latigid on wrote:I think HB3 beat me
, but like I said in the other thread, I think the earliest S/Ns like "1" will be reserved for more "prominent" users. You never know, though.
I have an Ampeg B-15R & B-15E 100w Tube bass amp & Extension Cab 2-15 Stack that I baught about eight years after this reissue unit was introduced in 1997.
I got them in two seperate purchases, Extension Cabinet first, then Amp.
Both were Brand New, never sold. So they both had warranties and all.
Both were Serial Number "1"!
I found the B-15E, extension cab in Richland Washington, where it had been used only as a rental speaker cab. They sold it to me for $350.00, a very nice cash price. They didn't even know it was #1 till they wrote it up.
This was after contacting Ampeg to find out if they had ever made one to go with the reissue B-15R amp. I knew a guy in the early eighties who had a 60's B-15N 2-15 Stack, so I knew they were originally designed that way and I expected that they would have done the extension cab also.
Ampeg said "Yes, we made only 75 for distribution, they're discontinued and we only do custom builds for Artist Endorsers"!
That should have been it!
But no I, mister nobody, run into one (and it's #1) in a small store in nowhere Washington.
That's one thing. I buy the extension cabinet for an Amp I don't have!
Now I start trying to sell gear, hoping to find a used Amp that was going for $1399.00 when you did see them or $1999.00 new, which had started as a $2999.00 amp, I think.
I'll try to wrap this up!
I was able to sell a 1974 Rickenbacker 4001 for $1050.00 and then received an email response from Guitar Center in Eugene Oregon that they had two new Floor Models back east that had some slight Tolex dammage that I could have for $1350.00
I say great, they took the Bass Amp I had for the ballance and charged me only $15.00 dollars In-Store Transfer Fee to ship my Amp from the East Coast to Oregon.
I pick up the amp and don't eveen bother to look at the Serial Number until I got home. They didn't seem to care to say anything to me either.
When I did look, I was S/N "1"! Not even a Joke!
What was odd was that the Head was #1 and the Cabinet for the Amp is #2. The store it came from must have received both 1 & 2 and someone wanted the cleanest Head and Cabinet combo so the store swapped pieces to make the deal happen.
I contacted Ampeg to ask if this was how they were shipped from the factory or not! They never really seemed to know. But they put me in contact with the man who designed the Original B-15's and the Reissue, Jess Oliver.
Jess and I swapped emails, very nice guy! He told me he thought they gave him the first one! So he checks his serial numbers and his is #1 also. What was different was the last letter in his "Alpha" portion of the serial number. His is AJYD"J"00001 and mine is AJYD"Q"00001. Also his Head and Cabinet had the same S/N's, so that cleared that up for me.
So, all that finally said and done, you really don't know what you may run into!
We'll see if I was able to add the Photo!
or people are "lurking" due to the long forum registration process. The actual number of orders could be quite a lot higher, but people can't post until they register.
