W.L.Weller wrote: Fri Sep 19, 2025 4:11 pm Two tubes that I know appear in some old Ampegs that are wildly expensive/unavailable are the 7199, a triode/pentode, and the 6C10, which is three triodes (basically 1 + 1/2 12AX7) in the same bottle.

Good thought! Do some googling before jumping into anything. The 7199 referenced is not in production, and a NOS replacement is currently $99.95 from a trusted source (tubedepot). However the same source will also sell you a 6U8A with a pin adapter for 7199 use for $13.95. Its a preamp tube, and it may never die, but at that price its easy enough to have one or two of those on hand as backup. The 6C10 compactron though.....those are $199 and no workaround outside of serious amp modification.

And apparently some Ampeg Jets used another pair of no-longer-made compactrons as preamp/tremolo/driver tubes, the 6BK11.

But if you had an amp that used a 12-pin compactron that's currently $200/not available, and you always wanted to get into building ships in a bottle, you could make a "2 noval to one duodecal" adapter a la TDPRI FM Bendyha: https://www.tdpri.com/threads/super-cha ... st-5861101

I think my fave Ampeg guitar amp was the V4 and VT22 (the combo version of V4). The few extra frequency selectors make it like 5 amps ion one. A bit heavy and loud (100W) although they did make a 50W version.

W.L.Weller wrote: Two tubes that I know appear in some old Ampegs that are wildly expensive/unavailable are the 7199, a triode/pentode, and the 6C10, which is three triodes (basically 1 + 1/2 12AX7) in the same bottle.

The octal preamp tubes like the 6SL7 and 6SN7 and the power pentode 7591A output tubes that some Ampegs used are being manufactured again.

Dr Tony Balls wrote:

W.L.Weller wrote: Fri Sep 19, 2025 4:11 pm Two tubes that I know appear in some old Ampegs that are wildly expensive/unavailable are the 7199, a triode/pentode, and the 6C10, which is three triodes (basically 1 + 1/2 12AX7) in the same bottle.

Good thought! Do some googling before jumping into anything. The 7199 referenced is not in production, and a NOS replacement is currently $99.95 from a trusted source (tubedepot). However the same source will also sell you a 6U8A with a pin adapter for 7199 use for $13.95. Its a preamp tube, and it may never die, but at that price its easy enough to have one or two of those on hand as backup. The 6C10 compactron though.....those are $199 and no workaround outside of serious amp modification.

W.L.Weller wrote: And apparently some Ampeg Jets used another pair of no-longer-made compactrons as preamp/tremolo/driver tubes, the 6BK11.

But if you had an amp that used a 12-pin compactron that's currently $200/not available, and you always wanted to get into building ships in a bottle, you could make a "2 noval to one duodecal" adapter a la TDPRI FM Bendyha: https://www.tdpri.com/threads/super-cha ... st-5861101

All good to know. Definitely a lot of variations out there, and I'd rather not be stuck with something needing practically unobtainable tubes.

Went to the music shop this weekend and it sucked. Beyond the endless string slapping funk bass jam, they only had one tube amp, a used Fender Bassbreaker 45, but I didn't get to touch it. Dude who worked there was wailing on the Peavey next to it for 25 minutes, jamming to the slap bass seeming very intent on not making eye contact with me. Tried looking for a case for my les paul, but nothing fit my vibrato. Whatever. They had some of those digital fender tone masters, which I wasn't much interested in.

Dunno, I miss living in a real town. Might make a point of riding around the triangle one weekend to try stuff out. I don't know what the amp buying experience is like on Reverb these days, especially with something like an Ampeg where the seller might not be able to answer questions about tubes or whatever. Not having a local tech I know is something else I think of.

Anyway, I did some listening to demos. And yes I do like the sound of the Tweed Bassamn and JTM 45 Marshall amps where I found good clean to slightly overdriven demos. Also listened to a lot of and 60's Fender circuit demos. I definitely favored the Bassman circuits to the Twin, Deluxe, Bandmaster, etc amps. Didn't get around to any with the Princeton Reverbs, however. It can be hard to find demos I trust with straight forward playing and not over produced to sell something.

I'll let ideas simmer some more. I did wind up getting a little Eminence 8" speaker on sale and put it in the little Traynor TS-10 project. Damn, that things sounds a thousand times better. It is still a weird little solid state amp from the 70's but it has charm and is a great shop amp. Being the size of a lunch box helps.

ManFish wrote: Mon Sep 22, 2025 5:36 pm I think my fave Ampeg guitar amp was the V4 and VT22 (the combo version of V4). The few extra frequency selectors make it like 5 amps ion one. A bit heavy and loud (100W) although they did make a 50W version.

There's also these (rare?) GU-12 little guys. I don't know anything about them, but they seem like a cool little form factor. I recall when these GVT-115 amps came out. Never got to play one and don't know if they were made well, but I like the idea.

VaticanShotglass wrote: Mon Sep 22, 2025 6:15 pm I did wind up getting a little Eminence 8" speaker on sale and put it in the little Traynor TS-10 project. Damn, that things sounds a thousand times better. It is still a weird little solid state amp from the 70's but it has charm and is a great shop amp. Being the size of a lunch box helps.

It's my belief that a ton of the bad reputation solid state amps have is down to the lousy speakers they shipped with. I've been pleasantly surprised by a bunch of 70s - 90s SS amps after swapping in a speaker that I know I like.

VaticanShotglass wrote: Mon Sep 22, 2025 6:15 pm There's also these (rare?) GU-12 little guys. I don't know anything about them, but they seem like a cool little form factor. I recall when these GVT-115 amps came out. Never got to play one and don't know if they were made well, but I like the idea.

The GU-12 does use a tube that's not currently being made, but as of now, you can get a "NOS" 6U10 for a very reasonable $11 https://www.tubesandmore.com/products/6 ... acuum-tube

The GVT-115 is a much newer amp, uses the same tubes as a Princeton non-reverb, but does apparently use the same type of EQ circuit as the old NJ/Magnavox Ampegs, which is one of the big differences between Ampegs and Fender/Vox/Marshall.