The Most Iconic Old School Death Metal Amp! 

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the lack of power tube compression was the key to the solid state amps being popular with the DM crowd , they could hold a level of definition at extreme gain and low tunings. its the same reason the cold biased power section/ hi preamp gain 5150 style amps became popular after .

Bought one of these back when they came out , tried it with EVERY cab they had in the store, they had about 10 different cabs. The one i bought was hughes & kettner 4x12 vintage speaker cabs with the metal grill on it, sounded better than all the other cabs.This combo of amp and cab always sounded better than anyone elses at the time. Wished i still had it.

Well, Suffo and Cannibal Corpse definitely could afford different amps and were some of the biggest death metal bands. And Death, the most famous death metal band, went from JCM800s to Valvestates. And Pantera with Dime's all solid state rig was huge. So I wouldn't say it was purely an issue of affordability. That kinda tone was what Engl into V30s is now. Besides, I'd take this Ampeg over many tube amps. It just has this signature raw grind to its tone.

I love the sound of those old ss amps, like this Ampeg, Crates, Randall's, Marshall Valve States (which I've had, once, and regret trading in). At the time, they were so affordable - and versatile, since they were fine for bedroom practice as well as the stage. And the dark, "flat" edge-of-fizzed-out-cheese tone was all part of the mojo of the classic DM sound!

Seldom were these amps recorded with guitar directly plugged to the amp. One of the most common practices was to use the TS-type booster in front of it - and if that was not enough, guitar tech or sound engineer in the studio plugged additional EQ (either before or after the TS) and boosted frequencies around 1 kHz (to some extent also a bit lower / higher and slightly cut some low end, then compensating for it by increasing lows on the amp). This is the main trick to increase "chug" factor and either open up or smooth the tone out for the recording. Additional EQing was also done in- or before the mixing console with separate rack module. However, when the band performed live, they rarely used the same extra sound-shaping effects as in the studio, so the same material, on the very same amps sounded noticeably muddier and grittier than on the album. This also means that the average user gets the tone more akin to that of live performance (or even some "early demo tape"), when he's using these and other analog amps, than what comes out from the studio. These facts are quite obvious for many, but might be worth noting here.

Great production value and awesome playing. What more could you want from a RU-vid guitar channel? Instant follow!

My late 80's/early 90's thrash rig was the ss140c head, 4x12 Marshall angled JCM 800, tube screamer and beat-to-hell BC Rich gunslinger. I saw a lot of these VH 140c's used by the DM kids that came behind us. Thank you for taking me back with this demo!

I LOVE those amps. I knew a guy that had two of them and even at bedroom volume those amps sounded absolutely massive. They definitely live up to the hype. I love that they can sound sludgy all the way to lightning fast TechDeath stuff. Such killer amps

Especially for these kind of sounds.. im in love with my jcm 800. its perfect for these tones

Dude, that demo at the beginning was killer. Great mix and riffs!!!

Great video. I’ve owned a VH140C combo since 1992. It served me well through high school playing rock and metal originals and covers. Later in the late 90’s / early 2000’s I used it for over 6 years in a versatile cover band that played everything from Chubby Checker oldies to Matchbox 20 90’s pop to Metallica with an Elvis set in the middle. It never failed me. It was either on stage in a smoky bar or bouncing around in the back of our old Ford van. Great, versatile amp that could take a beating. I still have it and it still sounds great, although I have the infamous effects loop cut out. But as long as I loop the effects loop, it’s all good. Maybe I’ll get that fixed one day.

I have a Boss Katana MK2 For solid state (very tube like) it’s amazing for under $400 or $300 That 1 +12 speaker will blow your head off Onboard effects are great for bedroom/spontaneous jamming I also have a Harley Benton SG custom for under $250. Killer combination for very little money

Oh, the clean tone demo is a nice adding, not sure about other people but apart from heavy metal I'm also into other "lighter" genres like post-rock, so it's nice to know a dream amp like the Ampeg could pull off El Ten Eleven without trouble lol :D

I would love to see a resurgence in Solid State amplifier technology amongst the guitar community. There are so many great solid state amps in existence and the fact that a lot of people don't realize how much you can do with one baffles me. I've been trying to snag a Randall RG1003h or a Randall RG1503H myself to use in conjunction with the exciter on my Zoom MS50G in the FX Loop to add bass and treble frequencies found more commonly in tube amps. If you get the chance dude, definitely keep an eye out for both of those.

Should of said earlier you wanted that sound. SNK VHD pedal - it’s the preamp dirty channels of the VH140C and nails the sound. I run mine into 100 watt Mosfet power amp. Nice find on the head though. The clean channel of the 140C and even the 150C (same preamps in both) are awesome too. Brutal metal at its finest.

Great Demo. I have the Ampeg Vh-150. Great plug and play amp. Extremely loud with tons of gain in tap.

I have one of these. Bought it used in 1994 and I still have it in my amp room. I’ve had issues here and there with it. Repair tech didn’t screw the guts back in the case and it spilled out, messing up the chorus but the spring reverb still works. The volume will drop out from time to time but it still freaking rips heads off!!!! I love running multiple cabs off of it too!!! Great video man!!

These and the Crate GX are my favourite amps of all time, solid-state or tube. Any blend of the Ampeg, the Crate and the Marshall VS is perfect for that '90s death metal tone.

by far the best sounding video, and most informative for this amp. for me, this is one of those amps that when you hear it cranked in person it all makes sense. well done!

I have an SS140c combo that I grabbed on offerup for $60, which is a slightly earlier version. I know there's differences and the VH is considered the 'holy grail of 90s death metal' but still, I love that amp. The chorus on it is actually amazing and the spring reverb is pretty decent too. Also, that Dimitrescu shirt is sick.

Not only for Death Metal. Kamelot's guitarist has used an Ampeg VH-140 for years. Studio & live both.

Also used on Internal Bleeding's VORACIOUS CONTEMPT and EXTINCTION OF BENEVOLENCE 🔥☠️🔥

I love the casual more plates more dates in the background.

SS amps have a certain "hollow" sound to them that a tube amp can't do the vh140 was unique because of the mid control on the 2nd channel the same thing goes for the Marshall 8100 the "contour" control made it unique because of the way it reacted with the eq and Randall's had that unique gain structure that no other amp had

I believe the schematic on this model is similar if not identical to the crate gx130c. Great video bro

08:38 instant Suffocation "entrails of you" riff vibes here such a sick tone

That sound just throws me back into the 90s, I've always wondered what's behind that sound, great video man, great playing to.

You have the passion for the metal, the dark, the grind, the school of old and retired school, which only is acknowledge once the age has crept up on one. Metal keeps us Young.

Love your channel man, especially all the recent solid state stuff. I can whole hearted say this is my favorite Amp ever. Great review!

I wanted this amp after listening to Suffocation and Dying Fetus. I ended up with an Amp Tweaker Tight Metal. It sounds fantastic (with all knobs at noon except the Tight knob being just off zero) running through the clean channel of my Marshall 8100. But I still want this amp anyway. Thanks for the great vid.

Had one of these back in 1999 when I joined my first semi established band who were playing out in clubs and venues where you needed volume to reach the back of some of them, and this amp paired with a Marshall jmc900 1960A cab definitely got me that volume! Being my first "real" guitar amp rig, I was in tone heaven! Only sold the beauty I had to move on to tube amps I thought I had to own lol. As with all stocks that rise with demand I hate to even think of what I let it go for. I do remember I almost doubled my investment when I did let it go.

I used to go to my local Hollywood Guitar Center in the late 80s and crank up an Ampeg solid state combo I just loved. The thing sounded incredible and was incredibly loud. I would plug in a couple Hamer's I liked, like the Steve Stevens II and Chaparral. There are so many criminally underrated solid state amps and Ampegs were ceertainly in that category.

Those amps are very speaker sensitive. Finding is right match is crucial to your tone. Also the EMG’s really compress that sound that’s why you’re not getting that “airy” sound you’re looking for. I feel EMG’s do that to every amp

Man, all those outputs make for some creative sound setups I imagine. Would love to get my hands on one of these beasts!

Owned one when they first hit. I used the 2×12 ampeg cabs. The trick for me was a boss eq pedal. Then yes, a beast.

Looking forward to what you think of the Peavey XXL. I see it under your XXX :p

You motivate me bro. Thanks. Oh also I haven't watched this video yet but in one of your videos with the boss katana head when you were reviewing it I love how you simply just ran the head through the cabinet and no other bullcrap no other effects you actually showed the true tone of the amp thank you so much for all you do. Subscribed

Holy shit! That intro was sick.🖤

Great post bro…. I too went on reverb and bought one of these recently. I had sold both of mine in late nineties, and wanted to see what i could do with it being much more experienced now. And i struggled with this amp still. I gave up when i plugged into all my other amps to A/B them to this head. Every amp i had was effortless to just eq and get going. This amp took tweaking and tweaking and for what? Everything else i had sounded better with less effort.

Always wanted one of these cool old amps

If nothing else, great bedroom amp. You know that tone, mids scooped all to shit, bass and treble cranked beyond heaven.

This and the Marshall Valvestate 8100 (which I own) are my favourite Solid-State Amplifiers, still chasing this one.

From 1988 to earlier this year I have been a total Crate amps guy. Never could find anything else I liked. I started with a Crate G40C combo. Then to a G120 and a G120 half stack. Of course I have a pedal board from hell running into it. I wish I would have known about this Ampeg amp. Would've changed things for the better back in the day. Now I am playing through an Orange Super Crush 100 half stack and I'm in love with it. All I needed to get my sound and tone out of it is pit a Boss 7 band EQ through the effects loop. I leave it on clean and dirty. Orange is the shit!

I always find it funny that the VH-140C somehow became really popular as a heavy metal amp, because what it is really is Ampeg's version of a Roland JC-120 Jazz Chorus. A VH-140C 2x12 stereo combo was my first amplifier, back in 1990, which cost me (or more accurately, my father, it was his present to me for finally taking up his instrument) $650 USD brand new. The VH stands for "Variable Harmonics" and was essentially an updated preamp fitted to the earlier 1980s Ampeg SS (Solid State, of course) series amps that was meant to produce a better overdrive/distortion sound by mimicking a tube amp. The reason why I chose this amp was because at 22 years old and a new guitarist (I was previously a keyboardist and already in a band), I'd heard so many scary stories about the unreliability of tube amps that I wanted a solid state amp for gigging in teh dive bar rock clubs we played on the East Coast of the US. Of all the solid-state amps in the store, I felt the VH-140C had the best overdrive/distortion sound. The fact that it had built-in chorus (actually vibrato) and reverb was a bonus. The VH-140C combo came in two versions, one with Ampeg branded speakers, and one with Celestion G12M-70 Modern Lead drivers. Mine has the Celestions, though maybe not the original set, as I had a tendency to melt the voice coils playing with my early 1990s shoegaze band. I went through several sets of drivers, and had some of them reconed. The VH-140C does indeed have pristine clean tones, much like the Roland Jazz Chorus, but with better distortion and more power than the JC-120. Like the Roland Jazz Chorus, the "chorus" is actually just a vibrato on one channel; chorus is nothing more than vibrato mixed with a dry signal. Hence the two dry outputs and two wet outputs. Incidentally, if you hook up the optional SS-212E extension cabinet, which is a 2x12 stereo cab with two 8 ohm speakers, the amp delivers I think 90 W or 100 W per channel into 4 ohms. I never owned the extension cab, but a friend of mine in another band had the set. All the albums on which I played rhythm guitar with deardarkhead use that amp, before I switched to bass. I also used a long string of Boss effects, including an HM-2 Heavy Metal and an EH-2 Enhancer for an insane boost. I still have the amp. Several years ago, I took it in for service, because it had become unreliable, and my tech fixed it up by repairing some failing solder joints and cleaning some connections. Sadly, it has become unreliable again, and my tech was an older gentleman who dies during the COVID pandemic, so I don't currently have a tech nearby to fix it. I play a Mesa/Boogie F-50 combo, now, with a Mesa/Boogie Walkabout Scout bass combo as my stereo second channel, if I'm not using it to play bass. By the way, the head version of the VH-140C is simply the combo chassis flipped upside down, so on the combo version, all the controls are reversed, and the inputs are on the left.

This was my main amp head for 24 years until just last year when I got sick of lugging around the 4x12 with it. I've let at least 40 of my recording customers use it on theirs projects as well. Truly an iconic amp! 👍

My friend/guitarist Ward from our punk band Resist (and his other band, the Klingon warriors known as STOVOKOR) uses a 2x12 combo version of this amp (straight in with no pedal effects). It sounds incredible! and to my (albeit slightly overblown) drummer ears, the distortion channel sounds almost indistinguishable from a good high gain tube amp! It's one of those amps that should never be gotten rid of, being a great sounding and inexpensive. (not to mention that even if the sound isn't to your liking over time, it's still a great reliable/unbreakable workhorse that's a great all round back-up amp!)

I have a Creat gx130c? It’s a giant carpet covered head! Supposed to be based off of the vh140c. Has the stereo chorus and so on like the ampeg. It’s a fun toy when it works!!

Clean channel with the drive sounds like evile

I used to use an Amptweaker Tight Drive as a clean boost for my Ampeg SS70. It tightened up so well... damn I miss that amp!

I think the green channel sounds more to my tastes, "beefy" as you said, with a bit of a chunkier, thrashy vibe. But the other channel, definitely see why it was a staple of 90s death metal. With that boomy sound, reminds me of Cannibal Corpse circa Vile or Gallery era, where they first started with the low B-flat tuning.

Sounds so fucking sick! Been trying to find one of these forever in the UK. Just impossible though lol.

Great video series, man. I enjoy these. Only small complaint, set aside a couple minutes to explore the guts so people can see the build quality they're getting into as well. Maybe documenting the ICs and transistor types used for us geeky types. ;) Also, on an amp like this where you like the tone overall but your complaint is muddiness or too much "woofiness" and lack of top end sparkle, try a graphic EQ pedal. Then you can reduce the "woofy" frequency to taste. All metal dudes need an EQ pedal or EQ in the rack.

I want to say that sanguisuggabogs first record was recorded on two of these. He used it with two really tall and skinny tower cabs.

Love this amp! Gonna buy another one eventually

I don’t know if it’s necessarily “underrated” but the Framus Dragon was hugely important to the English grindcore sound (Napalm Death for example) in the 90’s. No one ever talks about Framus amps anymore. They are pretty rare here in Canada, and I’d imagine in the US as well. Edit: Speaking of British amps, you can get some surprisingly good tones out of some of the Bugera heads. Not something you’d expect a big name band to be using in the studio, but they are very decent budget amps if you’re looking to jam in the garage or basement with your buds. The 1990 Infinium 120 watt sounded pretty good. I’ve never played one, but I checked out some videos here on RU-vid. Although you never know what people are adding in post there days.

I never like videos, but when I do, its Taylor Danley

from what i read on the internet, most if all ss amps dont have a reactive load aka an impedance curve that comes from an output transformer, which might explain that flat sound youre talking about, its the same reason why you can run a ss amp without a cab and use the di without a loadbox, the best way to negate that flat sound would be to use an eq in the fx loop and find an impedance curve response and match that to the eq, but thats just what i think

a wet/dry rig is basically an old bassist trick of running a clean signal path and dirty signal path at the same time so basically the head acts like a DI box

Good video. Could be a case also where the amp sounds better in a mix than by itself.

The Suffocation album that most people will mention as having the ultimate guitar tone is Pierced From Within. Contrary to popular belief on that album they didn't use VH-140c amps - they used Marshall VS 8100s.

I've just discovered you about 30min ago. I've subscribed to you. I'm also a HUGE Metal guy.... Metallica, Pantera, KoRn, Cannibal Corpse, W.A.S.P. Metal, Thrash, Death Metal, Nu Metal.....and everything in-between My favorite guitar to play (you'll notice if you watch my videos) is my 8 string Ibanez tuned down a full step E/A/D/G/C/F/A/D

Always looking for solid takes on this amp. It does seem a bit temperamental in the low end, but that doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing. I did prefer This Heavy Earth’s preamp, despite being a bit darker. Regardless, it sounded brutal in the mix, but I suspect that a good deal of the mix quality is also down to your playing and production skills.

I've never really heard this amp before, but needless to say, I'm a massive fucking fan now

Awesome! Love this amp after this review!

That's the thing, some (a lot) of players get what their favorite Bands or Players used and I get it. The thing with that is just like you said, it's what they had at the time and chances are most likely it's because it was affordable at the time. Many of you can play circles around some of your Heros, some not so much. No Big Deal. Use what sounds good and make it work and pave your own way. Perhaps some young Player will research what your gear is down the road and drive the prices through the roof. Most of us aren't rich, not even close. It's a great time to play Guitar and there are so many affordable Amps, Modelers, Pedals, Guitars out there.Spend money on Cables,Strings, & Picks. Practice 4 hours a day and Jam with as many people as possible and let the chips fall where they may. Do it for the love.I love how Taylor pulled out the Sonicake ! Perhaps an MXR 6 band Eq may have helped tame this iconic Beast ? Perhaps not. What do i know.Love that Guitar. Make ?

Pretty awesome. Not a huge Death Metal fan (i'm 65) but Six Feet Under 'The Haunted' or Obituary "World Demise" are here and get spins when i'm in the mood (ie pissed off about something). I'd never associate Ampeg with this genre but pretty great. Last i was excited about was in the late '90s when The Jets were RI'd, diamond blue covers and all. Stopped by a shop one afternoon and a St. Louis Music rep was there since they carried the amps. Better known brand was Crate and the guy said they tried to let the Ampegs 'keep their distance'. Been so long, i don't know if these are still around. Also knew a guy in the mid '70s who had a V4 full stack, to me the American Marshall. The "Stones tone' Look at the back cover of Get Yer YaYa's Out and a mention is given saying Ampeg supplied the amps for that tour,,,prob included Altamont. man, a tech travelled with the band. oh, the V4, it was stolen from a band storage space. Thought it was an inside job,,,can't recall what happened after.

Sounds killer, as expected. I don't understand why noone does clones of these, I'd kill for a rackmount preamp of the vh140c

Epic Death Metal tones.

I was in a band in the late 90s early 2ks...and both guitars were using the 140c......and there was no way that our drummer was louder, and we had no issues keeping up with him. We were usually the loudest band on the bill of whatever show we played. Still have that amp and cabinet.....which was also an Ampeg.

sweet riffs man

You can always get a Guptech VEJ1 pedal that is a clone of this amp. It's $111 and sounds identical and looks badass

This really reminds me of a Randall RH200 that I had. Very similar sound for not much cash.

Those were sick when they came out! That chorus i/o is there for Zakk Wylde who endorsed em (then went right back to Marshall) haha

Love your mix dude 🤘

I'm sure someone already said it, but Morbid Angel is the only mentioned band who never used this amp, though I am sure you were just using them as a reference point. The MA secret is a Proco Rat into a JCM900 for anyone interested

I used to have a Peavey Supreme 160 head. That thing had the best metal sound. I sold it for $150 years ago and wish I kept it. Solids-state amps always sounded better and more precise than tube amps for metal, to me.

The original manuals very excellent recommendation for the clean channel was to dime the volume and start cracking open the gain as your level control in order to get the cleanest tone. Run like that it is super clean.

This amp became famous because it was widely-used since it was affordable as opposed to tube amps. In fact, many of these bands ended up using tube amps later. But yet artists like Dimebag Darrell still preferred the tone of solid-state amps. And bands like Entombed used the Peavey Viper for their tone. That was solid-state, too. Once again, it was more affordable than tube amps. This may be the main reason why they used it, not because it had a superior tone. Besides, the Swedish Death Metal sound consisted of the Boss HM-2 pedal, too. Personally, I prefer a tube Marshall for the tube tone and the mid-range focused tone helps cut through and leaves space for the bass. I've owned a Triple Rectifier. Great tone but too much lows for my taste. I want to leave space for the bass to cut through. But that's just me.

I used to have that amp. Or one similar back in late 90’s. Hardest metal we played was face in the sky from testament

NOTHING will melt your face skin off like a Red Bear MK120. Soviet-era made by hand by the masters at Novik, Marshall -on-meth type 120-watt head, built from what I can only assume was surplus tank parts and KGB radio tubes. Distributed by Gibson back in the 1990s. Absolutly bone crushing heavy gain with beautiful blusey cleans.

these amps rule!!!!!!!! ive played the crate gx130c which is almost the same amp! ive actually gotten a really good tone with an hm-2 ran in the effects loop of one of these. gives it the mids back it desperately needs at the sacrifice of some treble but it honestly works way better than it should

Bought a 2x12 for $200 about a year ago, couldn’t be happier. Awesome chunky tone as well as screaming leads

Sounded great in your mix at the top of the piece, sounded super brutal and great to my ears, but didn't grab me as much when you were playing it in the room.

awesome video great riffs and metal shredding really enjoy the video , your jam spot/ studio is amazing. Love the krank amps!

Man I love this amp, it sounds so heavy and mean! From what I remember, the reverb tank in that is notorious for breaking if it’s used for any type of touring.Lol Damn I love the riffs

Another staple amplifier in that era is the Peavey VTM 120. That thing is a gain monster and handles low end like no other. Check them out sometime if you haven't yet! They're roughly $600 used

When you brought the mids down around 9:17 I was like ahh… it doesn’t sound like shit!

Great review thanks

These amps are actually really good with passive pickups, the EMGs are a classic staple. Got a really good 7 string tone running ones through a Mesa 4x12 with bare knuckles and A Fortin 33. Did use a Plumes OD for a while all depends on guitar.

I’m fortunate to have an old school death metal amp . The Marshall valvestate 8100 head. And I got it for only $300 bucks 😊

Ironic the clean tones have that same Ampeg crunch Bass players know and love, makes me wonder what it would sound like with a Bass guitar and bass cab.

Sounds Great for the old school metal. 🤘🏻

Fuck...sounds damn good.....I'm hearing destroy the opposition in my head lol. Great vid

The Fortin 33 absolutely crushes this thing !

Great sounding amp, I bet it could pull of some killer Dimebag tones.

Shoutout to everyone in the comments trying to figure out all the different riffs he's playing

Sounds pretty damn good to my ears. You did a few squeals there that would make Zakk jealous. 😆

Brutal but beautiful. I have the 2x12 combo. Clean sound is great. Metal sound is terrific, especially with active pickups.

That was my first head in ‘90. Wish I never sold it. What a monster.