane]

Sorry, I had to cut my post short earlier. The main problems with the VL's was the molex connectors going from the preamp board to the power board. The molex connectors could not handle the amount of current from the heater lines and would melt subsequently burning up the board. That is where most of the problems occured usually taking out other things including the board itself. Lee Jackson has a DVD that he goes through all of the fixes. If you buy one of these the first thing you should do before firing it up is to open it and check the connector.

The amps are great and have a lot of versatility. The gain is out of control. The reverb on these are a little lacking but it is nice to have separate controls.

[Firebird V]

FIGHT used them to record and also for the War of Worlds tour. That will give you an idea of the gain. My band back in the mid 90's used them and the LJ heads live and to record a cd and they record really well with the power attenuator. I would still look for the LJ head because they are only a few dollars more and to my ears were a beter sounding head as well as being built a little better. 2¢

[Robbie Dane]

The LJ's are better mainly because Ampeg wasn't there screwing them up. There are some things on the VL that Lee did not agree with Ampeg doing but they did not listen. They wanted to save money at the expense of quality.

[MSGfan]

The LJ's are better mainly because Ampeg wasn't there screwing them up. There are some things on the VL that Lee did not agree with Ampeg doing but they did not listen. They wanted to save money at the expense of quality.

Exactly, Lee Jackson amps are much better!
Sold my Ampeg VL 1002 as soon as I bought a Lee Jackson XLS 1000