the input pad cuts gain specifically for active pickups, so you don't send too hot of a signal to the preamp.
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My ampeg won't stop peaking!
- Thread starter Calvan
- Start date
the input pad cuts gain specifically for active pickups, so you don't send too hot of a signal to the preamp.
When trying this amp out I found I got a great tone by having the -15db out, bass around 60%, mids at 50%, and treble at around 60%.
With the EQ on I boosted the mids slightly and pushed the EQ volume to 10. I set the master around 9 or 10 and then turned up the gain until the room felt like there was an earthquake.
I don't believe people when they say it's an underpowered amp. Same with the SVT-450. Both of them can be very loud if you really push em.
They might not have as much headroom as a Classic, but both of these amps can fill good sized rooms!
With the EQ on I boosted the mids slightly and pushed the EQ volume to 10. I set the master around 9 or 10 and then turned up the gain until the room felt like there was an earthquake.
I don't believe people when they say it's an underpowered amp. Same with the SVT-450. Both of them can be very loud if you really push em.
They might not have as much headroom as a Classic, but both of these amps can fill good sized rooms!
I have an SVT3Pro, and it definitely can get loud. There are some great tips in this thread. Again, you don't have to worry so much about the clip indicator lighting up. I would go with your ears. You can push the gain pretty far before you start to get distortion. When you use the Low Boost button, you lose a lot of midrange(-15db at 500 hz I think), and that can cause your sound to get muddy, as well as requiring more power to get the volume you want. It may sound good when you are practicing alone, but in a live situation it usually turns your sound to mud. You can get a LOT more volume out of the head by turning on the graphic EQ, and maxing out the level slider(far right) as some of the guys in this thread have said. It adds lot more gain.
As for tubes, preamp tubes last a long time. You can change them if you want, but they don't really need to be replaced until they start to weaken. You will hear distortion at lower volumes, and it will saturate when you push the amp harder. The 2 tubes in the back of the amp are the driver tubes, the 3 near the front are the preamp tubes. Easy to replace. I have replaced mine with JJ's/Ruby Tubes, just to improve the sound.
As for tubes, preamp tubes last a long time. You can change them if you want, but they don't really need to be replaced until they start to weaken. You will hear distortion at lower volumes, and it will saturate when you push the amp harder. The 2 tubes in the back of the amp are the driver tubes, the 3 near the front are the preamp tubes. Easy to replace. I have replaced mine with JJ's/Ruby Tubes, just to improve the sound.
What I ment was turn the GEQ Level Slider full up, then use the Master Volume to set your volume level. I asked these same questions here and tried it. I found it helped a bunch.
I think it was Jimmy that told me to do this.
A lot of folks also said to keep the Ultra Low switch off but I found it took a lot of arse out of the amp when I did. They said keep it off and boost the mids. I ended up leaving it on and boosting the mids, keeping the trebile turned down some. The amp gets a little noisy when its cranked.
BTW the DI output dosnt have a lot of gain so it is less noisy.
I later hooked my 3PRO to the 4X10 Hlf Cab and ran a line out from the Preamp out jack (which dosnt cut signal to the Power Amp in the Ampeg), then ran that to a seperate Power Amp (QSC RMX 850) into an 8 ohm Boogie Powerhouse 4X10 Bridged at 600 watts. This added a boatload of sound though at first I found something in that chain was phase reversed. I had to swap one end of my speaker cab wire to the Boogie to get it right.
Another problem with doing that though is evidently the last two tubes in the 3PRO do away with peaks and the preamp out dosnt go through those tubes so I would get a lot more peaks into the QSC/Boogie which was a bit of a struggle. I also added a DBX GEQ in the line to the QSC to reEQ the signal.
The DI out was not hot enough to run the QSC.
After I did all this I ended up with a massive very heavy rig, so I opted to go a different route. I ended up selling all of the above and buying a SWR Marcus Miller M2 Preamp, SWR Goliath IV 4x10, and Yamaha P5000S, which drasticly reduced weight and number of pieces and gave me massive headroom/low end thump.
Not saying you need another rig though. The SVT 3PRO into a 4 ohm load sounds incredible, especially when it is tweaked a little.
ok cool thanks for clarifying.
i'm not gonna lie though, i'm a bit confused with the bolded above. i don't know much about running DI, or running through a preamp/poweramp set up. i dont even think i know where the DI output is located on my amp. how do you go about running DI with my amp? does it change the sound? what are the benefits and/or detriments to running it this way?
my biggest problem with understanding i think is that i don't know all the technical stuff in the electronics/engineering department. i don't know when to run how many watts at how many ohms and all that. i've always just gone with what was obvious and suggested by the manual. if its not too lengthy could someone give me at least a brief explanation? or maybe a link where i can read about it all?
thanks again
ok so i got a chance to try some things out, and here's what i got....
first i set everything completely flat. i put the GEQ level slider all the way up. i put the master gain (furthest left) at about a 4. put the bass just above a 5, mids right around 6 and mid selecter at the 2 position. treble at about a 6. tube gain also at about a 6 or so. for the EQ i boosted the low mids slightly, left the bass and high mids flat, and gave a tiny boost on the treble. for the preamp in the bass it self. i started everything flat, then gave just a tiny boost on the mids and bass, treble stayed as is.
so... by itself, it sounded great. i was extremely surprised. even when i just left all the amp settings flat, it sounded great by itself. when i played with the band... if i sat down in front of my amp, it sounded good. i was a little too loud for the overall mix, but i was also sitting right next to my cab. now here's my problem... as soon as i stood up and took a single step back, everything just sounded like garbage. i'm not totally sure why. i could barely hear myself at all, so i tried to turn up my volume. now i could hear, but it wasnt what i wanted to hear. tone still garbage. it was like it had no umph at all, just a really "thin" sound. i also noticed that if i turned up too much, my speaker sounded like it was about to blow out.
now i'm slightly thrown off, because my band just moved into a new room at our studio. when we were in the other room, i had the peaking problem, but i was satisfied with my tone on a daily basis. is it possible that i'm so unhappy with my tone because of the new room? also it's a possibility that the bass itself may need a new battery, since it's active, but the current battery hasn't been in there any longer than a month, but we do play for several hours nearly every day.
i just really can't determine if the sound is so bad because of problems with the bass/amp, or if it's something that is being affected by the whole band (guitard settings / the new room we are in). i do know that none of my band members have been totally satisfied with our overall mix since we moved into the new room. everything just sounds a bit blurred together.
***also, i tried using the -15db button as suggested. using the bass's preamp, i boosted the mids and lows to about 75-80%, and the highs about 30%, put the -15 button in and master vol up. even with the master all the way up, i just didnt have enough power and couldn't get loud enough.
sooooo... what do you guys think? any new ideas for why this is all happening?
first i set everything completely flat. i put the GEQ level slider all the way up. i put the master gain (furthest left) at about a 4. put the bass just above a 5, mids right around 6 and mid selecter at the 2 position. treble at about a 6. tube gain also at about a 6 or so. for the EQ i boosted the low mids slightly, left the bass and high mids flat, and gave a tiny boost on the treble. for the preamp in the bass it self. i started everything flat, then gave just a tiny boost on the mids and bass, treble stayed as is.
so... by itself, it sounded great. i was extremely surprised. even when i just left all the amp settings flat, it sounded great by itself. when i played with the band... if i sat down in front of my amp, it sounded good. i was a little too loud for the overall mix, but i was also sitting right next to my cab. now here's my problem... as soon as i stood up and took a single step back, everything just sounded like garbage. i'm not totally sure why. i could barely hear myself at all, so i tried to turn up my volume. now i could hear, but it wasnt what i wanted to hear. tone still garbage. it was like it had no umph at all, just a really "thin" sound. i also noticed that if i turned up too much, my speaker sounded like it was about to blow out.
now i'm slightly thrown off, because my band just moved into a new room at our studio. when we were in the other room, i had the peaking problem, but i was satisfied with my tone on a daily basis. is it possible that i'm so unhappy with my tone because of the new room? also it's a possibility that the bass itself may need a new battery, since it's active, but the current battery hasn't been in there any longer than a month, but we do play for several hours nearly every day.
i just really can't determine if the sound is so bad because of problems with the bass/amp, or if it's something that is being affected by the whole band (guitard settings / the new room we are in). i do know that none of my band members have been totally satisfied with our overall mix since we moved into the new room. everything just sounds a bit blurred together.
***also, i tried using the -15db button as suggested. using the bass's preamp, i boosted the mids and lows to about 75-80%, and the highs about 30%, put the -15 button in and master vol up. even with the master all the way up, i just didnt have enough power and couldn't get loud enough.
sooooo... what do you guys think? any new ideas for why this is all happening?
eh. never been much of a fan of GK. i'm not familiar with everything they have to offer, but i've never been impressed with anything GK that i've been exposed to. i really do think i'm beginning to outgrow my amp though. i'm thinking about looking into a carvin preamp/poweramp set up, but i need to learn more about how all of that kinda stuff works.
If your thinking of the pre/power amp route, one thing to consider is how much weight are you willing to lug around?
If you were happy with the old way, and the only problem was the red light, set it up that way and ignore the light.....
The preamp peak light gives little information beyond "you have enough signal, and may eventually clip a bit".
If it sounds good, you should be good to go, unless your ideal sound is a square wave synth sound.......... That might be too much of a good (?) thing.
Don't let our idea of the setting of the peak light mess with YOUR music...... The peak light might even have become messed up and be "going off" too low.
The preamp peak light gives little information beyond "you have enough signal, and may eventually clip a bit".
If it sounds good, you should be good to go, unless your ideal sound is a square wave synth sound.......... That might be too much of a good (?) thing.
Don't let our idea of the setting of the peak light mess with YOUR music...... The peak light might even have become messed up and be "going off" too low.
this is basically what i've decided on. i tried to change my settings several times over; some attempts i did exactly what others suggested, other attempts i did my own thing. but i tried literally everything suggested, and was not happy with it. yes, it solved the peaking light problem. but the tone was just god awful IMO. so i put all of my settings back to the way i had em, with a few minor adjustments. i've played with these settings for almost 2 years now, and i've never been happier with my tone. i was just worried about that peaking light. but after some thought... i realized that my bass definitely does not clip. there is nothing in the sound that suggests there's a problem. and there must not be a problem since i've played this way for so long and the amp is still working correctly.
so... sorry that this thread was almost entirely pointless in the end, but i did learn a lot. thanks again to all of you that helped.
