Ampeg gear on the Anagram

Ampeg is the American company most bass players think of first. Its B-15 Portaflex, the flip-top combo whose head stores upside down inside the cab, defined studio bass in the 1960s. The SVT arrived in 1969 with 300 valve watts and an 8x10 cabinet, and rock bass has leaned on that stack ever since.

Darkglass built a whole family of Ampeg-inspired blocks into the Anagram, all with "Peggy" in the name. Darkglass does not name the originals, so every one of these is likely, inferred from the names and the controls. 70s Peggy is the early 1970s SVT and Peggy Classic the later SVT-CL. Peggy Fliptop and Peggy Fliptop 1x15 draw on the B-15.

The cabs follow the same pattern. Peggy 1x15, Peggy 4x10 and Peggy 8x10 line up with Ampeg's current SVT cabinets, and Vintage Peggy 8x10 with an older 8x10.

On the Marketplace, Bogren Digital says Bassknob STD is based on producer Jens Bogren's own "well-known American tube bass amp head" into an 8x10. Bogren never names it, so the SVT link is our inference and the badge reads likely.

The SVT sound is thick low mids, a gentle top and a growl that appears as you dig in. Driven harder, it goes to a warm, compressed grind. The B-15 is rounder and darker, the Motown and session sound, with less headroom and a soft attack.

Try 70s Peggy into Vintage Peggy 8x10 first. Both are free and built in, and the pair gets you close to the classic rock stack in two blocks.