NAD: Ampeg V4.... like woah.

[Floridabwoy]

So i picked up an ampeg v4 on friday, and woah.. this thing kills. I'm gonna need a bigger box. I don't think it is running at full capacity because a couple of the back tubes are not lighting up, and others not very bright. It sounds killer on guitar, but it sounds strange to me on bass. This is my first tube amp, and I really don't know much about them... I have been spending a lot of time, at ampegv4.com.

What I don't get is my main rig is a VTBass -> Yamaha PB-1 -> Crown XLS202 (bridged mono into 600w). The Ampeg is 100watts. My cab is a Peavey TX 410.

Now... it seems to me I can get a lot more volume out of the cab with the solid state amp. With the tube it seems to distort and break up before I get the volume. BUT... it disperses much louder. When you are right on top of it, it doesn't seem that loud, but you can hear it all the way down the street (my wife told me when she was walking the dogs).

Is that just the TUBE umph that is doing that? My dad came over and said that he could feel it in his chest more.

I also didnt like the tone of it at first, I am usually boosting the mid's on the Solid State, on the Ampeg i had to turn the mids way down (because they broke up).

Is this the usual for tube amps? Does anyone else have the a V4? What are your settings?

It is the one with the Distortion knob, and two switches, late70's. I will post a picture in a minute or two.

[megadan]

It is very middy, which you may appreciate in a band context.
I think it's the low-mids that you are hearing down the street and in your chest.

It does overdrive pretty easily. Trying turning down your bass a little and turn up the gain on the amp just to see what happens.

[Seans]

Don't worry about the valves that aren't glowing bright, but get those that aren't working replaced, the amp is not going to work properly with dud valves and you may damage it too.

[johnk_10]

until you've made sure that it's running properly, with all of the output tubes (and preamp tubes) running at spec, i wouldn't be evaluating or asking questions about its power output or tonal response.