1966 Ampeg Gemini II

How's it sound, Phil?

It's got a nice warm clean tone, the tremolo is awesome. Breaks up a just a bit when you crank it, but it's not an ear bleeder, 22 watts. Perfect for gigging and recording.

I swear, i'm gonna start my own band any day now.

Sweet amp, Phil. I heard clips from one pretty close to that from a guy on another board. What type of tubes is it running? Does it take pedals pretty well?

Good score.

http://www.ggjaguar.com/gem2.htm


Good info for you there Juice.

The only pedal i own is a boss tuner. I'll pick up some kind of drive or boost pedal someday. I haven't taken a look at the chassis in person, i was so eager to plug the power tubes in and rock.

Here's a peek at the inside.



closer look at the chassis

Now THAT'S the pretty parts!
It's like gearhead porn!

The Cap'n might can address this better but a new set of tubes and a once over the wiring might solve that problem for you.

I'm not familiar at all with Ampeg's of that era.

But the breaking up is a GOOD thing!
That pretty, pretty Dave Davies sound, no?

breaking up that's light distortion is GREAT, hell yeah.

breaking up that's causing signal drop out like a bad output jack, no.

So which is it, Phil?

It's the extremely good kind.

Now that's what I'm talking about!!!

Great news then.

Can't wait for us all to get piss drunk and jam in march.

Worst deal I ever made was trading one of these in for a 1980's Peavey tube/solid state hybrid piece of crap.


(early 70's Traynor all-tube combo).
I couldn't find anyone to fix the (apparently minor) problems it had. But I guess it's a genuine motherfucker when it gets rolling.
Grrrrrrr.........

Treat her nice, P.

1. Original footswitch intact - score!
2. Old Kentucky had/has this amp, if memory serves... Gemini II if I'm reading through the glare correctly. I wanna say his was a single 15 version, though, and yours sure looks smaller, but according to that info page above 15's are all they came with. Huh. That mp3 I posted a while back of us, that'd be the amp he was playing through. WARM. Great bass. Oh and Weber makes a badass guitar-voiced 15" replacement speaker for these, should the need arise.
3. Can't make out the speaker that's in there now... original?
4. Some of them tubes ain't super common. This was always my favorite source for knowledge / purchases: http://www.thetubestore.com/
5. The Star Room Boys guitarist Phillip rocked this model for a while as well, usually with the detuned tele (2 steps down, also how I play mine). Twang!
6. For a classy solid state overdrive / crunch sound with that guy, look at a Route66 pedal, as well as the standard Ibanez Tube Screamer (the TS8 one, not the "turbo"), the Big Muff Pi, and Old K had decent luck with the old Rat ProCo. If you want tubes up there, then good choices include anything by Vox, Electro-Harmonix, or (on the heavy side) Mesa. I have the V-Twin medal they don't make anymore, and it's able to make a good clean tube amp sound awfully close to Corgan circa 1994.
7. Damn you. Stop buying shit I like.

The amp has a 15, the speaker is a jensen



I like that route 66 pedal. I also like that carl martin hot drive n' boost. I'll look around.

So here's the deal Kyle, I'm not actually gonna use any of this gear. I don't even know how to play an instrument. I'm just trying to lure you and the first mate to austin. Colin's brewing skills, service industry skills, and ladykilling skills paired with my ninja like abilities in the kitchen, skillfully guided with your business acumen... Brewpub/concert venue.

bam.

hell, colin's main bass is now my fender j, and his main amps are my mesa stack and my mesa scout. His number two bass is my electric upright.

I'm very insidious.

this is my new set up (about 2 months now)

[img][650:576]http://img3.musiciansfriend.com/dbase/pics/products/8/4/5/265845.jpg[/img]
+
[img][306:500]http://img3.musiciansfriend.com/dbase/pics/products/8/6/5/238865.jpg[/img]

previously i was using 2 4x12's with a mesa nomad 100 head
it was ridiculous for a band that only plays once a month
to be lugging around that much shit all the time
and this little guy actually seems louder

the only thing i don't like about the peavey amp
is that you don't get a separate EQ for the "lead" channel
so i couldn't really find an EQ setting that worked good for both

but its got ridiculous tone control over whichever channel you choose
so i just stay on the rhythm channel and use a tube screamer for my other option
and
its loud as fuck

and i would recommend for anyone that wants a 100 lb amp
that you can lug around in a car

You have infiltrated Colin's infidel outpost like the most skillful of Taliban warriors.

Two thoughts on that Jensen:
1. It's the goods, people sell them for big bucks, "they don't make 'em like that anymore" etc. So thought 1 is "enjoy it, you bastard."
2. The other way of thinking is that you pull it, box it, and hang on to it so you don't blow it. I had one good and one blown Jensen Gold Label in my old 66 Fender 2x12 Tremolox cab, and I pulled both (then left them at Bloor's house for like 6 years and counting) and replaced them with decent mid-grade speakers.

Oh and the day my wife VISITS Texas voluntarily, much less moves there, will be the day hell freezes over. She's not a fan of excessive heat, right-wing politics, or rednecks. (frowny face)

Those 5150's were very, VERY good at one thing, the big crunch sound. Probably the best sounding amp Peavey ever managed to make. But you use it for, essentially, the clean sound, and then dirty it with the TS? Interesting.

Hey if you ever want to discuss moving into a clean reissue Fender Vobrolux (with rolling case), lemme know. I wanna down-size to a Reverb Deluxe bigtime, since they sound better with pedal steel (12 instead of two tight 10's). And you're all of, what, 5 miles away, Cats?

Hmmm... pull the Jensen. Maybe. Sounds so good though. But I've heard those webers, and they're killer too.

I never thought i'd live in tejas either, and we're having a grand time. Sure we miss chicago, but austin is a nice haven of liberal hipsters. If Madison is the reason not to sell Wisconsin to Canadia or the Injuns, then A-TX is the reason not give this goofy state back to beanland..

You'll just have to clone yourself, and we'll let your clone run around chasing beautiful skirts with colin. He can send you a cut of his brewpub cash.

I use it for a barely dirty clean sound.... and then dirty it just a little more with the TS. I play a telecaster so it kind of emphasizes that crunch... everything is crystal clear. Kind of a hot snakes guitar sound-maybe a little less distortion.

I do like those Fenders too-but I'm holding on to this for a couple years.

I'm about 150 miles away...you're in Madison right?
I'm there a lot-but don't live there.

I liked those tweed classic 30s they made, or was that the vintage 30?

whatever, i liked those better than the 5150. One of colin's guitarists uses the 5150, and it sounds great for their noisy freak outs in the middle of their cute little indie pop tunes.