In my dream amp thread, I mentioned that the local pawnshop had an Acoustic 320 head for $199. A couple posters said I'd be a fool not to buy it, so Friday, with visions of Jaco and JPJ in my head, I headed over to test it out.
I plugged it into their Ampeg 410LF and turned it on. *thump* it powers up and I start to play. Sweet, chewy, growly midrange, loud as balls by 9 o'clock on the volume knob, *crackle crackle* the volume pot needs cleaning, but it works fine. All the tone controls and eq sliders work as they should. Both channels work as they should. Switched input, a&b blend as they should. Power boost works fine, but yuck, that's staying off. This baby is coming home with me. $200 out the door.
I've tried a lot of amps and I prefer those with character. My Ampeg pf500 is very nice. The more flat and accurate amps I find boring and lifeless. Maybe because I play a Fender P... Why would I want to accurately reproduce the sound of a solid chunk of wood with a magnetic pickup screwed to it? If I was playing an upright, sure I might want it as accurate as possible, but with a Fender? Give me character!
I researched a bit and found bottomend!'s posts enlightening, with his frequency analysis graphs. But I totally disagree with him that an Ampeg cabinet does not sound good with an Acoustic head. Maybe it's just that a different eq strategy is required. My 810e sounds great with the 320!
Also, contrary to certain peoples' claims, this amp is not all mids and muffled. It's actually quite strident in the highs, and produces more than enough lows for the 810e (which isn't much of course, but I hate a lot of low lows and subs).
Messing around with it today, I've come up with a nice eq strategy for the 810. First, I get the midrange how I want it on channel A, treble at 9:00, midrange at 1:00, bass at noon. Eq set to channel A with a 2 db bump at 125 and -10 db at 2k to take out the loud fret noise ( I think this amp will work well for guitar too). This channel is now mostly midrange. I turn it up to the desired volume. Plugging into the switched input with the switch set to A&B, now I can blend in some highs and lows from channel B. Treble at noon, midrange at 9:00, bass [DEL]cranked all the way up[/DEL] at 4:00. I blend in channel B until the low end is as thick as I like, then tweak the treble until it's just enough. Bright switches and power boost stay off, not my cup of tea.
This thing has character, and loads of it. It's no modern amp. The huge caps and big iron transformer make it play almost like a tube amp, but quicker and not as smooth and compressed. It's super punchy with all that juice loaded up and ready to jump out of the speakers. I love the midrange grind at high volume. Hit it with a pick and it snarls, pluck it with your fingers and it purrs. There's more than enough volume through a 4 ohm 810 for any venue that doesn't require pa support anyway, as long as you don't mind the grind... Which is the whole point of this amp for me. I wouldn't want it any more powerful or I wouldn't be working the power section enough.
I have rehearsal tomorrow night with drummer and acoustic guitar/ vocals, and with the full band (adding a strat with Mesa half stack) on Friday. Will give a band mix report later. Until then... pix!
Edit: I've experimented a bit and my eq strategy works better with the bass on channel B turned up to 4:00 rather than all the way.
I plugged it into their Ampeg 410LF and turned it on. *thump* it powers up and I start to play. Sweet, chewy, growly midrange, loud as balls by 9 o'clock on the volume knob, *crackle crackle* the volume pot needs cleaning, but it works fine. All the tone controls and eq sliders work as they should. Both channels work as they should. Switched input, a&b blend as they should. Power boost works fine, but yuck, that's staying off. This baby is coming home with me. $200 out the door.
I've tried a lot of amps and I prefer those with character. My Ampeg pf500 is very nice. The more flat and accurate amps I find boring and lifeless. Maybe because I play a Fender P... Why would I want to accurately reproduce the sound of a solid chunk of wood with a magnetic pickup screwed to it? If I was playing an upright, sure I might want it as accurate as possible, but with a Fender? Give me character!
I researched a bit and found bottomend!'s posts enlightening, with his frequency analysis graphs. But I totally disagree with him that an Ampeg cabinet does not sound good with an Acoustic head. Maybe it's just that a different eq strategy is required. My 810e sounds great with the 320!
Also, contrary to certain peoples' claims, this amp is not all mids and muffled. It's actually quite strident in the highs, and produces more than enough lows for the 810e (which isn't much of course, but I hate a lot of low lows and subs).
Messing around with it today, I've come up with a nice eq strategy for the 810. First, I get the midrange how I want it on channel A, treble at 9:00, midrange at 1:00, bass at noon. Eq set to channel A with a 2 db bump at 125 and -10 db at 2k to take out the loud fret noise ( I think this amp will work well for guitar too). This channel is now mostly midrange. I turn it up to the desired volume. Plugging into the switched input with the switch set to A&B, now I can blend in some highs and lows from channel B. Treble at noon, midrange at 9:00, bass [DEL]cranked all the way up[/DEL] at 4:00. I blend in channel B until the low end is as thick as I like, then tweak the treble until it's just enough. Bright switches and power boost stay off, not my cup of tea.
This thing has character, and loads of it. It's no modern amp. The huge caps and big iron transformer make it play almost like a tube amp, but quicker and not as smooth and compressed. It's super punchy with all that juice loaded up and ready to jump out of the speakers. I love the midrange grind at high volume. Hit it with a pick and it snarls, pluck it with your fingers and it purrs. There's more than enough volume through a 4 ohm 810 for any venue that doesn't require pa support anyway, as long as you don't mind the grind... Which is the whole point of this amp for me. I wouldn't want it any more powerful or I wouldn't be working the power section enough.
I have rehearsal tomorrow night with drummer and acoustic guitar/ vocals, and with the full band (adding a strat with Mesa half stack) on Friday. Will give a band mix report later. Until then... pix!
Edit: I've experimented a bit and my eq strategy works better with the bass on channel B turned up to 4:00 rather than all the way.
