Review by Dan T.
This was my DREAM guitar! The very first one that I paid for with my own hard earned cash!... $400.00 brand spankin' new in its own form-fitted, rectangular hardshell case. I'd never seen anything like it before in my life and it was SOO COOL! I sure wish I still had it now....... if only I'd known that I'd miss it so much. Unfortunately, I traded it for a "64 Strat (not a bad deal by itself) and it ended up in the hands of a pawnshop dealer/slash guitar collector/player wannabe a year later who wouldn't sell it back to me after getting it from the kid I traded with for the Strat. It must have been a low serial number (below 2,000) because as you can see from the images below, I called or wrote to Ampeg within the first year and got an update manual in March of '71 that shows how to rewire the guitar for increased performance. I think I gave the original receipt and/or registration card (if there was one) to the kid when we traded, so I don't have that anymore.... too bad!
I did very little to this guitar outside of the update mod and shimming the neck, which was bolted on with large bolts with smoothly rounded, low profile heads... there's a name for these, but I can't think of it. I also owned a bass (serial number also in the 1,000s) at one point a few years later, which made me regret having traded the guitar even back then. The bass went through some mods too... some for the sake of the update, but I also changed the tuners to Shallers because the original ones were so tiny... and I put in an adjustable Precision-type adjustable bridge because the original wood one just didn't cut it. I still have the wood bridge from the bass, which was stolen along with the Strat.... wouldn't 'cha know. The bridge of the guitar and bass were simple wood with a little brass peg in the bottom to keep them from shifting side-to-side... there was no bridge saddle... grooves just happened from the strings resting on the wood. I never could afford to get anymore pickups, but the two that came with the guitar were pretty sweet. One was referred to as a Country pickup (or something of that nature) with a single metal bar across the top of the heavy clay molding, the other had a double bar and was kind of a hot rod pickup. I always thought the slot and pin hookup was really slick, but I was always wanting for a way to forget about the thumbscrew and just slide the pickup in or out fir changing. Didn't have velcro then or I probably would have tried it. That guitar had the most incredible sustain!! and the 24 fret neck was clear all the way to the edge of the body! The first of its kind, I'm pretty certain. The pickguard and headstock veneer were made of formica, I think... wore just like it... the pickguard got slick and glossy from my pinky rubbing on it all the time. I never ever had trouble with this guitar. Played it in all kinds of weather conditions, inside and outside. Sweated all over it in the summer and all I had to do was wipe it down with a guitar rag and some Martin or Gibson polish. The truss rod adjustment was as smooth as can be and used a hex wrench similar to Gibson. The frets wore pits a little faster than some guitars IIRC.... but I had this slick fret refinisher kit I bought through an add in Guitar Player or something.... I still use it today sometimes.
Somewhere around here I still have a Guitar Player ad with Keith playing one of these babies... and I used to have a pic or two of Joe Walsh with one too from when he was with the James Gang. I always figured the reissue must be pretty sad compared to the real thing..... maybe that was an earlier reissue someone else has already mentioned here. I never bothered with them. This new one looks pretty sweet... and that CASE! Mine never looked so good! It's late and I think I'm rambling, so I'll go to bed. I've posted a couple pics of the two versions of the user manual I received with the guitar and got later with the update. The little pics can be clicked on to view a much better image of the different pickup wiring schematics from the back cover. The handwriting is that of the tech that sent me the info... with a note I highlighted that reads, "(SER # A 2000 D & up)". I've got a few more images I can post if anybody's interested. I'll come by now and then to check out what's going on here. THIS IS VERY COOL!
After reading up a little, I decided to revise my comments about the original guitar I owned. I guess you would call the wood bridge piece the "saddle", although in my mind it WAS the bridge. The metal bridge plate below it was what held it and the strings in place.... I'd forgotten that metal plate! A lot of negative comments about its design, but although I think the new design with compensation built in is a good idea, I never had any issues with intonation as long as I changed strings regularly. It's funny too, that being the fanatic I am about string adjustment today, I never saw a real need for height adjustment at the bridge, assuming that this design helped create the great sustain this guitar had. Instead, I simply shimmed the neck ever so slightly to bring the strings just a bit closer to the neck. The large bolts holding the neck on (as I remembered them) were actually the nut end... the bolt being imbedded in the neck design. Negative comments about this design are curious to me as well. I never had issues with this design. I really liked the thinness of the neck/body joint and made great use of the "flimsy" feel as a kind of poor-man's whammy. In fact, I have always used this ever since to give a little character to my chords. I'd completely forgotten the double strap pegs on the base of the body. I really appreciated that feature and made good use of it. I'm glad they've kept it in the new guitar. It's sad to read that the original pickups have had problems over the years because of the material they used to encase the hardware. I really liked them... they were heavy and felt really substantial. What I described as clay was not, but felt like it to me. The name of the two pickups that came stock with the guitar were the Country Treble and the Rock Treble. I liked them both although I think I favored the double rail. Anyway, just thought I'd correct a few of my earlier comments based on fuzzy memory. Hope somebody gets something useful from this.
Dan T.
July 2007
I did very little to this guitar outside of the update mod and shimming the neck, which was bolted on with large bolts with smoothly rounded, low profile heads... there's a name for these, but I can't think of it. I also owned a bass (serial number also in the 1,000s) at one point a few years later, which made me regret having traded the guitar even back then. The bass went through some mods too... some for the sake of the update, but I also changed the tuners to Shallers because the original ones were so tiny... and I put in an adjustable Precision-type adjustable bridge because the original wood one just didn't cut it. I still have the wood bridge from the bass, which was stolen along with the Strat.... wouldn't 'cha know. The bridge of the guitar and bass were simple wood with a little brass peg in the bottom to keep them from shifting side-to-side... there was no bridge saddle... grooves just happened from the strings resting on the wood. I never could afford to get anymore pickups, but the two that came with the guitar were pretty sweet. One was referred to as a Country pickup (or something of that nature) with a single metal bar across the top of the heavy clay molding, the other had a double bar and was kind of a hot rod pickup. I always thought the slot and pin hookup was really slick, but I was always wanting for a way to forget about the thumbscrew and just slide the pickup in or out fir changing. Didn't have velcro then or I probably would have tried it. That guitar had the most incredible sustain!! and the 24 fret neck was clear all the way to the edge of the body! The first of its kind, I'm pretty certain. The pickguard and headstock veneer were made of formica, I think... wore just like it... the pickguard got slick and glossy from my pinky rubbing on it all the time. I never ever had trouble with this guitar. Played it in all kinds of weather conditions, inside and outside. Sweated all over it in the summer and all I had to do was wipe it down with a guitar rag and some Martin or Gibson polish. The truss rod adjustment was as smooth as can be and used a hex wrench similar to Gibson. The frets wore pits a little faster than some guitars IIRC.... but I had this slick fret refinisher kit I bought through an add in Guitar Player or something.... I still use it today sometimes.
Somewhere around here I still have a Guitar Player ad with Keith playing one of these babies... and I used to have a pic or two of Joe Walsh with one too from when he was with the James Gang. I always figured the reissue must be pretty sad compared to the real thing..... maybe that was an earlier reissue someone else has already mentioned here. I never bothered with them. This new one looks pretty sweet... and that CASE! Mine never looked so good! It's late and I think I'm rambling, so I'll go to bed. I've posted a couple pics of the two versions of the user manual I received with the guitar and got later with the update. The little pics can be clicked on to view a much better image of the different pickup wiring schematics from the back cover. The handwriting is that of the tech that sent me the info... with a note I highlighted that reads, "(SER # A 2000 D & up)". I've got a few more images I can post if anybody's interested. I'll come by now and then to check out what's going on here. THIS IS VERY COOL!
After reading up a little, I decided to revise my comments about the original guitar I owned. I guess you would call the wood bridge piece the "saddle", although in my mind it WAS the bridge. The metal bridge plate below it was what held it and the strings in place.... I'd forgotten that metal plate! A lot of negative comments about its design, but although I think the new design with compensation built in is a good idea, I never had any issues with intonation as long as I changed strings regularly. It's funny too, that being the fanatic I am about string adjustment today, I never saw a real need for height adjustment at the bridge, assuming that this design helped create the great sustain this guitar had. Instead, I simply shimmed the neck ever so slightly to bring the strings just a bit closer to the neck. The large bolts holding the neck on (as I remembered them) were actually the nut end... the bolt being imbedded in the neck design. Negative comments about this design are curious to me as well. I never had issues with this design. I really liked the thinness of the neck/body joint and made great use of the "flimsy" feel as a kind of poor-man's whammy. In fact, I have always used this ever since to give a little character to my chords. I'd completely forgotten the double strap pegs on the base of the body. I really appreciated that feature and made good use of it. I'm glad they've kept it in the new guitar. It's sad to read that the original pickups have had problems over the years because of the material they used to encase the hardware. I really liked them... they were heavy and felt really substantial. What I described as clay was not, but felt like it to me. The name of the two pickups that came stock with the guitar were the Country Treble and the Rock Treble. I liked them both although I think I favored the double rail. Anyway, just thought I'd correct a few of my earlier comments based on fuzzy memory. Hope somebody gets something useful from this.
Dan T.
July 2007