Has anyone actually had the opportunity to compare the sound of tHe Heritage SVT-CL and the the made in China SVT-CL? I know the Heritage is made in the USA and has the premium set of tubes and all that. Is there a noticeable difference in sound?
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Ampeg Heritage SVT-CL vs. China SVT-CL
- Thread starter Bassndrums73
- Start date
They're not quite made in the USA, they're "designed and assembled in the USA".
They sound pretty close. I own both the Heritage CL and the Classic CL, and while my Classic also USA made I believe all Classics use/used the same components. The difference between them is the Heritage has a few upgraded components and better tubes, but the tone they produce is very close and I use both amps interchangeably.
If I remember correctly, early reviews of the Heritage claimed it had a better signal to noise ratio.
All good information. Thanks. I just bought a Heritage SVT-CL this morning. Looking forward to its arrival.
I like it a lot. Very clean sounding. It and the China made model sound almost identical though. Hard to tell the difference in sound even with them side by side. The Heritage may have a slight bit more clean fidelity sound but not much. I own them both now also.
I own that same bass. Im also looking in getting a larger ampeg head. I own the pf50t and love the tone with my pbass. Not so much with my music man though. I own dna 800 and prefer the ampeg tone.
Yeah I own a Pf-50t also. I like my P bass and jazz both through it and the SVT. I had a MM and sold it because it wasn’t for me. Too aggressive sounding and contrary to how everyone raves about how they feel I just couldn’t get it set up to work for me. I like my Gibson SG through both amps but I have to cut the pickup volume controls back a little from full on to get the sound I want. It’s a very aggressive sounding bass also.
I have both the Heritage SVT-CL and a USA made Classic SVT-CL and agree they sound pretty much the same. The Heritage has a few higher quality components and better tubes that may arguably affect the tone but they're so close I use them interchangeably without any concern. I'd get a Heritage if money is not an object but if it is the regular Classic version won't disappoint.
Edit--sheeze I just saw I posted almost the same comment just a few months ago. Oh well …
I'll try to fill in some gaps since I'm shot out of a cannon way too early. I'm big on all things SVT and know a few things about them and what they do.
Basically they're the same amp except for...
---Sovtek/EHX tubes in the CL vs. JJ's in the H that went through a burn in period to weed out the weakest ones, plus a burn-in on the whole amp once assembled.
---Upgraded cosmetics in the H vs basic black for the CL
Also used to be thicker PC boards, but Ampeg started upgrading the CL's boards in 2011 not long after the H came out.
VR has 2 channels and two different sounding inputs for each channel for cool stuff like blending two different sounds or running a clean/dirty FX setup into the same amp (I used to do that with my 69 back in the day before pedals that actually worked on bass, back in the stone age). I call channel 2 the "guitar channel" because it's not quite as bassy, although you can crank bass and make it more bassy if you want. The one thing about it, though, is that each channel has a single volume knob, so you can get truly amazing sounding compression and/or distortion out of cranking it really loud, but it will be at such a spleen-exploding volume that it'll get you fired from most non-doom gigs unless you're in an arena. And it's also very hard on power and preamp tubes the more you crank.
CL has one channel with separate gain and master, as you well know. When you crank the master up all the way and use gain to control output, it sounds just like the ch 1 normal input of the VR IMHO. People sometimes debate me on this, but over the years I've sat with my 69 and H through every possible permutation of cabs and recording methods, , and used all the different SVT's as rentals many times over on 20 years of fly gigs, and the CL's sound and behave identical to me with those gain/master settings. The type of tube you use in V1 of the preamps can make way more of a difference. Or it may not. Also, while of course you can also crank the CL power amp as loud as it can go, you've probably found you can also get tube compression and mild-medium overdrive by turning up the gain hard and using master to control output, and at a much lower volume, even barely audible. You will burn out one preamp tube faster doing that but the rest of your tubes will last the same as they would running it clean, and though cranking the whole amp sounds better to me, it still sounds good, just not like power tube crankage.
And it's not out quite yet, but Yamaha is close to releasing the 50th Anniversary SVT, which has a couple differences from the original Blue Line and VR but looks a lot like them. The big difference is while ch 1 is the same basic sound, channel 2 is much better suited for bass by itself vs having reduced bass content suited better for guitar like the vintage and VR, with a slightly more "polished" sounding circuit closer in line with the 1974 SVT, according to what they say. They are also making the front control panel's blue lines with etching like the original Blue Line heads, vs silkscreened like the VR and CL's. It'll also be put together in the US, and I imagine they'll do similar burn ins on the tubes like the HSVT, but don't know what they chose for it yet.
Any SVT I've ever plugged into no matter when it was made sounded like a proper SVT as long as it worked, despite the circuitry and/or tube differences, and I am quite happy with any of them. I find way more difference between the cabs than the heads overall. If you're not familiar with all 3 different 810's they have now, the Classic 810e and 810av are the same cabs with different cosmetics, and they're excellent cabs but are a little more mid forward and not quite as polished sounding as the Heritage. The H810e uses American Eminences vs Chinese for the E and AV, and sounds a lot closer to the early SVT 810 flatback cabs that has the awesome sounding CTS alnicos, like hard-for-me-to-tell closer, but with a buttload more power handling than the CTS's. Don't know what you're using for a cab, but while I really enjoy all of them as long as they work , overall I think the H810e is the best of all of them in their history.
Hope this helps.
Heritage is made with a little more love
Basically they're the same amp except for...---Sovtek/EHX tubes in the CL vs. JJ's in the H that went through a burn in period to weed out the weakest ones, plus a burn-in on the whole amp once assembled.
---Upgraded cosmetics in the H vs basic black for the CL
Also used to be thicker PC boards, but Ampeg started upgrading the CL's boards in 2011 not long after the H came out.
VR's are awesome, too, and pretty much identical sounding heads to the old 2-channel SVT's of 1969-74 (I have a 69 myself). Compared to the CL, each style has certain advantages and disadvantages over the other.
VR has 2 channels and two different sounding inputs for each channel for cool stuff like blending two different sounds or running a clean/dirty FX setup into the same amp (I used to do that with my 69 back in the day before pedals that actually worked on bass, back in the stone age). I call channel 2 the "guitar channel" because it's not quite as bassy, although you can crank bass and make it more bassy if you want. The one thing about it, though, is that each channel has a single volume knob, so you can get truly amazing sounding compression and/or distortion out of cranking it really loud, but it will be at such a spleen-exploding volume that it'll get you fired from most non-doom gigs unless you're in an arena. And it's also very hard on power and preamp tubes the more you crank.
CL has one channel with separate gain and master, as you well know. When you crank the master up all the way and use gain to control output, it sounds just like the ch 1 normal input of the VR IMHO. People sometimes debate me on this, but over the years I've sat with my 69 and H through every possible permutation of cabs and recording methods, , and used all the different SVT's as rentals many times over on 20 years of fly gigs, and the CL's sound and behave identical to me with those gain/master settings. The type of tube you use in V1 of the preamps can make way more of a difference. Or it may not. Also, while of course you can also crank the CL power amp as loud as it can go, you've probably found you can also get tube compression and mild-medium overdrive by turning up the gain hard and using master to control output, and at a much lower volume, even barely audible. You will burn out one preamp tube faster doing that but the rest of your tubes will last the same as they would running it clean, and though cranking the whole amp sounds better to me, it still sounds good, just not like power tube crankage.
And it's not out quite yet, but Yamaha is close to releasing the 50th Anniversary SVT, which has a couple differences from the original Blue Line and VR but looks a lot like them. The big difference is while ch 1 is the same basic sound, channel 2 is much better suited for bass by itself vs having reduced bass content suited better for guitar like the vintage and VR, with a slightly more "polished" sounding circuit closer in line with the 1974 SVT, according to what they say. They are also making the front control panel's blue lines with etching like the original Blue Line heads, vs silkscreened like the VR and CL's. It'll also be put together in the US, and I imagine they'll do similar burn ins on the tubes like the HSVT, but don't know what they chose for it yet.
Any SVT I've ever plugged into no matter when it was made sounded like a proper SVT as long as it worked, despite the circuitry and/or tube differences, and I am quite happy with any of them. I find way more difference between the cabs than the heads overall. If you're not familiar with all 3 different 810's they have now, the Classic 810e and 810av are the same cabs with different cosmetics, and they're excellent cabs but are a little more mid forward and not quite as polished sounding as the Heritage. The H810e uses American Eminences vs Chinese for the E and AV, and sounds a lot closer to the early SVT 810 flatback cabs that has the awesome sounding CTS alnicos, like hard-for-me-to-tell closer, but with a buttload more power handling than the CTS's. Don't know what you're using for a cab, but while I really enjoy all of them as long as they work , overall I think the H810e is the best of all of them in their history.
Hope this helps.
Ya i think that helps. Still not sure what i want to do yet. All 3 choices are a pretty penny. Im also considering getting a power amp and using the line out from my portaflex 50 when i need more power. As far as cabs go i have the pf15he and 210he and a dna 410. I suppose i could also just try using a dna 800 as a power amp. But it might color the tone. Lots of ppl seem to like the dna stuff. But im not really in love with it. I like the cab but it seems to push the upper mids a lot. Imo
I ended up getting the heritage. 2 screws were totally loose and rattling around in the head. I called the supplier i got it from, they told me I could return it or take it to a certified tech. I took it to a tech. It was the fan screws. He reattached the screws and I took it home and it works. But I disappointed that those screws were loose. Especially since they try to market it as superior built and better quality control. I suppose it could of happened during shipping. But im not sure how. Im glad it was an ez fix though.
Jimmy i seen on the demonstration on YouTube. Dino would turn the master all the way up and slowly turn up gain til it was loud enough. Then he did another demonstration were he cranked the gain and turned up the master til it was loud enough. Do you recommend either of these settings? How do you usually run yours?
Definitely unusual, but at least it was a small job. And it was one of the last ones from LOUD, so at least we can't blame it on the new owners as they're not releasing new product yet
I recommend the first setting for tube amps and the second setting for solid state and hybrid amps.
First setting makes an SVT-CL sound just like channel 1 normal of the SVT-VR and vintage SVT's with only the single volume knob. Tube amps always sound better to me run this way, especially on bass. This is the sound the SVT is known for the most, and it's a very desired sound because it's big, clean, uncompressed and has tremendous balls, even at low volumes. And once you get the gain past 11:00 or so, you can get insanely great power tube distortion of varying intensity at volume levels so high it'll make you nauseous.
Second setting is for solid state and hybrids to make them sound big and ballsy at clean volumes. I ignore all lights and use my ears to set gain. As soon as I hear audible distortion, I back it down a tad till it goes away, then adjust volume with master. And you can get preamp distortion out of many of them as well., though how much you get varies.
This isn't to say that the reverse on these amps isn't cool, though. Some folks really dig the compression and/or distortion you can get by cranking the gain on a tube amp because it's still tube compression and distortion, but you can get it at very low volumes by dialing down the master. Can't do that on a single volume SVT. You could probably get away with it on a PF-50T, though it can still get loud enough to get you canned from many gigs in respectable society. And some people love the ultra-clean and pristine sound of a solid state amp with master dimed and gain controlling volume. So whatever gets you to where you want to go, it's all good. That's just my preferences.
