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give me your opinion on the ampeg 'fridge'!

F

Flatty Banks

Oct 26, 2008
1,314
44
Arizona
#1
Well, the deal is that I have the oppertunity to restore a 4-year old Ampeg Classic SVT 810. It needs a lot of cosmetic restoring, but I can handle restoring it.

How do these babies sound? Other than the fact that it's freaking huge (hence the 'fridge' pun), how will it treat me while I'm gigging in bars, medium-sized shows (possibly around 600+ people)?

Thanks!
 
#2
So you think you made up the "fridge" thing? OK...but you should know that a 610 is not considered a fridge...but an 810 is.

:D

610 sounds good but very deep in the low end and uses a tweeter to make up for its lack of high end. Give me a 90's or before 810e any day over it, but many do like it, so it's not a bad cab by any means.
 
#6
A fridge is a fridge. JimmyM and the 'peg faithful will say the quality varies from generation to generation but from my experience, using one from the 80s, one from the 70s, and a nampeg one, they all have the same distinct tone that you'll either like or hate.

I personally like the way it pushes air into my back but I'm not crazy about the tone of the things. But they do sound good in a mix and thats really all thats important when playing large venues. I would say if it's a USA and they isn't anything mechanically wrong with it, rock it with the cosmetic defects. I think a thrashed 810 looks pretty damn cool.
 
#7
RickenBoogie said:
Nothing else really sounds like an Ampeg 810. It has more punch than you could imagine. If you're into that sort of thing, there's nothing else that compares. Plus, it has the looks to scare people, that's worth something by itself.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that 'classic' Ampeg tone. It's also fairly large.

For R&B and that church stuff (I play music that sounds like Worship, even though I don't play *near* a church), what head would you recommend along with this?

I just hope me restoring this baby turns out to be a good decision. But I wouldn't mind getting some suggestions for a head to buy to get it's full potential. Currently, in my possession, I only have a Hartke 250 watt HA2500. That can't power crap.
 
#18
I had one in the late 70'.Great Punch & Volume..............but you'll get tired of lugging that BEAST around from gig to gig and your bandmates will start to whine and hate you !!!.....of coarse I'm not 25 yrs. old any more. The head alone was 100lb. I now use an Acoustic 4x10 w/ horn cabinet and a Hartke 3500. Much more compact with lotsa punch & volume.....but that's just my personal preference.
 
#20
All of the replies here are pretty right on.

An 810 is it's own beast. It's a wall of sound. Old 810's have a mid forward tone to them, but also can have some nice lows if you tame the mids. For small bar gigs? Well, probably overkill, as they're hard to play quietly and take up more space than many small stages have.

You may also want to consider if you can transport one. It can be a problem since its hardly a 'portable' cab.

I played an old Ampeg 810/SVT when I first started playing bass in high school, and it was great fun.

I've also had them provided as backline over the years, and on stage its a very tactile cabinet. It reaches out and touches you...from your ankles up to your neck, and you'll be heard on stage no matter what (I remember liking it because I wasn't pinned to a location right in front of the amp). I have nice memories of the house SVT at Sound of Brazil in NYC from way back...
 

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