NAD: 1965 Ampeg Reverberocket 2

[garyfanclub]

The fixation with vintage Ampegs continues...

Made a pitstop on my way back from New Jersey last weekend and found this gem hiding under a pile of other less-noteworthy amps at Atomic Music in Beltsville Maryland. If you've never been to Atomic Music and you're passing through, you should go. It's 10 minutes off I-95 and there's TONS of fairly priced obscure vintage stuff, and the guys that work there are great and willing to make deals if you're serious about something.

I've been looking for a lower wattage Ampeg combo for a while, so naturally I had to try it. I'll admit that I was fixated on the Gemini product line, but from what I've read, these are VERY similar to those amps, and a bit more portable (12 vs 15"). No surprises here, it sounds EXCELLENT.The trem's temperamental, and doesn't function 100% (need to crank up both the intensity and the speed to hear much of anything) but the reverb is haunting, Santo and Johnny's Sleepwalk-style, super lush. Sounds exactly like those mellow rhythm guitar tracks you'd hear on those early Nancy Sinatra records - the original recording of Bang Bang anyone?

Trem issue aside, it's still got the original two-prong power cord (yikes), ORIGINAL power and preamp tubes (Sylvania and G&E branded!), and some sort of Utah that's been reconed with a JBL. Not sure about the speaker, maybe someone here can shed some light on this. All that said, I took it home for a pittance. I'll pin it on them wanting to get me out of there because they were trying to close up. There was also a similar era mid-60's blue check Gemini II in perfect condition, vintage Jensen 15, but alas it'd been retubed. Still sounded great, but too much amp to sneak into the house when my girlfriend's back is turned. May have to go back for it though ...

Anyhow, this sounds unstoppable with my Jag, mellow, lush and nuanced. Not sure it's going to hold up to gigging, but it's definitely going to be the #1 for recording and playing at home.

Now for the photos... (apologies for the poor quality)

[Bert Camenbert]

Nice! I love old ampeg combos, they have just the right amount of power and they sound so good. Does it come with 6V6 tubes?

[garyfanclub]

Nice! I love old ampeg combos, they have just the right amount of power and they sound so good. Does it come with 6V6 tubes?

Looks like they're Sylvania 7591's in the power section. Haven't done a ton of research into these, but I think it's the Reverberocket (not RR2) that's got the 6V6s. Apparently they had a "Fenderier" sound a broke up much earlier than the RR2 does. The transition to 7591's was supposed to increase headroom, and was seen as an improvement given that this was marketed as a jazz-guitar amp.

That being said, this thing can seriously bark at about 2 or 3 o'clock on the dial Not terribly loud, but mountains of character. Ragged 60's garage band distortojangle in spades if that's what you're looking for.

[W.L.Weller]

I have a Hohner amp that uses 7591 power tubes. I think the amp was made to be Ampeg-ish, it's also got a Baxandall tone stack. It was a bare chassis when I got it, so I made a shoddy "head" cabinet for it. But since I can't leave well enough alone, I've been thinking of making it back into a combo.

Great looking Reverberocket, I'm gonna have to figure out how to get to Beltsville MD.

[julius2790]

I've always wanted to play a Reverberocket. I have an old GU-12 that my Dad gave me and it has a great clean sound at VERY high volume. My understanding is that the Reverberocket has a much raunchier range of tones at a lower volume? I think the GU-12 might have originally been designed with organ players in mind but you have to really push it to get it to break up. Great reverb though.

Cool amp!

[garyfanclub]

I've always wanted to play a Reverberocket. I have an old GU-12 that my Dad gave me and it has a great clean sound at VERY high volume. My understanding is that the Reverberocket has a much raunchier range of tones at a lower volume? I think the GU-12 might have originally been designed with organ players in mind but you have to really push it to get it to break up. Great reverb though.

Cool amp!

Interesting. GU-12's are pretty rare and highly sought after, allegedly they're the amp used to record Exile on Main St (allegedly). I've always thought of those as miniature V-series amp, and from what you're saying (extremely loud, relatively clean), that sounds about right. Would love to try one, but haven't encountered one in the wild.

But yeah, to answer your question, this thing can get pretty raunchy when cranked, and it's not blisteringly loud like my 70's V2 is. Try one out if you can find one. In the absence of a Reverberocket, check out one of the Gemini amps. Similar vibe, but a bit more power. Can be had relatively cheap to boot.

[nanamour]

Well done! I adore my '67 Reverberocket 2; squarely my favorite smallish combo and for that matter, one of my favorite amps of all time. When I got mine it almost instantly usurped my DRRI and AC15, sounding somewhere like a halfway house between the two while also [*tone corksniffery vocabulary alert*] richer and more dynamically complex to my ears.

I've found a speaker swap really transfigures their character a lot, more so than with most of the Fender combos I have experience with (Princeton aside). I've tried quite a few speakers with mine, and when I had it equipped with various AlNiCo Jensens and Weber versions thereof, it dwelled in kind of a mellowed Blackface territory, while the Greenbacks and Celestion Alnico Gold I had in it tilted the balance towards a decidedly Vox-ish bark and chime.

I think they have their own thing going though; they have a certain mellow moodiness crossed with a jangly chime that I've not heard a match for in any other amp. Mine will get a bit hairy past noon on the volume dial, but these with the 7591 power tubes won't get as raunchy as the first-gen Reverberockets with the 6V6's...which makes sense--these were intended to be jazz amps.

No idea how valid the story is, but I remember once reading that Everett Hall and the senior Ampeg leadership loathed the distorted clang of early rock n' roll, so sought to redesign the Reverberocket to be of little appeal to the rockist crowd (sound like Shadowplay's people! )

The trem and reverb are also really unique and treasures in their own rights. The tremolo can get quite thick and swampy and in many versions has a 'secret' staccatto/repeat percussion mode if you turn the intensity knob past 6 o'clock until the internal switch clicks. The reverb knob on these is labeled 'Echo' for good reason--it's maybe less upfront and sharply defined as the familiar Fender brand of reverberation, but has a moody, dimensional effect to it that I haven't found in any other onboard reverb.

Another tip: play around between the inputs. The accordion input was designed to be a bit gainer to make up for the lower output of accordion pickups, and can definitely get into grittier territory than the guitar side if that's the kind of action yer looking for.

You know, it's funny: when I first turned the trem and reverb up a bit on mine I had the exact same thought about it echoing the ghosts of those rhythm guitar tracks on How Does That Grab You? era Nancy recordings. Utterly classic sound and I agree, perfectly suited to the Jaguar.

Congrats on a great buy, I really scratch my head trying to comprehend how these are still so underappraised. Maybe I should buy a second while I still can!

[Bert Camenbert]

But yeah, to answer your question, this thing can get pretty raunchy when cranked, and it's not blisteringly loud like my 70's V2 is.

I have a mid seventies VT-22 (it has a master volume). Great amp, ungodly loud! I swear, it's the best fuzz pedal platform ever built! But it's too loud and heavy to take anywhere, it never leaves my garage.

[mekhem]

RR's are awesome amps. You can tell it was, as a 7591 version, made as a jazz amp. Warm clean tones (which truly do sound amazing with a Les Paul or Jazzmaster). Reverb - slight echo to full on surf and the trem is great as well...

RR's and some RR2's were wired for 6v6's. I badly want a 6v6 version.

* Hint - Wierd trem problems - check the footswitch.

[garyfanclub]

Well done! I adore my '67 Reverberocket 2; squarely my favorite smallish combo and for that matter, one of my favorite amps of all time. When I got mine it almost instantly usurped my DRRI and AC15, sounding somewhere like a halfway house between the two while also [*tone corksniffery vocabulary alert*] richer and more dynamically complex to my ears.

Hah! Corksniffers need not apply, I don't think Ampegs are even on their radar, let's keep it that way! But I agree, there's a glassy thickness to the Ampeg cleans that's just so much more satisfying than Fender cleans in some applications. There's a time and a place for everything, but this amp is just so damn satisfying on its own, and that's not always the case with some Fenders. I find that while LOUD, my Twin is rather shrill and thin sounding solo. Works great in a band setting though. Or as a vocal monitor...

I've found a speaker swap really transfigures their character a lot, more so than with most of the Fender combos I have experience with (Princeton aside). I've tried quite a few speakers with mine, and when I had it equipped with various AlNiCo Jensens and Weber versions thereof, it dwelled in kind of a mellowed Blackface territory, while the Greenbacks and Celestion Alnico Gold I had in it tilted the balance towards a decidedly Vox-ish bark and chime.

I think they have their own thing going though; they have a certain mellow moodiness crossed with a jangly chime that I've not heard a match for in any other amp. Mine will get a bit hairy past noon on the volume dial, but these with the 7591 power tubes won't get as raunchy as the first-gen Reverberockets with the 6V6's...which makes sense--these were intended to be jazz amps.

Hmmm.. I've got a pair of Webers (The C12 repros, I think?) that need to be reconed. I'm curious what those would sound like. Whatever's currently in the RR is a JBL (according to the sharpie on the speaker) and sounds pretty good. Looks like there's an aluminum dustcap peeking out of the grill cloth too...interesting. Good to know that swaps have a profound effect. I've also heard that backpanel/no backpanel can impact how these sound. Unfortunately, mine's been lost to the seas of time. Not sure I'm ready to invest in one of those Fliptops repros yet, maybe just some plywood to protect the old tubes.

100% agree on the tone - it's retro, and recognizable (I feel like it's all over 60's studio recordings), but not mainstream and $$$ in the way other manufacturers are. Love the slightly crunchy yet chimey sound, it's what got me started with old Ampegs in the first place. What's funny is that I played those new Supro RI's at Sam Ash a few weeks ago and they sound remarkably like these amps. Never played an older Supro though.

Luckily these are manageably loud, unlike the V2. Sounds great, but too loud for almost all applications that aren't Stooges cover bands.

Another tip: play around between the inputs. The accordion input was designed to be a bit gainer to make up for the lower output of accordion pickups, and can definitely get into grittier territory than the guitar side if that's the kind of action yer looking for.

Good to know. I read the opposite about the accordion input - that it was padded rather than boosted - but I think that was in relation to the 70's AC-12 accordion amp. Anyhow, I'll give it a whirl - thanks!

[garyfanclub]

But yeah, to answer your question, this thing can get pretty raunchy when cranked, and it's not blisteringly loud like my 70's V2 is.

I have a mid seventies VT-22 (it has a master volume). Great amp, ungodly loud! I swear, it's the best fuzz pedal platform ever built! But it's too loud and heavy to take anywhere, it never leaves my garage.

I feel the same way about my 60W V2, sounds amazing, but you're going to work for the tone trucking that thing around. Can't imagine having 40lbs of speakers tied to that head (VT-40!) - yikes. It's almost as if Ampeg was going to market these amps as anchors for commercial cargo ships if they didn't take off as guitar/bass amps.

RR's are awesome amps. You can tell it was, as a 7591 version, made as a jazz amp. Warm clean tones (which truly do sound amazing with a Les Paul or Jazzmaster). Reverb - slight echo to full on surf and the trem is great as well...

RR's and some RR2's were wired for 6v6's. I badly want a 6v6 version.

* Hint - Wierd trem problems - check the footswitch.

Thanks for the hint! I'm taking it in to the tech today, I'm going to ask him to do a full systems check. I'm preparing my wallet for a full recap, but with that said, this amp is definitely worth the cash and effort put into bringing back to 100% functionality. Hoping that the tubes are in decent shape, those NOS 7591s ain't cheap, and I'm not keen on modding it for 6L6's - 7591's are the reason these sound the way they do.

[wproffitt]

Great Atomic Music find! I got my SFPR there for a very reasonable price back in 2010 and they really are willing to work with you if you are ready to wheel and deal. I've seen some of the smaller 60s Ampegs in there from time to time but have yet to plug into one. Perhaps I should change that!

[eternal learner]

I hope they remain off the radar, i'd love to unearth one cheap.

[amplituden]

I have a '64 and I love it! Good for you!