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Anyone NOT like the SVT?

The Ampeg SVT. Classic tone & looks, amazing sound pressure levels, and a long-time industry standard - that is just too big and heavy to work for me these days.

There was a time I used to haul two SVT heads & cabs to gigs, but that was twenty years ago, and these days I have a different set of tone needs, and I value light weight and portability much more than I did back then. My main rig for the past few years has been a Phil Jones M-500 head, with 8-T & 16-B cabs, and I'm thinking of downsizing even further. I really dig my back-up head, (an SWR headlite), and I'm thinking of going with an all-SWR Golight series rig.
 
*finger up*

I was at the store and tried some Amps... And I liked the LH-500 more than a SVT =/
Sounded almost the same, "tubish" and nice, for almost 1/8 of the Price...

I played 2 gigs with a SVT because it was the backline.... and I had a horrible sound....
sorry
 
if new production tubes were actually made with any sort of qc consistency, i might agree with you. but they're not, so they are at the mercy of what's available.

Nothing to stop a manufacturer checking the quality of a component they are buying themselves, before putting them in an amp. I have valves tested when I'm putting them in my amp, and I'm am just a bod. To have quality control, the buyer of the product must demand it. It is because manufacturers accept a shoddy product that a shoddy product is supplied to them.
 
That comes off kind of racist.

Kind of?

Anyway, like I said, I know that other people get great sounds from SVTs, just not me. The same thing goes for me and Marshall guitar amps. Tons of people sound amazing plugged into a Marshall, but I always feel like I sound "meh."

Isn't this what boards like this are for? We commune together to find the equipment that gets us where we need to be musically.
 
Really interesting points.

I play a Littlemark III, but I would bloody love an SVT. I've only heard one once with some funny bloke with strange shoes tinkling through some scales and nearly falling off a chair on Youtube, but I adored the sound and it struck me that it would be right up my strasse for the old country, R & R, soft-rock and a bit of reggae.

Trouble is, I can't get a new Heritage CL over here in the UK for love nor money and after reading so much of the many posts on here, I'm too concerned with potential build/quality issues to go for a VR (and I've got no idea about all this no volume knob and bi-amping thing).

Oh well......
 
If an SVT doesn't sound great, then it's either not turned up loud enough, needs a different cab, needs maintenance/biasing, or needs tubes swapped. They are plenty versatile in my opinion.

JimmyM said:
tubes are made in china, russia, and the czech republic.
Close...
J/J Electronics is located in Slovakia, not Czech Republic.

Shuguang tubes and the re-branded Shuguang tubes (Mesa, Groove Tubes, etc) are made in China. There's another factory in China (forget the name), but I don't think they export much.

New Sensor tubes (Sovtek, Tung-Sol, Gold Lion) are made in Saratov, Russia. Winged Cs =C= are made in St. Petersburg, Russia.

I think that covers the big manufacturers. There are some small boutique tube shops scattered throughout the world.

In the good ole days, tubes were made in USA, Britain, Canada, Holland, Germany, and Japan.
 
Nothing to stop a manufacturer checking the quality of a component they are buying themselves, before putting them in an amp. I have valves tested when I'm putting them in my amp, and I'm am just a bod. To have quality control, the buyer of the product must demand it. It is because manufacturers accept a shoddy product that a shoddy product is supplied to them.
it's taken 20 years just to get them up to tolerable.
 
the only thing I don't like about my SVT-VR is that it's a little noisy and makes random electronic noises. not sure if this is supposed to happen with all tube amps (this is my first all tube) or if this is faulty Korean manufacturing...

aside from that, the tone I've got dialed in is pretty killer.

the weight is not an issue for me since the amp stays at church - no need to haul it or the 6x10 cab around. i definitely would not be happy lugging this around.
 
Can't think of one thing I dislike. However, I can give you a sextet of the reasons why I love my SVT....
024-2.jpg
 
Did you just ask, anyone not like the SVT?

I'm gonna pretend like I didn't hear that.
Wether your dig the tube tone or not is immaterial.
It's all about respect Jack; for the MF'ng King.
Let me here you say Hallelujah.

Amen
 
Moderator insert:

Further unmasked profanity and racial remarks will not be taken lightly.
We've been in here for cleanup several times already, with no slowdown in bad behavior.
Expect enthusiastic infractioning from the mod team from here on out.
 

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