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Has Ampeg made a BAD bass amp

#61
The BA series (specifically the BA115, Ba112, etc.). My BA 115 was probably the worst amp I ever owned. I couldn't get a decent tone out of it to save my life, the tweeter sounded terrible, and if that thing was 100 watts, then I'm the king of England.
 
#62
CapnSev said:
The BA series (specifically the BA115, Ba112, etc.). My BA 115 was probably the worst amp I ever owned. I couldn't get a decent tone out of it to save my life, the tweeter sounded terrible, and if that thing was 100 watts, then I'm the king of England.
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I second this. One of these was in a live sound class I had a few semesters ago and I decided to bring my bass in to try it out. Was god awful and the volume flattened out about halfway.
 
#64
Although others may disagree, and that's fine, I was not enamored with the Portabass 250 or 800 Heads. It was their first foray into the digital switching power supplies.
The PB 112 and 110 cabinets were the first neo cabs and were decent. The Portabass PBC 228 (2x8) combo was a total disaster by all accounts, it barely made into production.

Ric
 
#66
gustobassman said:
my vote goes to the svt 350H ... it's the exact same as the B2R (very underpowered IMO) but with a 40 lb wood box.
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I don't think it's that bad, in fact it sounds pretty good and get's quite a bit of volume with my svt-15 and 210 speaker cabinets. Granted, it's ridiculous they put a tiny amp in a huge wooded box that only fills about a third of that box. What's with that?
 
#67
Sartori said:
The 350H/450H gets a lot of flak on here, but mine always worked well for me.
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+1
I've always been perplexed the hate this amp gets. I was able to get a really nice AND loud tone out of it. Now every Crate and Peavey Bass Amp that seemed to fill the music studios we practiced in were all hunks of junk, and not just the old abused ones, even brand new ones. I always brought my own amp.
 
#68
I owned a B-15N back in the 70's. It was a great, warm sounding amp. I haven't owned an Ampeg since.

I have used a B100 on 4-5 occasions for a small pub gig. I used my Sadowsky every time. Each gig, I would spend the better part of an evening fiddling and teaking each knob trying to get a decent sound out of it. I really wanted to not only like it but to outright love it. It just looks so good. I hated it.
 
#70
I own a B2R AND an SVT2 Pro...granted they're different amps but paired with my 810e the B2 has been a consistent work horse.

Granted mine's my backup, I STILL regularly use it when I don't feel like too much lugging (I'm ALWAYS lugging the 810e tho!!).

Running at 4 ohms the 350w B2R sounds better than many folks here on TB are suggesting. It's exactly the same amp as the 350H just different cosmetically.

I think many people have "bought" the 350H expecting an SVT because of the 350H's "SVT look"...get over it, it's not an SVT!!

Just remember opinions are like ar53h0l35....everyone's got one!

The B2R into an 810e sounds great- an opinion....everyone's got one!!!
 
#71
SVT Pro 3, and the SVT450H.

The 450H is the worst bass amp I’ve played in a long time, almost in my entire career. In the UK, the 450H is quite expensive. Its around £630!

For that, you can get a LM3 and a VT Bass pedal, and have much more volume.

Or, to open another can of worms, you can get a TC Classic 450/RH450, and it will STILL bury the 450H. Even if the 450H benches at 450W, it will underperform compared to the TC amps.

Other options? You can definitely buy a Genz STL600, almost a 900, you could buy a Shuttle 6.0, and almost a 9.0. The STL900 is probably triple the power of the 450H. Tons of headroom, small, light,

I recommended a bassist to buy the Bass Terror by Orange for his gritty touring amp. He ignored me, and bought the 450H, because he doesn’t understand bass (a bad rhythm guitarist), and think Ampeg rules the roost (not so much in 2011). I used it for a set, and it was the worst amp Ive played live. Bad EQ, NO power even with the gain set correctly and master almost full (with boosted mids), and just dull.

Its also very heavy, large, etc. I don’t know who would want a ‘fake’ SVT CL. Either go the LM3/VT route, or buy a CL if you can lift it.

I used to yearn for Ampegs rigs. I was suggested to use them for years, but I stuck with my Trace GP12400SMX (which I no longer own). When I finally bought an 810E to go with the Trace, and eventually an Orange AD200b, the 810E totally let me down. This was apparently the ‘bad’ era of Ampeg which was a few years back, that Jimmy notes was also a bad era for 810Es. Still, bad era or not, it put me off.

I still look at the new Portaflex 500W amps, but I know a few people who have had them go down on a gig, so that’s a no for me. The SVT Pro 7 looks great, but its quite a big amp.
 
#73
kellyrojo said:
Dang everyone hates my B2re. ): Well, now that I think about it I had to put a BDDi in front of it to get it to sound any good ---- now it sounds great but maybe its not that good if it can't roll on its own. anyway I think I paid 150 for it so you get what you pay for? My bandmates and more importantly I am more than happy with my tone so I guess thats all that matters. So yeah, B2RE...kinda crappy ! HAHA!
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There used to be a club around here I played at regularly that provided a backline for the bands that included a house bass amp which was an Ampeg B2-RE and a Mesa Boogie 4x10. It was a decent rig, but mainly due to the Mesa Boogie which was a killer cabinet ... the B2-RE was kind of sterile sounding. Anyway, I had a gig coming up there and a bass buddy of mine told me that he heard a rumor that the house B2-RE head was sounding funky so I decided to bring my Ampeg SVP-CL preamp to the gig and just use the power section of the house B2-RE (via the "poweramp in" jack) and it sounded really good so I began to bring just my preamps to my gigs there and the B2-RE sounded great with all of them (Aguilar DB659, Trace Elliot V-Type and Alembic F-1X in addition to the above Ampeg). Anyway, I liked the power section of the B2-RE so much, I picked up a used USA made unit and now have it in a rack with my Ampeg and Aguilar preamps and just use the power section of it.
 
#75
I've got one of those mid 90's SLM Svt-3pro's that I got for $75.00 as is, and resoldered every solder joint in the amp. EVERY ONE! It works fine now, but sounded kinda tubby to me. I don't know if it was more the amp or the bass which is an Ibanez with the Korean Bartolini mk1 pickups. I'm worried that even after all that solder work, this thing is still going to be unreliable. I wish I could afford something newer, or trade it for something. I really want an Aguilar tone hammer 500!
 
#76
rockstarbassist said:
Yes.

Every manufacturer of pretty much anything has produced a dud. I'd say most all their new stuff falls into that category anyway. :D

It's more like, besides 70's and some 90's SVTs, did they make anything else that was really good? :confused:
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I don't get this. I mean, the hybrids aren't for me, but they're not bad amps.

Also, the SVT is hardly the only tube model they've ever made. There's the B-15, the V4, the V4B, the V9, the V4BH, etc.
 
#77
martinmcfly said:
.

+1
I've always been perplexed the hate this amp gets. I was able to get a really nice AND loud tone out of it. Now every Crate and Peavey Bass Amp that seemed to fill the music studios we practiced in were all hunks of junk, and not just the old abused ones, even brand new ones. I always brought my own amp.
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Same here. Course I also cranked the gain high enough that the little light would come on every note, but I had no problem sounding good and cutting through on mine.

If I could have afforded it, I would have kept it as a backup.
 
#78
TattooBass said:
Yes the late 80s 90s svt 200t and 400t. Both were garbage. Not worthy of the svt name. The 400t and 200t I had were both problematic.

The solid state flip tops weren't too hot either.

They've made less bad than carvins made good ones. Haha.
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The 400T was the worst amp experience I ever had. Blew up the day I bought it. Had it fixed twice, blew up again each time. Went back for a full refund. When it WAS working it was nothing to write home about sonically--just a heavy--and strangely wimpy/low powered for its spec-- hunk of scrap metal.
 
#79
I'm a long time Ampeg user and although I've used many other brands as well, I was extremely happy with the tone and reliability that I experienced with the Ampegs I used all through the 70's such as the B15S Portaflex, SVT with V4B cabs and then more recently a V4BH with an SVT-15E.

But....The Ampeg that I had problems with was an Ampeg '69 SBT (pre-amp) with 2 powered Ampeg 215 cabs. I got that amp to sound pretty good all things considered but twice it just died for no apparent reason at a most unfortunate time and I dumped it post haste. I don't recall what the problem was technically but I was much happier with the SVT that replaced it in 1970.

Giorgetto
 
#80
Sartori said:
Same here. Course I also cranked the gain high enough that the little light would come on every note.
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Yeah, if the little (lol, i was just gonna look at what the 'Clipping' light is labeled, turned around, and discovered, Oh Yeah, I just sold my SVT-350H for $300 this evening).
Anyway, if the light wasn't coming you didn't get the awesome tone you were looking for. It was always going on and still my speakers never blew until my son played my SVT-15E with my GK400RB at full volume at a battle of the bands for like a half an hour.
 

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