Ampeg V4BH - struggle for volume

[Low Sound Love]

Thanks for all the comments and advice. The tech will have a look at the amp today, I'll stop by his place tonight after work. If nothing was wrong with the amp, I'll ask if I can do a comparison between my 410hlf and one of his custom 2x15 cabs to see if that makes a difference.
I know 100 Watts is not that much in today's bass world, but isn't it supposed to be pumping out 100 Watts before it goes into wild distortion territory? Because like I said, my 80 Wat SS combo seems to give more clean volume than this V4BH.

My T-bird is a 2008 IV. I'm pretty sure the pickups are not the problem, I've had a quick go with my active jazz and the results were the same.

 

[jmattbassplaya]

The more serious musicians I played with allowed me to get away with my Mesa 210 and a Peavey head clocking a hot 50 watts into that cab running a Bronco bass with a guitar humbucker in it. That was cool. I've made up rigs of all sizes now but the V4BH just doesn't do it for me. I'm doing it in for an SVT again!

As an aside, my house mates and friends rarely get to ear piercing levels which is great too.

I'm laughing at this. For a while it seemed like you couldn't get rid of the SVT fast enough

 

[Low Sound Love]

Well I just got word from the tech, all sorts of bad things were happening inside apparently. I'll try to translate the techie stuff, but I'm not sure of what it means even in Dutch, so sorry if translation makes no sense.

They really pulled one on you. Cold biasing my ass: you were playing on two tubes asymetrically, the pregains were swapped, one cathode was poisoned ... bunch of amateurs!

With this, my hopes for a somewhat playable volume are going up again ...

 

[perogato02]

Well I just got word from the tech, all sorts of bad things were happening inside apparently. I'll try to translate the techie stuff, but I'm not sure of what it means even in Dutch, so sorry if translation makes no sence.

With this, my hopes for a somewhat playable volume are going up again ...

I sure hope your volume problem is out of the way.
And otherwise, I could be interested in taking it of your hands as a fellow Belgian bass player ... I am one of those in search of a dirty tone

 

[Low Sound Love]

I sure hope your volume problem is out of the way.
And otherwise, I could be interested in taking it of your hands as a fellow Belgian bass player ... I am one of those in search of a dirty tone

thanks, I'll take note of that. If I decide it's not for me after all I'll send you a PM and you'll get the first chance. No doubt that it's dirty!

 

[perogato02]

thanks, I'll take note of that. If I decide it's not for me after all I'll send you a PM and you'll get the first chance. No doubt that it's dirty!

Thanks but I do hope you will strike gold with it

 

[rodl2005]

Not surprised. I found my V4BH had similar volume as the 3 pro, so I think you'll be good to go.
Still think the 410hlf isn't the best cab for that amp, but, wow, if your amp was running as badly as that, you should notice a massive difference when it's fixed.

 

[Devo-lution]

Well I just got word from the tech, all sorts of bad things were happening inside apparently. I'll try to translate the techie stuff, but I'm not sure of what it means even in Dutch, so sorry if translation makes no sence.



With this, my hopes for a somewhat playable volume are going up again ...

FAD?

Sounds like the way he'd put it + the thing on the custom 2x15's. Do mind those 2x15's are sealed cabs (big difference to your ported/vented 410HLF).

I use a 100 watt tube amp myself, so I understand all the fuzz. I'm in two bands (blues/soul/rock and new wave). In the rockband I can perfectly play with just my 1x15. In my new wave band it's sometimes hard to get enough volume when adding a second 1x15...

 

[Low Sound Love]

FAD?

haha, yeah you got that right

I've been thinking about getting a different cab for a while now, the hlf is too boomy in most situations. I'd like to try a setup with 12" speakers. Contenders are Mesa, Aguilar or FAD. All pricey stuff, so I'll have to save up some.

EDIT: what are your bands called btw?

 

[Devo-lution]

I'm going over there this saturday to probably buy a 115 that he has on stock (so I have a modular 2x15).

My bands are just local bands, so don't expect too much...

Band of Luxury (joined them one month ago, so no recordings with me)
Suitcase Money (online recordings are a few years old and not really representative IMO)

I wouldn't worry too much about speaker size. That 410 HLF is darker than my 1x15 , so it's all kind of unpredictable. Just use your ears to see what sounds right.

Alex of Barefaced (you should read his site, it has a lot of good information regarding amps & cabs) once told me that with a 100 watt valve amp, one usually needs a 2x15, 4x12 or 6x10. In my experience, this depends on the band... But when you're in a semi loud band, it's true.

 

[coreyfyfe]

With this, my hopes for a somewhat playable volume are going up again ...

Good to hear! Not that you bought a molested amp, but good that your going to get it sorted out. Hopefully it will live up to your expectations when it's running well.

 

[rodl2005]

My V4BH would be louder with my NV610 than with my NV215.
With the 610 it was good for most live situations.
So, yes, the cab will make a big difference.

 

[Low Sound Love]

thanks for the feedback!

do any of you V4BH owners have experience with running it with 2x12" or 4x12" cabs?

 

[Ric Vice]

Well I just got word from the tech, all sorts of bad things were happening inside apparently. I'll try to translate the techie stuff, but I'm not sure of what it means even in Dutch, so sorry if translation makes no sense.With this, my hopes for a somewhat playable volume are going up again ...

Low Sound Love,
It sounds like you were barely going to make to the runway before the last engine died out. I'll just bet your amps is going to sound a great after he get's done with it. That's the nice thing about tube amps, they can be pretty screwed up and still be brought back to full working condition.
Asymmetrical is never a good thing with tubes, or speaker loads for that matter, and it sounds like they had the pre amp input channels reversed. A "poisoned cathode sounds serious" that's internal tube stuff. Proper cathode biasing is the one of the hallmarks of the B-15N(C) sound. The Heritage
B-15N's has either Cathode Biased Channel or Fixed Bias Channel based on the B-15NC or the B-15NF. If they screwed that up and used the wrong biasing for a V4BH it would change the sound of your amp, and not for the better. Hopefully Beans on Toast (David), John, or Coreyfife will come on to this thread and explain it.


Ric

 

[pgk]

a v4bh is the wrong amp for you with a tbird bass and that particular cab. best to move on because you'll never be happy. if you're dead set on keeping the head you need super efficient cabs (bag end, bfm, schroeder etc) and you need to plug that bass into the lower gain input. swapping out the first 12ax7 for a 5751 helps a bit too

 

[Turock]

thanks for the feedback!

do any of you V4BH owners have experience with running it with 2x12" or 4x12" cabs?

I frequently use my V4BH with an EB Music Man Audiophile 2x12. I think it sounds great. Lately, I've been stacking it on top of the matching MM 2x10 to get it up closer to my ears. Sometimes I use both cabinets, but mostly just the 2x12 is connected to the amp. Plenty of volume. I also have the SVT 4x10 (the sealed one) and the SVT 1x15. All of these cabinets sound great with this head.

 

[christw]

I'm laughing at this. For a while it seemed like you couldn't get rid of the SVT fast enough

Yeah, I absolutely hate carrying around the SVT heads anyways. I've had nights where I need to carry it several blocks just to get it back to my house from the car. I still can't do that because of my shoulder sprain, although by mid January, I think I'll be back to normal. (I pulled off carrying a PF115HE loaded down with amp and gear last night and it set me back a bit.)

I lasted, what, a week? Was it you who weighed in on the thread and said I'd miss it too?

Heck, maybe I'll pass on the SVT and save up for a used and beaten Hiwatt DR405. No idea when I'll ever seen one of those but that's what I really want since I A/B'd cabs with AwkwardLoudness. Maybe I should just lay off the SVT thing for a minute and wait.

 

[Low Sound Love]

I just got the amp back from the tech, and well ... it's friggin' AWESOME! The previous owner must 've done the worst retubing job ever, because the poor thing was failing from input stage to power tubes, with blown fuses and a bad cathode along the way.

I got home, plugged it into the 410hlf, set gain to 6 and master to 5 ... and shook the furniture! Waaay more volume than I had on monday with both gain and master maxed! I did not dare to max both out again to make the comparison (several babies and young mothers in my building, don't want to disturb them too much).
I got really really close to the tone I've had in my mind for three years now, I'm sure I can get even closer with time and tweaking.

I won't have band rehearsal for the next two weeks, but I'm pretty sure I'll be able to keep up with my drummer and guitarist now, even with my less than ideal cab. This amp with 8 10" or 4 12" speakers should be more than enough for any stage I'm playing.

Yay!

 

[JimmyM]

Well I'm glad it didn't take too long to figure out. Happy Ampeggin'!

 

[coreyfyfe]

glad to see you got it sorted. enjoy.