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Ampeg. Black line SVT

Mosfed

Mosfed

Apr 21, 2013
12,753
45,523
Washington DC
Disclosures
Partner - CCP Pedals
#1
Hi guys

So tomorrow I get to check out a pair of blackline SVTs that a local hire company has. They are willing to give me my pick between the two they have. While I can plug them in if I want, the conditions are far from ideal and hardly conducive to any real conclusions.

So I was wondering - are there any stark differences between different years of blackline SVT? Any that are more desirable than others? Should I go for the cleanest one or a particular serial number? Not being familiar with the intricacies of the period, I thought it wise to ask.

Your thoughts would be appreciated.

Best,
Federico
 
#5
They are all good.

Listen to them both. Ask about the service history of them: are the transformers original, have any modifications been performed, what has been done to them in terms of routine maintenance.

Any issues can be fixed but it will cost you. You can count on needing to pay a tech to go over the amp and bring it up to spec. Factor that into the cost.
 
#7
Thanks boys.

This particular local hire company is about as expensive as they come in London. I have known the owner for years and everything I have bought from him was always in perfect working order with a clear history attached.

Both these SVTs are personally owned by the owner and are only lent out for recording sessions. He uses the same amp tech that I do, who assures me he has gone through both of them recently (one he went through when they did a retube 6 months ago and the other a little longer ago). Both are tubed with GE 6550s.

So while it would be wise, no doubt, to consider extra costs they may not be immediately necessary.

I will listen to both and make my choice from there. Thanks for the input.
 
#8
Sounds like you can't go wrong in this case. The amps have been lovingly maintained and you can't get better than GE6550A's in there!

If you can, take a peek in the back looking for rust on the transformer plates. Normally there is a coat of lacquer on the plates that can appear orange. Some people confuse this with rust. A little surface rust is fine, too much such that it is creeping between the plates isn't good.
 
#9
T-Bird said:
Hi.

Rental company rejects?

:)

Good luck with that.

Factor in a complete re-tube (if tube SVT) and re-capping at least.

IMO/IME anyway.

Regards
Sam
Click to expand...
Unless the proximity of the northern lights has an effect on tubes I am unaware of.
I would keep the tube set any working amp has, unless you find out there is anything actually wrong with them,(NB there is usually a lot more bias drift and failure in new production tubes than a set of good brand old stock ones) as for the lytic caps the chances are that hire stock use, is a lot better for them than almost no use
at all.
When I worked in back line hire, we tended to have proper fight cases and regular servicing and maintenance of the amps in our hire stock, that would have included replacing failing electrolytic caps.:bassist:
 
#11
To me, "Black Line" means an early 70s model that has the same graphics as a Blue Line, only the graphics are black instead of blue. But, some people (usually eBay sellers :-\) refer to any 70s SVT that is not a Blue Line as a Black Line,

Not sure which way you really meant this here. But, if it was me and one was a true Black Line and the other was a later 70s model (i.e. graphics different than the Blue Line), then, if they both check out the same and don't gave you any hard reason to pick one over the other, I'd go for the older (true Black Line) one, just 'cause I like the look better.

Of course, if they both have the same black line graphics (both early or both later 70s), then (if no hard reason to choose one) I'd just go for the cleaner-looking one.
 
#19
I was at the guitar center near me exchanging headphones (4th pair this year...my puppy is still a chewer, destroyed the box to get to the headphones) I hada few minutes to kill so I wandered over to the amps. I'm a GK owner, and I love it. But there it was, SVT-CL sitting on top of an 810. I'd never played one so I wanted to see how it sounded. Hooooooolllllyyy craaaapppp!!!!!!!!!!!! Sweet smoothiness bliss....I had never heard such a tone. Plugged an MIA P in...perfect thump and power. Plugged MIA J in next and dug in....oh the growl was intense and beautiful. Saw the Acoustic B300 and 410 next to it...not even close, great sound but nope. Next to it was Little Mark tube 800 into a 410 very nice, but still nothing close...I know I'll never afford one, but I'll always have that few minutes of pure tubey goodness....I'm jealous of you if you can pick which SVT you want :)
 
#20
^^^^
Nice! What killed me in the end is that if we were lucky enough to get the backline we asked for, I would always prefer to use rented gear over my own. So I had to make the dive. And I love my SVT-CL made in the US by SLM but it doesn't sound like the silver faces that I have gotten in the past in backline (as rare as they were). The SVT-VR is pretty damn close. But I have heard absolute nightmares about their reliability (including from the hire company that is selling me the Blackline).

Also - just ordered some backup small signal tubes from Brent Jessee at Audiotubes. THANK YOU Ampeg for using obscure small signals in the early amps. RCA NOS were like $5.50 a tube! And that is amazing....
 

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