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Ampeg V4 Club

#941
gerrywarwick said:
Thanks for the reply. Still strange to see two jacks. Even stranger is that after 47 pages, I'm the only one with this question, lol.
Click to expand...

The intention of the jacks on the new amps was supposed to be less confusion and one less point of failure (I believe). Each set of jacks connects directly to their respective impedance taps with the pairs in parallel.

On the vintage amps with the switch the jacks are in parallel but the main output us a shorting jack to prevent you from damaging that amp if you briefly turn it on without a speaker load connected. On these amps if you plug into the extension jack without using the main jack first you'll get no or reduced output. The modern amps did away with that.
 
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#942
The deadly V-2/V-4 combination:
V-2.jpg
V-2:V-4.jpg

This was my brother's guitar rig for 30-some years, after he bought it from a bass player in a former band. He mostly used it with the V-2 cabinet. He had a tech add the master volume, and did no other service to it.
The fundamental sound is pretty good, but there seems to be a lot of distortion, and the speakers fart out pretty easily. Tolex is rough on one side, showing evidence of dragging (over concrete?).
I need to clean the pots and dust everything; any suggestions for anything else I can do while it's apart?
 
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#943
Check the speakers for damage, take it to a tech and get that master volume mod yanked off while he checks the general health of the head and tubes :D Actually that's probably not hurting anything and since your brother did it, you might want to leave it for old time's sake. But distortion can be the sign of a tube going out, a blown speaker that still puts out sound, a cap gone ka-flooey, or a handful of other things, and it's always a good idea to have a qualified tech go over any amp you're having issues with when you get it. If you're not knowledgeable about it, it can actually save you money to go to a tech because a lot of folks throw money at stuff in their amps, only to find that wasn't the problem.
 
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#944
JimmyM said:
Check the speakers for damage, take it to a tech and get that master volume mod yanked off while he checks the general health of the head and tubes :D Actually that's probably not hurting anything and since your brother did it, you might want to leave it for old time's sake. But distortion can be the sign of a tube going out, a blown speaker that still puts out sound, a cap gone ka-flooey, or a handful of other things, and it's always a good idea to have a qualified tech go over any amp you're having issues with when you get it. If you're not knowledgeable about it, it can actually save you money to go to a tech because a lot of folks throw money at stuff in their amps, only to find that wasn't the problem.
Click to expand...
Thanx, Jimmy, I suspect a combination of those issues. I can spot and replace a leaky cap, or look for charred places, but that's about it. Regrettably, the nearest tech is gonna be about three hours away, near my brother's house...
 
#945
Oh snap. That does suck to drive that far to get an amp looked at. Well maybe you can figure it out on your own if you can replace caps on PCB's. That's better than I can do. I can spot them but replacing is a little out of my league.
 
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#948
I'm getting ready to order tubes for my V4 and have a few more questions for you all.
Has anyone tried the Tung Sol 7581A reissues in their V4's? Like everything else that's available, they're not rated for the plate voltage in these amps, but the 35W dissipation may help with longevity. Any opinions on these or alternate recommendations?
I bought some NOS 6k11, but have not yet bought any 6cg7 or 12dw7. Had anyone had any luck with the available new production of those tubes or am I better off going NOS for those too? The going rate for NOS 12dw7's is getting pretty high (about $40 each). I'm cheap, but am not willing to sacrifice reliability or tone to save a few bucks...
Any recommendations for the best place to buy? I've dealt with Doug's Tubes before and that was fine, but am open to suggestions.

Thanks!
 
#949
Eric_Allard said:
I'm getting ready to order tubes for my V4 and have a few more questions for you all.
Has anyone tried the Tung Sol 7581A reissues in their V4's? Like everything else that's available, they're not rated for the plate voltage in these amps, but the 35W dissipation may help with longevity. Any opinions on these or alternate recommendations?
I bought some NOS 6k11, but have not yet bought any 6cg7 or 12dw7. Had anyone had any luck with the available new production of those tubes or am I better off going NOS for those too? The going rate for NOS 12dw7's is getting pretty high (about $40 each). I'm cheap, but am not willing to sacrifice reliability or tone to save a few bucks...
Any recommendations for the best place to buy? I've dealt with Doug's Tubes before and that was fine, but am open to suggestions.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
Have you tried these?
JJ ECC832 / 12DW7 Preamp Vacuum Tube | TubeDepot.com
 
#951
vmabus said:
The deadly V-2/V-4 combination:
View attachment 731125 View attachment 731126
This was my brother's guitar rig for 30-some years, after he bought it from a bass player in a former band. He mostly used it with the V-2 cabinet. He had a tech add the master volume, and did no other service to it.
The fundamental sound is pretty good, but there seems to be a lot of distortion, and the speakers fart out pretty easily. Tolex is rough on one side, showing evidence of dragging (over concrete?).
I need to clean the pots and dust everything; any suggestions for anything else I can do while it's apart?
Click to expand...
I had to order a set of clutch-head screwdriver bits; no one here has them. A tube set is coming from fliptops. I thought their prices seemed high until I checked around. Not wanting to rebuild the cabinet at this time, some wide Gorilla tape passes the 10-foot test. I think the head is 1972.
 
#952
A buddy of mine has the back plate from an old V4 (early 70s). He sold the head long ago. He just wants to sell the plate on Reverb because he is trying to clear out some old junk drawers. He asked me what it should go for and I had no idea. New ones from Fliptops are $42.00.

Any thoughts?
 
#953
#954
two fingers said:
A buddy of mine has the back plate from an old V4 (early 70s). He sold the head long ago. He just wants to sell the plate on Reverb because he is trying to clear out some old junk drawers. He asked me what it should go for and I had no idea. New ones from Fliptops are $42.00.

Any thoughts?
Click to expand...
That's a real emotional buy there, so that makes the price higher. In good shape, I see no reason he couldn't get $125 for it, no? Maybe more.
 
#956
JimmyM said:
I haven't tried them for a little while, but I hear they're not much different. They sound fine, but they're built very sloppy and they didn't last long for me.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the reply Jimmy. I had read your opinion of them somewhere and it was one of several bad reviews I have read. Maybe I'll go NOS for that one.
If I recall correctly, the 6cg7 is used for reverb recovery... I can probably go cheap on that one.
 

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