Ampeg V4 Club

[astack]

Of course. Just nice to scale cabs/speakers all I want and have taps for anything. Yeah, trying other gear without having to buy it first is great I do also have a ported 1x15PR400 cab that's on the mend I'll eventually try, too, but I expect the sealed 2x12 will be the better fit.

Gah, and looks like it'll be Friday before I can fire her up

Sounds like some great options on your living situation, too. I moved to the east bay a few months ago when our day gigs shifted to Bezerkeley and REALLY miss the city. Well mostly the burritos. Watch out IPO's and Silicon Valley shuttles have made rent even crazier in the city now. Outer Sunset's probably still decent though.

[StuartV]

Locals. Cool!

I'm moving into downtown SF at the end of next week, for 6 months (thanks to the g/f's job). Maybe I'll get to meet some of y'all in person!

[TussinBot.]

Nice! Yeah rent is on the rise again...typical SF. If you do enough searching you can find a decent place though. I found a couple places in the inner and outer sunset (just rooms) for $500 a month + utilities which isn't bad. Ill probably be trying to rent out a flat with a couple friends though so we can get a nicer place/have more options. I still have yet to try my v4 with a sealed cab, have the option of buying an nv610 right now but I really don't need it....not to mention I really enjoy my diesel cab. I love the city but part of me wants to go somewhere new. We'll see!

[astack]

Bay Area v4 users group?

In other news... GOT TO FIRE HER UP LAST NIGHT.


I'll preface this by saying, it was my first non-SVT-backline-with-not-my-cab-in-a-weird/new-room tube experience, so of course amazing, right? So you can chalk some of this up to confirmation bias / honeymoon action. Anyway...

Really interesting to get a feel for the controls. Even in extreme positions, it might have not been a very usable tone, but it still sounded musical. That's something I've noticed to not be the case with the last two amps I've had - TH500 and TB500. Both sound great in a given window, but if you want to keep going it just gets compressed and farty/fizzy. Not so with the V4B. You want more? Go for it! And then PURE GLORY. I settled on pretty close to noon across the board.

Was playing my Fender AmDlx Jazz with a set of just-put-on-that-night .110 Roto 66's mostly with a pick -- pure in-your-face Rock n Roll heaven. Didn't have another bass at the studio to try out. I also was running the Series 3 fdeck Pre and a modded Bass Big Muff. All through the 2x2512 cab.

Not sure if it was just because of the active bass, but I could hardly get a clean tone out the amp. NOTHING wrong with this, just didn't expect that, especially after Jimmy said I'd need a master to get distortion at low volume (probably different definitions of "low" too). I also know it's dependent on the preamp tubes, so I'm itching to eventually start experimenting with those. Thinking it'd be perfect to get a nice clean one for channel 1 and then leave the other or get a dirtier one for channel 2. Then I can A/B/Y for some different tones. As is both channels sound about the same. Maybe 2 is ever so slightly scooped.

One funny thing I noticed was before I would kick on the BBM, it sounded pretty fantastically gnarly. Then on goes the BBM and it's REALLY gnarly. Then turn it off and the amps sounded nearly clean. So just goes to show there's a lot of "recalibrating" to do.

Also with the HPF Pre, I tried using it as a prepreamp gain to keep things cleaner, but I would just turn the amp's volume up to compensate to get that same awesome grind back. And I had a similar experience with the rolloff frequency as with the BBM. I accidentally had it set all the way up (@ 140Hz) for a few minutes before I realized I did. And wasn't really missing the bottom end as much as I thought I would. Weird stuff.

OK, so that was the first experience, just soloed. Can't wait for practice this weekend.

[StuartV]

Nice, astack!

Maybe, at some point, I'll get my V4, my Traynor YBA-3 and my Berg 610 cab over to the city from Roseville. If I do, maybe we can get together and compare the way they all sound.

As of now, the only thing I'm bringing with initially is my Promethean 110 combo. I'll be in an apartment and I suspect the neighbors will be much happier if I just stick with that for practicing.

[TussinBot.]

If I move up to SF id be down to get together like I said before. Glad youre liking your v4b astack! Currently Im using just one 15 and at jamming level its a little too distorted for my taste, basically anytime you put it to 11oclock its going to be breaking up, but it sounds so freakin lovely. By all means its not a clean hifi amp, but the tone is just gorgeous even with breakup. Once I add another 15 (which will be soon hopefully) I dont think Ill have an issue with clean volume, these amps do need efficient cabs though to do clean. Add another 2x12? That thing would be rocking the house!

Got a quick question for electronics gurus though. Occasionally when I power on my v4b, there is a spark at the power switch. Anyone experience this? Anyone know what it may be or how to fix it?

[astack]

Sweet, yeah all for a little gtg. Our practice space is in Oakland and would do nicely.

More sensitivity would be awesome, but with our transportation situation it's not realistic to do with more speakers. The head nearly doubled my space needs already.

Something else I've noticed (may be a function of the particular tubes) the mid knob acts almost as a distortion knob. I'm guessing that's just where the harmonics live or does that really push the output?

[TussinBot.]

wooo! Got another diesel cab on the way! v4 + diesel 15s = Rock tone heaven!

[TussinBot.]

Quick question about some plugs on the back of the v4. The extension speaker is just a parallel out right? Any idea why it was made to cause a short if you plugged into here vs the main speaker out? Whats the difference? And the ext amp is just a line level out to send to a mixing board or other amp right? so I could get a microphone cable and basically DI out of my v4.

[JimmyM]

It was made that way to keep you from using the wrong speaker jack. Tube amps of yore aren't like tube amps of today where you can switch the impedance with a switch. The physical connection is what tripped the taps in the transformers that determined what impedance it should be seeing.

[lccben]

Originally Posted by JimmyM

It was made that way to keep you from using the wrong speaker jack. Tube amps of yore aren't like tube amps of today where you can switch the impedance with a switch. The physical connection is what tripped the taps in the transformers that determined what impedance it should be seeing.

I play through an old 70's Univox 1061 head. 100 watts. All tube and switchable between 2, 4, and 8 ohms. I really like the versatility.

[coreyfyfe]

Originally Posted by TussinBot.

Quick question about some plugs on the back of the v4. The extension speaker is just a parallel out right? Any idea why it was made to cause a short if you plugged into here vs the main speaker out? Whats the difference? And the ext amp is just a line level out to send to a mixing board or other amp right? so I could get a microphone cable and basically DI out of my v4.

On the B15, B25, SVT, etc, amps instead of an impedance switch they just used the switching jacks to automatically trip the alternative transformer winding to match the right impedance. With the V4 they had the switch because there were three possible settings, but they still used the same switching type jacks, not sure why. It could have been to make things easier with the VT-22 which I believe had the main speakers hard wired and the extension jack, but I'm not really sure. Either way, just plug in the main out first then the extension cab and set the switch to the proper impedance.

And yes, the ext. amp jacks were a pre-amp send. You could use it to connect to a mixing console or to slave two amps.

[JimmyM]

Originally Posted by lccben

I play through an old 70's Univox 1061 head. 100 watts. All tube and switchable between 2, 4, and 8 ohms. I really like the versatility.

That's cool, but this was about V4's

[JvN]

Originally Posted by coreyfyfe

Yes, the ext. amp jacks are a pre-amp send. You can use it to connect to a mixing console.

Coreyfyfe or Jimmy - could you please recommend a (passive or active?) DI that handles the correct impedance, so that the overall volume to the cab (in my case a 4 ohm '71 SVT 810) is not affected when using the Ext amp jack on an SVT or V-4B? My theory is that using the Ext amp jack, an expensive tube DI such as the REDDI, Solo/610, TD100 etc. is not necessary, but it's still a little expensive to start experimenting with Countrymen, JDI's and what have you... ;-).

Or don't you need a DI-box for jack-to-XLR conversion at all, just an adapter cable...?

Funny we are having a similar discussion in the Family Reunion thread, by the way. Must be Rudolph...

[coreyfyfe]

I use a countryman for speaker level. Just plug it inline with the main speaker output and the cab and keep the impedance set how you would for the cab alone.

[khangurumc]

Here is mine,really fantastic amp,I just love it.

[JimmyM]

Originally Posted by JvN

Coreyfyfe or Jimmy - could you please recommend a (passive or active?) DI that handles the correct impedance, so that the overall volume to the cab (in my case a 4 ohm '71 SVT 810) is not affected when using the Ext amp jack on an SVT or V-4B? My theory is that using the Ext amp jack, an expensive tube DI such as the REDDI, Solo/610, TD100 etc. is not necessary, but it's still a little expensive to start experimenting with Countrymen, JDI's and what have you... ;-).

The ext amp is preamp only, whereas the speaker level DI gets the power tubes and output transformer in there as well. Any DI that does speaker level will not interfere in the operation of the amp in any way since their impedance is astronomically tiny. I used a Countryman when I was doing it, but Radial has a few models that do it as well.

Or don't you need a DI-box for jack-to-XLR conversion at all, just an adapter cable...?

If your cable isn't too long and your board accepts 1/4", no DI needed, otherwise it's a good idea.

[Tuned]

A DI is usually required to ground lift the preamp output, it will probably buzz badly otherwise, definitely best to have one around. I needed it often enough that I just used it by default. Speaker level DI's typically buzz like crazy too, really wish they didn't. None that I tried on my V4 worked well.

And a minor point is that their impedance is very high, 56k ohm usually. If the impedance were very low it would short the output and affect the speaker greatly. I figure it was just a brain fart, but shorting a tube amp is not something to accidentally advise!

[JimmyM]

Originally Posted by Tuned

A DI is usually required to ground lift the preamp output, it will probably buzz badly otherwise, definitely best to have one around. I needed it often enough that I just used it by default. Speaker level DI's typically buzz like crazy too, really wish they didn't. None that I tried on my V4 worked well.

Can't say I had that problem using speaker DI on my B-15 and various SVT's I did it on. Wonder if there was something wrong with at the jack...

[JvN]

Thanks guys. The manual for the Countryman Type 85 DI says:

"A. Use the “SPEAKER” position when the TYPE 85 is connected to the speaker output of an amplifier and the “PICKUP” for all other sources including preamp outputs."

Well - that one should work, and from what I've read here, it's a pretty good one.

The Countryman Type 10 manual says:

"On the Type 10, we added a -15 dB padding level to allow signals from active instruments with hot outputs, such as keyboards, to pass through the DI with minimal distortion. When connecting the Type 10 to the speaker output of an amplifier, use the -30 dB setting to handle up to 190 Vpp with less than 1% THD—the equivalent of 1100 Watts into 4 Ohms."

I take it that would work as well. The Radial JDV description on the web site says:

"To address electric bass and guitar, the JDV is equipped with Drag Control that enables you to correct the load of the instrument as if connected directly to an amplifier. For piezo instruments, the input can be switched to 4meg-ohms to eliminate squawk. And with 30 volt internal rails, even the most dynamic digital sampler or active bass can be handled with ease. Features separate outputs for the PA, monitors, amps and tuner making it stage and studio ready."

The Radial JDI manual says:

"The Radial JDI features a high 140k Ohm input impedance for the instrument."

Well - I'll think it over for a few days and decide which one to use. I like the Countryman's simplicity and I hear nothing but good about it. It's also the only one I could find that is actually designed for pre-amp output.