Ampeg Preamps

[YogaBear]

Ok, lol
Lucky me,
Almost demolished some of my tubes a few hours ago, but now I was searching for a smaller cabinet(210), because I already have a 412, to compliment things.
And then, boom A svt 2P Preamp.
So my questionI'ts 150 euro's, and maybe I can get him back to 100) I do have GAS.
again: There are many preamps: Svt CL, Svp pro, And more.
Wich one is the most flat and has a graphic eq, I know the svt 2P has it and the Svp Pro, but the svp is a little fluffy sounding, and has quality issues.

Cheers

[Jim C]

If you search all the threads here, I believe that you will find that many of us (possibly most) prefer the Ampeg SVP-CL with a decent power amp.
John K did a number of preamp shoot outs with some very expensive gear and the CL sounded very good to me

In the US all the Ampeg pre's sell for about $350 - 450 on the used market

[jamzcl]

I've got an older version SVP-PRO and love it so far. Been able to dial in pretty much all the sounds to fit my needs at the changing venues with the EQ and the Hi & Low boosts. Don't know what tubes it currently has, might be original?

[JimmyM]

forget flat. they will all do near flat if you set their controls to sound that way. might have to move the knobs away from noon to accomplish it, though.

anyway, with all respect to the others, i GREATLY prefer the svp cl. it's possible to get a great sound with any of them, but the svp cl has some serious studio high quality tone. doesn't hurt that it's basically the pre of a vintage svt. if i were to get rid of my svt and go modular, i think the svp cl would be my preamp of choice.

[johnk_10]

yeah, my fav ampeg pre is the SVP CL too. i had both the SVP Pro and the CL, and just couldn't deal with all of the noise of the pro.

[truebass]

Ditto johnk 10 - Pro was a hiss bucket for me as well... I'm diggin' my Trace Elliot GP12SMX - everything but the kitchen sink.

[johnk_10]

i even went so far as to do alot of tube rolling with high end NOS military grade low noise tubes (5814A for the 12AU7) and NOS 7025's. i got its noise level more acceptable, it still was noisey compared to any of my other pres.

[12bass]

Hmmm... my older "black face" SVP-PRO is not unreasonably noisy. As I understand it, the signal path is all tube unless you use the graphic EQ section. As mentioned previously, finding a flat tone takes some adjustment; I just set it up so that it sounds good. One thing that this unit has which the CL doesn't is the Drive control, which can be useful for getting nastier tones.

[Jim C]

Seems as though some SVP - Pro's are quiet and the rest are as loud as a chainsaw
I borrowed one once many years ago and it hissed badly

[bluestarbass]

I run an ampeg svp cl. It's very very great. I ran what I thought was a pretty decent solid state ampeg before. I can't even go back to it now after using the svp cl.