Any love for the Ampeg VL 1002?

[War_in_D]

Here is what I've found.. so far.

Replaced tube socket, although not sure if one socket or three sockets have been replaced. There are three black, unmarked and one Belton. When I looked at the video Lee Jackson did outlining what to fix on these, it kind of looked like the chassis he was working on had Beltons in it (lighter colored).

Yup, the molex connector is toasted:

Found these strange scratchy marks under this little do-dad, and what appears to be a suspisious resistor/capacitor across a couple of the pins on the V1 preamp tube socket:

This thingamabob looks a little suspish too, maybe burned? I searched the net for gut shots of the VL1002 to try to compare to mine, and the best picture I was able to find shows this to be nearly stark white vs. having that dark spot going across the middle.

And last, but not least... This looks like a bias pot to me, can anyone confirm if these had them? I just kind of figured that with the ability to switch tube types, these wouldn't have a bias adjustment (ala Mesa Boogie).

 

[RaceU4her]

I’d definitely hit up hermansson

 

[panhead]

Most Lee Jackson stuff doesnt sound that great.

 

[panhead]

I think there is a switch for 34`s / 6550`s. Thats a bias pot.

 

[panhead]

$250?

 

[Gitfiddler]

I had one a few years ago and picked it up and sold it for around the $300 range. It was fine for a backup amp and as a power amp for FX units. It sounded good with a variety of boosts. I never cared much for the attenuator. Here's a deeper dive, with the amp sounding better towards the end of the video.

 

[Tone Ranger]

I had a friend who was a paul gilbert fanatic in the early 90s. he had two vl502s in stereo. His album tones were pretty good to my ears. My fav was the Sugah intro
https://www.reverbnation.com/heeger/song/11157220-sugah

 

[War_in_D]

I’d definitely hit up hermansson

Yeah, I thought about that but shipping one way to Sweden for an amp sized package at 60# is between $325 (economy) and $380 (priority). So, that's out.

I think there is a switch for 34`s / 6550`s. Thats a bias pot.

Thanks. After I had asked that I found the owner's manual online, and it talks about the bias pot.

$250?

Close, it was $300 out the door.

I had a friend who was a paul gilbert fanatic in the early 90s. he had two vl502s in stereo. His album tones were pretty good to my ears. My fav was the Sugah intro
https://www.reverbnation.com/heeger/song/11157220-sugah

Yeah, that sounds pretty good. I've also heard some other demos too. I checked out that one from Kyle too. I think there's some potential with the amp, but from what I'm reading you have to coax it out with tubes and speakers.

I've been toying with the idea of putting my Splawn Nitro back to EL34's (from KT88's), and I've got a Weber Bias Rite that never has worked right on one of the bias probes.. I might load the Splawn, the Weber and the Ampeg up and take them to my amp guy and have him knock all this stuff out in one shot.

 

[Luca79]

The one i had was repaired, and i remember various burns left on the PCB, which was very thin and all the tubes sockets mounted on it.
I wouldn't waste any money to mod it, unless is rebuild from scratch.

 

[War_in_D]

The one i had was repaired, and i remember various burns left on the PCB, which was very thin and all the tubes sockets mounted on it.
I wouldn't waste any money to mod it, unless is rebuild from scratch.

Yeah, I think the plan will be just to have my guy fix what needs fixing and just leave it stock. I'll make a fun, and relatively cheap head to mess around with.

 

[War_in_D]

Appointment next Saturday to drop off the Ampeg for surgery. Hopefully everything goes smooth and there aren't any other issues that pop up and turn this thing into a money pit. LOL

 

[just42dave]

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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Two very different amps. They slay on the lead channel and the reverb is good. The clean channel can get dirty but it is a weird dirty. I have had many of them since they came out and had Lee mod a couple of them. I like them but prefer a solo boost.

 

[stratjacket]

$300 out the door is a great deal. If the surgery goes well, even better. I used to have an Ampeg about 15 years ago, can’t remember the model, but I remember getting some pretty good sounds out of it.

 

[Flexibleguy67]

The Ampeg VL 1002 is the real deal and I will definitely rock it.

 

[firegate]

I've got one that Dave Friedman modded years ago and I think passed around LA for a while before I picked it up, it absolutely rips. Kind of like a more aggressive HBE.