duncanjames wrote:Woah! I've owned one of these since 2009, and since then I've never seen another that's as clean as mine. They are surprisingly quiet amps for the size, but I believe that's all down to the stock CTS speakers. I once plugged it into a different pair of averagely efficient modern speakers, it was MUCH louder. I'd suggest a speaker swap if you wanted more volume, but I personally like the built in attenuation of the old speakers.
I feel these sound cooler than the V4 and V2 that I used to own, and at a much more manageable volume. I can see how they might've been taking a page out of Fender's book, but it seems to me they are their own thing as well. To my ear the breakup is much smoother than a blackface/silverface amp, and the reverb and trem are definitely unique yet usable.
Nice! These are somewhat rare gems, and this is the first one I've seen in the wild. Glad to see someone else here is part of the club!
I'm with you on the speakers - sure, they're not particularly loud, but they actually sound pretty decent compared to the stock speakers I've heard in other Ampeg stuff. To your point, I'm sure a couple Weber Chicagos or Californias would make this thing an absolutely beast. That said, I don't think I'll be changing mine either. I love the way this thing sounds as-is, and the fact that it's basically dead stock and clean as a whistle is appealing given the road-warrior status of my other amps.
Have you noticed that channel two (the dry channel) is significantly louder than the effects channel? Also, what's the deal with the bright inputs? They're MUCH quieter than the normal jacks. I still need to try the jumpering the channels trick - have you given that a shot?
Agreed that these are much closer to a Fender than their successors. From what I've read, these are a direct descendant of the earlier blue tolex Reverberockets and Geminis, with some additional tone shaping controls in the Ultra-Hi and Ultra-Lo switches (by the way, the Ultra-Hi... Ouch!). Listening to this and my Reverberocket II side by side, the GV-22 is much more modern, and does more than just the dark, middy, smoky cleans that the earlier amps are renowned for. It's as if Ampeg recognized it was time to get with the times and dip into what was making Fender's amps so successful. So... not surprisingly, the GV-22 actually sounds really close to my SF Twin, with a bit more oomph and complexity in the low mids than the Twin.
While these bear some resemblance to the V2/V4, they're definitely more understated. I love my V2 for certain applications, mostly louder rock stuff, but it doesn't have the same simplicity these have. The variable midrange is cool, but truth is, sometimes you just want to plug in and not fiddle with knobs, and that's a big part of the appeal of these. I think the biggest difference comes in how they behave when they start to break up - the Gemini and earlier Ampegs are ratty and raspy in a very late 60's garage rock type of way. The V2/V4s are much more modern and smooth sounding, and definitely do the big power chords/soaring leads thing much better out of the box.
Phew. Typed quite a bit here...
