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Ampeg PF800

T

TobyG

Dec 16, 2009
19
1
Louisiana
#1
Last night was the first time to gig my new Ampeg PF800 in the club. It sounded great with tons of power. Loads of headroom. No heat at all after a 4 hour night. With all knobs at 12 o'clock had killer tones. I played through a Avatar B210 Neo 8 ohm cab and an old Peavey 115 BX BW 8 ohm cab. I also noticed that my old DOD analog chorus pedal sounded especially sweet through the Ampeg.
I've been juggling different amps and cabs over the last couple of years, from an old Fender Bassman 135, to (most recently) a new Peavey Tour 700. I think I might have finally found a keeper.
 
#2
Coooool. I think this post was meant for me. I, too, used to gig a Bassman 135 and now have an Avatar B210 neo (and a 15" cab, though it's an SVT). I've been trying a variety of amps in the past year to replace a B2R, mostly gigging a Markbass LMT for the reliability and clarity now, though I miss the Ampeg flavor for almost all of the rock songs we do. I love the portaflex sound but had both a 350 and 500 crap out on me before I could ever get to a practice, much less a gig, so I'm watching the 800 performance reviews closely. Could be tempted to flip the Markbass, even though it's half the weight, heh. Thanks for the review.
 
#3
TobyG said:
Last night was the first time to gig my new Ampeg PF800 in the club. It sounded great with tons of power. Loads of headroom. No heat at all after a 4 hour night. With all knobs at 12 o'clock had killer tones. I played through a Avatar B210 Neo 8 ohm cab and an old Peavey 115 BX BW 8 ohm cab. I also noticed that my old DOD analog chorus pedal sounded especially sweet through the Ampeg.
I've been juggling different amps and cabs over the last couple of years, from an old Fender Bassman 135, to (most recently) a new Peavey Tour 700. I think I might have finally found a keeper.
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Once the PF-800's dependability has been proven I'll probably go to one of these from my PF-500 head.
 
#4
Reviving for update..... There has been some time since the last post here, what is everyones experiences with reliability? I am assuming that since there are few threads that reliability must be doing pretty good.
 
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#6
johnpbass said:
IIRC, there have only been two people here on TB who have had issues with the PF800. I'd love to have an 800 but it's way overkill for me, although with some Class-D amps, more headroom is better. My PF350 is plenty for what I do.
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Do you recall the problems the two mentioned suffered? Just curious is all. When did the 800 unit debut?
 
#8
That's what I'm thinking too P-oddz. One was dead out of the box and was replaced. The other shut down after a few hours of use. That's it though from what I remember.
I think there's a fairly large PF800 thread where those two problems were reported.
 
#9
I think I was in on that thread originally.

Actually, I had even initially reported that I had a fail with my 800 that caused me to end a set early. I had read through the threads of the fails with the PF500 prior, and it was only the second day of owning the amp, so I was sure that it failed in a similar fashion. So I might have even been the "number 2" that John was talking about ;)

However (and I did update to clarify on the same thread), it actually turned out to be a faulty volume pot on my Jazz that was cutting my signal and my 800 was not at fault. In truth, the amp has been strong ever since my initial scare. Granted, it is just a backup amp for me so its play time is limited, but it hasn't let me down since that day that I thought it did.
 
#10
Mine has been going well since end of February. I have only seen one reported problem on here but I'll take P-Oddz's word that there were two. The PF800 came out in March or April of last year. Pretty darn good reliability if you ask me.
 
#11
JimmyM said:
Mine has been going well since end of February. I have only seen one reported problem on here but I'll take P-Oddz's word that there were two. The PF800 came out in March or April of last year. Pretty darn good reliability if you ask me.
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I would have to agree, that sounds like a great track record if you ask me.
 
#13
johnpbass said:
Yep sounds pretty reliable to me. At 800 watts, I'd never even get near pushing a PF800 - although I could dig all that headroom.:D
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That's why I like it. There is just something about a tone that is not struggling - for my tastes anyway, others like things pushed just to their limits.
 
#14
Gab124 said:
Reviving for update..... There has been some time since the last post here, what is everyones experiences with reliability? I am assuming that since there are few threads that reliability must be doing pretty good.
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If Ampeg puts out a dud TB hears about it first... and then doesn't shut up about it. ;) The PF-500 threads got pretty ridiculous/hilarious.
 
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#15
DiabolusInMusic said:
If Ampeg puts out a dud TB hears about it first... and then doesn't shut up about it. ;) The PF-500 threads got pretty ridiculous/hilarious.
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Yeah, after buying my 800 I read through the 350/500 threads and it was......interesting. Not necessarily solid statistical proof of a problem, but something to pay attention to on some level, at least for me. I am really getting taken by the tone of this thing though I must say.
 
#16
JimmyM said:
Mine has been going well since end of February. I have only seen one reported problem on here but I'll take P-Oddz's word that there were two. The PF800 came out in March or April of last year. Pretty darn good reliability if you ask me.
Click to expand...

I'm not even sure if there were two, honestly. I only recall the story of the one that was broke upon delivery, but my mistaken claim (to be rescinded later) might have been the number 2 that John had mentioned earlier.
 
#19
Gona chock this up to not really knowing how to set my new PF800 well at first gig . I had no comp, gain 12-1:00, bass 1-2:00, mids 1:00, dialed @ #3 and #5 setting, vol 2:00-3:00. Was using 4ohm, TB153 w/Brubaker MJX-5, BB nickel strings. Had bass pre bout 1 click back from wide open, vol knob at "11". ;)
Anyway, as stated before was huge outdoor, covered restaurant/bar sitting just off the lake. Far wall to the right, stage was a solid, wooden deck, open behind and all along leftside. huge area of tables full with folks all in front of us.

Played here before using Streamliner 900, same cab or GB NX2 212T, Am St P5 w/tapes or other modern bass. Even with no PA support I was carrying the room fine. This Friday, I had a lot of bottom, so much that I got some speaker breakup so I backed off the Peg's volume one click. I always go for a clean tone, abit tubey when I wanna dial that in. I can get that with the GB 900 readily. I just couldn't get close to my tone with the setup this day. I'm now thinking it was the Brubaker bass with only a tone/bass knobs no mid knob. This bass can be kinda finicky when I'm not going for a more funk/modern tone and other amps.

After first set I switched out to STM 900 and P5 bass, same cab. Perfection for me. But I do know how to dial that amp with that bass nicely, so no surprise there. Now thinking I shoulda tried the P5 into PF800 before switching amps, to give that a go; mighta been great.
Gona try the PF800 again at Sunday gig. This time with NX2 212T, again outdoor gig, same style variety band. Will take P5 and JoBo5 jazz bass, no active/modern basses this time. Wanna see how the jazz works thru the PF800. I know I need to use the PF800 a lot more to get to know it, just was rushed at Fridays gig to make time there.

Sunday gig a lot more laid back to try different settings on the PF. But if anyone knows what settings I might try to get more punch/clarity from the PF800 pls reply with that info here. I can actually use abit more dirt in this Sun band, so if I need to dial up the gain or use comp, as I've read here that some prefer more of that, pls chime in. Thanks in advance. Peace y'all ernie.
 

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