Ampeg Amplifiers

Ampeg dates all the way back to 1946, when the company started out as Michaels-Hull Electronic Labs, named after its founders, Stanley Michaels and Everett Hull. When Michaels left the company a few years later, Hull decided to rename it after the first pickup they had produced: the Amplified Peg. The resulting name, Ampeg, has been synonymous with top-shelf amplifiers and components ever since. Ampeg has always been a company that likes to be on the bleeding edge the industry, producing some of the most revered amps ever played by bassists. One of the greatest of these innovations came in 1969, when a team of Ampeg's designers including Bill Hughes, Roger Cox, Bob Rufkahr and Dan Armstrong, took on an ambitious new project: to build, in no uncertain terms, "the biggest, nastiest bass amplifier the world had ever seen." The outcome of that endeavor was the 300W Super Vacuum Tube (SVT). In an era when most bass amps topped out at 50W, this was considered nothing short of excessive, which is exactly what Ampeg wanted. The SVT was one of the first amplifiers to ship with a warning label explaining that its massive sound pressure levels could cause hearing damage. Naturally, rockers couldn't resist putting something like that to the test, so the Rolling Stones put the 300W SVT through its paces during the U.S. portion of their legendary 1969 world tour. Their album "Get Yer Ya Ya's Out" is among the first recordings made using Ampeg's SVT amp heads, which were still prototypes at the time.

Ampeg didn't stop there, of course, and the many years between the SVT's debut and today have seen their amps continually refined and their lineup expanded to include combo amps, heads and cabinets for all applications. You can go for a vintage feel with the Heritage series, capture classic American tone with the GVT models or bring down the house on tour with the beefy low end put out by the road-loving Pro Neo models. Whatever your niche, Ampeg has an amp to fill it.

Consider just a few of the bassists that trust Ampeg to give their instrument the voice it deserves: Robert Trujillo of Metallica, Gene Simmons of KISS, Mark Hoppus of Blink 182, Owen Biddle of The Roots and Este Haim of HAIM. A roster of satisfied performers that reads like a bassist hall of fame is all that needs to be said about Ampeg to emphasize just how well-respected their amps really are, especially if you subscribe to the notion that volume is king.