My new Ampeg SVT4Pro says: K O R E A ! ! ! !

[Theo-cantor-]

Just bought a brandnew SVT4Pro as a backup for my SVT CL.
It's build in Korea and not in China or Vietnam!!!
Very high buildquality!!!
Sounds great!! Very nice compressor.
Anyone who had it build in a flightcase.
What about the heat??? It blows out on the sides???!!

Cheerz,

Theo

 

[throbgod13]

take some pictures of it..

 

[Sahm]

Very high buildquality!!!

Could you elaborate on that? I kinda feel like build quality would have to be determined after extended use. I would imagine that initially, a new SVT 4pro would seem as solid an old one, since it's in a heavy duty metal box. The real test would be how it stands up to wear and tear.

 

[Patrol42]

Wow. Korean manufacturing is very good, as good as any US manufacturer. That's awesome to hear! You got lucky, congrats!

 

[bongomania]

Why do people keep repeating this nonsense? Korean manufacturing is just like manufacturing anywhere else--tell them to build to a high standard, and pay for it, and they'll build to a high standard. Tell them to build as cheaply as possible, and they will.

I also agree that "build quality" on an item like this is not something easy to determine right after purchasing. Talk to us again after a year of steady use, let us know if you had any issues.

 

[MingusBass]

My brand new SVT-VR is Korean also. I really don't give much thought to where it's made. It sounds glorious and the fit and finish seem to be awesome. I gig quite frequently so we'll see how it holds up.

 

[Gearhead17]

My SVT 4 PRO is also Korean made and it sounds great! Kicks out the bass with no issue! I don't think it sounds any different than the older 4 PRO heads.

 

[synaesthesia]

Why do people keep repeating this nonsense? Korean manufacturing is just like manufacturing anywhere else--tell them to build to a high standard, and pay for it, and they'll build to a high standard. Tell them to build as cheaply as possible, and they will.

I also agree that "build quality" on an item like this is not something easy to determine right after purchasing. Talk to us again after a year of steady use, let us know if you had any issues.

+1.

 

[Red Planet]

It is indeed easy to lump all this Manufacturing under the same umbrella.

The Koreans are known for a high quality build so I would suspect good results.

That being said my company has been using those Hankuuk Tires on our fleet vehicles and those things do not last very long at all. They are made in Korea.

The problem Bongo is refering to is there are many companies out there that get really involved with QC in Asian Manufacturing and the results are very good products. As well as there are companies that send production to the lowest bidder and end up selling pure crap.


A good friend of mine owns a Crate Guitar head that was made in Nam and so far so good but I have seen a good deal of horror stories from different gear coming out of there.

A very good example of some quality manufacturing in that neck of the woods is Celestion. They set their own plant up and so far the only difference I have seen is more uniformity than the English built stuff. Very good products indeed.

 

[lobey]

Why do people keep repeating this nonsense? Korean manufacturing is just like manufacturing anywhere else--tell them to build to a high standard, and pay for it, and they'll build to a high standard. Tell them to build as cheaply as possible, and they will.

I also agree that "build quality" on an item like this is not something easy to determine right after purchasing. Talk to us again after a year of steady use, let us know if you had any issues.

+1.

It is indeed easy to lump all this Manufacturing under the same umbrella.

The Koreans are known for a high quality build so I would suspect good results.

That being said my company has been using those Hankuuk Tires on our fleet vehicles and those things do not last very long at all. They are made in Korea.

The problem Bongo is refering to is there are many companies out there that get really involved with QC in Asian Manufacturing and the results are very good products. As well as there are companies that send production to the lowest bidder and end up selling pure crap.


A good friend of mine owns a Crate Guitar head that was made in Nam and so far so good but I have seen a good deal of horror stories from different gear coming out of there.

A very good example os some quality manufacturing in that neck of the woods is Celstion. They set their own plant up and so far the only difference I have seen is more uniformity than the English built stuff. Very good products indeed.

+ infinity

End of Thread.

 

[Bongolation]

Why do people keep repeating this nonsense? Korean manufacturing is just like manufacturing anywhere else--tell them to build to a high standard, and pay for it, and they'll build to a high standard. Tell them to build as cheaply as possible, and they will.

I keep telling people this, too, but they don't listen.

As FMIC's head of amp production told me, "It's not WHERE it's made, it's HOW it's made."

Actually, it's how much expensive QC/burn-in it goes through, too.

 

[Jerrold Tiers]

Yes, the company which made them in Vietnam IS Korean, and they took it back to Korea, because they were not getting the quality from their Vietnam factory.

I have posted that fact before.

BTW, IT SURE DOES MATTER WHERE it is made. Anyone who says it does not is fooling themselves in the name of some odd form of political correctness.

This is not due to any inherent fault in some ethnic group.

No, It is because the bulk of people in china and Vietnam have been living on the farm, with almost no contact with machinery and technology in terms of how it is made or repaired, and limited contact with it at all. They also are typically not particularly well educated.

Sure, there are many very well-educated people in china. But that is not normal for the "peasants" out on the farm, who supply the bulk of new factory workers. People working on the farm go to work in factories, factory workers in Guangdong go to work in offices in Shanghai. So more factory workers are needed on a regular basis.

So is it any surprise that they are not as good at assembling complex devices? They don't have any background to draw on, no way to know if what they are doing is good or bad, other than what the supervisor says. And he is not always there watching.

if the build quality is not good coming off the line, no amount of inspection can fix that. It is an old manufacturing rule that you can't "inspect-in" the quality, it has to be built-in.

By contrast to china and Vietnam, Korea has 500 years of higher education, a very educated workforce, strong engineering, and 50 years or so of fairly intense industrial history, unbroken by "cultural revolutions" etc.

it is small wonder that the build quality in Korea is good. The workers have a clue what they are doing. They were not living on the farm six months ago, which might well be the case with a chinese worker.

Yes, there are bottom-of-the-barrel factories in Korea and Japan too. But the bottom of the barrel in Korea and Japan is equal to a middle range factory in china.

It's just a fact. It won't always be true, but it is still true now.

If you don't like that, my suggestion is to live with it anyway, because that is reality, regardless of any "political correctness" aspects that might prevent 'discrimination" against some nation, culture or race.......

 

[rbonner]

DO a TB search of SVT-4PRO overheating. YOU CANNOT JUST BOLT THAT INTO A BOX AND NOT KILL IT. I have discussed this way too many times.

BTW I own 2 USA, 2 Vietnam & 2 Korean SVT-4PRO's the only ones I have ever had any trouble with are the USA ones. However, All fixed now.

BOB

 

[MingusBass]

Yes, the company which made them in Vietnam IS Korean, and they took it back to Korea, because they were not getting the quality from their Vietnam factory.

I have posted that fact before.

BTW, IT SURE DOES MATTER WHERE it is made. Anyone who says it does not is fooling themselves in the name of some odd form of political correctness.

This is not due to any inherent fault in some ethnic group.

No, It is because the bulk of people in china and Vietnam have been living on the farm, with almost no contact with machinery and technology in terms of how it is made or repaired, and limited contact with it at all. They also are typically not particularly well educated.

Sure, there are many very well-educated people in china. But that is not normal for the "peasants" out on the farm, who supply the bulk of new factory workers. People working on the farm go to work in factories, factory workers in Guangdong go to work in offices in Shanghai. So more factory workers are needed on a regular basis.

So is it any surprise that they are not as good at assembling complex devices? They don't have any background to draw on, no way to know if what they are doing is good or bad, other than what the supervisor says. And he is not always there watching.

if the build quality is not good coming off the line, no amount of inspection can fix that. It is an old manufacturing rule that you can't "inspect-in" the quality, it has to be built-in.

By contrast to china and Vietnam, Korea has 500 years of higher education, a very educated workforce, strong engineering, and 50 years or so of fairly intense industrial history, unbroken by "cultural revolutions" etc.

it is small wonder that the build quality in Korea is good. The workers have a clue what they are doing. They were not living on the farm six months ago, which might well be the case with a chinese worker.

Yes, there are bottom-of-the-barrel factories in Korea and Japan too. But the bottom of the barrel in Korea and Japan is equal to a middle range factory in china.

It's just a fact. It won't always be true, but it is still true now.

If you don't like that, my suggestion is to live with it anyway, because that is reality, regardless of any "political correctness" aspects that might prevent 'discrimination" against some nation, culture or race.......

Thanks for the info. It makes sense to me.

 

[Red Planet]

Yes, the company which made them in Vietnam IS Korean, and they took it back to Korea, because they were not getting the quality from their Vietnam factory.

I have posted that fact before.

BTW, IT SURE DOES MATTER WHERE it is made. Anyone who says it does not is fooling themselves in the name of some odd form of political correctness.

This is not due to any inherent fault in some ethnic group.

No, It is because the bulk of people in china and Vietnam have been living on the farm, with almost no contact with machinery and technology in terms of how it is made or repaired, and limited contact with it at all. They also are typically not particularly well educated.

Sure, there are many very well-educated people in china. But that is not normal for the "peasants" out on the farm, who supply the bulk of new factory workers. People working on the farm go to work in factories, factory workers in Guangdong go to work in offices in Shanghai. So more factory workers are needed on a regular basis.

So is it any surprise that they are not as good at assembling complex devices? They don't have any background to draw on, no way to know if what they are doing is good or bad, other than what the supervisor says. And he is not always there watching.

if the build quality is not good coming off the line, no amount of inspection can fix that. It is an old manufacturing rule that you can't "inspect-in" the quality, it has to be built-in.

By contrast to china and Vietnam, Korea has 500 years of higher education, a very educated workforce, strong engineering, and 50 years or so of fairly intense industrial history, unbroken by "cultural revolutions" etc.

it is small wonder that the build quality in Korea is good. The workers have a clue what they are doing. They were not living on the farm six months ago, which might well be the case with a chinese worker.

Yes, there are bottom-of-the-barrel factories in Korea and Japan too. But the bottom of the barrel in Korea and Japan is equal to a middle range factory in china.

It's just a fact. It won't always be true, but it is still true now.

If you don't like that, my suggestion is to live with it anyway, because that is reality, regardless of any "political correctness" aspects that might prevent 'discrimination" against some nation, culture or race.......

You do have a point there Jerrold.

I think back to having some guys from Gautamala working for me. I remember thinking once, there were things I knew and just grew up knowing that they had never been exposed to and did not understand, that made a huge difference in common sense smarts at work. Did not make those guys any less of a human being. Great guys none the less.

 

[bongomania]

I'll buy the part about educated industrial workers being better than uneducated farmers when it comes to electronic and technical work. But there are high-end audio companies like Phil Jones and ADK that have goods made in China, to very exacting standards. This tells me that there are factories (perhaps smaller ones in urban areas) where there are competent workers and where you can buy "good work". Large corporations looking to shave down the bottom line to the farthest extent possible are not interested in that, they are just interested in units produced at the lowest cost. So they contract with the large rural factories that have the uneducated workforce. Perhaps those cheap rural fabricators are easier to find in China than in Korea? I don't know.

 

[Tim1]

Well, all probably true, but I do know that my Vietnam Ampeg has been absolutely thrashed since I got it and has not missed a beat. I have even left it on for a few nights in a soundproof shed with "Jaco Pastorius" CD playing through it full blast. (Yes, I really did want to know I could rely on it). On top of that my drummer's son, not realising the weght and trying to be helpful, dropped it off the stage. Still no problems.
However, I still think that the bottom line is you get what you pay for and this must apply in manufacturing as much as in retail.

 

[Theo-cantor-]

This my new back-up set for the my USA SVT CL 810 stack (the last USA stack sold overhere !!!!!)
I set it up as a twin channel system so I can easily dial in heavy Ampeg tube growl and switch over to Ampeg-smooth Pino Motown Flatwound
P-bass sound.

Anyway, the SVT4 Pro is Korean the SVP-Pro is USA.
Let me tell you this: the preamps sound exaxtly 100% the same.
I just cant hear any difference.............

BTW I made 2, 3" ventilation holes in every side of the roller-case: No overheating, perfect!!!

Cheers,

Theo

 

[Jim Campbell]

DO a TB search of SVT-4PRO overheating. YOU CANNOT JUST BOLT THAT INTO A BOX AND NOT KILL IT. I have discussed this way too many times.

BTW I own 2 USA, 2 Vietnam & 2 Korean SVT-4PRO's the only ones I have ever had any trouble with are the USA ones. However, All fixed now.

BOB

i had planned on housing my 400+ in an ata shock mount 4
spacer......good,bad,indifferent ??????????????????

 

[CapnSev]