I just got a reply back from Ampeg:

My Question:

Hi there, I've been on the hunt for the discontinued VH-140C guitar amplifier, was it even sold in the UK? I can't seem to find any information regarding it on UK sites. Is there even a slim chance it may get reissued??

Their Response:

Hi James,

Not sure if they were distributed in the UK or not. Like most Ampegs I would think that it was at some point. I can't say for sure if we are going to reissue it or not. There have been some talks about reviving the guitar amp line for Ampeg.
Hope this helps, feel free to drop me a line anytime.....

Thanks for choosing Ampeg!!!!

Dino Monoxelos
Global Ampeg Product Specialist
LOUD Technologies Inc.
ampegsupport@earthlink.net
dino.monoxelos@loudtechinc.com
www.ampeg.com


So at least he didn't laugh me out about it getting reissued! Maybe, maybe......

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Not bloody likely, but! maybe if everyone sends emails to them, and are all like "hey, reiussue the VH series."
I'll probably not do that, but, if everyone else does...

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Holy shit! Who knows they might actually do it, they don't have any other guitar amps besides their reverbrockets nowadays, which only appeal to old farts and they don't really sell very well, most old jazz and blues farts would rather buy a Fender or something.

If they brought back the VH/SS series with some added reliability(eg. no sudden poweramp failures) I'd buy one or two of those in a heartbeat. I wouldn't even care for a sound improvement, as long as it can sound like the old ones I'd be left shitless! If the price them right they'll put out all the other solid state/modeling and even some tube heads aimed for metalheads out there to fuckin shame.

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i'd buy a head/stack and a combo

Yeah exactly what I'd do too.

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I emailed ampeg about a vh140c reissue, maybe we'll getting them to do it.

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Fuck someone with webdesign skills should put together a blog/petition site and I'll proliferate it all around Harmony Central and various death metal-related forums.

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Damn good idea, to be honest with the popularity of reissues at the moment (think Marshall and Fender) I wouldn't be surprised if they took notice. Plus Metal is more popular than ever at the moment.

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If any of you at Ampeg are reading this : Reissue the best solid-state metal amplifiers ever made already.

Well I wouldn't say more than ever. But it's certainly gaining a lot more exposure right now than it used to in the mid to late 90's and 2000's.

I don't exactly know if they'll sell very well though. They really only appeal to death metal fans, it's not going to draw an incredible amount of consumers. The need to put a reasonable price on em. I know they used to retail for 800$ new(the VH heads), if they bog it down to 600$ or 500 I'm sure they'll sell thousands within months.

Also cross your fingers that if the do reissue it, it won't suck, like a lot of recent amp reissues(JCM800, Sunn reissue, some Fender reissues).

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Here's a response from Ampeg about me asking about a reissue for the vh140.

"We are looking at introducing more and more guitar amps in the Ampeg line. You never know what crazy and kooky things we might do. Keep your eyes peeled though."

Who knows, maybe we'll see something good in the near future.

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Haha awesome. Might not be a VH140 reissue, but maybe we'll get a reissue of the VL series? Not sure if Lee Jackson would consent to that but you never know...

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Well they have reissued a few guitar amps from the past so maybe it might happen!

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I don't think they would, but the only way it would be successful if they reissue it is to not change the name, looks or any other major feature of it, clearly advertise it's abilites, and make sure it is priced relatively cheap. Considering that they fix any of the small issues the amp has, theres basically no new
development/research involved in producing it and it would probably not be too costly to reintroduce. I will say though, VH/SS pretty much slays any solidstate amp made today period....so they may appeal to others besides just metalheads and actually sell well if they advertise them.

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Yeah definitely, I don't really care for any changes or vast improvements, just added reliability as some VH140's caved into poweramp failures. If they rebuild the things with higher quality components they should still be cheaper to manufacture than what they cost back then, especially if they're going to mass produce them overseas(but only if they're going to enforce some serious quality control!).

If they reissue it I hope the use better speakers for their cabs too, the SS cabs weren't that great and really masked the abilities of the amp I hear.

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I find that most 'custom-voiced' speakers that are designed to pair up with Heads or whatever usually suck. I don't think anyone should assume that just because it has a matching cab that it would be perfect for the amp.

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Yeah, ask Peavey tube amp owners how much they hate the matching cabs.

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some one post the emiall address, i want this thing out on the market again, that would be sooooo sick if they reissued it!!!

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I think its in my first post ^^^

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5150 cabs are actually quite nice :P.

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I've heard the contrary from virtually every 5150 owner. :P

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I think we need to make a big deal about this.

even if it is heavily marketed towards metal guitarists...... i mean metal is actually gaining allot of public notice lately...... Suffocation even had a spot on a history channel commercial appropriately enough.

I would definitely buy a head and maybe a combo. Because honestly Ebay is looking pretty empty and I want a VH140 so this is actually a godsend for me.

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Although I understand that they are in fairly heavy demend, I never understand all these posts about not being able to find one??? There was a combo that didn't sell last week on eBay US, and theres currently a head on there as well that has no bids. They always pop up on Harmony-Central too. A little searching goes a long way!!

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Yeah it's just that some people don't feel comfortable paying 400-500$ for an amp described in "As Is" condition because it's a clear indication there's something wrong with the amp. Everyone knows the reliability issues they had and noone wants to deal with a faulty one. Finding ones in good condition can be pretty hard.

If they do reissue this, they could really do with some endorsements from Dying Fetus, Suffo(if they decide to stop using XXX's), and a few other DM bands, maybe some metalcore bands the way Krank does it just to gain popularity. Except the Ampegs, unlike the Kranks, wouldn't suck.

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Yeah I guess its because I always translate $'s in £'s so even $500 is still really cheap to me. I think the price point is a big factor too for new products. Too cheap and people assume its crap, too expensive and people won't buy. I think I'd still rather rely on an SS amp for reliability than a valve, maybe thats just my naivety though.....

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It's a fact that tube amps' functionality and sound is affected a great deal by fluctuations in weather and wear/use on the tubes. I'm not a tube nazi really, I've played many of both types and I know what I like and don't like. If it sounds good I don't care if it has transistors or valves in it, but for the sake of not needing to replace tubes on a bi-yearly basis or less and worry about how fragile some tube amps are, I'd much rather have a SS amp. But I love my Engl tube amp though.

Digital modeling is a different story. I've just never gotten satisfactory sounds out of digital modeling amps like the Cube, Alesis, Behringer combos or Line 6 series though, I'd much rather have a generic SS transistor preamp amp over anything that has microchips in it. I have never played a V-amp 2/Pro or a PodXT/Pro though, just a Pod 2.0 and those modeling amps I mentioned.

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I like tube amps too but i obsess over the tubes fucking up that I drove myself crazy so I sold all my tube gear years ago. I was going to buy a vh140 but the prices on ebay kept going up and up so i settled for a crate gx130c for now. If they announce a new vh140, it'll give me time to save up for one.

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Haha yeah I feel the same way, I'm paranoic as fuck with my Engl, after I'm done playing I don't even touch it for ONE HOUR, not even putting the dust cover on, cuz I hear the tubes need to cool off before any movements. And I'm NEVER taking it outside my house less it's traveling wrapped in towels or in a flight case in a car. It's almost like I try playing as little as possible on it too, I do all my warmups before turning the amp on. I feel stupid for owning it, but I just love the sound.

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don't really know but that sounds pretty good to me! tehyve struck gold once! maybe they can pull it off again!

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I really hope this actually happens. I'd love to have that Dying Fetus/Suffo tone at my disposal.

If they reissued them I'd buy 2.

On the SS cab thing...it depends which cab you buy. The one I ended up getting came with real Celestions stock..and is an awesome cab..stereo, ohms switchable, larger sized..it actually sounded better than my friends Mesa cab. It could have had a speaker transplant at one point or another tho. I have seen some of the SS cabs (like the 2-12s) that have Ampeg speakers in them and have no idea what they sound like....so who knows.

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