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| Formerly | Michael-Hull Electronic Labs |
|---|---|
| Company type | Private |
| Industry | Musical instruments |
| Founded | 1946; 79 years ago (1946) |
| Founder | Everett Hull, Stanley Michaels |
| Headquarters | Calabasas, California, US |
Area served | Global |
| Products | Bass &guitar amps Electric &acoustic upright basses pickups Bass guitars Electric guitars |
| Parent | Yamaha Corporation |
| Subsidiaries | Dan Armstrong |
| Website | www |
Ampeg ("amplified peg")[1][2] is a manufacturer best known for itsbass amplifiers.
Originally established in 1946 inLinden, New Jersey by Everett Hull and Stanley Michaels as "Michael-Hull Electronic Labs," today Ampeg is part of the Yamaha Guitar Group. Although specializing in the production ofbass amplifiers, Ampeg has previously manufacturedguitar amplifiers andpickups and instruments includingdouble basses,bass guitars, andelectric guitars.[3]
Everett Hull (born Charles Everitt Hull), a pianist and bassist from Wisconsin working withbandleaderLawrence Welk in Chicago, had invented apickup forupright bass in an effort to amplify his instrument with more clarity. Hull's design placed a transducer atop thesoundpost, a support peg inside the body of his instrument, inspiring his wife Gertrude to name the invention the "Ampeg," an abbreviated version of "amplified peg." On February 6, 1946, Hull filed a patent application for his "sound amplifying means for stringed musical instruments of the violin family," for whichU.S. patent 2,430,717 was awarded the following year. The Hulls relocated to New Jersey, and Everett met electrical engineer and amp technician Stanley Michael, who was selling a bass amplifier of his own design, soon renamed the Michael-Hull Bassamp. In 1946, they established Michael-Hull Electronic Labs in Newark, New Jersey, to sell their two products. Michael left the company in 1948, leaving it to Hull, who relocated the company the following year to 42nd Street in Manhattan, above theNew Amsterdam Theatre, renaming it "The Ampeg Bassamp Company."
Michael-Hull advertised inDownBeat magazine, listing bassists likeChubby Jackson andJohnny Frigo as endorsers. Additionally,Eddie Safranski signed on with Michael-Hullto promote Ampeg products, receiving aroyalty payment for equipment sold by their influence. After Michael's departure, Hull continued to leverage connections with well-known musicians to increase awareness of his products within the New York jazz community; Ampeg's new location betweenCarnegie Hall,NBC Studios in30 Rockefeller Plaza, and theParamount Theatre helped establish relationships with bassists likeOscar Pettiford,Joe Comfort,Amos Milburn andDon Bagley.
In 1955, local musician and electricianJess Oliver visited Ampeg's offices to purchase an amplified peg, and upon easily making the installation himself, Hull offered him a job. Oliver didn't join Ampeg on a full-time basis until 1956, the same year that Ampeg's name was simplified to "The Ampeg Company." In 1959, the company was incorporated as "The Ampeg Company, Inc.," with Everett Hull as President, Gertrude Hull as Secretary, and Jess Oliver as Vice President.[4]
In 1960, Ampeg introduced the B-15, a bass combo amplifier with an innovative flip-top function, invented and patented by Oliver. The B-15 was the first in the company'sPortaflex series, and after becoming the preferred studio amp of session musicians likeJames Jamerson andChuck Rainey. The B-15 and its subsequent variants went on to become the most-recorded bass amplifier in history.[5][6] By 1963, the Portaflex series business had grown to 44% of Ampeg's amplifier sales. In 1962, Ampeg introduced the plastic-bodiedBaby Bass, a compact upright electric bass created from the Zorko bass, whose design Ampeg had acquired from theDopera brothers,[7] along with a unique Oliver-designed, Ampeg-patented pickup.
In 1962, Ampeg and its 40 employees moved to a new manufacturing facility in Linden, New Jersey. At 8,000 square feet, it was three times larger than their previous home. In June of the following year, after continued struggles to meet production demands and maintain cash flow, Ampeg announced an initial stock offering and became apublicly held company. By 1964, Ampeg had 100 employees and needed more space, relocating to a larger space one block away.
The combination of the rising popularity of rock and roll and the shift of bassists fromupright bass toelectric bass guitar during this time posed a challenge to Ampeg’s core business. The company's ads continued to feature prominent classical, jazz, and country artists, but with a notable absence of rock artists, and Hull strove to minimize rock musician visits to Ampeg's facilities. Hull's distaste for rock and roll music was further compounded by the success of Ampeg's chief competitor,Fender, as they continually bested Ampeg in overall sales.[3] Through the 1960s, Ampeg amplifiers were designed for "clean, undistorted sound", with Hull saying "we will never make anything for rock 'n' roll".[8]
The company continued to experience growing pains – by October 1966, with 200 employees and 40,000 square feet of space, Ampeg's production capacity had increased to $350,000 per month, yet had $3.5 million in unfulfilled backorders.[citation needed] Amidst company struggles related to growth and manufacturing, as well as disagreements with Hull, Oliver resigned from Ampeg. Hull began to seek potential buyers for the company.
In September 1967, Ampeg became a subsidiary of Unimusic Inc. when the newly formed investor group acquired a majority share of Ampeg stock. Unimusic consisted of investors interested in capitalizing on opportunities in the highly fragmented music equipment market of the time, not unlikeCBS (which ownedFender andRhodes), or laterNorlin (which ownedGibson Guitars,Lowrey andMoog Music).[9] While Hull was retained as President of Ampeg, Unimusic had purchased the company with the intention of using as a starting point for change. After a year of conflict between Hull and Unimusic, Hull tendered his resignation on October 3, 1968.[4] Unimusic introduced a redesigned Ampeg logo and a new series of advertisements targeted at the rock market. In an effort to establish an Ampeg presence in key music markets, Ampeg opened regional offices: in Chicago; in Nashville near theRyman Auditorium; and in theHollywood Palladium in Hollywood.[citation needed]
Ampeg chief engineer Bill Hughes and Roger Cox, with input from Bob Rufkahr andDan Armstrong (a New York session guitarist and guitar expert hired as a consultant), were developing what Cox envisioned as the “biggest, nastiest bass amplifier the world had ever seen.”The Rolling Stones anticipated usingHiwatt DR-103 amps, as during their 1969Hyde Park gig, which they brought from England. Their road manager,Ian Stewart, contacted Rich Mandella at the Ampeg office in Hollywood, and Rich arranged for the band to use five prototype amplifier heads of this new high-output model. These employed a 14-tube design to generate 300 watts of power in an era when most tube amps generated less than 100. The Rolling Stones took these prototypes and Mandella on tour, playing all guitars and basses through them for the entire tour. After the tour, Ampeg put the design into production as the SVT, introducing it at theNAMM Show in 1969.[10][11][12][13][14][15]
After Armstrong and his amp tech Tom Duffy began modifying B-25 bass heads for rock guitar, the design team responsible for the SVT created the V series, introducing the V-3, V-2 and V-4 heads, VT-22 and VT-40 combos in 1970. The V-2, V-4 and V-22 were adopted by high-profile guitarists likeRon Wood andKeith Richards; both would use Ampeg SVT heads and cabs until 1981, when they replaced the SVTs withMesa Boogie Mark I and Coliseum 300 amps.
Armstrong designed a transparentplastic guitar and bass for Ampeg. The guitar was used by Keith Richards with The Rolling Stones during the same 1969, 1970, and 1971 tours and some early shows of the 1972 tour, and the bass version byBill Wyman on the 1972 tour and some of the 1973 Winter tour shows. In 1971, citing lack of compensation for his contributions to the V-series amplifiers, Armstrong left Ampeg, and refused to renew the agreement allowing manufacture his guitar and bass.[16]
In 1971, Ampeg was acquired byMagnavox,[17][18] which owned musical instrument manufacturerSelmer, but was better known for televisions, radios and hi-fi components. The following year, Magnavox dissolved Ampeg’s incorporation and moved Ampeg’s management to the Selmer-Magnavox offices in Elkhart, Indiana. In 1974, amidst economic struggles and production capacity surpluses, Magnavox closed Ampeg’s Linden plant, moving production to a portion of a Magnavox electronics factory there. In 1978, SVT designer Bill Hughes left the company.
In 1980, Ampeg was acquired by Music Technology, Inc. (MTI), a wholesaler specializing in amplifiers from Japan and keyboards from Italy looking to expand. Under MTI management, SVT and V series amps were prototyped for production in Japan (though V series were never produced). MTI also introduced five new solid-state amps and six new tube amps for Ampeg, and a series of effects pedals. But after production issues and substandard sales, MTI declared bankruptcy a few years later.[when?]
In 1986,St. Louis Music (SLM) acquired the assets of Ampeg,[17] including the rights to the name and all remaining MTI inventory. SLM converted leftover V5 heads into SVT-100s and set out to re-create the SVT, setting aside a room at SLM Electronics for anintensive development project. Working from original SVT drawings and parts purchase orders from 1969, the team created a run of 500 amplifiers in 1987 dubbed the Limited Edition SVT-HD amps.[19] SLM then re-established Ampeg manufacturing in its Borman Avenue factory in St. Louis, introducing fourteen new Ampeg guitar and bass amps and the world’s largest bass amplifier at the 1987 summer NAMM Show.[citation needed]
In 2005,LOUD Technologies Inc. purchased St. Louis Music and its brands, including Ampeg[17] andCrate amplifiers, ending their production at theYellville, Arkansas facility in March 2007, outsourcing amplifier manufacture to contract manufacturers in Asia.[18]
In May 2018, following the purchase of Loud Technologies Inc. by Transom, the Ampeg brand was acquired from the restructured LOUD Audio LLC byYamaha Guitar Group, Inc.[20][21]
The current Ampeg company is mainly known in the field ofbass amps.[22] They also have a line ofguitar amplifiers and a remake of theDan Armstrong guitar and bass.[23]
Ampeg holds six U.S. patents under the Ampeg brand name.[20]
In the late-1950sJess Oliver invented[3] a combo amplifier with a chassis that could be inverted and tucked inside the speaker enclosure to protect thevacuum tubes. This combo bass amp was introduced in 1960 as thePortaflex, and remained a popular choice through the 1960s.
In 1961, Ampeg became the first company to incorporatereverberation (reverb) in an amplifier with itsReverberocket, which precededFender'sVibroverb amp by nearly two years.[25] Despite Hull's distaste for rock and roll and resistance to distortion, the Reverberocket employed6V6 -type power tubes which sounded "Fendery" and did break up in a way that rock and roll players could use.[26]
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During the 1960s Ampeg only produced fairly low wattagecombo amplifiers. Rock concerts were becoming increasingly large affairs and bigger amplifiers were needed. In 1969, Ampeg's Chief Engineer Bill Hughes designed theSuper Valve Technology circuitry for the amplifier of the same name. At 85 lb (39 kg), theAmpeg SVT provided 300 watts of RMS power, considerably more than most other bass amplifiers of the era. The high power rating made the SVT a candidate for use in larger venues. The SVT saw widespread use by rock acts in the 1970s and is still considered by many to be the world standard reference bass amp. TheSVT-VR (Vintage Reissue) is almost identical in design and construction and the closest thing to any of the original SVT models produced by Ampeg.
In the mid-1990s, SLM issued several guitar amplifiers under the Ampeg name. Some of these, the "Diamond Blue Series," used the names of vintage Ampeg models (such as Jet andReverberocket) and featured the bluish-colored diamond-checkerboard covering associated with Ampeg amps of the 1960s. The circuit designs of these amplifiers, however, were new. ThePortaflex bass amp was reissued, with updates intended to make it more appealing to modern bass players.
The Ampeg GVT series, introduced around 2010, is a series of tube amplifiers built in South Korea, employing theBaxandall tone circuit.[27][jargon]
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Ampeg also manufactured (or had manufactured for them) lines of quirky but distinctive instruments to complement their amplifiers.
Baby Bass, introduced around 1962, was anelectric upright bass with a full-size wooden neck and a cello-sized Uvex plastic body. The design was purchased from Zorko, re-engineered by Jess Oliver, and manufactured in a corner of Ampeg'sLinden, New Jersey factory. It appeared in Ampeg's price list until about 1970, though popular only with bassists in Latin andsalsa bands.[citation needed]
In the early 1960s, Ampeg-branded guitars and basses were produced byBurns of London. These instruments did not sell well because import costs made them too expensive compared to Fenders and Gibsons.Baldwin's purchase of Burns in 1965 ended the association with Ampeg.
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In 1966, Ampeg introduced their home-built line of long-scale "Horizontal Basses" (aka "scroll" or "f-hole" basses), both fretted and fretless (reputed to be the first production fretless electric bass)[citation needed]. Some with different bodies were produced as the "Devil Bass" with distinctive horns, but the circuitry was identical. Originally using a transducer below the bridge, they were redesigned around 1968 to use a conventional magnetic pickup. At the same time, short-scale fretted and fretless basses, with magnetic pickups, were also produced.[28]
In 1969, the Horizontal Basses were replaced by theDan Armstrong-designed "see-through" guitars and basses, with bodies carved from colorlessacrylic plastic.[29][30] The transparent bodies contributed to long sustain but were heavy. The guitars incorporated slide-in user-changeable pickups, and the short-scale basses used two stacked coils with a "pan" pot[jargon] for a wide range of tones. Production of the "see-through" instruments ended in 1971 when Armstrong left the company.
In the mid-1970s, Ampeg had a line of Japanese-made guitars and basses under the "Stud" name. The guitars included theStud,Heavy Stud, andSuper Stud, and the basses included theBig Stud andLittle Stud. The Studs were knock-offs of popular Fender and Gibson instruments (although the Fender copies sported rather incongruous 3/3 and 2/2 guitar and bass headstocks). Some of the Stud instruments were poorly built (e.g. the plywood bodies and necks on the Little Stud), while others had good-quality features (e.g., gold-plated hardware on the Super Stud).
In 1971, Ampeg was acquired byMagnavox, which led to a distributorship deal with the Swedish guitar company,Hagström. In 1975, Ampeg and Hagström collaborated to develop their first guitar/synthesizer hybrid using the contact of the strings on the frets as electric switches: In 1976 theSwede Patch 2000 was released, which required Ampeg Patch 2000 Pedals and an external synthesizer (Steiner-Parker Microcon was designed for it).[31]
Ampeg also produced effects pedals, including stand-alone reverb units in the 60s, theScrambler (distortion) from 1969 (a resurgence in interest resulted in an updated Scrambler being reissued in 2005 along withSub-Blaster (octaver) that produced a note one octave down), thePhazzer (phaser) from the mid- to late-70s, and a line of nine stomp boxes produced in Japan in the mid-80s.
There were also Ampeg branded accessories that included covers, picks, strings, straps, polish, as well as two practice amps, theSound Cube and theBuster (aPignose clone). Currently, Ampeg mostly offers covers, some outerwear, and a few other accessories with their logo.
In the mid- to late-1990s, Ampeg reissued the Baby Bass, the Horizontal Bass,[3] and the "See-Through" instruments, as well as wooden instruments based on the "See-Through" design.
![BT-15 transistor bass amp (1966/1967)[24]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aAmpeg_B15_Bass_Amp.jpg)
