Picked up an Ampeg SVT-4 PRO last week. It's very sterile and cold sounding. Sure, it has a lot of hi-fi transistor power. Why do so many Pros request these on riders?
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Ampeg SVT-4 PRO cold and sterile
- Thread starter jason weatherby
- Start date
How do you have the gain, compression, and eq set? what cab are you using?
I find the secret to a lot of Ampeg amps is this:
Gain: Should be up as high as possible, that clip light should be flickering
Compression: If you can noticeably hear the effects of the compression circuit it is to high. back it down. I see the light flicker on my PF-500 but its never a noticeable presence.
EQ: Bass knob shouldnt have to go up past noon, Highs should be done to taste in small moves away from noon. Mids are another story. Depending on the model of the amp the "cut" can be stronger than the boost and that at noon there is no effect when you switch the selector. I tend to boost low mids a lot or cut the highest mids a touch depending on the bass and cab I am using.
Hope that helps.
I find the secret to a lot of Ampeg amps is this:
Gain: Should be up as high as possible, that clip light should be flickering
Compression: If you can noticeably hear the effects of the compression circuit it is to high. back it down. I see the light flicker on my PF-500 but its never a noticeable presence.
EQ: Bass knob shouldnt have to go up past noon, Highs should be done to taste in small moves away from noon. Mids are another story. Depending on the model of the amp the "cut" can be stronger than the boost and that at noon there is no effect when you switch the selector. I tend to boost low mids a lot or cut the highest mids a touch depending on the bass and cab I am using.
Hope that helps.
^ Driving the gain and backing the compression off makes a big difference, don't use the deep and bright switches if you can help it. Use the correct speakon for the mono bridge and you will find a lot more headroom, I find it sound anemic when run in stereo mode but other seem to find it fine
Try the setting I posted and as Borvil mentioned leave the deep and high switches off.
Strange. I run my SVT 4 Pro with the deep switch on, compression all the way off, bridged mono into a 410 HLF. Now, I also use an Aguilar Tone Hammer DI/preamp and I also set the volume and tone knobs on my Hwy 1 Jazz a little differently as well (vols never higher than 75%, tone rolled way off most of the time). I get a really warm, expressive tone and I would definitely not call my rig cold or sterile.
I run my 4-Pro into a 610HLF. Gain really hot between 3 and 4 o'clock. treble and bass at noon, mid selector on 2 and I actually cut my mids because my jazz bass is so mid sounding to begin with on the bridge pickup. I get lot's of complements on my sound. Very warm sounding....
Not every amp is made with everybody's tastes in mind, but the last thing I'd call the 4 Pro is sterile. And if you can't get the sound poppin', I ain't blaming the amp 
Gain...crank...hard.
Gain...crank...hard.
I know what you mean about cold and sterile. I a/b'ed my SVT4 and my Markbass LMIII through my ampeg 6x10 at soundcheck last weekend and it was no contest. The LMIII was definitely the tone winner for me. So much easier to get a warm fat tone. And honestly, 500 watts was plenty through that cabinet to get the job done!
Please see the following:
Not every amp is made with everybody's tastes in mind, but the last thing I'd call the 4 Pro is sterile. And if you can't get the sound poppin', I ain't blaming the amp
Gain...crank...hard.
I am a newby when it comes to Ampeg gear, but not as a bassist 
...... but I have to agree....cold and sterile is the last thing I would use to describe the sounds I get out of my Ampeg gear and I just have a SVT 3 Pro and an SVP II Preamp psuhed by a B4R. I did follow the setting recomended above though....and Ii would not have thought to do that before I read it here.
...... but I have to agree....cold and sterile is the last thing I would use to describe the sounds I get out of my Ampeg gear and I just have a SVT 3 Pro and an SVP II Preamp psuhed by a B4R. I did follow the setting recomended above though....and Ii would not have thought to do that before I read it here.I own one of those SVT 4 PROs and it kicks butt. Not cold and sterile, but not everyone likes them. Way better tone than the M-2000 I have and twice the power.
I dont own one but used one as backline once, had the gain cranked wide open to get a decent sound. I really thought it would blow before the end of the show, it didnt.
Yep. Just spend some time with it. Start with the gain cranked and everything else flat. And then just think to yourself "What do I want more of?" And go from there. Do the same thing with "What do I want less of?" Let your ears take you to where you want to go. That amp will do all kinds of tones. Warm fat chest hammer is one of them.
The only time I ever played through a SVT-4 Pro was at a GC not long ago and after someone told me to do ir on my Acoustic B-100, y cranked the gain until light started flickering then backed of just a bit, turned every switch off and drew a pretty steep curve on the parametric EQ boosting mids.
I was playing on a Jackson bass with EMGs on it and I swore on that day I would get an SVT-4 Pro some day.
I was playing on a Jackson bass with EMGs on it and I swore on that day I would get an SVT-4 Pro some day.
I dunno about cold and sterile. I never got that out of my SVT-4 back in the day. Dark and round is how I'd describe the default flavor. Push the gain. Are you sure you aren't mixed up with an SWR? 
