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My SVT backline experience Sat Night...

#21
scotch said:
Tell me about it!

I really dislike the SVT-4's. Sounds nothing like a real SVT, always feels underpowered and has a pretty sketchy reliability record. I always sigh when I see it at load in!
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"Peoples likes some stuff and they doesn't like others".......That's why there is more than one brand and model...............

Don't understand the "sketchy reliability" comment........... They were always reliable as far as warranty..... NOT a big contributor percentage-wise...... although they sold well. I'd have to call them pretty solid, actually..... there were a couple models with "sketchy reliability", at least for a while, but the 4PRO is not among them.

The "feels underpowered" is easy to understand..... fear of red lights..... like Jimmy says.... turn the input UP....... The manual even says to get them lighting up.
 
#22
BigOldHarry said:
So I played this cattle-call of local "talent" at the House of Blues Saturday night... it was one of those 10 band in 4 hours deals, no sound check, 5 minutes to get on stage. Yeah. Loads of fun.

Anyway, they provided a bass backline of a SVT pro-4 head and the standard SVT 8x10 cab. The last time played through one of these rigs was when I was working in music store back in the late '80s, so I was interested to see what I would think using it live...

Given that I had a whopping 30 minutes to sort out how I liked it, here's my impression: If I were a rock and roll bassist with a pickup truck and willing buddies to help me schlep it, it would be *okay*. It didn't handle a low B very well (I had it EQ'ed dead flat) but the rest was loud... just loud. Not much tone, but *loud*. The fact is, I felt like my gear sounds much better, but like I said - a half hour is not much time to really judge. I also know that there is "Ampeg", and then there is "Ampeg". So who knows what year/era of gear this was. It looked fairly used, so I'm guessing it wasn't the latest/greatest.
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Just out of curiosity, what is your normal rig? What kind of tone are you usually going for?

Sorry if this is an obvious question to TB regulars... I'm still new here. :)
 
#23
Another SVT-4 bites the dust... http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f15/svt-4-pro-issues-775326/

I'm telling y'all,.. I keep seeing & reading more & more problems with the SVT-4 with one side going dead. I'm not making it up!

Naturally, I hope everyone with an SVT-4 doesn't have to go through this, just that it is definitely an issue!
 
#24
Any piece of manufactured equipment can have lemons. Any mistreated gear can likewise have issues.

To the spirit of the rest of the thread...
1) An SVT 4PRO isn't really an SVT to base your foundation on how all SVTs sound
2) Spend some actual time with the equipment you're going to use before judging. This is especially true of the 4PRO, which is one of the more intricate Ampeg heads to dial in, in my experience.
 
#25
I had a similar experience with an SVT Classic head into an 810 last month. Went with my ballpark/home tone settings, left the Ultra High & Ultra Low switches in the OUT position, Freq selector knob on 2, plugged in my Yamaha Attitude bass, and the soundman proceeded to tell me it was the best sounding bass ALL day. I was a little tickled...

Definitely sounded good on stage.
 
#26
It took me several weeks to figure out how to use the 4-Pro. I mean...look at the back of that thing! It has so much built in capability.

Today, it is the head that I usually go to first....primarily because all I have been doing is practicing. But I get comments all the time on the killer growl. That growl comes from the preamp, which replicates the SVT sound. I found that the 4-Pro sounds alot better through 10 inch speakers than bigger ones.

However, does not have the warmth of the tubes.
 
#27
Fair Warning said:
It took me several weeks to figure out how to use the 4-Pro. I mean...look at the back of that thing! It has so much built in capability.

Today, it is the head that I usually go to first....primarily because all I have been doing is practicing. But I get comments all the time on the killer growl. That growl comes from the preamp, which replicates the SVT sound. I found that the 4-Pro sounds alot better through 10 inch speakers than bigger ones.

However, does not have the warmth of the tubes.
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Maybe you got a "goofy version" - there is no growl in the pre-amp of the 4 PRO. It's purely a clean sounding amp. The amp can growl somewhat from the strings, pickups, playing style, but sounds NOTHING like the tube growl you get from SVT all-tube heads. I had two 4 PRO's and ultimately got rid of them because I wanted more string detail and growl out my basses. I had the sound I wanted through the bass, but the 4 PRO held me back. It's a decent head for clean style Ampeg tones, not for overdriven Ampeg sounds.
 

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