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Ampeg PF500/PF350

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#501
I tried one at G.C. tonight with my Lakland 55 94 and Musicman Classic 5. I played it through a SVT 610hlf and a 410hlf. Both sounded good with the head. The head sounded great. But IMO it does not have enough power. I had the master turned up to the 1 o'clock positon and the pre turned up to where the clip light was just starting to go on and the amp was running out of head room. I think it would be loud enough for smaller gigs but for bigger rooms it would not cut it. I did really like the features on it. Especially the headphone jack and the input jack for an ipod or cd player. If they made one with more power I would consider buying it.
 
#502
davidjbass said:
I tried one at G.C. tonight with my Lakland 55 94 and Musicman Classic 5. I played it through a SVT 610hlf and a 410hlf. Both sounded good with the head. The head sounded great. But IMO it does not have enough power. I had the master turned up to the 1 o'clock positon and the pre turned up to where the clip light was just starting to go on and the amp was running out of head room. I think it would be loud enough for smaller gigs but for bigger rooms it would not cut it. I did really like the features on it. Especially the headphone jack and the input jack for an ipod or cd player. If they made one with more power I would consider buying it.
Click to expand...

just curious, did you try the 350 or the 500?
 
#505
Hnz said:
:help: :help: :help:

Can anyone out there in the USofA please A/B the Ampeg Micro VR vs the PF350 head?

Over here in Europe we're anxiously awaiting your report...



Look at us jump with excitement --> :hyper::hyper::hyper::hyper::hyper::hyper::hyper:
Click to expand...

funny..hearing that the pf350 'boasted' the same preamp as the Micro-VR,...
...I did just that today at Guitar Center....

(bear in mind...that the pf350's & 500's coresponding cabs were not there...
...just the heads...going into an ampeg 'HE' or something....)

to make a short story shorter,...IME&HO,.....Uh :scowl:
the pf350 ' didn't ' sound the same as the Micro-VR....

the Micro-VR blew the doors off both pf's (in Tone, that is...)

The pf350 had a very midrange heavy character with harsh highs,
while the pf500 was a different thing, & had more of a scoop to it (in a good way)

funny...both the pf350 & 500 was 'unusually' hissy with the treble turned all the way up

again,..to be fair...the pf cabs wern't there
so i can't yet "pronounce it crap" ...
but i am sneering at them :mad:
(JimmyM..yaout there..lol)

but i was really impressed with the little Micro's 'tone'
being a cheap little solid state and all
(god, i wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiish the Micro had more power!..lol)

nevertheless....i think i might just pick up a Micro-VR head and either:
buy 2-210-av cabs
or a 115 or 410 sealed cab (both at least 300-400 rms.....)
{ hmmm....thought bubble....waiting for a pf cab to try the "Micro head" with...interesting thought.... }

cause, unless you're playing tame trio jazz in the corner of a room,....
using only 'one' of the coresponding micro-av (8ohm) 210 cabs
just doesn't cut it, in most cases....
my opinion.....
 
#506
well the heads should be hissy with the treble all the way up. that happens in any amp. turn up the frequency, turn up its noise floor, too.

i still haven't got to try either of these heads out yet. not really in a hurry, though...the micro vr suits me just fine. i'm holding out for one of these guitar amps they've got coming...maybe ;)
 
#507
Juicyanalog said:
...just the heads...going into an ampeg 'HE' or something....)

to make a short story shorter,...IME&HO,.....Uh :scowl:
the pf350 ' didn't ' sound the same as the Micro-VR....

the Micro-VR blew the doors off both pf's (in Tone, that is...)

funny...both the pf350 & 500 was 'unusually' hissy with the treble turned all the way up

but i was really impressed with the little Micro's 'tone'
Click to expand...

Did you run the Micro VR head into the same "HE" cab? Any amp running through an HE will sound hissy if you crank the highs because it has a horn. The Micro VR cab doesn't have a horn- just two tens.
 
#508
JimmyM said:
well the heads should be hissy with the treble all the way up. that happens in any amp. turn up the frequency, turn up its noise floor, too.

i still haven't got to try either of these heads out yet. not really in a hurry, though...the micro vr suits me just fine. i'm holding out for one of these guitar amps they've got coming...maybe ;)
Click to expand...

uh..no Jim..i mean 'unuuuusually' hissy....

but i'll try em again, when i see them with the right cabs
in another store....

but yes...i fell for the Micro-VR head today...
...was really diggin' the unexpected 'creamyness' when i pushed it..
 
#510
GLEN18INCHSPICA said:
That sucks, I have the PF500 & the fault lite comes on for about 5 seconds on power up & power down. I assume it is a normal sequence & haven't had any issues. Did your fan come on, mine comes on almost immediately?
Click to expand...

Well, UPS is picking up the box today for return to the store. Cannot remember having heard the fan, but the fault light was on when firing up and never stopped.
The store will exchange the amp upon receipt of the old one. No problem.
Just have to practice a little patience...:hmm:

@Juicyanalog: Thanks for your review! Sounds as if the second PF350 the store is gonna send me will be returned also, but for an other reason... I'm gonna find out in a few days and post my findings here on TB.
 
#512
xjeremiahx said:
And were you running the heads @ 4 ohms? Or did you notice a large difference between the 410 & 610?
Click to expand...

The 410 and 610 hlf cabs are both 4 ohms. The 410 hlf had a much bigger bottom. But that is the way the cab is designed. The six ten had much more punch to it. I own and prefer the 610 hlf. The head did well with both cabs. I found that the 410 hlf sounded better with it because of that cabs low end frequency.

I felt that what the head lacked in power the 410 hlf made up for with it's design. The 610 kinda ate all of the heads power. But that is the 610. It's power hungry. My Mark Bass LMIII struggles with it but gets the job done.
 
#513
Hey there ya'll. I had posted earlier in this thread that I was on the fence about returning my PF 500. Well I did return it. I loved the Ampeg tone, but the fan was too noisy for quiet practice and it didn't seem to have enough power to cut thrugh during jams (granted I was only using a 8ohm 2X10 cab). I had previously tried a GK MB210 and didn't like that either. The only other two options I saw in that price range for the little light weight amps was the Carvin MB 500 or the Fender Rumble 350. (I knew Peavey was coming out with a new one and I didn't want to move up in price to Genz Benz, Mark Bass, Aguilar, SWR, Messa, etc).
So anyway I got the Fender. I hate that it's badged "Rumble" made me think it's a cheap starter amp, but so far I'm very impressed. It seems louder than the Ampeg PF500, can get a clean tone or a similar vintage tone as the Ampeg and to me has more effective EQ and overdrive options. It has a very quiet fan (can hardly tell it's on). Someone earlier mentioned they didn't like the pre-set compressor, but since I like the vintage tube type sound it works great for me. The manual even makes suggestions to adjust your gain to minimize how it hits the compressor. For home practice I love it with the -6db pad on, but I took it to a loud band practice last night and had to take off the pad. It still was less than 1/4 volume and 1/4 drive and really cut through and sounded great thru the same cabinet. Also it comes with a nice travel bag.
Fender Rumble may not have boutique stigma, but it seems like it will do the job nicely for me when I can't haul my all tube head. My only negative is all 3 class D amps I've tried sound a little one dimensional or almost sampled compared to my a/b amps or my tube head. I've been hearing great things about the Messa Walkabout and it sounds like it would be right for me except the fan noise and the price LOL! Thanks for listening.
Good luck to all fellow tone seekers.
 
#514
davidjbass said:
The 410 and 610 hlf cabs are both 4 ohms. The 410 hlf had a much bigger bottom. But that is the way the cab is designed. The six ten had much more punch to it. I own and prefer the 610 hlf. The head did well with both cabs. I found that the 410 hlf sounded better with it because of that cabs low end frequency.

I felt that what the head lacked in power the 410 hlf made up for with it's design. The 610 kinda ate all of the heads power. But that is the 610. It's power hungry. My Mark Bass LMIII struggles with it but gets the job done.
Click to expand...
Right on. I've got the 500 plugged into the 410hlf as well, and I agree, real big wonderful sound out of that cab. Haven't tried it in the 610 though. Might check it out on my lunch break.
 
#515
toneseeker said:
Hey there ya'll. I had posted earlier in this thread that I was on the fence about returning my PF 500. Well I did return it. I loved the Ampeg tone, but the fan was too noisy for quiet practice and it didn't seem to have enough power to cut thrugh during jams (granted I was only using a 8ohm 2X10 cab).
Click to expand...
lol! yeah, you better get a 2000w power amp for that ;)

the noisy fan thing is hilarious to me, btw. there are probably 1000 things in our houses that are way more noisy than any little computer fan, but some people always seem to want to focus on the fan. god forbid any of you ever buy svt's!
 
#517
If you can't cut through with a 2x10 cabinet the 500 watt amp is not your problem. I find the PF500 has a huge low end prescence & it is centered around 40hz. I lower the bass on mine to around 10 0clock or lower same with the highs. Too much low end competing with the other frequencies will take away alot of headroom on any cabinet.
 
#518
GLEN18INCHSPICA said:
If you can't cut through with a 2x10 cabinet the 500 watt amp is not your problem. I find the PF500 has a huge low end prescence & it is centered around 40hz. I lower the bass on mine to around 10 0clock or lower same with the highs. Too much low end competing with the other frequencies will take away alot of headroom on any cabinet.
Click to expand...
this is a good point. if you are a knob nooner, you don't exactly get an eq that's flat on most ampegs. the knobs need to be turned to your liking.
 
#519
+1 on cutting the bass knob a bit. I came to the same conclusion as Glen and I usually have the bass knob in the same place (ish) and I bump the mids up a bit as well. With other amps I own(ed), I've been quite happy with a flat EQ, so this is a little new to me, but I really dig the sound of the PF500.

And the fan noise doesn't bother me.

Jimmy, I think I'm coming around to your mode of thought... it really doesn't matter where the knobs are set, as long as it sounds good to you.

5sg.
 
#520
Don't have time to read every page of this thread, but I'm seriously considering buying one of these as I need something smaller than what I've got for touring this year. Reckon I should go for the 350 or the 500? It will be used as my main amp for a fair while (until I can afford an SVT-VR + 810) so tone is pretty important.

I want something punchy and aggressive for hard rock!
 
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