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Ampeg pf-800

#163
Got a chance to play the PF-500 in a local Guitar Center today, and was able to A/B it with an SVT-7 Pro and I was shocked that I really liked the 500 better, and by a fairly large margin at that.

Maybe it was the fact that the front end of the 7-Pro is tube, and the front of the portaflex is MOSFET, but it seemed like the PF had a lot more clean room and a lot more overall volume. Maybe it was just the demo units themselves, but I'm sold on portaflex at the moment.

Going to snag an 800 asap. The demo was a 500, and it had a ton of volume, so the 800 will definitely be worth it. Have a lead on one here so hoping that goes through. Just need to sell my GK now!
 
#165
Just got to say I've had one of these PF-800 heads for a couple months now and just love it . I had a Shuttle 9.0 that was a great sounding head but missed the Ampeg sound so when I was offered a trade for a PF-800 I jumped on it and hoped I was doing the right thing . The first time I played through it with my band I knew I made the right move , it just sounds right to me and has a ton of power . It's heavier and bigger than the Shuttle but still fits in my computer bag with all my cords and strap and stuff . Love it !
 
#166
Blues Bass 2 said:
Just got to say I've had one of these PF-800 heads for a couple months now and just love it . I had a Shuttle 9.0 that was a great sounding head but missed the Ampeg sound so when I was offered a trade for a PF-800 I jumped on it and hoped I was doing the right thing . The first time I played through it with my band I knew I made the right move , it just sounds right to me and has a ton of power . It's heavier and bigger than the Shuttle but still fits in my computer bag with all my cords and strap and stuff . Love it !
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Reassuring. Thanks man!
 
#167
I have mostly been gigging with my SVT and V4B the last few months - but this weekend I decided to go light. I played a fairly small pub on Friday night and the PF800 sounded great with the single PF115LF cab that I bought out. I was surprised that I had the gain and the volume at noon (the band is not that loud). The following night I was playing a larger room, so I bought my HSVT410HLF cab to use with the PF800. I had not changed the settings from the night before and when I sound checked I nearly lost my pants! It had not occurred to me that I was running the amp at half power the night before (@ 8 ohms). The difference really shows when this little powerhouse is running at four ohms.
 
#168
And on that note, I think I'll just drop this here:

PF800RigMay2014_zpscf3a31c4.jpg
 
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#170
Had mine for about a week and I love it so far! So much more headroom than my tc 450.

Btw there's a used pf800 on guitar centers website for $329.99!!

Wish I bought that one but I don't regret my purchase at all
 
#171
JonKim said:
Had mine for about a week and I love it so far! So much more headroom than my tc 450.

Btw there's a used pf800 on guitar centers website for $329.99!!

Wish I bought that one but I don't regret my purchase at all
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I've thought about buying that one. I saw it a few days ago. I've also been talking to a TBer here and I trust his condition inspection a little more than GCs recent track record. Haha
 
#176
P-oddz said:
I had been having some issues with EQ'ing my PF800 as well. Up until recently, every time I was playing it I was tweaking settings. It's mostly been my practice amp (and backup) so I haven't really had the chance to run it through a full band setting on my OBC410 cab and AV62RI jazz (which is my gigging rig at the practice space), but I've settled on some great tones at home on my OBC115 cab with a Highway One P.

I seemed to be experiencing what you were as well - either thick mud, or weak sauce. Honestly - I can say at home I was probably trying too hard. Where I seem to really enjoy where it's hitting now is less extreme in EQing than what I was originally messing around with.

Where I'm sitting now:
Compression at about 5 (I don't really seem to be engaging it but I do have it on to help prevent extremes)
Gain at 7
Ultra Low Engaged
Bass at 6
Midrange Frequency selected at 3 with a slight boost on the Mid dial to about 6ish
Treble rolled back to 4 if I'm too bright with a particular bass or set straight up at 5, and volume to adjust.

Obviously this will depend on your cab. The OBC115 is a pretty meaty fifteen, but these settings retain my Precision growl, the tone is thick but present, and has a lot of clear oomph behind it. If it's too bright for individual circumstances, I find rolling off tone on the bass a smidge works way better than trying to EQ it on the amp. YMMV.
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Yeah, the eq has had me scratching my head since I got the thing. It's wierd man. But, I totally just figured it all out today. I watched the "portaglex rock settings" video from Dino today and then went and experimented. Dude, right on! Freaking perfect tone from gain at 3 o'clock, mids at 11 on 2, bass boosted to 1, treble boosted to 2, compression off. The gain really opens up the amp. But if you try to up the gain with the tone stack boosted more than that, it cracks out. Like overloads itself. It was really driving me crazy that I couldn't get any dirt from it after watching dino do it on youtube. Or, dial in any real tone changes without straight cranking something only to hate it in a minute. So, flat eq is the way to go with these. Minor changes that dont seem like they're doing anything, up the gain. I bought a Qstrip pedal which is my go to now for any eq-ing I want to do. It's pretty nice. Same thing though, minor changes, but uts a noticeable difference in sound now, and I have two swappable mid frequencies to play with, and high and low filters. My rig is now awesome!

Oh, I'm pushing an ampeg 412he with it but the way. With just the amp with the gain up and eq flat, it has the ampeg sound. If you dont know what that is, you haven't cranked an ampeg through an ampeg.
 

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