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Do I have a sickness? Ampeg SVT content!

#41
BluesBassFreak said:
Maybe an intervention for GAS is required? It all started about a year ago. My buddy Dan and I were running around (loose term) in Seattle at gear stores (playground of the devil). I had just purchased a Mike Lull bass and we were in The Bass Shop Seattle. Now Chad the owner is a real good guy and he said "why don't you try it through this SVT?" He had an 80's era SVT and matching cab there and plugged me in. With the amp on 1 on the volume, I immediately went into "OMG" mode! Then I proceeded to zone out and the rest of the world did not exist for about 10 minutes. WOW that is cool! I had to have it! So the purchase was made and I took it home and it was good (clouds parted, sun shined). There were a couple of little things to address on it before it was gig worthy, so while I was waiting for parts, it was like "lets see what I can find in Ampeg preamps to go with these class D power amps I have laying around." After some scanning of inter-web sites (large playground of the devil) I ended up with an SVP-PRO preamp and an SVT IIP preamp. I used them at a few gigs and all was good. (clouds parted, sun shined, free burgers) Well, then I was trying to get rid of some of my excess gear (garage stash) and put an ad in Craigslist to sell these speaker boxes and in the ad I put "will trade for tube bass amps". LOW AND BEHOLD! A guy that was fairly local contacted me and said "I have an SVT classic in real good shape, would you be interested?" Well, of course I was interested! So he came to my place and I checked out this real clean SVT classic. A trade was made and the world was very good (clouds parted, sun shined, free burgers with cheese). Some more mindless scanning of inter-web and a great deal on an SVT II Pro with recent service job popped up. "Send it to me!" Received it, checked it out and did a couple of gigs with it and all was very good (clouds parted, sun shined, free burgers with cheese, free beer). When will this madness end? Well not quite yet. More mindless, dangerous view of inter-web and BAM! This idea popped into my head - Ampeg made an all tube power amp called SVT-300. What if I could find one of those and try all these preamps I have laying with that? OMG! There's one at Guitar Center! "Send it to me!" I will surely go to hell for uttering those words. My credit card is still on fire!!! Got the SVT-300 and have played around with it with the SVP-PRO, the SVT IIP and an Alembic F1X. Now, the world is a MOST beautiful place! (clouds parted, sun shined, free burgess with cheese, free beer and free Viagra for everyone!) So now I introduce my Ampeg family:
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@BluesBassFreak: the other doctors and I have been reviewing your charts and test results, and after much discussion, we have concluded that yes indeed, you have a sickness known as Ampegosis. And even though, as a doctor, I have never said the following words to anyone, I am going to say them to you: I hope you never get well! :D :D :D

:bassist: :bassist: :bassist:
 
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#45
Raw N Low said:
Despite my hater attitude towards your acquisition of the SVT-300 -- I'm happy for you. :roflmao: Darn nice collection you have. The SVT-300 is one that eludes me.

Here's my collection:
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Damn nice collection! I've liked Ampeg for quite a while but only had 1 or 2 pieces at a time (pre and maybe a PF-500 or PF-800) and they've been good at gigs. BUT, when I got the first SVT that I used at a gig, I knew I had found my tone! I'm 60 and really don't relish thought of schlepping a 70 or 80 lb. head to a gig, but man, it's worth it for those of us who dig TONE!!! Now what happens next week...…???
 
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#48
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#49
beans-on-toast said:
The Yamaha rack piece is interesting in that it doesn’t have a model listed on the faceplate. It’s pretty rare to see that outside of a prototype.
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I don't think the silk screen was rubbed off but, that's how I bought it. I can't find anything different looking at the other models. I left the Yammy in when I found out they bought Ampeg. Seemed kinda poetic in a way. ;)
 
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#50
beans-on-toast said:
The Yamaha rack piece is interesting in that it doesn’t have a model listed on the faceplate. It’s pretty rare to see that outside of a prototype.
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It's a PB1. Just did a Google lookup of it, and none of them have the model name on the faceplate, which I'd agree is rare. But man, that thing is a real sleeper of a preamp! Went under the radar until long after it was disco'ed, but it's terrific.
 
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#52
JimmyM said:
It's a PB1. Just did a Google lookup of it, and none of them have the model name on the faceplate, which I'd agree is rare. But man, that thing is a real sleeper of a preamp! Went under the radar until long after it was disco'ed, but it's terrific.
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I thought that it looked like a good pre with the built in HPF and LPF.

I have a couple of Yamaha rack outboard reverb pieces. They were designed well. Sonically, they've held held up well and are still in demand. A lot of the stuff from the 80's can sound cheesy today, these don't.
 
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#53
Yamaha pushed hard into the rack gear market with lots of solid product priced under ADA, EH, even DigiTech.

I'm dating myself, but Yamaha and Boss were solidly in the middle price + solid performance that middle school kids could actually get their parents to buy them.

That Yamaha pre was $299 new everywhere I used to gear browse.

Used they were $100-150.
 

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