JimmyM your thoughts regarding these Ampeg cabinets

[gwangi]

JimmyM,

What are your thought regarding either purchasing a newer Ampeg 810e or the Ampeg Heritage 810 cabinet.
I'm very devastated to learn that alot of the older Ampeg 810e cabinets where made out of particle board material, that really pisses me off why Ampeg did that but do you think the newer over seas 810e cabinets are better that the older ones.
Another question which speakers are better between the newer 810e cabs and the Heritage series 810 cabs.
Thanks for any help on this,
Gwangi

[rodl2005]

Jimmy or someone with more knowledge than I will chime in no doubt, but, iirc, the later SLM cabs were the 'darker' particle board ones.
ended about '06-07 I THINK. I actually quite like the darker sounding ones too.

[BogeyBass]

well they figured they are not heavy enough so they went with particle board.

Dont matter, I used 2 of those particle board beasts on a few small tours.

The speakers are all the same.

All I can say is, if you buy a new cabinet. Buy a slip cover its worth it. The thin vinyl peels really quickly.
and 9 out of 10 times you will be sliding that thing on its sides in a van truck etc.

here is one particle board monster, with classic cab rash.
looks like its been around the world and back, but most of this damage happened within the first few shows. I sold my other one for cheap and it looked worse than this.
buy slip covers or install glide rails, keep in mind none of this was my fault I blame it on everyone else loading my junk.(yah right)
ugly, particle board, thin vinyl or not still sounds better than most.

[JimmyM]

The speakers are not the same, sorry. Eminence switched cone suppliers in 2000, and the speakers started sounding darker with reduced high end until 2006 when LOUD moved Ampeg out of the US. Had this verified by Eminence. The cabs are vastly improved now IMHO, with real wood and better sounding speakers. The 810e's are great and I haven't played the Heritage yet, but everyone who has tells me it sounds even better than the current 810e, but I'm not minding the current 810e at all. Sounds great to my ears.

[BogeyBass]

ouch i didnt know they got muddy.......

this is a older cab from 94, never had a highend problem.
Maybe the Fender special design 10" sounds better.

guess you got to date the cab before you buy then?

just messing with yah Jimmy

[JimmyM]

Ya, the older SLM cabs do sound great, no doubt.

[mjcantor]

I use an early SLM SVT-CL/810E setup at my rehearsal studio and I often get SLM era SVTs as backline gear. It sounds much, much better than my friend's Loud-era setup. Comparatively to the 70s SVT I used to record once, the SLM CL/810E seemed a bit brighter on the top end, but has less midrange punch than the 70s one I tried. Jimmy, didn't the original SVT cabs have lower wattage speakers compared to the newer ones? That could be part of it.

[JimmyM]

The originals had low wattage CTS speakers, the Magnavoxes used low wattage Eminences. Don't know what MTI cabs used but I imagine the same until SLM started using the higher power handling speakers in the mid 90's. If I'm not mistaken, the earliest SLM cabs only handled 400w clean. But they did sound great. Anyway, I hear the LOUD cabs as being right up there with the early SLM cabs. We all hear things differently, I guess, but I just used a LOUD 810e on my gig last weekend in Ct, and it was totally what I like to hear out of an 810.

[garmenteros]

I just bought a heritage 4 10 through zzsounds. My mesa 1000 is too big to haul around for gigging and its been permanently placed in my practice space. Can anyone comment on cab quality and sound? I plan on pairing it with my acoustic 370 and maybe getting a v4b down the line or hoping they release a heritage version.

[jastacey]

All is not lost on those dark sounding 810 cabs ...you can replace the top 4 speakers and get those high's back ... I did it when I had the flake-board ( OSB ) cabinet