Anyone NOT like the SVT?

[SactoBass]

Have any of you tried/bought the SVT and not liked it?

Do most opt out of the SVT world because of weight?

Seems like the be all/end all bass rig?

I recently acquired an SVT-VR. Holy smokes! Tone-wise, it is the bomb!

I had an SVT-CL about 10 years ago. It was okay, but it didn't really have the tone I wanted. The SVT-VR does!

Sure, it's heavy, but for me, the add'l schleppage and grunting when lifting it is worth the tone.

 

[Turock]

I agree.

It's also not common to see 20-40 year old tube amps being gigged today.

I'd say I see a lot more late 80's/early 90's (20 year old) SS amps than I do total tube amps being used for bass.

I see lots from that era - SWR (Redheads, SM-400, SM-900), Peavey (TNT, Mark III/IV), Hartke (HA3500), etc.

In fact - I'd bet I see about one Peavey for every tube amp I see.

Now, if you make the number 40 years - I don't see a lot of SS amps that age... but I almost never see a tube amp used that is that age either.

Turn on your TV to any show playing music. You ain't gonna see many Peaveys, Hartkes, etc... what you will see is many Ampeg tube amps.

 

[u84six]

and you said "it's not worth carrying it around for the sound you get".
I think a lot of people on this forum would disagree with you also.

Maybe so, but they probably have a road crew.

 

[chadds]

I see what yer sayin.
My point was that most everyone has an idea of what an SVTcl sounds like.That sound has been the standerd in modern music. Its like a P-bass,they just seem to work for just about anything.That doesn't mean that everything else is crap. Its just different.I play on an Eden E300T,its not an SVTcl,and i like differences.Its a little cleaner.

Thanks. The SVT is also a known entity. Hoping you have one well serviced but you know what it can do when it's provided. One of those cookin' in that warm road bar third set. Just the right thing.

 

[chadds]

Turn on your TV to any show playing music. You ain't gonna see many Peaveys, Hartkes, etc... what you will see is many Ampeg tube amps.

Really doesn't mean much. It means it's provided by rental companies. Sort of like Kleenex. Doesn't mean it is or isn't the better product. Just means that execs think amp they call someone who gets it. It's a prop.
It's still one of the great amps.

 

[Turock]

Really doesn't mean much. It means it's provided by rental companies. Sort of like Kleenex. Doesn't mean it is or isn't the better product. Just means that execs think amp they call someone who gets it. It's a prop.
It's still one of the great amps.

If it doesn't mean anything then why isn't it Peavey, or Hartke, or etc...

 

[walkerci]

SVT?

Compared to my Mesa Boogie 400+ and Bergantino NV412?

Like comparing a Model T to a Space Shuttle.

 

[chadds]

If it doesn't mean anything then why isn't it Peavey, or Hartke, or etc...

It was Peavey for awhile. But the iconic bass amp is the SVT. Doesn't mean it's the best or worst only that they've decided it's their icon. Bud for beer. You know there are others. Chevrolet for cars. You know there are others.

 

[JimmyM]

I agree.

It's also not common to see 20-40 year old tube amps being gigged today.

it is at my gigs.

 

[JimmyM]

Really doesn't mean much. It means it's provided by rental companies. Sort of like Kleenex. Doesn't mean it is or isn't the better product. Just means that execs think amp they call someone who gets it. It's a prop.
It's still one of the great amps.

are there a handful of folks who rent them and don't particularly care for them? sure. but i hate to burst your bubble...i know lots of backline guys, and by far, with every single one of them, their most requested amps are svt's. and if you're on a big tv show like letterman or kimmel, you can get whatever you want. likewise, on these big festival shows where you see lots of svt's, the bands either bring their own stuff or they can also get whatever they want. plus svt's are twice as much to rent as any ss amp, so no promoter goes out of their way to rent them. so your theory that most of them get them because they're there and they don't really like them holds no juice, especially when you're dealing with the bigger acts in the business.

 

[JimmyM]

It was Peavey for awhile. But the iconic bass amp is the SVT. Doesn't mean it's the best or worst only that they've decided it's their icon. Bud for beer. You know there are others. Chevrolet for cars. You know there are others.

i've been renting backline for almost 15 years now, and respect to peavey, but it's never been big for backline rentals.

 

[Tim1]

I have owned many well known tube amps over the years, some several times over - Orange, Ampeg, Mesa 400+ , Fender Bassman, Trace Elliot.... and believe me downunder you have to pay big time for the privilege at our prices. I have always come back to an all tube SVT, I may flirt occasionally with another brand but if I had to keep just one amp it would be my SVT VR.

 

[mancline1000]

I like the ampeg svt however i have never found anything better built for the money and last forever like a good ol peavey. That said i still would not get rid of my ampeg.

 

[klaus486]

I don't care for any Ampeg amp I've ever played through! But hey my opinion is mine alone! They just don't make a sound I care for.

 

[JimmyM]

just like with fender threads, i just don't get the animosity toward the svt. it's like some are resentful it even exists. what is it? do they want their favorite amp to be the number one backlined amp or something? does it really matter to them that much? nobody's saying you have to play svt's to sound good. get over it already.

 

[ric3xrt]

What makes the SVT good is what is sitting under it.

Yep Not a big fan of the ole SVT but loved the ole 8X10.
My 1st head was 72 SVT......most unreliable POS I've ever played. Never been happy with the tone of the SVT, too muddy for me
The Misses got me a SVT-3PRO or my B day back in March....its out for warranty work.....I will say that I like sound. can get a good clean tone
Have a 200t that I traded pair 68 Charger doors back in the 90s for , no major issues but I couldn't get a tone out of it that I liked.

 

[DAcat]

My band was touring alot and in 1969 we needed something louder than the U-Hauls full of Fender amps we were lugging around with us. I was able to get a great deal on an SVT CL with 2 810 cabs and I was hoping that it would be all I'd need for the road. I have to say that compared to the Fender amps I was used to playing( A couple Bassmen, a couple Dual Showmen, and sometimes a Twin Reverb Powering a Home-made 212 cab)...the SVT absolutely smoked them...esp being in front of them on stage. That tone unfortunately did get a little lost in the high gain guitar tone , but it cut through better than the Fender amps did IMHO. But once I got back out on the road in the bigger venues, the SVT could'nt keep up with my brother's Twin Marshall stack on lead guitar(Remember, not everyone had big PAs back then that were bass friendly...we certainly did'nt travel with that big of a PA...it was just for vocals and a little bit of drums)the louder I played my SVT, the more I got buried in the mix with the high gain Marshall tones.

Then later in 69 after I saw the Doors, The James Gang, The Mothers of Invention, Led Zepplin, Sly and the Family Stone, and and many other great bands who were all using Acoustic Control Amps...esp the 360/361 for bass amplification...and I noticed that I could hear the bass notes clearly, distinctly and with plenty of OOMPF , even at the back of the hall...as oppposed to the rest of the bassists of the day, most of whom were using Sunn & Marshall, and just a few Fender amps...all of whose sound IMO was much muddier, definately harder to hear and not cutting thru the mix as well as the Acoustic 360/361's were to my ear. I think I only saw one of the bands that summer using an SVT (not positive but it my have been Santana) Rig.

Then, I was trying to find a rig that I could be heard with and produced the tone that I liked the most (back then I liked John Paul Jones tone of Led Zepplin)...so in early 70, I sold my SVT and 810 cabs and I ordered myself an Acoustic 360 with two 361 powered Cabs, and later on a 3rd 361 cab as a backup(I never had to use it, though sometimes I did plug it in) . What a difference there was between the two amps.... I really missed the punch that my SVT had been giving me on stage, though 30 feet away in front of the stage, everything was sounding pretty mushy. I also missed the the tubey , grinding tone of the SVT...totally different from the Acoustic, which was deep, dark, rich, though loud and the bass came booming out of that cab like it had been shot out of a hollowed out Redwood Cannon... and you could'nt hear its full volume untill you were about 30 feet in front of the stage. But during sound checks, what a great positive difference the Acoustic 360/361s made to our band's overall sound...now we could have the sound of the guitar cranked up with the high gain tone that Marshall is famous for...but with a solid clear bass tone that could be heard separately underneath the guitar and now the drums could also be clearly heard and defined.

I'll never forget a realization I had shortly after getting my Acoustic Rig... suddenly I realized that it was ME who had been making the MUSHINESS in our Band's sound...which thankfully now was cleaned up. However...I still wish I had kept at least my SVT CL head and at least one 810 cab to point sideways at my self as a "bass Monitor" just for my own greedy stage sound enjoyment even if it was'nt going to be heard by the crowd...what a rig that would have been! In essence, I loved both amps!! Now days we have so many rigs to chose from that that we are really lucky...back in the old days we did not have that many good choices. Peace...DAcat

 

[Bill Posters]

I don't doubt you when you say you are using one; however, I'd wager that you don't really know "tonnes" of others using 20-40 year old SS amplifiers. I don't know a single person regularly gigging SS equipment that old.

You'd lose that wager. While 'tonnes' is obvious hyperbole, I see many, many more old Peaveys, GKs and Acoustics than I do vintage tube amps.

Nothing more than my own anecdotal experience but I'm not making any sweeping claims based on it.




Now that I think of it, with the weight of some of those old amps, 'tonnes' might be literally correct if we weighed them with their gear.

 

[JimmyM]

i very rarely see acoustics anymore, but i do see a lot of old peaveys and gk's. but you'd be surprised how often i get really old svt's supplied on my road gigs. about 1 out of every 3 gigs i do on the road i get an old one from the 70's or 80's. even got a blue line from 69 like mine once. and these are from backline companies who are pretty demanding on equipment and don't suffer breakdowns gladly. there are definitely more old gk's and peaveys out there, but i think that's just because they sell more $500 amps than $2000 amps as a general rule.

 

[Duke21]

SVT?

Compared to my Mesa Boogie 400+ and Bergantino NV412?

Like comparing a Model T to a Space Shuttle.

How can you define the Mesa as new space tech compared to the SVT? 8 tubes in one, 6 on the SVT. Both amps share the same type of technology. A GK MB500 will be the space shuttle, or take it even farther, my iPad running Amplitube connected to a class D power amp, that is space tech!