Ooooh, nice! I'd love to hear my V-4B with one or two of those 115s.Well, I finally had the opportunity last night to give my 1974 V4B a shot with a PF115!! It was a lower volume gig, so I didn't need both 15's and the power of the PF500. The combination of the old-school amp with the new-school cab and my Pbass V... Man, what an awesome tone! Easily the best tone I've had to date. Oh man... tone for DAYS.
5sg.
Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Ampeg PF500/PF350 Pt II.5
- Thread starter Chef
- Start date
- Status
I will. But I've got science and vast amounts of experience backing up what I said. What do you have?
If your "vast amount of experience" tells you to run 25 watts through an 8-10 or that 500 watts is screaming loud while powering 4-400 watt cabs, whatever floats your boat !
It not only works, but it kills! My V4B starts breaking into overdrive at about 11:00 on the volume knob. At that volume you won't be rocking stadiums, but it's pretty decent volume. Enough to hold it's own with a medium-louder 4-piece group, particularly with an efficient cabinet. That gig was in a 200 seat half circle (theater style) brick/concrete room and I had the volume at about 9:30. Any more and I would've been too loud, and we were backing a 50-voice (but unmiked) high school choir.
Other settings on the V4B: Bass at 1:00, Mids at 2:00, Ultra Lo/Hi off. Mid selector at 1k Hz.
As for comparing the two directly, the V4B doesn't have as much power but I like the tone better. It's a tube amp, duh. lol The V4b is vintage, the PF500 is Class D, but has a convincing vintage vibe.... if that makes sense. With the same cab, the older amp does better with harmonics and mids, the newer amp has more "oomph" behind it at similar volume levels and has bigger lows. That's not to say that the V4B doesn't do well with low end, it's just that midrange frequencies seem to jump out more. I haven't specifically tried it side by side, but I suspect that with some dialing, I could probably get a pretty similar sound with the PF500.
Well, not huge, but I think that pic shows off just how wide the V-4B's are!
Tom's right, they're not huge, but the V4B is a freakin' boat anchor.... a full two feet wide and a couple pounds heavier than the PF115 with the PF500! Don't let the size of the PF115's fool you though, they have a surprising amount of low end and punch in spite of the small(er) sealed cabinet package. Maybe it's because they're sealed that they have that balance of punch and lows. I was a die-hard 10's guy until these cabs, but man I love 'em.
Running both PF115's is definitely on my list to try, but for this gig, 100 watts into 1x15 was perfect, anything more would've been overkill. I suspect that'd be a pretty killer stack though.
5sg.
Datsgor said:The strangest thing just happened. I recently got a PF500 and with the gain on anything above 9 o'clock, I would get distortion that sounded like it was being phased. Weird. Anyway, I was thinking about having to send it back, so I decided to really push the gain to see what would happen. So, at full gain, I clipped the amp, of coarse. That nasty clipping that was talked about a bit earlier. Two or three times. So here is the strange part. Now the amp functions perfectly. No harmonic, phazed fuzzy distortion. Just clean gain all the way up.This amp sounds killer now...
Must have blown the carbon out of it.
Well, I finally had the opportunity last night to give my 1974 V4B a shot with a PF115!! It was a lower volume gig, so I didn't need both 15's and the power of the PF500. The combination of the old-school amp with the new-school cab and my Pbass V... Man, what an awesome tone! Easily the best tone I've had to date. Oh man... tone for DAYS.
5sg.
Man, I'd be concerned that some numb-scull would blast through those doors behind your rig and knock it all down.
Glad you dug your tone, though.
S
Jimmy, I guess playing 100 or more gigs a year is not experience!!!
I would gladly be on your boat.
I would gladly be on your boat.
Put on your Gilligan hat and come on board
5sg, for all intents and purposes, that rig is as great tonally as a B-15. I so loved my V4B when I had one. Unfortunately, Session1969 says you can't use it. If you have 500w powering four 400w cabs, that translates to 125w per cab. And since the V4 and V4B are 100w heads, that means you're grossly underpowering your PF cab, and he says it sounds anemic. So now you can't do it anymore.
:
I'll put the hat on, but I don't know about one of those bowling shirts!!!!!
Put on your Gilligan hat and come on board
I'll put the hat on, but I don't know about one of those bowling shirts!!!!!
I only wish I could argue with you. I fully expect to see one of our promo pics on the Hall of Douchebags website. But, as usual in that band, not my idea.:
I'll put the hat on, but I don't know about one of those bowling shirts!!!!!
:
I'll put the hat on, but I don't know about one of those bowling shirts!!!!!
But Charlie Sheen wears them, and as he'll be more than happy to tell you, he's AWESOME.
I'm sure you feel like a douche but the marketing sells. You look professional, maybe a bit kitschy, but the fact that you go up there and rock out and look the part sells the image.
I have a 15 watt fender tube amp (guitar) that will blast your face off.
watts don't always = volume.....
and i will keep telling myself that.
Put on your Gilligan hat and come on board
5sg, for all intents and purposes, that rig is as great tonally as a B-15. I so loved my V4B when I had one. Unfortunately, Session1969 says you can't use it. If you have 500w powering four 400w cabs, that translates to 125w per cab. And since the V4 and V4B are 100w heads, that means you're grossly underpowering your PF cab, and he says it sounds anemic. So now you can't do it anymore.
That's right. Two cabs would sound better, imo. I believe in more head room for a better sound as opposed to what is scientifically possible. Four cabs at either 100 tube watts or 500 solid state/digital watts ? Not a prescription I'd sign. I wish I had my old V-4 as well, btw. I bet TWO 15's would sound awesome ! Lol !
What's that you say Lassie, someone swapped Preparation H for his hand lotion and he is typing like a what?
- Status
