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Ampeg BA108 and BA110

#141
Most of the time I turn the bass down to about 3 or 3.5 with the volume at 6, treble cut, and mids up to 6 or so. It still has plenty of bass. Having the bass down ensures you won't get the rattle etc. But the mods make it a whole different amp. If you want it a little louder you can turn the bass dial up a half notch at a time. I would sell my whole big rig, cabs, and head, but I won't part with the BA110.
 
#142
Bumping this thread to pimp my brand and get some updated info on the BA108 and BA110 v2 out there. They were originally announced as 15w and 30w amps, but now are 20w and 40w amps. So the BA108 v2 gets a slight cut in wattage from the old one's 25w, but not as bad as originally thought, and the BA110 v2 actually comes away with a slight boost from the old one's 35w. Here's a vid with Dino that tells about the series:



I ended up getting the BA112 v2 but must admit the BA110 v2 is looking much better to me now as well. Probably won't get it, though...the BA112 slays and it's a little heavier but it's not any harder to get around with a cart. Ended up giving my old BA110 to our drummer so he had something to listen to his electronic drums without headphones.
 
#146
image.jpg
I went into Guitar Center, possibly with more money than brains, and I bought 2 BA108 on close out to make a " mini rig" with my pawn shop one. I haven't found the best way to hook them together yet.
 
#148
Running all 3 was my original thought, but I haven't found the best way to chain the signal through. If you plug into the line out, it interrupts the internal speaker. Running the effects send to the next effects return seems to be lower output on the second and third. If I run the effects out to the 0dB input, I can't stack them and the hum is amplified more so by the last in line. It's a work in progress!
 
#150
MotorTed said:
Running all 3 was my original thought, but I haven't found the best way to chain the signal through. If you plug into the line out, it interrupts the internal speaker. Running the effects send to the next effects return seems to be lower output on the second and third. If I run the effects out to the 0dB input, I can't stack them and the hum is amplified more so by the last in line. It's a work in progress!
Click to expand...
Good luck with that. How does just two sound together? I love my ba108 but I need more volume so I'm currently saving up for a pf500.
 
#151
0 dB input: –15 dB input: CD input: Effects Return:
50 dB 35 dB 44 dB 34 dB
From the owners manual.
This explained why the second and third amp are lowered output and the cd input was a little louder. I may need as suggested a distributor to get the most out of it. I'm a little underwhelmed by the output.
 
#152
I've had a BA-108 for about a year now. Last week I managed to get my hands on a US-made BA-110 so I thought I'd share my thoughts on them.

Mind you, the US-made BA-110 is not the same as the BA-110 V1 made in China.

The 108 and 110 are identical in size, if you are looking at the front. Looking at the top, the 110 is about one inch deeper. The 110 has a tiltback, the 108 doesn't. The 110 has a port in the back, the 108 has one behind the grill cover. The 110 weighs 14,2 kg and the 108 weighs 12,6 kg, without the power supply cord. (I am going to use metric units henceforth, forgive me.)

I've opened up both of them and here's what I found:
- The 110 is built out of 17mm (more or less) particle board, or something similar. The 108 is built out of 21mm MDF (maybe 20mm excluding the tolex).
- The front baffle on the 110 is 19mm plywood, on the 108 it's 15mm MDF.
- The grill on the 110 is one-piece 21mm particle board (or similar), and weighs 875g. The 108 grill is assembled from 18mm MDF bits, and weighs 525g. (The grills are not interchangable, even though the front dimensions of the cabs are identical. This is because of different material thicknesses, of course.)
- The 110 amp weighs 2,75 kg, and is installed "open to athmosphere", so to speak (i.e. the metal casing can be seen from the back). The 108 amp is "built in" behind an MDF plate covered in tolex, and weighs 2,2kg with the MDF plate removed.
- The 110 cab, without the amp & speaker, weighs 8,9kg. The 108 cab is 5,4kg.
- The 110 speaker weighs 2,25kg. The 108 speaker is 1,1kg.
- The 110 port is 74mm internal diameter, and 39mm long (suprisingly short). The 108 port is 77mm deep with a 74mm diameter.

Here's the funny thing: I measured the resistance of the speakers and the 110 speaker reading circles between 3,9 and 4,2 ohms for a while, then settles for 4,0 ohms. The 108 reading circles between 5,8 and 6,8 ohms but never really settles. So it seems the 108 has a 6 ohm speaker!

Somehow I prefer the sound of the 108, although it doesn't have as much bottom end as the 110. The 110 is a little darker, where as the 108 is clear, punchy and beautiful. It even seems louder than the 110. This may be because the 110 amp has a limiter. The 110 amp is rated at 30W 4ohms, and the 108 is 25W 8ohms.

The 110 amp has sympathetic stickers inside, saying "checked ok by Peggy" and "checked ok by Al". You can crank the volume right up to 10 and the speaker doesn't fart (you can get them to fart if you turn all the EQ's to 10 and then turn the volume to 10 though). There's a contour button which according to the manual is designed for slapping, but it gives a nice bottom end boost even for normal playing.

The 108 creates an oscillating buzz. You can hear it especially when the notes start to die off. It happens on low volumes too. I've tried the amp with a different speaker, without the cab, and the buzz is there. So I've concluded it's in the amp. Heard it might be crossover distortion, but I'm not a expert on this.

No quality issues like this on the 110 however. There's some very nice threads on modding the 108 with a new speaker & port, but to me it seems pointless unless this buzz can be first eliminated.
 
#154
Thanks JimmyM, I did not know that! As I said, I'm not an expert.

I think it's a great achievement that Ampeg has managed to produce an amp with a resale price of under 100$/€. The US-made BA-110 must have cost about 3 or 4 times more (in 2001 when mine seems to have been built). You can see the difference in quality though. I'm hoping to find a simple enough DIY solution to fix this (crossover distortion?) buzz, maybe by adding a couple of filter caps like Vesku did ([Invalid or Expired Link Removed] This would make the BA-108 a very nice little amp.
 
#155
Tosha said:
Thanks JimmyM, I did not know that! As I said, I'm not an expert.

I think it's a great achievement that Ampeg has managed to produce an amp with a resale price of under 100$/€. The US-made BA-110 must have cost about 3 or 4 times more (in 2001 when mine seems to have been built). You can see the difference in quality though. I'm hoping to find a simple enough DIY solution to fix this (crossover distortion?) buzz, maybe by adding a couple of filter caps like Vesku did ([Invalid or Expired Link Removed] This would make the BA-108 a very nice little amp.
Click to expand...
I hear you. I've noticed it with mine as well. But you can't hear it in a mix, and really, I only use it for upright on occasional very low volume gigs I do, which the way I play, the noise I make playing upright is much louder :D so I never worry about it. You might also want to check out Woodstockz' thread on here about modding one.
 
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#156
Thanks Jimmy...

Hmmm.... Vesku's mods look mysteriously familiar....


Tosha, I don't have experience with V2, but I want you to think about this for a minute.

If a company sells a combo amp for 100, when you figure the cost of parts for the amplifier, power supply, cabinet, corners, grill, connectors, knobs, etc, plus labor, and then subtract profit, then how much do you think that they spent on the speaker driver itself? 10%? If that.

Upgrading a combo's speaker can make be a noticeable improvement. You should start there. That may be enough.
If a speaker has a 3 dB improvement in SPL, it is like doubling the power. My BA110 with the S2010 basslite upgrade has been a reliable workhorse that I just take for granted now. It is more efficient, and can take the full twist of the knob. The stock speaker wasn't bad, but the basslite has enabled me to use the amp in jams where the stock amp would have just farted out.
 
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#158
Woodstockz said:
Thanks Jimmy...

Hmmm.... Vesku's mods look mysteriously familiar....


Tosha, I don't have experience with V2, but I want you to think about this for a minute.

If a company sells a combo amp for 100, when you figure the cost of parts for the amplifier, power supply, cabinet, corners, grill, connectors, knobs, etc, plus labor, and then subtract profit, then how much do you think that they spent on the speaker driver itself? 10%? If that.

Upgrading a combo's speaker can make be a noticeable improvement. You should start there. That may be enough.
If a speaker has a 3 dB improvement in SPL, it is like doubling the power. My BA110 with the S2010 basslite upgrade has been a reliable workhorse that I just take for granted now. It is more efficient, and can take the full twist of the knob. The stock speaker wasn't bad, but the basslite has enabled me to use the amp in jams where the stock amp would have just farted out.
Click to expand...

I should have mentioned your thread Woodstockz as well, of course. I've read it several times and it's been my inspiration for all of this. So, a big thank you!

And I did not mean to suggest that what you've done would be pointless, no way! What I meant perhaps, is that for my purposes I would start from the other end and see if I could eliminate the electronic buzz first and then start improving the other areas. This is where I have the least know-how though. I'm more of a woodworking guy. (I am dreaming of building an "ultra-light" cab out of balsa or sandwich composite, but that's another topic.)

I've been thinking about the price of the cab too, and it's unbelievable. If it was built where I live, they would have to build the whole combo in less than half an hour to make any profit. And that's not even counting the price of the components! So of course no high end speaker on this one.

Still, if I was to invest on a S2110 I would prefer to use it on my (future) ultra-light DIY cab. I've been lugging the BA-108 around using public transport (buses, trams, metro etc) and while it's doable, I would say you get tired of it pretty soon. It's not exactly lightweight.

But that's just, like, my opinion. What you've done seems truly impressive.

And I have no experience with the V2 either ;)
 
#159
I've done a couple of gigs using the stock BA-108 (V1). The first one was at a smallish bookstore cafe, having just a singer/piano player and electric bass. The vocals and the piano went to the PA. The sound guy asked me to turn up the volume of the bass a little, so I offered him a lead from the line out on the amp. He said something about noice on the signal, but he seemed to manage to sort it out somehow. At the end of the gig the lead was on the floor, so he had not used it!

To me this means two things: The line out signal of the amp is not very good, but the BA-108 can be used on it's own on small acoustic gigs.

The second gig was at a terrace of a restaurant, i.e. outdoors. Vocals to the PA, electric guitar through an amp, cajon (unamplified) and an acoustic bass guitar through the BA-108. The guitar seemed very loud to me, but a guy helping us with the sound said that I was "a bit loud".

So you can gig with the BA-108, providing the audience is listening and that the band set up is somewhat acoustic.
 
#160
The first time I noticed the "buzz" I thought it was my bass, because it happened at low volumes also. I'm playing a quite a standard Jazz bass (not a Fender though) and I was horrified when I found some resonating tones on it. Especially around B and Bb on the E string. Luckily this "buzz" doesn't appear on my US-made BA-110 though.
 

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