Ampeg VH-140C 2x12 Combo

I bought my Ampeg at a pawn shop for 189.00. Listed for around 900.00 new in 1993 I restarted my musical career (I'm 51 years old)

I have owned many different amps Fender Super Reverb Gibson Titan V among them and didn't know what I was missing until I got my Ampeg home for a test ride. Only one word to describe it UNBELIEVABLE! This amp has so much punch, I can actually drive two 4x12 cabinets with ease. 140 watts stereo Has a great chorus feature, and fair reverb, not as nice as Fenders reverb but still acceptable.

There really isn't anything I don't like

Solid amp that will stand up to the abuse of many one night stands.

Ampeg stopped making this model in the mid 90's a shame! if you find either the VH140C or the SS140C (earlier model basically the same amp. Buy it!

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

2 channels:

Channel A: gain low,ultra mid, high and level.
Channel B: Gain, low, mid, high and level.

On board Reverb : Rev A and Rev B.

On board Chorus: Depth A, Depth B, and universal Rate.

Effects loop.

70 Watts per side totalling to 140 watts! 2x12 stereo setup! Real stereo chorus!!! Solidstate!



UTILIZATION

Very easy to use! Channel A is actually the lead/distortion channel while channel B is the clean channel. As this amp is infamous for its distortion more than it's clean, even though it's clean is nice.


Everything is quite easy to use, just turn the knobs till it sounds good!

SOUNDS

Distortion sounds are very very unique. It's very tight and very thick, but can be very thrashy for metal if perferred. The Vh140 is known to have one of the best distortion sounds for very heavy metal and death metal etc. Very tight distortion. But it can sound very thick if you want too. The ultra-mid knob is just that, it's very sensitive and can cut a LOT of mids or add a LOT of mids. This is one of those amps that you can crank the gain and the distortion will not mush out, rather it would stay super tight and just add more harmonically rich distortion!

The chorus is also really cool, you can add it to the distortion to get some crazy thick zakk wylde like heavy gain tones or you can use it on the clean and get a nice lucious clean.

The reverb is also decent. I'm not a huge reverb user but on clean it can sound good at times for certain purposes.

The cleans are also not bad. plenty of headroom, no break up unless you want some, just crank the gain and you can get a sort of acdc/light rock tone, generally a bit bright.



OVERALL OPINION

One of the best amps for tight metal! Thick and sizzly and tight at the same time!
Can range from clean to Pantera-esque metal to black/death metal! Great for the super chugga chugga riffs! Also very very loud!

I've owned both the head and combo and figured that the combo would be a more compact version of it, but it's actually damn heavy so my plan backfired!