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Ampeg svt 810e classic or 810 heritage?

L

loner9

Sep 18, 2010
24
2
#1
Ampeg svt 810e classic or 810 heritage?

anyone a/b'd these bad boys yet?

I'm doing a markbass 800 through the 810e classic and it's SWEET.

But how bout the Heritage 810 cabs? They have a tweeter and a better quality build I read on the Ampeg site. They're also $300 more and they only make 400 per year.

I still can take back my 810e and exchange it for a heritage, but don't know if it's worth it, and I'm running out of time.

Anyone have any thoughts or experience?
 
#6
Well, as a guy who has owned both (currently own the Heritage) I can say that (for me) it would be the Heritage hands down.

Build is MUCH better, speakers are MUCH better, Tolex is MUCH better, Grill Cloth is MUCH better, Sound/Tone is "better"......

It is still an Ampeg 8X10.

That being said - the sheer value of having one of the "first year" cabinets was sort of my "selling point", if you will. I grabbed #44 and there is another talkbass member (sorry, dude! Can't remember who!) who has #42.

I like the cab so much in fact that I went ahead and bought a Heritage CL to "round out" the pair...they sound like a million bucks!!

Anyway....IMO!!! And YMMV!!!


Good luck with your decision!!
 
#8
I have the same problem, right now. I live in Europe and the prices for two cabs differ by $235. Is it worth to pay $235 for the "minor" distinctions, because speaking of sound they are the same (according to tech. spec)?
 
#9
If its worth anything, the Heritage is a beautiful looking cabinet. I had a real treat, and had the chance to play a Heritage SVT-CL through a Heritage 810E and wow. Now its been a few years since I played a Classic 810E, and I was in awe of the black sparlkley grill cloth, but the tone was easily the best I tasted...
 
#10
i've not played one but everyone i've ever spoken to who's played a heritage 810e says it's even better than the regular 810e. i like the regular 810e's these days a lot, but between the grillcloth and the word of everyone who's played both, i would suck up the extra couple hundred.
 
#11
If it has to be new I'd go for the Heritage. But my straightback and my 73 towelbar both sounded opener and tighter that the Heritage.

I thought I'd maybe have to sell my stack for a Heritage but there's no doubt left after several hours of AB'ing. The 70's heads and the old cabs sounded better. More definition, highs and (we had no other word for it) AUTHORITY.
 
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#13
jvdb said:
If it has to be new I'd go for the Heritage. But my straightback and my 73 towelbar both sounded opener and tighter that the Heritage.

I thought I'd maybe have to sell my stack for a Heritage but there's no doubt left after several hours of AB'ing. The 70's heads and the old cabs sounded better. More definition, highs and (we had no other word for it) AUTHORITY.
Click to expand...
there is definitely something special about the old cts speakers. too bad nobody would buy a 250w power handling 810 cab in this day and age. i guess that's the tradeoff for the higher power handling.
 
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#15
there's this sax player who works with us sometimes who owns a backline company that has a heritage. i asked him to let me try it once, but he won't bring it for free. and since i already have an svt rig, i'm certainly not going to pay for it!
 
#17
Question to those in the know with all things Ampeg: I plan on buying an Ampeg Heritage 810E, but I'm thinking the SVT-VR head's cleaner tone is more up my alley. Would it be possible to buy just the front grille for the 810E/AV to replace the Heritage 810E's grille so it would match the SVT-VR's front grille?
 
#19
Yes the Heritage grillcloth is now available. If Fliptops doesn't have it, call Ampeg and they can hook you up. However, I wouldn't overlook the Heritage SVT-CL just because it's a CL. When you crank the master and use gain to control volume, it sounds the same as a VR. I have a Heritage SVT-CL and a 69 SVT, and when I do that with the CL, you could put a gun to my head and threaten to shoot me if I guessed wrong about which was which and I don't know if I could do it. That said, they both have advantages that the other doesn't have (CL allows you to crank gain and get preamp distortion/compression while VR has two channels and is built closer in spirit to the original SVT's).

Oh, and now that I have a Heritage 810e, I can safely say that it's a better cab than the Classic 810e. I still like the Classic 810e, but the Heritage is the closest sounding cab to the flatback that they've ever made in their history IMHO.
 
#20
Arthur U. Poon said:
Question to those in the know with all things Ampeg: I plan on buying an Ampeg Heritage 810E, but I'm thinking the SVT-VR head's cleaner tone is more up my alley. Would it be possible to buy just the front grille for the 810E/AV to replace the Heritage 810E's grille so it would match the SVT-VR's front grille?
Click to expand...

Yes, you can change the Heritage 810 grille to match the VR.

But, what is it that you think the VR has cleaner tone than? If you think it has cleaner tone than a Heritage SVT CL, I'd say that's probably not correct. They're both 300W all tube. Any differences in clean headroom are going to be down to the specific tubes in them both and either one could have the edge. But whichever does, it will be *slight*.

Anyway, I have the H810 cab and the sparkly black is cool! If I were going to make it match an SVT VR, I would look at changing the cloth on the VR to sparkly black, not changing the H810 cloth. I'm 99% sure you can get the Heritage cloth, too, so it would probably be even cheaper to change the VR grille, too, since it's so much less cloth.

But, there's a Heritage SVT CL in the Classifieds (or was still, yesterday, anyway) for CHEAP. If I were you, I'd be snapping that up.
 

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