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So I did something insane...

drumvsbass

drumvsbass

Commercial User
Aug 20, 2011
1,985
4,325
Winnipeg
Disclosures
I work for Long and McQuade Musical Instruments Canada in Sales.
#1
This past week I made a strange decision, for a bass player, to downgrade the power in my main gigging rig. I went from a PF500 to a PF50t. With the 500 I often got the 'you're too loud' commentary from some of the bands that I play with usually resulting in a volume dragrace. Last night I used the 50t at a club that is big enough for me to have brought my SVT, and somehow I got away with it. Sound was solid everywhere on stage, front of house was rocking (a good sound man is a bass players best friend) I feel like I got the best of everything in this little amp. Ampeg's website says small to medium gigging size, I might actually say any size, depending on what it is you are looking to hear on stage. The stage mix at this gig last night sounded like a well mixed album, bass sitting in the mix audibly clear but not dominating (not the clear as a bell hearing all the nuances with mountains of headroom as I would usually like) But strangely more comfortable on the whole. Everything just sounded right. I play in an original metal band that I get to play really loud and proud (hence the SVT fridge) But for dance/cover bands the 50t might be the total package for me. If you got questions I got answers.

dvb
 
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#11
mojomike001 said:
I'm trying to understand here why the PF-500 couldn't have simply be played at a lower volume. Sounds to me that you simply wanted to get an all tube amp, not that there's anything wrong with that.
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me too. thing is the pf 500 didn't sound right at the lower volume. eq profile changes the way it interacted with the cab etc. and yes it may be that i just needed a tube amp. i'm more surprised that i got away with only 50 watts. mostly it's the top end of the pf 500 that just seems a little like hard plastic as opposed to soft velvet of a tube amp. not dissing the pf500 at all. was my tried and true for almost 2 years, but the tone thing started to eat at me. i play an svt the rest of the time so... at this point i'm happy with the trade, until i get to a gig that the 50 won't be loud enough and the rest of the band are volume hounds. we'll see. this is an ongoing thing to adjust to.
 
#12
drumvsbass said:
me too. thing is the pf 500 didn't sound right at the lower volume. eq profile changes the way it interacted with the cab etc. and yes it may be that i just needed a tube amp. i'm more surprised that i got away with only 50 watts. mostly it's the top end of the pf 500 that just seems a little like hard plastic as opposed to soft velvet of a tube amp. not dissing the pf500 at all. was my tried and true for almost 2 years, but the tone thing started to eat at me. i play an svt the rest of the time so... at this point i'm happy with the trade, until i get to a gig that the 50 won't be loud enough and the rest of the band are volume hounds. we'll see. this is an ongoing thing to adjust to.
Click to expand...
There are a lot of folk who will argue that "watts are watts," but for a couple of reasons, tube watts are greater than solid state watts. With tubes, you don't need to have as much headroom available because tubes overdrive so beautifully compared to solid state.
 
#13
I was just asking about using the PF50T with two 15" cabs in another thread. Glad to know it works out!!!

Lots of players don't realize watts mean less than you could possibly realize. I use a 30W Ashdown all-tube head for gigs all the time. That head and an EA VL-210 cab gets STUPID loud.
 
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#16
drumvsbass said:
This past week I made a strange decision, for a bass player, to downgrade the power in my main gigging rig. I went from a PF500 to a PF50t. With the 500 I often got the 'you're too loud' commentary from some of the bands that I play with usually resulting in a volume dragrace. Last night I used the 50t at a club that is big enough for me to have brought my SVT, and somehow I got away with it. Sound was solid everywhere on stage, front of house was rocking (a good sound man is a bass players best friend) I feel like I got the best of everything in this little amp. Ampeg's website says small to medium gigging size, I might actually say any size, depending on what it is you are looking to hear on stage. The stage mix at this gig last night sounded like a well mixed album, bass sitting in the mix audibly clear but not dominating (not the clear as a bell hearing all the nuances with mountains of headroom as I would usually like) But strangely more comfortable on the whole. Everything just sounded right. I play in an original metal band that I get to play really loud and proud (hence the SVT fridge) But for dance/cover bands the 50t might be the total package for me. If you got questions I got answers.

dvb
Click to expand...
May have gotten to push that little amp into slight power tube compression territory, which is a really nice tone that in my experience really works in the mix if you can get it at the right volume.
 
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#17
two fingers said:
I was just asking about using the PF50T with two 15" cabs in another thread. Glad to know it works out!!!

Lots of players don't realize watts mean less than you could possibly realize. I use a 30W Ashdown all-tube head for gigs all the time. That head and an EA VL-210 cab gets STUPID loud.
Click to expand...
Yeah, more than just power rating goes into how loud a rig sounds. How the head is voiced, how it's rated, how its voicing pairs with the voicing of the cabs, the sensitivity of the cabs, etc.

I use a huge Sunn 2x15 cab for most of my gigs. The head on top of it, though, is not that powerful, at 180 watts. Still, I've never been able to turn it all the way up except at an outdoor show with no PA support.
 
#19
Had my first test of the PF50t/2x15 with no PA support in a mid sized room. Against a loud rock drummer, Two guitarists, 3 mid sized combo ampts. Bluntly, it slayed. Perfect. Exactly right in the mix, and carried enough around the stage that everyone was super stoked about the tone of the thing. People immediately hit the dance floor when we started 'Green Onions' so the bass was definitely audible.

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