Any love for the Ampeg VL 1002?

  • Thread starter Thread starter War_in_D
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War_in_D

War_in_D

Well-known member
Been researching these VL heads, and aside from the normal issues with the molex connectors and such.. What's the general consensus?
 
Lee Jackson version of a hot rod marshall right? I would rock one.
 
JackBootedThug said:
Lee Jackson version of a hot rod marshall right? I would rock one.
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Yes, that's my understanding. Had the gimmicky "lock" on them to stop other so called "jealous guitar players" from using your rig when you weren't there.. :ROFLMAO: I've found one locally, for what I think is a decent price but from the research I've done they pretty much all need some maintanance work so I'm holding off on it hoping it may come down some more.
 
I have a friend with wizards and boogies and a shit ton of amps and he still swears by it as his fav of all . I think it’s great but he’s over the top in love with it . It has big fans still
 
Techdeth said:
I have a friend with wizards and boogies and a shit ton of amps and he still swears by it as his fav of all . I think it’s great but he’s over the top in love with it . It has big fans still
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That's interesting. If the price got low enough that I couldn't pass it up I may have to give this one a shot. I'm going to assume that it will need all the molex connectors replaced, rewired, etc. and I need another amp like a hole in the head so it's going to have to be a screamin' deal before I jump on it.

What does everyone think one of these would be worth, assuming it needs some work to be reliable?
 
AFAIK it's pretty much the same as the Lee Jackson XLS1000. I guy I know just picked up one of those for $450 with new tubes.

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Yeah, probably a really good deal on that one just in tubes alone! :unsure:

If I read right, the VL has 7 preamp and 4 power tubes.
 
My old drummer has one. Used it for rehearsals until I couldn’t stand it anymore lol. Put different tubes in, re eq’d it and no dice. The Crate Stealths I’ve played shit all over that VL. Make sure you try before you buy
 
No. They are loud dog doo doo. Even a Blue Voodoo sounds better and that's saying something.
 
RaceU4her said:
i would send it to hermansson, if someone said this is the best sounding amp ever id have no argument

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What's the going rate for Hermansson mods? I wonder if a person was to be able to score a VL cheap enough, would it be worth sending over to have modded?
 
Well, I went back into that pawn shop that had the Ampeg VL and it was still there. Took it home, untested because they didn't have a single cab in there to plug it in to (the place honestly looks like it's going out of business).. but got what I felt was a screamin' deal on it. So much so, that for what I paid for it, if the tubes are all good I probably came out alright.

Getting ready to plug it in, and see what happens. Wish me luck! LOL
 
JackBootedThug said:
good luck!!!! let us know!!!
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Short play through, everything seems to be working (even the logo still lights up). Doesn't sound bad, but nothing extraordinary with the limited amount of playing around I've done with it. Mainly just setting everything an noon, and running through the channels to make sure that nothing was going to blow up. Surprisingly, for as dusty and crusty as this thing looks there were no scratchy pots. The reverb isn't working though, so not sure if the tank has been unplugged or if the reverb driver tube may be bad or missing. I'm going to pull the back off, check all the tubes and give it a good cleaning. I need to find a footswitch for this thing too.
 
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