Ampeg PF350/500 Part VI

[joelb79]

My New/Warranty replaced PF-500 cut out tonight. Mid song. Transient parts. I noticed the clip light was barely lighting up on my hardest peaks. It seems like my EMG's overdrive the input circuit which causes the amp to cut out instead of over-driving. The only way to stop this is to use the -15 and turn the gain all the way up (no clip light but its still not enough gain) and use compression.

I mean I can regularly get this thing to cut out. Again. And its tied to input gain. The only way to stop it is to use a ton of compression and never use any extremes of the EQ. The voicing though is again too deep and lacking 250hz that I need to put that mid knob all the way up and it causes clipping on the preamp which causes the amp to cut out.

Not impressed. Angry actually. 2nd unit that cannot hang with me.. at 8 ohms none the less.

[arai]

Originally Posted by joelb79

My New/Warranty replaced PF-500 cut out tonight. Mid song. Transient parts. I noticed the clip light was barely lighting up on my hardest peaks. It seems like my EMG's overdrive the input circuit which causes the amp to cut out instead of over-driving. The only way to stop this is to use the -15 and turn the gain all the way up (no clip light but its still not enough gain) and use compression.

I mean I can regularly get this thing to cut out. Again. And its tied to input gain. The only way to stop it is to use a ton of compression and never use any extremes of the EQ. The voicing though is again too deep and lacking 250hz that I need to put that mid knob all the way up and it causes clipping on the preamp which causes the amp to cut out.

Not impressed. Angry actually. 2nd unit that cannot hang with me.. at 8 ohms none the less.

That sucks.

You would think they would have it sorted by now

[joelb79]

After 12 minutes of hold on the phone with Ampeg, then being put on hold for another 3 minutes while they looked up a Fearful 15/6/1, they are sending me to a place where I didn't buy the head from to have an "authorized service center" look at it. It sounds to me like I'll be dropping off my head... so basically....

I'm ampless..while they troubleshoot a problem that has generated hundreds of posts from other people on talkbass. I'm ticked. Ampeg, I hope your listening because I'm done. I've got friends on tour complaining of problems with new SVT's as well, and I'm just not liking what I'm hearing on the street as far as reliability. I'll play the game with the authorized service center just this once; but I fear that this head will not work for me and I should have given it up the first day I got it and it gave out on me on my first set. Really.. I should have taken it back that day and got my money back.

Now i have ampeg telling me what to do with my EQ and compression; perhaps maybe their suggestions will not work for me. I really do not want a baked in >5:1 compression just to keep a square wave from being generated by the preamp section so that the amp will not go into protection. To me; this is a design flaw. An amp company should not tell bass players what their tone should be just to keep an amp working. IRRITATING!

[Jwood]

I finally got to take my new second 115HE out to practice the other night and it was great. The 500 with 2 115HE's is where it's at!

[Dymond-]

Originally Posted by joelb79

My New/Warranty replaced PF-500 cut out tonight. Mid song. Transient parts. I noticed the clip light was barely lighting up on my hardest peaks. It seems like my EMG's overdrive the input circuit which causes the amp to cut out instead of over-driving. The only way to stop this is to use the -15 and turn the gain all the way up (no clip light but its still not enough gain) and use compression.

I mean I can regularly get this thing to cut out. Again. And its tied to input gain. The only way to stop it is to use a ton of compression and never use any extremes of the EQ. The voicing though is again too deep and lacking 250hz that I need to put that mid knob all the way up and it causes clipping on the preamp which causes the amp to cut out.

Not impressed. Angry actually. 2nd unit that cannot hang with me.. at 8 ohms none the less.

I'm on my 2nd head as well, and lately Ive been pushing it hard at 4 ohms, trying to get it to cut out at a practice instead of a gig. If it cuts again I might try to get my $400 back and spend the money on an svt 7 pro.

[sonyz92]

Just had my very first gig with my new PF-500. I couldn't be happier! During sound check the sound guy told me I have a great tone and to not change a thing. The show went great with no hiccups, just great sound the whole time. Loud and punchy! After the show the sound guy even came up see what my setup was

[BIG97BEN]

My PF500 is still going strong. I recently played a gig running my amp straight to the pay with just monitors and it sounded amazing. I had tons of compliments on the tone. Just wanted to share another positive story.

[joelb79]

Another gig with the PF-500. No cut outs this time, but using the settings that Ampeg recommended for Pre-gain/compression and master resulted in a hard clip to the power amp multiple times. I need more power than this.

[mazdah]

Dude, you play freakin' loud!

I did a southern rock gig yesterday, there:


with 6 piece band, two guitars, hammond organs, pretty loud drummer.
My PF 350 / PF 115 stack did a pretty good job with master at 1 o'clock, gain at 2 o'clock. And no cutting out.
Monitors were just for drummer and singer, we used our amps as monitors on stage and we all were set up to hear everyone in the band.

[sonyz92]

Originally Posted by joelb79

Another gig with the PF-500. No cut outs this time, but using the settings that Ampeg recommended for Pre-gain/compression and master resulted in a hard clip to the power amp multiple times. I need more power than this.

Get an SVT-7PRO

[Tele295]

Did another set of gigs with my PF350 and 1x12 Portabass cab, with the XLR ut to the PA. That rig makes my P-Bass sound HUGE! I was worried I was overpowering the drums (Roland V-drums, what are ya gonna do?), but everybody liked it even when I was digging in.

Thank you folks so much for advising me on the PF350.

[joelb79]

Originally Posted by mazdah

Dude, you play freakin' loud!

I suspect the PF-500 to be a 380w amp @4 ohms before audible distortion sets in. My SVT 3-Pro had more gain than this. I think the preamp voicing is not working for me. The PF-350 has a different voicing, and it might even come off louder in the mids than the PF-500 making it seem just as loud with less wattage. I also suspect you have better acoustics at that gig you posted, as well as a much larger PA with a sound tech. I had no sound reinforcement and had to run 105db @ 50ft off my rig when it was cutting out. The gig where things were clipping, is a small room with a 10,000watt PA with bad monitors, a cymbal heavy drummer, and a guitarist who is a bit too bright. It causes me to want more volume of lows than normal.

FWIW: My gain was set -15db cut in, pre gain at noon - 1, and master at 3-4pm. Compression was at Noon. Low was 11-12 o'clock, mid switch on 1 with mids about full, treble at noon. Clip city with a Jazz bass, both pickups (of the EMG J Set kind). No clip light though, just a power amp clip.

FWIW Also: I play 4 times a week for 4 hours at a time. This amp has been working fine at that pace since September 20ish, 2012. That is over 250 hours of play time before I had another failure on the new one. Take that with a grain of salt.

Originally Posted by sonyz92

Get an SVT-7PRO

If I'm going to stay Ampeg, its gonna be a 4-Pro. I'm running away from the new Class D stuff. There are a multitude of other amplifiers more attractive now that I run a Fearful 15/6/1; most of us with this cabinet want at least 2 parametric equalizer bands and about 500-800w @ 8 ohms.

[sonyz92]

Originally Posted by joelb79

If I'm going to stay Ampeg, its gonna be a 4-Pro. I'm running away from the new Class D stuff. There are a multitude of other amplifiers more attractive now that I run a Fearful 15/6/1; most of us with this cabinet want at least 2 parametric equalizer bands and about 500-800w @ 8 ohms.

Good point

[NightTripper]

Hey guys, I thought this would be a good place to ask my very dumb question instead of making a thread. I just got a new PF500 but I haven't plugged it in yet. Should I have the voltage switch turned to 115 or 230? I live in the U.S. I think it's 115 but I'm not totally sure. Please respond if you know as I am very anxious to start making some noise!

[arai]

115

[NightTripper]

Thanks! The PF500/SVT 410 hlf rig sounds amazing!

[nick98338]

Recently tried out a new idea. I've been using a PF350 with my P-bass and 1X15 cab that I built. That has been working great when I use my Eden WTDI before the amp. Not much eq adjustment needed. But, I wanted to try a couple of other things. First, I wanted to try my electric lead guitar, through my Pod X3 Live, to the PF-350, to the 1X15. This also sounds great. Again, not much eq needed. Got lots of positive comments about that setup. Then I tried my P-bass, through the Pod, to the PF-350, to the 1X15. Still sounds great. Lots of different possibilities there. Finally, I tried my acoustic guitar, through the Pod, to the PF-350, to the 1X15. Not so great. VERY mid-heavy sound. Just a moderate strum produces as very percussive sound at attack. I'm still trying out different adjustments in the Pod tones and eq settings on the amp. I'll keep at it. It would be great to have just one processor/amp/cab combo that could work well with three different instruments.

[sonyz92]

Originally Posted by NightTripper

Thanks! The PF500/SVT 410 hlf rig sounds amazing!

That's what I have! Sounds sooo good!

[xopeth]

I just registered here at this forum to ask this question, although I have been a reader for many years.

I just bought the PF500, plugged it into an 8 ohm Bag End 4x10 at rehearsal right out of the box, and immediately caught kind of a faint burning smell. I passed that off as a brand new amp warming up, and as we rehearsed for an hour the smell stayed and finally it did the whole fault cutout after it really started to smell.

Shut it down, powered back up and thought to press the -15 button, and the rest of the rehearsal went well (another hour) after pressing the -15 button.

Now, it looks like my bass (Fender telecaster bass with the big humbucker looking pickups) might have been too powerful to NOT have pressed the -15 button at startup, and that in turn made the amp go to fault, and I understand that and accept the safety feature. So possibly these amps will fault out if pushed too hard. BUT-- right before it went to fault, my drummer said he saw a blue spark or light come from inside the amp through the side grating (he sits right next to it) and that's when it really smelled hard and went to amber-light fault.

My question is this-- if my drummer saw this blue spark inside as the amp faulted, did something indeed physically fry out? And why would the amp work perfectly after the spark/fault only after the -15 button is pressed? I am afraid that the spark/smell means something did physically fry, and since I just bought the amp this week, I am prepared to pack it up and send it back to Zzounds as defective and get my money back. But if that blue spark before the fault doesn't mean any harm, I am OK to keep it knowing that I just need to press the -15 button.

Any thoughts?? Thanks!

[60bass]

Originally Posted by xopeth

I just registered here at this forum to ask this question, although I have been a reader for many years.

I just bought the PF500, plugged it into an 8 ohm Bag End 4x10 at rehearsal right out of the box, and immediately caught kind of a faint burning smell. I passed that off as a brand new amp warming up, and as we rehearsed for an hour the smell stayed and finally it did the whole fault cutout after it really started to smell.

Shut it down, powered back up and thought to press the -15 button, and the rest of the rehearsal went well (another hour) after pressing the -15 button.

Now, it looks like my bass (Fender telecaster bass with the big humbucker looking pickups) might have been too powerful to NOT have pressed the -15 button at startup, and that in turn made the amp go to fault, and I understand that and accept the safety feature. So possibly these amps will fault out if pushed too hard. BUT-- right before it went to fault, my drummer said he saw a blue spark or light come from inside the amp through the side grating (he sits right next to it) and that's when it really smelled hard and went to amber-light fault.

My question is this-- if my drummer saw this blue spark inside as the amp faulted, did something indeed physically fry out? And why would the amp work perfectly after the spark/fault only after the -15 button is pressed? I am afraid that the spark/smell means something did physically fry, and since I just bought the amp this week, I am prepared to pack it up and send it back to Zzounds as defective and get my money back. But if that blue spark before the fault doesn't mean any harm, I am OK to keep it knowing that I just need to press the -15 button.

Any thoughts?? Thanks!

Blue spark = send it back IMO that's not normal. I've owned those tele basses with the big humbucker and they will overdrive the front end of an amp pretty quick. So the minus 15 switch is probably the way I would run that too. You might see the clip light if you're pushing it hard but you shouldn't see any blue sparks or smell anything that smells like burning electricals.