Model : Ampeg VL-502
Year : 1995
Price Paid : $399

I picked up a used Lee Jackson designed Ampeg VL-502 50 watt head at Guitar Center the other weekend. The price caught my eye. I knew a guy who had one years ago so I plugged in. At first I wasn't that impressed because my impulse is to crank the preamp and gain knobs for maximum distortion. It sounded way too compressed. But rolling the preamp back to "12" help a LOT. Sounded really great. Then I cranked it up. Awesome 80's rock sound. So I bought it.
It has a clean channel that isn't much to speak of. It's kind of a dirty blues channel. Pre, low, mid and high control the clean chnl. The distortion channel rips. Has preamp, gain, low, mid, mid frequency (5 option switch), highs. Each channel has master volume and reverb. The reverbs have a low hum to them, possibly the driver tubes are bad. There is a master presence control and a built in attenuator. It takes either EL34's or 6550's (there's a switch in back). FX loop w/pad is useless, maybe it's driver tube is bad also but it sounds like crap so I don't use it. I can get the preamp to about 2:30 o' clock before the compression gets too bad for me. It's filled with Sovtek 12AX7WA's and I read those compress really bad so I'm hoping that's why.
Great value. Probably needs a re-tubing and bias. But it can only sound better and it kills now. It's a heavy SOB too, I'd hate to think what the 100 watt version weighs.
Here I was wondering how I would pay for a $2300 Uberschall head, but now I have this. I'm not saying it's like an Uberschall but it fills the distortion niche that needed filling for me. For now...