Ampeg B-15 Reissue Costs 5X More than the Real Thing. Yikes!

[loudthud]

The Acoustic 360/361 comes to mind.

[bob p]

The 360/361 reissue is interesting. There's *ONE* example of a reissue solid state bass amp. Compare that to a zillion vintage guitar amp reissues. I still don't think there's that much demand for vintage-reissue SS gear.

Even if there is demand, what about availability? Where can you actually buy that amp? I can't find it. There have been threads about it on TalkBass since 2011, but 2 years later it's now May 2013 and as far as I can tell, the actual amp is still it's not available anywhere. There's a 17-page thread about it over at TalkBass, and the point of 17 pages of reading is to say that the amp is vaporware. It looks like 360/361 reissue isn't much more than advertising hype designed to help sell the new Acoustic company's little amps, while relying on an old image t bolster their appeal.

From a strategic standpoint, reissuing that amp isn't a very smart idea. Acoustic made MUCH better bass rigs. I owned a 360/361 back in the 70s. It's primary virtue was that it was LOUD, not that it had good tone. The tone of a Cerwin-Vega 1x18 in Acoustic's W folded horn is sluggish, mushy and indistinct. A backline of those cabs was known as a "Wall of Mud." It's no coincidence that the SVT killed off that amp. The tone of an SVT with an 8x10 just slays the 360/361. Once better options became available, bass players began running away from the 1x18 cabinet in droves, and Acoustic had to stop the bleeding by replacing the 1x18 301 cab with the 4x15 model 408 cab. The 408 cab's tone was MUCH more usable. Acoustic would have been better off reissuing the 320 head and the 408 cabinet, or the 406 widebody 2x15. They were much better sounding rigs. JMO. YMMV.