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Ampeg v4b reissue problems.

#21
Funkabilly said:
Im really tempted to buy a v4b reissue, because the SVT CL was the best amp I have ever played through, and I heard they are very similar in tone. My only concern is all the negativity Ive seen on the v4b reissue. Id like to hear from my favorite peeps. Hopefully Jimmy M cant shed some light too. If I can get that sound at half the weight, its a win/win. I really think I would be fine with 100 watts.
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I have only had my V4B VR for only a few months but mine is flawless.

However, I have to disagree with the statement that the V4B and the SVT-CL are similar in tone. I A/B'd both heads for a week and found the V4B hands down had much better tone and tonal variations then the SVT-CL. I promptly returned the SVT-CL and kept the V4B.
 
#23
+1 for flawless performer.

Had mine for a year now. One power amp tube failed in the first half an hour of receiving and firing up the new amp (annoying, but poopie happens) That was replaced under warranty and it has never skipped a beat since (I average 10 + hours rehearsal and practice with it a week) and have done 8 or so gigs.

Can't say enough good things about it.

At first, I was almost dissuaded by that youtube guy as well - he opened it up and whined about it the quality and then did some bizarre comparison with a marshall guitar head too in another video. Guy seems like a kook.

Glad I just read the large V-4B Reissue thread here.
 
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#27
I did run mine out of clean headroom once. The neighbors cat was stuck in a tree and the fire truck was busy, so I just blasted him out...

Kidding aside, mine showed up with a bad pretube and the cover plate over the controls had some vibration. All fixed with a little TLC.

And it's still plenty loud
 
#37
Well crap! I think I got a bad one. I cant seem to get a clean low end and the high notes make a strange wawawawa sound, like its out of tune. I thought my battery may be dead in my bass, so i switched basses. I thought it may be the 8 ohm speaker, so i switched to a 4 ohm cabinet. Im still holding hope that i can take it to my tech and he can straighten it out. I cant really tell a difference when i put ultra high and low on. The low notes just fart if i play hard at all. I dont like a dirty sound, so im kinda unhappy with it right now.
 
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#38
If you want, there are a couple of things that can be done.

Check that all the tubes are seated properly. With the power off, remove one tube at a time an reinsert it in the socket. Sometimes shipping can cause a tube to come partially out of it's socket.

The second thing is to check the power tube bias. A tech can do this for you.

It could be that there is a bad tube.
 
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#40
Funkabilly said:
These things dont have a bias like my SVT did. I think it takes a tech to bias them.
Click to expand...

For the V4BR, the tubes should be reseated as described. The bias is adjusted via a pot inside the chassis. For your tech, here is the V4BR bias procedure from Loud:

V4BR bias instructions.jpg


If the bias can not be set as per the procedure, there is a problem with the power tubes.
 
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