Some guys that were sharing our space owed our drummer some money and ended up leaving the space and some gear behind. One of the amps they left was a non-working Ampeg V2.

Because it said Ampeg on it, I assumed that it was a bass head. I needed a bass head as I'm acquiring gear for home recording. I had recently bought some vintage Slingerland drums and a Gibson Victory bass, so I needed a bass head and cab. The amp would power up but that was about it. I noticed that the first power tube (6l6GC) was looking cooked and about to go. I had all of the filter caps replaced, had it biased for 5881's and replaced all of the tube sockets. I also cleaned the amp up and did some small tolex repair and it now looks like a proud road warrior as opposed to a trashed and abandoned amp.

I got an Ampeg B series cab (because it was cheap) that has one 15" Eminence speaker and the bass sounded great through it. It doesn't get super loud like an SVT (60 watts) or super clean and modern sounding but it has a great rumbly sixties kinda vibe. With the Gibson Victory bass in the dual coil position it's Sabbath all the way.

I found an article on the web about the V2 and it mentioned that Keith Richards and Mick Taylor played the V series on the Exile tour as guitar amps and that the V2 was actually more suited to be a guitar amp. I also realized that the master switch connected to the Opt's was not original, very handy for a guitar amp though.

I plugged a guitar in and start fooling around and I'll be damned if this isn't the best sounding amp I've ever owned! I thought the 18 watt that I had just built took the prize but now I'm not so sure, this thing has tone and charm for miles. Kind of a cross between a Blackface Deluxe, a JMP Marshall and some Vox thrown in for good measure but none of that really sums it up as it has it's own distinct tone: it's just amazing sounding. It has the best reverb I've heard on a amp and kind of reminds me of the Garnet we used at Electrical. It gets a heavy duty Marshall type growl without a pedal but doesn't really sound like a Marshall, so I guess the only thing it really has in common with the Marshall type tone is the heavy distortion.

If clean is your thing, it can do that as well, so it's very versatile in that regard unlike my 18 watt. It has the Blackface kind of clean tone but once again different.

Does anyone else here own one? They go cheap, usually under $400 in working condition, I put about $400 into it but I couldn't let it go to the garbage dump as this thing is built like a fucking tank and now I'm realizing it's one of the best gear choices I've ever made. It ain't pretty but the sound is tops.

It sounds great through the 1X15 but I may later invest in a 4x10 cab as that is how they were originally voiced (Celestions rated at 60watts each, I believe). I couldn't really try it out with my 2x12 that I use with the 18 watt as it is a 16 ohm cab with a low wattage rating and I didn't want to cook the speakers. Suggestions on drivers? Alnico? Celestion? Jensen? I have some vintage Jensen P12Q's but the head would cook those for sure so I'm not sure what to pair it with besides the 15 bass cab (which does sound excellent for both guitar and bass).

Anyway, I love this amp!

My bandmate just acquired one of these as well. I love it. It's, for all practical purposes, essentially a V-4 with slightly less power. When I started getting really into these older Ampegs, several people on this forum kindly directed me to www.ampegv4.com. There, you will find all the info you will ever need about these amps. Somewhere on the site, there is a downloadable users manual for the V-4/V-2/VT-22/VT-40 with all kinds of sample settings in it. For example, if you're looking for a chimey Fender Twin type of sound, max out your bass and treble, cut the mids, select the Ultra Hi, and select the 300Hz setting on the midrange rocker switch.

If it isn't cutting it for you as a bass amp, volume-wise, try putting a dummy load (or another cab) on the V-2, and running a cable from the Preamp Out into a power amp with the bass cab of your liking hooked up to it. These amps have great preamps. I got a fantastic bass sound by doing exactly this with both a VT-22 and my bandmate's new V-2.

Congratulations on your find. I'm jealous.

And yes, Mick Taylor did use the V-2 during the early 70's, namely for recording "Exile..." and the tour that followed. Keith Richards used the VT-22 on record, and the SVT live for guitar, while Bill Wyman used the V-4 for bass.

Listen to "Get Your Ya-Ya's Out" to hear for yourself.

Thanks for directing me to that page, I had found it before, then lost it.

Through that forum I found an Ampeg restoration/parts company. Too bad they don't sell V2 faceplates, mine is almost gone, they do have V4 though...

I know that a lot of 60's/70's Ampeg cabs came loaded with CTS speakers. I am not familiar with the match for the V-2. Is yours Magnavox era?
Was the 6l6 the original tube that came in that head? or had someone converted when 7027A's were not available?

Are you referring to Fliptops? they have some great ampeg stuff.
One thing you can do is take the faceplate off, scan it and photoshop in all of the controls and have a clear vinyl sticker made with the control info printed on it. If you flip the faceplate upside down and put it on the backside, it is a completely reversible alteration.
I did this on a couple of V4's a while back when I had a friend in the vinyl graphics biz. You couldn't tell the difference between it and the original except that I changed the name "ampeg" to "stuntcock" on one of them for some dumb reason (temporary name of old band.) I may still have the faceplate file somewhere if you are interested (you would have to shorten the overall length a bit, and make it say V2 instead of V4.)



congrats on the find! old Ampegs are some of the best fucking amps period. (in my opinion.)

madraso_ wrote:I know that a lot of 60's/70's Ampeg cabs came loaded with CTS speakers. I am not familiar with the match for the V-2. Is yours Magnavox era?
Was the 6l6 the original tube that came in that head? or had someone converted when 7027A's were not available?

These originally came with 7027A's. A lot of people convert them over to 6L6's to avoid paying extra for the 7027's, as they are essentially the same tube w/ a differant pinout.

I had an early Ampeg 4x12 that was loaded w/ alnico CTS speakers. Ampeg also later used the square magnet Eminence speakers, then American made Rola's, (NOT Celestions) and Pyle Drivers. Various Celestions can be good choices for the amp as well.

The V2 is an excellent amp. It's a 50W or 60W head, depending on the output tubes. For guitar, anything with 25W or 30W speakers will sound great.

I have one. I use it on bass or baritone when I wanted a really ripping distorted sound, which isn't as often as I used to want one. But it sounds incredible in this capacity, through regular bass cabs or a guitar cab with 50-100W speakers.

The thing that really sets Ampegs apart from Fenders and Marshalls is the tone stack. The midrange control does great things, even when used just a little bit, and the ultra-high switch gives Ampegs a distinctive ping that you can't get out of those other guys.

Ampegs don't have the great mellow tone of an old Fender, and they don't buzz up quite as smoothly as a Marshall, but they have a much burlier, more open, more flexible, full-spectrum sound, and I prefer them.

madraso_ wrote:I know that a lot of 60's/70's Ampeg cabs came loaded with CTS speakers. I am not familiar with the match for the V-2. Is yours Magnavox era?
Was the 6l6 the original tube that came in that head? or had someone converted when 7027A's were not available?

Are you referring to Fliptops? they have some great ampeg stuff.
One thing you can do is take the faceplate off, scan it and photoshop in all of the controls and have a clear vinyl sticker made with the control info printed on it. If you flip the faceplate upside down and put it on the backside, it is a completely reversible alteration.
I did this on a couple of V4's a while back when I had a friend in the vinyl graphics biz. You couldn't tell the difference between it and the original except that I changed the name "ampeg" to "stuntcock" on one of them for some dumb reason (temporary name of old band.) I may still have the faceplate file somewhere if you are interested (you would have to shorten the overall length a bit, and make it say V2 instead of V4.)

congrats on the find! old Ampegs are some of the best fucking amps period. (in my opinion.)

Yes, Fliptops, cool site. If you have that file, it would be great, who would I take it to to get it ready for application? Would I just print it?
I did something similiar with a Tascam dust cover...

tmidgett wrote:The V2 is an excellent amp. It's a 50W or 60W head, depending on the output tubes. For guitar, anything with 25W or 30W speakers will sound great.

I have one. I use it on bass or baritone when I wanted a really ripping distorted sound, which isn't as often as I used to want one. But it sounds incredible in this capacity, through regular bass cabs or a guitar cab with 50-100W speakers.

The thing that really sets Ampegs apart from Fenders and Marshalls is the tone stack. The midrange control does great things, even when used just a little bit, and the ultra-high switch gives Ampegs a distinctive ping that you can't get out of those other guys.

Ampegs don't have the great mellow tone of an old Fender, and they don't buzz up quite as smoothly as a Marshall, but they have a much burlier, more open, more flexible, full-spectrum sound, and I prefer them.

Glad to hear you agree about the tone, it really is something special. I figure it will work fine for recording bass here at the house but for guitar...? Absolutely killer. I think having the master volume is what really helps make it growl.

I agree about the tone stack, it's really unique. The sensitivity option is cool and unlike a Marshall the tone stack really makes a huge tonal difference.

Mine has the metal knobs as opposed to the plastic knobs, so not sure what era that denotes, I'll open it back up and see if I find any date markings.

Now it's off to look for some drivers, maybe CTS? For some reason Celestions weren't knocking me out with it, I love 'em with the 18 watt but for the brief moment that I tried the Celestions it wasn't a perfect match. I didn't crank it too much because I didn't want to cook 'em but it's got me chin scratching.

These originally came with 7027A's.

that's what I thought (basically V4/2 = V2)
as for the file,
I will check my computer and see, (this was 5 yrs ago) if nothing else, my friend is still in business, and should have something of it on file (although it was a freebee, so who knows...)

Will contact you if I come up with it- but in either case, if you have access to a scanner & some software it would not be hard to do.

You would take it to anyone who does quality vinyl graphics, (boats, signs, cars etc...)