charliea
Senior Member
This is my first tube amp, and I bought it sight unseen from a GC in Kentucky, where they could give me about zero details. Man, did I get lucky. It's a '68 (per the serial #) J-12 with no A or D after it which means, miracle of miracles, that it uses two 12AX7s and two 7591s, instead of some of those crazy tubes like 6BK11 that Ampeg once used. The controls couldn't be simpler, and it sounds like a dream. Starts crunching a little before half volume, and just sings as you turn it up. For lower volume I can plug it in the "bright" vs "normal" jack and save my ears. Has a CTS 12" that looks good and sounds great. The tremolo is a little overpowering. Don't know if it's right or not, as I've never had one before. No subtlety to it at all. The 7591s are Ampeg branded, maybe original, the 12AX7s are some German numbers, replacements, I guess. In any case, it sounds so much better with electric guitars than my old Carlsbro solid-state acoustic, I'm grinning from ear to ear. I opened the back and had to vacuum the dust out to see what was happening. Hadn't been opened in a long, long time. Here's some pics, before the tubes were inserted, of the front, control panel, back with cover removed, label and, last but not least, the two-prong supplied on-off switch with what I presume is the "death cap", which I need to fix pretty quick.
Charlie
Charlie