New to me I should say. It's sitting at Fed-Ex waiting for me to pick it up, I can hardly contain myself. This is going to be the longest work day ever! This is my first foray into the world of tube amps so I'm even more excited! Come on 3:30p! 
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NAD: SVT-CL!!
- Thread starter VeganThump
- Start date
Thank you! This was a long time coming, I've been stalking the classifieds and CL waiting for one to come up for my price, and now that day has come!
So... The amp arrived today and I gotta say, I'm disappointed. No not with the amp, with the atrocious way it was packaged. It came in a box with literally about 3 handfuls of peanuts and some random cardboard scraps stuffed in the box. It was loosely duct taped and in fact, when the FedEx guy was wheeling it up to my door, the package literally fell apart and slid off of the hand truck. After I stopped crying, I took it downstairs and played it for about a half and hour. It sounded fine except for the fact that it rattles and vibrates a bit when it's cranked. I took it a local amp tech and I'm having him go over it thoroughly, which I was probably gonna do anyway, just not right away. I dunno, it's possible there's nothing wrong and I'm just being paranoid, I'm just really disappointed that a fellow TB'er would demonstrate such carelessness. Hopefully nothing is wrong, but I'll know for sure soon. Here's a picture of the packaging abomination.
I didn't want to say anything earlier, as I didn't want to ruin things for you -- I've had SVTs shipped to me twice, and both times they were damaged in transit, once by UPS and once by FedEx.
Both times the sellers did what they thought was a good job at packing, but both times their efforts weren't good enough. The problem is that these amps are damned heavy, and if you choose to ship them by UPS or FedEx, then you're accepting the risk that they'll be damaged in transit.
One of mine was packed with foam expanding packs around the amp, and the sheer weight of the amp just crushed and crumbled the polyurethane foam and rounded all of the edges of the cardboard box so that it looked like a cardboard ball.
The other one was wrapped in about 40 feet of big 1-inch bubble wrap; the amp had about 6-inches of bubble wrap around it in every direction, followed by 3 layers of heavy cardboard. That wasn't enough. Both amps were dropped, they landed with the heavy side down, and the sheer inertia of a 70 lb amp hitting the ground bashed-in the steel rack handles like they were made of tin. They were pushed all of the way into the amp's faceplate so I couldn't even get my fingers behind the handles.
I ended up having to order parts and repair the amps, replacing the damaged parts with new replacement parts from Ampeg. In the process of repairing them I completely disassembled both amps and tested/inspected every single component before putting the amps back together. The repairs ended up costing me a couple hundred dollars for each amp, and I had to recover the costs from the sellers.
All things considered, I don't think you did badly. IME these amps are just so damned heavy that you really don't want to ship them if you can avoid it, and if you do decide to ship them then you're taking a calculated risk. Given the weight of these amps and the way that UPS and FedEx routinely drop packages with their automated sorting equipment, I'm not sure that these amps would be safe to ship if you shipped them in a flight case. If/when I ever sell mine then I'm going to insist on a local pickup.
Both times the sellers did what they thought was a good job at packing, but both times their efforts weren't good enough. The problem is that these amps are damned heavy, and if you choose to ship them by UPS or FedEx, then you're accepting the risk that they'll be damaged in transit.
One of mine was packed with foam expanding packs around the amp, and the sheer weight of the amp just crushed and crumbled the polyurethane foam and rounded all of the edges of the cardboard box so that it looked like a cardboard ball.
The other one was wrapped in about 40 feet of big 1-inch bubble wrap; the amp had about 6-inches of bubble wrap around it in every direction, followed by 3 layers of heavy cardboard. That wasn't enough. Both amps were dropped, they landed with the heavy side down, and the sheer inertia of a 70 lb amp hitting the ground bashed-in the steel rack handles like they were made of tin. They were pushed all of the way into the amp's faceplate so I couldn't even get my fingers behind the handles.
I ended up having to order parts and repair the amps, replacing the damaged parts with new replacement parts from Ampeg. In the process of repairing them I completely disassembled both amps and tested/inspected every single component before putting the amps back together. The repairs ended up costing me a couple hundred dollars for each amp, and I had to recover the costs from the sellers.
All things considered, I don't think you did badly. IME these amps are just so damned heavy that you really don't want to ship them if you can avoid it, and if you do decide to ship them then you're taking a calculated risk. Given the weight of these amps and the way that UPS and FedEx routinely drop packages with their automated sorting equipment, I'm not sure that these amps would be safe to ship if you shipped them in a flight case. If/when I ever sell mine then I'm going to insist on a local pickup.
Man I have some tears running down my face,when I read your post...
I hope every thing is ok,more than likely
The amp is fine if it is working.
Check the tubes and see if all are set in good , also go around the amp and make sure every screw is tight,corner
caps. tube guard,handles,anything you can tighten up with a screw driver. The bumpy FedEx ride may have vibrated something loose.
Hopefully that's all it is...
Some people do not know or care how they pack,next time especially with tube heads,it's worth the extra money to have them professionally packed and insured.....
I hope every thing is ok,more than likely
The amp is fine if it is working.
Check the tubes and see if all are set in good , also go around the amp and make sure every screw is tight,corner
caps. tube guard,handles,anything you can tighten up with a screw driver. The bumpy FedEx ride may have vibrated something loose.
Hopefully that's all it is...
Some people do not know or care how they pack,next time especially with tube heads,it's worth the extra money to have them professionally packed and insured.....
Exactly. I really hope this doesn't get ugly with trying to recover costs from the seller. I really just can't wrap my head around someone thinking it was a good idea to ship a package like this.
Sheesh! Does not the seller know it's an 85 lb amp?
Anyway, the fact that it's working is a very good sign, and hopefully it's just something loose causing your rattle. I trust you opened it up and looked for loose screws or parts, right?
I was going to open it up and check to see if I could find something rattling but I had planned to have a tech go over it anyway and so I figured I'd just take it there right away and have him open it up and take a look.
Usually a good idea after shipping a heavy amp anyways. I don't like shipping tube amps. I've been on both sides of this. No matter how much preparation you do there's just no accounting for how it will be handled by the shipping company. I traded a V4 for an SVT a few years back with a guy in California. The SVT was packed very well, bubble wrap, two layers of foam, double boxed. By the time it arrived the outer box was in shambles, the inner box ripped at one corner with foam exposed and in the whole process fedex "lost" the amp (they had assigned it two tracking numbers, the one that the shipper, the shipment store, and I all had, and one that only existed in their computer system). My V4 on the other hand, traveled in it's ATA road case with the tubes pulled and bubble wrapped, and was dropped hard enough to leave a mark in the case and smash a tube.
well atleast it made it mostly working. if the rattle isn't coming through your speakers then it's probably just something mechanical like loose screws that shouldn't be too expensive for a tech to fix up.
just document the condition it arrived in really well and try to get refunded from the seller to cover some of tech fees. hopefully you'll have a cooperative seller.
just document the condition it arrived in really well and try to get refunded from the seller to cover some of tech fees. hopefully you'll have a cooperative seller.
Fed Ex and UPS are horrible, there I said it. I've had issues with them regarding tube amps too. I've worked at places where we used them to ship and they throw the boxes around, hell I even saw a UPS guy stand on one of the boxes inside the truck to stack another box.
Hope you can get this sorted.
Hope you can get this sorted.
Glad mine came thru Ceva Freight with its own pallet 
Ampeg knows how to box an SVT, I'll tell you that! Double boxed, lots of thick foam under, over, and around it.
Ampeg knows how to box an SVT, I'll tell you that! Double boxed, lots of thick foam under, over, and around it.
Wow, brutal. I just bought an SVT-cl last week, but luckily the seller was kind enough to deliver it to me and it arrived in fine shape.
I blew a power tube over the weekend, which was unexpected. Other than that, these are monster amps. Not just in weight or volume, but pure sound. Can't weight to gig mine.
Hope all turns out well with yours!
I blew a power tube over the weekend, which was unexpected. Other than that, these are monster amps. Not just in weight or volume, but pure sound. Can't weight to gig mine.
Hope all turns out well with yours!
