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Ampeg SVT-II appreciation thread

The SVT II has a protection circuit built in that has failed on one I worked on before. It would randomly cut out and turn off. I ended up bypassing the circuitry and it has been running great ever since.
Even if a couple tubes "went bad", they would have blown the internal resistors etc and the amp would still work.
Might try another "repair" shop because that one doesn't sound very promising.

I think you may be right, I spoke with another well respected local tech, and while he said he could possible see the 500 charge if you replaced all the tubes, with the bench fee, from what I described he said it didn't even sound like a tube problem, im going to take it to him next week, he will also thouroughly go over the entire amp to make sure nothing else needs fixed or replaced, the original place I have taken it may be right, and may be qualified, but I don't know that, so im not taking a chance
 
that sounds like the shop i would take it to. when my svtII was intermittently cutting out, it was the preamp out/amp in jacks in the back then later my tech ended up having to tighten up the plug from the preamp board to the main board as it would occasionally fail to pass the signal.
i also had a problem with a newish preamp tube failing, i fgured that one out myself.

everytime it gave me problems, i could plug my bass into the amp in jack in the rear of the amp and get good sound so i knew the power amp was working fine.

and fyi pretty sure i still have the original driver tubes in my amp.
 
:cool::cool::bassist::bassist::hyper::hyper:
Thru what cab?

My Berg CN212.

People not playing stadiums actually get to do that? :D

:)

I'll be the first person to admit that it was absolutely ridiculous. If I walked into that bar and the band was that loud I'd turn right around and walk out. Nobody seemed to mind though. There were people crowd surfing...in a small bar. It was an interesting night for sure.

I was almost going to bring the V4B instead. That thing would have been seriously overdriving
 
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built myself a master volume. gonna try it out this week. :)

mastervol.jpg
 
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Well... sort of a mixed review, here. I can definitely see the point for some... and admittedly our rehearsal was pretty short this week... but for the life of me I couldn't figure out a way to make it help my sound at all. When I had the master up and the main volume down the sound was thin (by comparison to without) and overall my sound was thin and overall worse with it wired in the mix.

I've never played a II-Pro but from what I understand, the presence of the master volume is the main difference and the general consensus is that that may have something to do with why folks with a preference generally choose the non-pro version... that the non-pro sounds more like a vintage SVT.

I'm going to continue to play around with more it when I have time. Thinking a little more about it this might also point to me needing to have a look at my preamp tubes.
 
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Well... sort of a mixed review, here. I can definitely see the point for some... and admittedly our rehearsal was pretty short this week... but for the life of me I couldn't figure out a way to make it help my sound at all. When I had the master up and the main volume down the sound was thin (by comparison to without) and overall my sound was thin and overall worse with it wired in the mix.

I've never played a II-Pro but from what I understand, the presence of the master volume is the main difference and the general consensus is that that may have something to do with why folks with a preference generally choose the non-pro version... that the non-pro sounds more like a vintage SVT.

I'm going to continue to play around with more it when I have time. Thinking a little more about it this might also point to me needing to have a look at my preamp tubes.

Cool, thanks for the update. Yes my II non pro sounds virtually identical to my 74 SVT. I'm just a big fan of the single volumes.
 
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built myself a master volume. gonna try it out this week. :)

Another experiment you could try is using the 'Level' slider in your eq section as a master volume, instead of that pedal. You'd just need to engage the 'Graphic EQ button, with all the frequency sliders centered, and then simply use the level slider as your master volume.
 
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It's been awhile since I have posted in this thread and I wanted to see what other people thought of my new plan.

I've been really wanting another tube amp lately and have decided that I am obsessed with the overdrive and drive tones of the Verellen Meat Smoke amp. I really will not ever part with the SVTII and after talking to Ben Verellen and seeing that his amp uses 6 6550 power tubes and one less 12ax7, I made the decision to have him build me the Meat Smoke Preamp pedal to use with the SVTII. I'm going to run it into the preamp out and my thinking is that the power tubes will allow for some of the best overdrive tones to my ears.

I use many pedals with the amp and think that the transformer and two 12ax7 tubes in the pedal will fill my needs without losing the SVTII clean tone and $2500 of my money lol. The pedal is major $$$ but may be what I am looking for and may actually replace my Darkglass B7K as my go to preamp.

Has anyone used the power section of the amp and had really great results? I ran the B7K into the DI of the Ampeg and it sounds killer so the Verellen will make a huge difference. I'm pretty stoked about the tones and setup. An all tube power amp would be great, so the SVT will fit the bill. I'm pretty sure I can run the Meat Smoke in the preamp out jack, correct me if I'm wrong.
Thanks.
 
It's been awhile since I have posted in this thread and I wanted to see what other people thought of my new plan.

I've been really wanting another tube amp lately and have decided that I am obsessed with the overdrive and drive tones of the Verellen Meat Smoke amp. I really will not ever part with the SVTII and after talking to Ben Verellen and seeing that his amp uses 6 6550 power tubes and one less 12ax7, I made the decision to have him build me the Meat Smoke Preamp pedal to use with the SVTII. I'm going to run it into the preamp out and my thinking is that the power tubes will allow for some of the best overdrive tones to my ears.

I use many pedals with the amp and think that the transformer and two 12ax7 tubes in the pedal will fill my needs without losing the SVTII clean tone and $2500 of my money lol. The pedal is major $$$ but may be what I am looking for and may actually replace my Darkglass B7K as my go to preamp.

Has anyone used the power section of the amp and had really great results? I ran the B7K into the DI of the Ampeg and it sounds killer so the Verellen will make a huge difference. I'm pretty stoked about the tones and setup. An all tube power amp would be great, so the SVT will fit the bill. I'm pretty sure I can run the Meat Smoke in the preamp out jack, correct me if I'm wrong.
Thanks.

You'll want to run the MS Pre into the Power Amp Input or FX Return of the SVT II.
I have a MS Pre and an SVT II but I've never tried to run them together, although the thought has crossed my mind. Hmmm...maybe tomorrow night ;)
 
You are right. Thanks for the correct input advice. What do you run the MS into just out of curiosity? I think the pre will be my last overdrive and Distortion pedal since it's more like a Marshall tone and along with the B7K and Darkglass VMT, my hunt for dirt may be complete.

My friend has an old Marshall 100 watt tube power amp that I want to run the smoke into at a practice space that should sound good when we don't need a lot of volume.
 
I've us d it for recording mainly.

One channel goes from my bass into a REDDI and straight to the board, and a second channel goes into the MS Pre set clean into a Torpedo CAB (set to a 6550 power amp sim and an 8X10 sim) then to the board. I basically use it as an SVT simulator type thing.
 
I pulled the trigger on the Meat Smoke tonight and Ben said it'll be about a month until it's built. I plan on running it to the power section of the SVT. I was thinking I should have asked him to install a DI on the rear so it runs quiet, but I think I it will sound awesome.

Has anyone tried to run a rack effect or preamp into the SVTII? I have a GK amp and saw an older demeter rack preamp for sale at a local shop for a good price and thought of picking it up and running it through the GK but then thought about running it into the power section of the SVT. I hear the Demeter preamps are killer. I have run my Darkglass B7K through the DI the same way and the tone is great when I do.
 
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Yeah I look for an all tube pre at times and miss out on them when they are available. Basscentral.com has an SVP 1600 SS power amp for sale that looks pretty beastly and huge like the SVTII. I also saw an all tube Carvin but it wasn't that powerful.

The more I play a hybrid head, the more I like the II. When I had a V4B, I wanted more cleans and the SVTII is still my favorite all tube head besides for the Verellen Meatsmoke. I'd really like to own the Aguilar tube power amp but it's a rare and expensive beast and today's amp technology is so good that I see Demeter is making powered preamps now which would be a great alternative to the Class D amp for high volumes.