Need New Amp, Ampeg SVT-CL Or Will V4B Be Enough?

[jnumme]

Just picked the v4b and av 212. I use a fender select jazz and fender 74 p bass. Curious to know some your settings You like with your passive basses and style of music you perform.

 

[gerrywarwick]

For those doing research on this legendary forum, I had the exact same dilemma. I play in a eeggae band and I usually don't plug into the band's pa. Larger venues offer foh support and I just bring my Sansamp.
Ok, my main bass right now is a Suhr era Fender 5 string. My main rig is a Warwick Hellborg preamp, Mono500, Club cab and Lo cab. I've been pushing this rig to its limits and decided to get another amp to cut the work load in half. After playing so many rigs at different venues and having a GC and Samash next to reach other and close by, I got to try many brands. I remembered the tone from my 70's V4 and went to find a reissue V4b, I read about on this forum. The first one I tried sounded horrible through any cab. All spongy with no definition. I thought, wow, they don't make them like they used to.
I found one a few weeks later, hooked up to a MarkBass 4x10 and an Ampeg 410hlf right next to it. Amp and bass set flat. 3 notes and I wished I didn't have my wallet with me. I couldn't belive the difference from the first one. Every bass sounded awesome through this head, especially with the Markbass cab, to my surprise, as I'm not a fan of their cabs. I took it home the next day, after reading "Jimmy M" posts all night. 3 days later, it was on the first of two outdoor gigs. After home testing, I decided to take my Hellborg Lo cab, 300w@8ohm, 40hz and 98db sensitivity. And my Berg HT210, 500w@8ohm, 38hz and 100db sensitivity. It sounded great at home, but on the gig, I quickly found out that I had the wrong cabs. Surprisingly, the Berg farted first. I had the ultra low engaged at first and bass set at 3 to 4 o'clock. Rolling off treble like I usually do, made me too muddy. I tried backing off mids but lost projection, so I thought. I wasn't happy with my sound but the crowd said, it sounded great. Go figure. Gain at 10 o'clock, master at noon to 1 o'clock nearly destroyed the cabs. Things did sound great before fart out though and the amp performed flawlessly for two hours in the New jersey heat.
The next day, which was yesterday, I borrowed an old SWR Son Of Goliath 6x10 cab, 1000w@4ohms. The gig was on a beach and there were no walls to bounce bass off of, or shade of any sort. I plugged up for sound check and immediately knew things were going to be ok. With the same settings as the night before, it was still clean, full and really rich. When I put the master to 3 o'clock, I was pushing my own back in from about 8 feet away. I've never been so pleased with my tone and power. The V4B still had useable headroom, even under these circumstances. I even ended up giving the mids a slight boost at 800hz and rolling of treble to 9 o'clock at times and remained warm and clear, no mud.
Btw, setting bass higher than 3 o'clock at volume made me dizzy (could've been the heat though, lol) and pushed the SWR to its limits, even at 1000w and overpowered the band anyway. They were all into the pa too.
So, all that to say, yes the V4B is "loud" enough but your choice of cab is crucial.
I'll edit some video after I get some rest because there are not many examples of how it sounds on gigs. I've never played through an SVT bit if it's 3x as powerful as the V4B, it's far more juice than even I need for reggae, with no pa support. Next gig is at Resorts World Casino, NYC, this Monday but that's no place to test the di, since I can't bring a cab. I'll write back when I can test it. I hope this helps someone, as so many of you have helped me over the years.