Ampeg B-15-N

[Ron Carter]

By chance I was talking to one of my neighbor over the weekend and the conversation turned to my playing the bass. Turns out her dad played bass before he passed away and she still had his gear in her basement. We go down and there sits an Ampeg Portaflex B-15-N tube amp some cabinets and another amp which I don't recall. I will go back this weekend to take a closer look. But the Ampeg caught my eye, she saw that I was interested so she told me to take it home and see if it worked. I was wondering what would be a fair price to offer her for just the head. As the original cabinet is missing. I see the combo is going for crazy prices on Ebay. Would like to get a realistic price.

Thanks

[Professor Thump]

I replied in your other post but will mention here that Ebay is a very good judge of current prices. It is a bit more like the stockmarket because it is realtime. Thus the Sunday prices may be higher than the Monday prices but the average price can be determined from there. Use the completed sales sorting to find the prices. I use this a lot to find vintage prices. The more rare stuff is popping up in the last year with the recession. Really expensive stuff doesn't usually sell on Ebay or takes many times to sell. Some of the premium vintage stores do better due to the fact that you can try it out and they may be more trusted.

That head is a nice amp by the way. Sounds good on a guitar also but I tend to like 10-12" drivers instead of the 15" due to the HF shooting at your knees instead of your ears because it is so directive. I have one of these amps that is probably a 1952-55.

[Ron Carter]

Thanks for the reply. I went back to where I got the head. Turns out the cabinet was still there. I have been using the head for about two weeks now and it is in great shape. No hiss or hum is noticable. The cab is a little beat up, but looks as good as some I see on Ebay that have sold for over $1000.00. I don't want to sell it, just trying to get an idea of value. They also had and Acoustic model 136 combo amp. I am checking it out. The controls are a little scratchy but overall it looks to be in decent shape. I attached a photo that has the Ampeg in it. Not a great shot though.