Scored a killer vintage Ampeg SVT

[PeterAM]

Just scored a killer SVT MTI era. Have played lots of amps over the years, but this one beats them all; the headroom is huge. I will check it out and bench test it later. For as far as I can see now, it is in very good shape.

 

[Fab Superlative]

Nice score! And welcome to Talkbass land.

 

[Kirk Bryant]

JimmyM will be here any minute. Haha Welcome, pay no attentention to the crazy’s here, most of us are harmless. Enjoy your workouts with your new rig.

 

[beans-on-toast]

Well done.

If you need one, one of these knobs might fit in place of the one marked with a V. Depends on shaft size and shape.

Knobs

 

[JGbassman]

Nice. And welcome!

 

[BogeyBass]

Depends on shaft size and shape.

That's what she said

 

[ThisBass]

Welcome to the SVT family and of course to TalkBass

 

[PeterAM]

Thank you all!

 

[PeterAM]

That's what she said

 

[PeterAM]

Well done.

If you need one, one of these knobs might fit in place of the one marked with a V. Depends on shaft size and shape.

Knobs

Thank you; will check this out. The knobs on the MTI are a bit different since they have notch. However, almost anything would be better than the present V-marked one.

 

[PeterAM]

JimmyM will be here any minute. Haha Welcome, pay no attentention to the crazy’s here, most of us are harmless. Enjoy your workouts with your new rig.

Thank you; it is indeed heavy!
I was already in touch with JimmyM last week for advice.

 

[10cc]

Nice car too.

 

[sharkbait130]

Nice score. What cab are you running it with?
Oh , and my standard warning. Do NOT power this amp up without the speaker cab already being connected.

 

[PeterAM]

Nice score. What cab are you running it with?
Oh , and my standard warning. Do NOT power this amp up without the speaker cab already being connected.

Right now, it is in my living room on a Schroeder 21012 cab. I will mostly play it on my SVT 215E. Next thing will be A/B-ing the 215E with an 810, if I can borrow one. And, of course, never without a cab.

Another thing is that channel 1 has somewhat overkill on gain; it already grinds on 1.5 while channel 2 is a lot cleaner. This MTI version is all 12ax7 and no 12dw7. I will check if the R6, 7, 25 modifications has been made; if not, it would explain the gain overkill.

 

[PeterAM]

Any thoughts on the perforated back grille? It is painted black and has square holes. Never seen that on an SVT; all I've seen have round holes and no paint.

 

[ThisBass]

Yep, if the R6, R7, R25 modification is not made the gain will be overkill (about +3..6dB). Eittherway it doesn't change a lot of the overall sound performance.
I think it was Jerry Tierolds who replied in this forum a couple of years before that (likely) the Japanese MTI fellows placed 12AX7 instead of 12DW7 without modifying the preamp design.

 

[catcauphonic]

Didn't happen to get this at a little old lady's garage sale, didja? 

I kid I kid. Great find!

Congrats and welcome

 

[Arthur U. Poon]

Congratulations!!!

Welcome to Talkbass!!!

 

[JimmyM]

Any thoughts on the perforated back grille? It is painted black and has square holes. Never seen that on an SVT; all I've seen have round holes and no paint.

Tried to find rear pics of MTI's on Google Images but the only one I found claiming to be an MTI had round holes and no paint. However, some do confuse Skunkworks SVT's with MTI's. Maybe someone can chime in who has one. At any rate, I wouldn't worry too much about it.

 

[beans-on-toast]

Ampeg amps were full of revisions. Post an image of your back screen, there may be clues as to if it's original.

This is the back of an MTI.

This is the back of a US made SLM skunkworks SVT.