Ok, so I just joined TB forums today after many months of vulturing over certain threads like this one. I'm starting out on the bass (yamaha bb424 first bass) and have decided on the pf350 for a practice/small jam amp. In fact it just arrived today. I've read a lot about the ampeg sound and listened to recordings and music that used the products. I was wondering if any of you gurus give some tips on what settings on the pf350 will mimic other certain ampeg amps? I know somebody listed settings for a close B-15 sound but these threads are mega.
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Ampeg PF500/PF350 - part 3, I think
- Thread starter BassyBill
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Thanks guys for the info. Both cabs are used & I can buy either at the same price & that is way lower than a new pf 115. Being a bit thick what is actually ment by sealed cabs? Does this mean on internal access. My pf115 is therefore not a sealed cab? But what I'm hearing is the future is 2 115. 1 pf & 1 STV. Guitarist friends are saying mix the speakers for a rounded sound but value your advice more
Bellcounty, don't worry so much about copping "SVT" tone. There are many great tones you can get out of an SVT, not just one. Same with the PF350. Just play with the knobs, see what they do, then see what sounds you can cop on your own.
Evsm, sealed means that there are no ports cut into the cabinet. Ports are used in cabs to let more of the low end frequencies come out of your cab. In general, sealed cabs have less low end than ported cabs but not always. Your PF115he is sealed, but it's got a pretty massive low end on it. Not the lowest ever, but way more than most sealed cabs and a lot of ported cabs, too. What's best is a matter of taste. I usually go for higher tuned cabs, but the PF115's are changing my mind about that.
Evsm, sealed means that there are no ports cut into the cabinet. Ports are used in cabs to let more of the low end frequencies come out of your cab. In general, sealed cabs have less low end than ported cabs but not always. Your PF115he is sealed, but it's got a pretty massive low end on it. Not the lowest ever, but way more than most sealed cabs and a lot of ported cabs, too. What's best is a matter of taste. I usually go for higher tuned cabs, but the PF115's are changing my mind about that.
Guitar speakers are designed differently from bass speakers in some ways. So you are right to be careful.
Sealed cabs - speakers can be sealed (which means in a box with no openings) or ported (which means the box has one or more holes in it carefully designed to accentuate certain frequencies). Note that guitar cabs can also be open back, which I guess means the box plays far less part in the sound. I don't recall ever seeing an open-back bass box.
Mixing cabs - controversial subject. One school of thought is always use the same cabs, don't mix, because with mixing you can get phase cancellations and stuff. The result is some frequencies louder than others, and inconsistent sounds in different parts of the room. The other side is that if cabs are designed to go together the phase cancellations will be minimal and you can get the benefits of two different speaker types. When people mix speakers for bass, it's most commonly mixing 10 inch with 12 or 15 inch. Either way, most people would I think be wary of mixing an SVT 15 and a pf15, since they aren't designed to work together.
Evsm73 said:
Your guitarist friends are hearing with their eyes. Mixing won't necessarily round out the sound and can certainly cause phase cancellation. In the case of a 1x15 and 4x10 the idea is that the 15 has bottom and the 10s do the top end but that's only true if you use a crossover to control frequency, otherwise you're just sending half your wattage to the 1x15 and potentially over powering it while limiting the amount of air the 4x10 can push. In the case of the two 1x15 cabs I think the svt cabs are ported, but should be close in sound to the pf cab. Give it a shot and if it doesn't work you could always resell the svt cab down the road and try to find a matching pf cab.
I'd like to officially join the Portaflex club. I picked up a PF500, a 1x15, and a 2x10 and I'm really loving it. Just the 2x10 is pictured below in horrible lighting.
Then you didn't seed the amp that came with my first bass some 40+years ago. It didn't have a back at all.
TBH, though, I'm not sure it really was a bass amp. It was a no-name POS witha 4 inch speaker that the guy at the pawnshop where my parents bought me my Maestro/Univox bass kind just threw it into the deal.
I took the bull by the horns and wrote to Loud. I asked about running two PF cabinets and in a round about way running 4 and 8 ohm loads. Below is the answer I got:
Hi,
Thanks for writing.
You can certainly use two PF cabinets with the PF500. However, like any other bass amp, you need to make sure that you arent clipping or overloading the circuit.
The PF Series are a Class D amp and if you encounter a hard clip as opposed to a soft clip, the amp will gate itself. With proper gain staging the PF Series will work very well with a 4 ohm cabinet(s) or two PF cabinets. Even though the PF cabinet are rated for 400 watts RMS at 8 ohms each, they have a higher speaker sensitivity than many of our other cabinets, so it takes less of an input signal to achieve a full output. If you want to use a different 4 ohm cabinet with a lower speaker sensitivity, you many to get one that more closely matches the wattage available from the PF500. This way you have enough wattage to drive the cabinet(s).
I hope this can help.
All the Best,
So it appears to have obvious protection circuitry and occasionally we run into it. Maybe the occasional low volume gating is due to a faulty protection circuit. But it appears that under the "right" circumstances they will all gate themselves and this is by design.
I'm not worried about it.
Hi,
Thanks for writing.
You can certainly use two PF cabinets with the PF500. However, like any other bass amp, you need to make sure that you arent clipping or overloading the circuit.
The PF Series are a Class D amp and if you encounter a hard clip as opposed to a soft clip, the amp will gate itself. With proper gain staging the PF Series will work very well with a 4 ohm cabinet(s) or two PF cabinets. Even though the PF cabinet are rated for 400 watts RMS at 8 ohms each, they have a higher speaker sensitivity than many of our other cabinets, so it takes less of an input signal to achieve a full output. If you want to use a different 4 ohm cabinet with a lower speaker sensitivity, you many to get one that more closely matches the wattage available from the PF500. This way you have enough wattage to drive the cabinet(s).
I hope this can help.
All the Best,
So it appears to have obvious protection circuitry and occasionally we run into it. Maybe the occasional low volume gating is due to a faulty protection circuit. But it appears that under the "right" circumstances they will all gate themselves and this is by design.
I'm not worried about it.
+1, after emailing with Loud, I'm convinced that my issue was a form of protection as well (combined with user error.
lol) and am not worried about it either. I'd much rather have an amp that gates itself rather than blow itself up. 
5sg.
I believe the letter designations refer to the following:
E - extension - 8 0hms
LF - low frequency - tuned or ported to go lower
H - horn
This isn't a club thread, there is a portaflex club thread you will have to post a request in.
Hey,
Expecting a PF500 in a couple of days. I'd like to run an ART Tube MP Project Series Mic Pre through the effects loop and use the blend knob as intended. It has occurred to me that I have a few options for introducing the tube signal into the line, i.e. the loop, guitar-tube-input, power amp out? loop in? maybe?
Having never tried this, and knowing little as to how these devices work, circuitry-wise, is there some predictable results? Things I need to avoid? Thing to absolutely, positively, never do?
Thanks
Expecting a PF500 in a couple of days. I'd like to run an ART Tube MP Project Series Mic Pre through the effects loop and use the blend knob as intended. It has occurred to me that I have a few options for introducing the tube signal into the line, i.e. the loop, guitar-tube-input, power amp out? loop in? maybe?
Having never tried this, and knowing little as to how these devices work, circuitry-wise, is there some predictable results? Things I need to avoid? Thing to absolutely, positively, never do?
Thanks
That is just wrong. The model number is SVT115E (no H) and it is a ported cab. It has 2 round ports with tubes. I have one. Here is a link to the manual.
http://www.ampeg.com/pdf/SVT210HE_SVT15E.pdf
There is/was no SVT115HE, that is, no 115 in the SVT series that had a horn and was sealed, based on an online search and Ampeg's website listing of discontinued models. It's a unicorn. It doesn't exist.
True that the SVT410HE is sealed and the SVT410HLF and HLN are ported.
You are correct! I read the question that referred to an SVT115HE and didn't catch it. But, in general, if the suffix is HE, it is sealed, right?
Dan
H means horn. As far as I can tell E is on all bass cabs.
HE can be ported (see SVT210HE) or sealed (410HE)
Near as I can tell there's no letter designation for sealed versus ported.
HE can be ported (see SVT210HE) or sealed (410HE)
Near as I can tell there's no letter designation for sealed versus ported.
And N meant Neutric when those connections first came out. Those are standard now and the N was dropped.
Thanks for the advice guys. I owe you a drink & if your down my way then give me a shout but I've spoken to the guy who selling them, told him I want the 115 & checked the label. The cab is a SVT 115 EN & as far as I know it's 400 programmable & 200 watts RMS with normal impedance of 8 ohms. Looking at the notation & what I can find online not sure what it means. I can't workout all this stuff but can I added to my gear run 2 cabs with my pf500 & get more volume?
Evsm73 said:
Pf500 is 500w into 4 ohms. That will be RMS watts I assume. Therefore it will feed up to 250w into a cab designed to handle 200w.
Surprised Ampeg even rated a cab other than RMS.
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