Ampeg V4 as a bass cab....

So check this out.
I have a ampeg V4 4X12 cab. Didn't figure it out until a few weeks ago. It was bought from Daddy's Junky Music, they sold it as a Bass Cab.
Been playing on it for around 6 months solid now.

Not a single bassist I've met / gigged with, ever knew it was a guitar cab....cuz thats what it is, or what research told me. It was sold as a "Musical Instrument" Cab, but verdict seems to be, guitar cab.

I have a Black Widow 1820 for my low's, and the ampeg v4 cab pulls out my highs. Its a great combo, you can hear a nice bass tone out of it, and I have no complaints.

Anyone have any opinions on how using a guitar cab like this will "hurt" my sound? I really think it sounds great, and no one is noticing. I plan on keeping this BIG guy, but if the speakers blow I'll probaly replace them with bass speakers.


-Troy

 

Im 6'3", 250, and move steel all day for a living. I move them by myself ....well the BW 1820 has wheels, so that helps lol
I did not allready know that heh. So my gear will be fine, my bass sounds good, and I have nothing to worry about, sweet. Don't hear that too often.

The speakers are the originals as far as I can tell. The original speakers have two wierd little prongs that come out from the cone and attach to the wall (i think its called the wall, biggest part of the speaker, the "ring" outside the cone). As far as looks can tell, its dead on.

I saw one going for like $350.00 on ebay. Kind of pricey considering you can get the 8x10 ampeg cab for around $500.00

I gotta say having an 18" speaker, 2 X 10" speakers (in the Black Widow that is), and then 4x12" is exactly what I was looking for tone wise. Booming lows, punchy highs, but bass you can hear down the street.

Most of my gear is out of production, which is cool to say, but lame-ish to have. Ampeg V4 is from the 70's, BW 1820 is from the 80's ( pretty sure), and my bass is SGC Nanyo SB320 from 91. Nanyo went out of business in 93. The lame-ish part comes in when I'm trying to find out specs on gear, or get some darn customer support lol

Thanks for the help, I'm glad I'm not doing something taboo in the bass world with the V4


-Troy

 

Internet research says it's rated for 300 watts continuous

The back of my V4 says 8 ohms, so ....its 8 ohms =)

Never had a problem with the speakers, in the slightest. I never dropped the cab or anything crazy like that. But when its loaded, its loaded in a pickup truck full of cabs, so im sure it takes a bump here or there in the least. No problems

The input is the biggest problem. Apparently, it had a different input jack that wasn't 1/4" input. So people put their own 1/4" jacks on there, and the thing gets loose ALOT. Re-soddering(sp?) should fix it, if that doesn't work, might wanna throw a new one on.

The cab was used as a "Musical Instrument" cab it seems. It was geared towards guitars, but bassists used it, and it was used as monitors as well. I cranked my SWR 750X once, and it didn't even distort. I wouldn't change a thing, but if the speakers blow, you just lost out on some cash you could of got from selling the speaker.

This thing sounds great. Some are willing to pay 100 for each speaker if they are original, and I've now seen alot of these cabs going for around $600.00.

If your not happy with playing through a guitar cab, or don't plan on changing the speakers, might wanna just sell it off and buy something to your liking.

I think this things wicked though

Thanks for the help all. It's hard to sort through the hype and fact on this cab. People say things going both ways about me using it as a bass cab, but I dig it!

-Troy