Ampeg AMG100 Owners Club

I thought I would start one for this quirky, cool, and surprisingly well-built guitar based on the Dan Armstrong but with a wood body. I've been playing around with one for the last few weeks and it is a nice guitar.

Mine is almost 100% stock at the moment but the cool thing about this guitar is the interchangeable pickups. I spoke with Kent Armstrong and ultimately he sold me a P90 and it is amazing. Great tone. There are so many types of pickups that can be put in the Armstrong box which makes this pretty versatile.

I'm waiting on some Grover Roto-Grips that I ordered to install locking tuners.

Anyone else playing one of these?

Wayne

what is the neck like?
the shape and the thickness?
is the radius flat?
thanx

Sorry, I'm not really sure of the radius.

The neck is not too thin but definitely not thick. It is made quite well and is very easy to play.

Wayne

Sign me up! Just ordered the blonde ash model from Samash. Can't wait to get it in!

I just bought the cherry one. I used to have a PRS Custom 22 Goldtop and comparatively, this guitar is fairly decent. I had to sell my PRS because I needed the monies. I'm considering buying a PRS stoptail bridge and PRS locking tuners for it, then I will be really satisfied. I mean, if you've never had a higher end guitar, you will be really happy with what this guitar has to offer for 269 bucks.

Hell, when I buy both the PRS bridge and tuners, the money I have spent = about 69 bucks more than the original price of the AMG100. You can say all you want about the stock hardware on this guitar, it is not top notch at all IMO. It is decent, about as good as squire hardware, epiphone hardware or lower end PRS hardware; I'll give it that. But this guitar has a lot of potential with higher end hardware. I can't wait to install this stuff, this is going to be a great axe.

There is one more complaint I have about it, it's neck heavy. Personally I don't want to get repetitive strain injury because I'm having to hold my neck up while I play. So I may duct tape some lead weights to the bottom end of my strap.

I'm kinda gassing for one of these... something about it what are these weighing in at (appropriately) word is the white/maple is lighter, just curious.
Thanks,
Michael

It's pretty light, mine is probably about 7 lbs. I decided to leave the original bridge on, it's actually not as bad as I thought. Also I am getting Sperzel locking tuners. I have the cherry one, though I stripped the finish and gave her a makeover. Check it:

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y231/BrielStigmatic/AMGnewlook1.png

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y231/BrielStigmatic/AMGnewlook2.png

I just received my blk, missed out on cherry. I was shocked to find it was so light, it's lighter than my light weight Paulownia bodied Esq., have to put it on the scale. I see what people say about the pickup area finishing, the back edge of mine is barely dusted with black, otherwise flawless. Neck is perfect and the frets though not polished nicely are great. I must say I'm really in love with this thing, I'm kinda shocked. I like that it came with the same strings/string wrapping and inspection tag as my CV Teles... I've had it plugged into my ReverbRocket since I opened it... No regrets, it's a keeper.

https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=1d144a9ac2&view=att&th=12f1e10bcc7d1ad1&attid=0.1&disp=inline&zw\

It's up and rockin' again!

Congrats man, you still enjoying it then I guess! =)

Omg yes... And I underestimated the stock hardware. The bridge is pretty damned good, and is in fact a locking bridge. I also got Sperzel locking tuners on it and it is great. The only other things I think I will replace are the tone and the volume pots. They are VERY noisy when you turn them.

I talked to Kent Armstrong, he said if I send him ANY pickup, he will put it in the swappable pickup casing! PRS Dragon pickups, I think yes!

Any idea how much Kent charges for the service?

No clue dude, I would hope not too much. I would contact him directly if I were you and ask. He's fairly prompt about answering email.

I just bought an alder one. I ****ing LOVE these guitars.

LOL, yeah, I ended up grabbing a second, prefect weight for my back injury and feels sooo good. may have to touch up the frets a tiny bit on one, seems like the 2nd is just a bit high, but the action is super low. I'm going to refin one in SFG and put a crushed pearl guard on it and have that epoxy filled pup replaced with a nice P90. ( though I do like the pickup! ). I haven't even taken them apart yet, but my post are stone quiet and have really nice tapers to them. I expect to find full size Alpha pots in there, but ya never know. ~M.

My pots are still quiet, but they are tiny little things. Prolly replace them when they start to go. Haven't done the rifin yet, you guys still happy with yours? I'm going to contact Kent in a few weeks and see about getting a P-90 is pup made, or just see if he cam make one of the single blade types. ~m.

Fellow AMG100 Players -

I've been enjoy my black AMG100 I bought from Sam Ash a couple years ago, but have been perplexed about the 3-way tone circuit. Maybe someone can help me out. The center switch position is tone circuit bypass and the down position (towards the output jack) engages the tone circuit, which I can definitely hear when I adjust the tone pot. However, what does the up position of the tone switch supposed to do? For me, it does absolutely nothing. I've critically listened to A/B comparison between center position and up position with the tone pot in every possible position and nothing. Absolutely no effect on the tone or output level or anything. Maybe it's not wired properly from the factory? Nothing in Ampeg documentation regarding this. If there are more tone combos possible by using the up position of the tone switch, I'd like to know. Then I can maybe trouble shoot the switch and circuit. Maybe a bad solder or cold solder. Don't know.

Anyway, if someone can please tell me what the up position of the switch is *supposed* to do, I'd really appreciate it. T.I.A.

~ ElevenBravo

I bought an AMG from a local music store in 2001 for $250. It has two of what I'm pretty sure are P90s, one tone knob, and a three-way selector. To the best of my knowledge, my guitar (being an earlier model) does not have the interchangeable pickups. I use the bridge pickup for a clean rythym tone, the middle position for country, and the neck pickup for blues and rock leads. It took me a while to find a good balance using the somewhat ho-hum tone control, but with the selector in the neck position and the tone knob turned to 3/4 muddy, I can get a nice warm LP style sound. Otherwise, I run it all the way to the right. Location of the tone knob is perfect; with a little practice, it's super easy to switch between tone colors on this guitar on the fly. I've dropped it a few times, with no ill effects so far. I'll continue to use "Peggy" as my main guitar until I can some day finally afford to shell out the money for an American Tele.