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Building an Ampeg SVT-810E
- Thread starter Vintage-Blue
- Start date
As good as it gets Mark!
You've shown us the anatomy of an Ampeg 810E and all the hard work and materials that go into one of these cabinets. Not for the faint of heart, it's a big undertaking. You just make it look easy. When you add up the costs, it's also not for someone trying to save money by building one.
Thanks for the inspiration.
You've shown us the anatomy of an Ampeg 810E and all the hard work and materials that go into one of these cabinets. Not for the faint of heart, it's a big undertaking. You just make it look easy. When you add up the costs, it's also not for someone trying to save money by building one.
Thanks for the inspiration.
Last edited:
GrumpiusMaximus
I've Seen Things You People Wouldn't Believe
Looks great man, don't fret about the heat mishap looks like the white will save it sound clips please
awesome undertaking, awesome results. I'm willing to bet the build quality and the sound quality beat the factory cab you're emulating.
fantastic job.
fantastic job.
- Feb 13, 2008
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- Owner, Vintage Blue (repro cabinets)
Thank you! There have been a lot of mistakes over the years but that's how you learn. There were a few mistakes on this cabinet too. Fortunately I was able to either fix them or hide them well enough that the overall cabinet still looks good. I'd like to think I would do better on a second cabinet although it probably wouldn't look much different from this one. It's usually just nagging details that I know are there.
I am the same way! I am a scale model scratch builder. I scratch build crane models. I'm also a crane operator. Thus the name "born2lift"
When it comes to building models, I'm a perfectionist. The little mistakes, even if no one else know they are there, drive me nuts. Lol
- Feb 13, 2008
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- Owner, Vintage Blue (repro cabinets)
I wish I could scratch build or even do a decent job on a kit. I've always been fascinated by miniatures, particularly when they are detailed and accurate. I've been tossing around the idea for a model of a B15N for a couple of years now but instead of scratch building I would probably have to 3D print the parts instead. Is that considered cheating?
- Feb 13, 2008
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- Owner, Vintage Blue (repro cabinets)
Still trying to work out a time to meet up with my son to check out the cabinet. With his current schedule it looks like it may be at least another week or two. I want to be able to record clips of this cabinet and his current cabinet for comparison.
I'll toss out a paraphrase of what Jerry Casale from Devo once said...use whatever you have to do what you do because one day soon it's all going to be over.
this is inspiring me to look at the options... any idea on a final price estimate? very tempting...
- Feb 13, 2008
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- Owner, Vintage Blue (repro cabinets)
I would estimate between $1200-$1300. The bulk of that cost is the speakers. The retail cost for 8 Heritage speakers from Ampeg is $920. The rest of the material/hardware (tolex, casters, kick plate, skid rails, etc.) came to about $230. I'm just guessing at the cost of the Baltic birch plywood I used since I have a supply of it here for my other cabinet builds.
It's not necessarily a cheap build but that's hard to avoid once you figure in the cost of 8 decent speakers. I figure that in the end I essentially ended up with a Heritage SVT-810 that is arguably better built than a factory model. I know it's heavier since I used 19mm plywood and Ampeg is using 15mm. Plus I got the bug out of my system as to whether or not I could build and cover one of these!
- Feb 13, 2008
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- Owner, Vintage Blue (repro cabinets)
Well, it took a while but I finally caught up with my son and his SVT rig briefly this afternoon for him to try out my new cabinet and compare it to his 1992 SVT-810E. We did the playing outside to avoid rattling everything in the house. I would have liked to have done a more comprehensive comparison but since I was stuck just using my iPhone for the recording I wasn't sure there would be much point. As I said, it was a brief comparison but the cabinets sounded more similar than I expected. The most noticeable difference to me was the additional speaker breakup on the older cabinet.
Here are the settings that were used for each cabinet. Even though the Master was only at 1.5 it was quite loud. I didn't want to push things too much because of the neighbors.:
1992 Ampeg SVT-810E:
My new SVT-810E:
We also did a short clip playing through both cabinets. On this clip he bumped the Master to around 2.5-3.0. The feeling standing in front of those cabinets was awesome!:
Here is a photo of the rig, as well as the look on my son's face while playing through both cabinets:
Here are the settings that were used for each cabinet. Even though the Master was only at 1.5 it was quite loud. I didn't want to push things too much because of the neighbors.:
1992 Ampeg SVT-810E:
My new SVT-810E:
We also did a short clip playing through both cabinets. On this clip he bumped the Master to around 2.5-3.0. The feeling standing in front of those cabinets was awesome!:
Here is a photo of the rig, as well as the look on my son's face while playing through both cabinets:
Right about now, your son is probably thinking he has the coolest dad in town.
Even if he isn't thinking it, its still true.
That smile when he was playing through both cabinets is priceless! It would be cool to use that setup with the band.
The amps settings were pretty aggressive. I think that you might have noticed differences in the cabinets to a greater extent if you were to set the tone flat: ultra high and ultra lo off, frequency, bass, mid, and treble at noon, turned the master all the way up, and used the gain to adjust the volume. This would minimize amp distortion and allow you to hear more of what each cabinet is contributing.
The amps settings were pretty aggressive. I think that you might have noticed differences in the cabinets to a greater extent if you were to set the tone flat: ultra high and ultra lo off, frequency, bass, mid, and treble at noon, turned the master all the way up, and used the gain to adjust the volume. This would minimize amp distortion and allow you to hear more of what each cabinet is contributing.
I would like to see you do a Ampeg V4-B cabinet next ! And after you were done I would drive out from LA to take it off your hands ( at cost ) !!
