How's this bass amp?

[zed32]

hey everyone, i've been looking for a small bass amp to use for practice and very small gigs, and i came across a used Ampeg SVT 150H head. i'm wondering if this thing will suit my needs, and if anyone has any experiences with it or comments to offer. i'm just wondering if it'll be loud enough to be heard over a drummer during practice and if it has a decent sounding preamp to use for small gigs. also, what do you guys think is a good price? i tried searching on this amp here but couldn't find any info.

[snow lizard]

The name "Ampeg SVT" is pretty popular - the only ones I've ever played through were the old tube heads similar to the SVT Classic on the market today. I think they run around $800.00 here in Canada.

The one you're looking at has no tubes and a lot less power. It should draw a lot less coin. I've never played through a solid state SVT, so I can't really be of help in that sense. It might be ok.

As for 150 watts, it seems like it's on the wire. Yeah, you could probably get by jamming with it, but I've played through a few different combos around that power level that had a hard time to keep up with the guitars. (Loud guitars). If you can crank it way up and it doesn't distort, it should hold its own in a moderate practice setting. The 350 model would be better, while the tube version is one of the best bass amps ever made.

I've played through other Ampeg solid state models that didn't do much for me, just not an SVT model.

As for gigs, if there's a PA system, your amp is little more than a stage monitor. Again, at 150 watts you'll likely need all of what it's got.

Could be worth a look if it's a good deal. I'd shop around to get a good new price for it. If the used price is around 60% or so, you wouldn't have to lose much money on it if it didn't work out. You might also want to check about a return policy so you can actually try to use it for a jam session to see if it works for you or not.


Good luck,

sl

[robin watson]

Harmony Central:

http://www.harmony-central.com/Bass/...0H_Head-1.html

[zed32]

Originally Posted by robin watson

Harmony Central:

http://www.harmony-central.com/Bass/...0H_Head-1.html

yeah i already checked out the Harmony Central review, but it's only one review and i figure i'd check here to see if anyone else could chime in on it. thanks though. and yeah for the small gig's i'd just use it as a personal monitor, as the bass will be run thru the PA. plus i dont think the guitars are gonna be too loud, mostly just competeing in practice to be heard thru the drums. thanks guys.

[zed32]

oh and would this work with a 2x10 cab or 4x10? i think most 2x10 cabs are 8 ohms, but this amp says 150 watts at 4 ohms. what kind of cab is 4 ohms? (i'm kind of stupid about ohms in regards to speaker cabs/heads)

[snow lizard]

Any kind of cab with any number of speakers could be 4, 8 or 16 ohms. I don't think you'll find many 16 ohm bass cabs these days. It's still possible.

If you try to run an 8 ohm cab with this thing, it won't be as loud as with a 4 ohm cab. The amp is rated at 4 ohms minimum, so you can't go below that or you'll risk damaging the amp.

There should be 2 speaker jacks wired in parallel. Plug in one 4 ohm cab, you're ok. Plug in one 8 ohm cab, you're not as loud but it won't hurt the amp. Still ok. Plug in two 8 ohm cabs, it will bring the total load down to 4 ohms - you're ok. Plug in two 4 ohm cabs, it brings the load down to 2 ohms. The amp could easily fry itself. It should suddenly be much louder than ever before that happens.

With the SVT Classic, I think there's a switch that lets it go down to 2 ohms. Very few amps will do this. Here's what happens:

Amps are dumb, sort of. A speaker is a resistor of sorts. Individual speakers could be 4, 8, 16 ohms or whatever - how many there are and how they're wired determines "the load". The speaker load actually determines how much power the amp will put out. If there's lots of resistance (ohms), the amp puts out less power. If there's not enough resistance, the amp will put out so much power that it melts itself. It becomes more like cutting a speaker cable in half, stripping the wires, twisting them together and plugging the cable into the amp - practically no resistance at all, but now you have a direct short. Some amps have switches to match specific loads - a lot of them don't. They all have a minimum ohms rating (maximum load) that shouldn't be taken any lower for the survival of the amp. Many heads should also not be turned on with no speakers connected.

There's a lot of 4 ohm cabs out there, probably the best match for this amp unless you intend to run 2 cabs.

The cab I have for my amp is a 2x10 rated at 8 ohms. The manufacturer also makes the exact same cabinet in a 4 ohm version. I wanted the option of running 2 cabs, but my amp is rated for 260 watts at 8 ohms, 400 at 4 ohms.


sl

[zed32]

damn. so i dont think this amp has enough power to run 2 separate cabs, and i haven't seen many 4 ohm cabs for sale. oh well i'll figure it out once i get it, i think i'm gonna go ahead and buy this amp.

[ggunn]

Originally Posted by zed32

damn. so i dont think this amp has enough power to run 2 separate cabs, and i haven't seen many 4 ohm cabs for sale. oh well i'll figure it out once i get it, i think i'm gonna go ahead and buy this amp.

You might look at Ashdown amps. I have their 300w 2X10 combo, and though it doesn't quite have the round warm sound that my old SVT has, it weighs 60 lbs as opposed to about 300. It does fine for small to medium gigs; I have it on a stand that gets it 3 feet off the floor and leans it back a bit, and it has a DI built in to connect to the PA. It's plenty loud, and it fits easily on the back seat of my car. All in all, I like it fine.

[bongolation]

Originally Posted by snow lizard

The name "Ampeg SVT" is pretty popular

And utterly meaningless any more.

SVT = "Super Valve Technology," but it's reduced in the SLM/Crate Ampeg incarnation to merely a trade name applied to anything they please, typically solid-state amps with no valves. The "SVT-350H" was merely the B-2R solid-state rack unit stuck in a big fake SVT-styled cabinet, for example.

Ampeg output wattage ratings on these smaller heads also tends to be notoriously "ambitious," to say the least.

I'm not totally down on Ampeg -- I have a few and like about half of them a lot -- but don't get too carried away by an "SVT" stuck on an amp. It's sucker marketing.

[bongolation]

Originally Posted by zed32

damn. so i dont think this amp has enough power to run 2 separate cabs, and i haven't seen many 4 ohm cabs for sale. oh well i'll figure it out once i get it, i think i'm gonna go ahead and buy this amp.

And yet you asked for advice...

[zed32]

Originally Posted by bongolation

And yet you asked for advice...

and what's wrong with asking for advice?

i wasn't planning on running it with more than one cab anyway so that's why i was thinking it might not have enough juice to power 2 cabs at the same time. but yeah i think i'm gonna buy it, check it out, and if it sucks i'll try to sell it again. i think i'm getting a good price on this one so maybe it's worth a shot. i was just wondering what others thought of this particular amp.

[zed32]

OK, so i ended up buying this amp because it was a good price, now i need to get a cab. i tried it on my uncle's 1x15, some old Yamaha cab, and the Ampeg sounded way better than the old Peavey head he had sitting around in his garage.

but i have a question about ohms and cabs....
i'm thinking of getting an Ashdown 2x10 for now, with the possibility of adding a 1x15 to it later. both cabs are 8 ohm, so does that mean if i run them both together, it will equal out to 4 ohms? does that mean that they would be louder together than they would be each on their own? or should i just get an Ampeg 4x10 4ohm cab which is way more expensive, but will guaruntee that i'm using the full power of the amp? all of the 4 ohm cabs i've been able to find are way more expensive than 8 ohm cabs. usually somewhere around double the price. anyway i'm a noob at this, since i've used nothing but combos before. so someone please help me!

the reason i'm thinking Ashdown is for price. i think Hartke is in the same price range, but the Ashdown is probably better, right?


oh and i'll also add that i'm not looking to achieve ear-bleeding volume out of this setup, or else i would have bought a more powerful amp. i just want a good sounding small rig for pracitce and back-yard jamming.

[snow lizard]

Originally Posted by zed32

but i have a question about ohms and cabs....
i'm thinking of getting an Ashdown 2x10 for now, with the possibility of adding a 1x15 to it later. both cabs are 8 ohm, so does that mean if i run them both together, it will equal out to 4 ohms? does that mean that they would be louder together than they would be each on their own?

Yes, and yes. (given that the amp's speaker jacks are wired in parallel, which they are in this case...)

If you go to the Ampeg site, you can download the PDF file for the manual of this amp. It's got a chart that shows what cabs and ratings you can run. 4 ohms from 2 cabs isn't much different than 4 ohms from 1 cab. Same load. You can't go less than 4 ohms total.


sl