What is the best replacement for an Ampeg SVT CL and 8X10" Cab set up?

[willsellout]

You sound like you because you play like you. You think a certain way, musically, and you play a certain way with your fingers, or your pick. But that's not your tone, that's your style.

[willsellout]

Originally Posted by Figjam

Nuance is in the fingers.

This is much closer to my position.

[bassfreakah]

kids today will never learn............bass+di= front of house = your sound.

[vishuddha]

Fearful, or something LDS built. For the cab, at least. Not really gonna get an Ampeg tone out of many non-Ampeg things.

[Sartori]

Originally Posted by bassfreakah

kids today will never learn............bass+di= front of house = your sound.

[AdamR]

700rb or 1001rb and a pair of Neo 212. Its the answer to all Talk Bass questions. Plenty of power, plenty of grind, and pretty light at 50lbs a cab.

[bassboysam]

Originally Posted by bassfreakah

kids today will never learn............bass+di= front of house = your sound.

no it's not. I have tried and it sounded horrible. If you play using a clean tone then ok, but as soon as you add some dirt and fuzz that theory goes out the door.


as far as replacing and Ampeg and 810, the closest thing I have found is a Mesa Walkabout with anywhere between 1-4 AV210 cabs.

[bassfreakah]

just joking anyway....wanted to see if you guys were alive....this is a young mans thread the only dirt that gets added is from the speakers or tubes and it is natural and phat. like the way a jazz bass has grit built in and you git it out with the way you hit the strings. but if you want to make things harder than they are......

[JimmyM]

Originally Posted by bassfreakah

just joking anyway....wanted to see if you guys were alive....this is a young mans thread the only dirt that gets added is from the speakers or tubes and it is natural and phat. like the way a jazz bass has grit built in and you git it out with the way you hit the strings. but if you want to make things harder than they are......

I AM there to work, you know?

[jungleheat]

Originally Posted by presforlife

I'm gonna tell you from more than forty years of playing all kinds of situations the tone is in your hands, it really is that simple. Learn to get the sound out of your bass without an amp and you can make any thing sound great.

This myth gets brought out all the freaking time. In an amp thread it's pretty much pointless to say. So an old 300w SVT from the 70s through a sealed 8x10, and a 500w SWR from the mid 90s through 2 ported 4x10s with tweeters are going to sound exactly the same, and only what you do with your playing makes a difference?

No, that's total BS.

OBVIOUSLY, what you do with your fingers makes an important difference, but not as much as people think. Give me an Alembic and a monster SWR or Ampeg setup and I can sound like Stanley Clarke just fine, tone-wise. But I'm nowhere near as good a player as he is, and the chances of me getting his tone from a P Bass through an SVT are remote at best (and that goes for just about anyone).

If anything, it's really more about knowing how to EQ a particular rig to get the sound you are looking for.

Saying that tone is all in your fingers is like saying performance is all in the tires, talking about cars. You could put giant racing slicks on your Hyundai Excel, and it's never going to drive like an F1 car.

True musicians use and consider ALL the tools and techniques available to them to get what they are going for.

And at any rate, the tone from your fingers is always going to be the tone from your fingers (whatever range of sounds that includes), so again, it's pointless to even bring it up, because it's a common factor and gets cancelled out of the equation when comparing different amps.

[rodl2005]

Yeah, YOU sound like YOU thru any rig, but YOU'LL sound like YOU THROUGH an SWR / Ampeg / Peavey rig.
I do at least

[jungleheat]

And to respond to the first post, it's kind of like asking a group of strangers "what do I want to eat for dinner tonight". It's really something you have to answer for yourself. There are so many possibilities out there to consider. Your best bet is to go out and try everything you can that seems promising and try to narrow down your choices like that. Tone goals, common playing/gigging situations, budget, space/weight requirements, etc... all go into making it a very personal decision what is "best" for you. "Best" for me for right now is my 500w 1x15/2x10 Trace stack which sounds incredible. But for you or someone else, that might be wildly inappropriate.

[Bmorefoozler]

SVT 7PRo through a Johnk10(Greenboy Duallyish) style 2x15 seems close, if you value that half of the weight you shed.

[RickenBoogie]

Post #32 by jugleheat is worth reading again. THIS is the truth. There are thousands of possible rig configurations. Tons of great amps, even more great cabs. But ultimately, it's up to the individual player to test and judge based on his/her own needs and wants. I get by, (very happily) with a Mesa Walkabout head and Genz Benz Uber 212 cab. It wasn't my *first* bass rig, but it has been my main rig for 6 yrs now. I tried lots of stuff, but the key is, I TRIED them out myself.

[Hopkins]

For someone to say tone is all in the fingers, then go on to explain how different amps sound compared to another amp is pretty contradictory isn't it?

If tone came from the fingers then all amps and cabs should sound the same right?

[jsolberg]

The tone/fingers thing first became apparent to me 40 years ago. Our then lead player had a Mosrite amp, a cheap non-descript guitar and a terrible thin tinny tone. I friend showed up at practice, picked up the guitar and without so much as touching a knob on the amp or guitar produced a beautiful sound. So in my opinion nuance comes through the rig but the basic tone comes from the operator.

[jungleheat]

That's more like the difference between someone who actually knows how to play vs someone who is probably just starting out. Once you get to a basic level of competency, the range of sounds to be had just from fingers narrows down quite a lot. You have a choice between pick, fingers, or slapping, closer to the bridge or neck, how hard or soft you play, and beyond that there's not much you can really do in terms of tone, just from your playing technique.

If amps were inconsequential, everyone would just play a cheap, 20w, SS amp with a 6.5" speaker that weighs 15 pounds and call it good.

But in reality, even 2 very similar amps can sound extremely different. My SWR and Trace heads both have between 300-500w, have tube preamps, versatile EQ sections, etc... Even with the SAME bass, the SAME cabs, and the SAME player, they sound markedly different. Sure there's a big range of overlap where you can get pretty similar tones, but the 2 just have different personalities.

I think a lot of people listen to iconic players and hear them sounding "the same" over the years through various rigs, and confuse all the idiosyncratic elements of that person's playing with the tone. "Oh, Stanley always sounds like Stanley." Well, yes and no. If you listen to School Days and you listen to SMV, his bass tones are definitely in the same family. But they are also pretty different. And that's keeping in mind he's been using basically the same bass for 35+ years. But even with all those possible variables reduced (same player, same bass, same basic approach, etc...), the 2 tones are still different.

So yeah, fingers might be like 20% of your tone. But EVERYTHING else is the other 80.

[wmheilma]

Yup. The Ampeg SVT 810 is the only thing that really has that sound. I sold my fridge back in the 80's after we fell down the stairs together. Ouch squared! How about the Bergantino sealed 610? that might do the trick and is not so big and heavy.

[JimmyM]

Originally Posted by Hopkins

For someone to say tone is all in the fingers, then go on to explain how different amps sound compared to another amp is pretty contradictory isn't it?

If tone came from the fingers then all amps and cabs should sound the same right?

You totally didn't get what was said. It's not that different amps don't sound different...it's that we always try to get the sounds we like out of whatever gear we use no matter what it is, resulting in everything we play through sounding somewhat the same after we play around with it.

[Downunderwonder]

I beg to differ with the GAS, not that I don't suffer too.

Leaving aside volume requirements, 1st 10% from the gear, next 10% how you set it, next 75% fingers, next 5% is waiting for you in the afterlife.