Taming an Ampeg HSVT 410HLF.

[agedhorse]

That cab also sounds glorious and loud with a Mesa D800 +. EQ and high pass? I am sure you can get it there.

And fairly high damping factor of the amp.

 

[J Wilson]

I've never played a 4Pro and that cabinet, but I did look online at the front panel.

Geez.

That's a Whole Lotta Tone Control, what with the knobs, the graphic, the push switches, I can see where you could stir up a mud puddle with this real fast.

IF it were me, I'd make sure the graphic was on bypass, all those 4 push in tone switches, out/off, and the rotary tone knobs as close to whatever neutral is on that thing. If you're running an active bass through it, set your bass flat and check how the input pad changes the tone in or out if it has one.

Then listen.

If it's still too much deep end, start cutting frequencies with the graphic only until it sounds more like you want and work out from there. The idea of subtractive EQ is almost a foreign idea these days, but sometimes the right amp, the wrong cabinet in the wrong room, you start boosting things and it just runs away real fast into something utterly unuseable.

I'd also put something between the cabinet and the floor to eliminate any chance of floor coupling, which just adds deep end.

An old trick we used to use to kill the boom in small rooms/stages was to face the cabinet backwards. I don't know why this seemed to work sometimes (and I'm sure @agedhorse is laughing at me, or shaking his head!), but some places it was a big help.

Then he's going to post he's playing and EB bass with tapewounds . . . . . .

 

[BlackCrow]

-1 on the Heritage 410. Was looking for a different cab to pair with a Mesa d800+ and looked for opinions on that setup together... Ran some questions through the Mesa forum and the overwhelming response was "Dont do it". It seems people either love or hate the Heritage. Im still using a GK 2x12neo, its ok, still looking for a different cab, but i saved 1200$ by not getting the Ampeg...

 

[Grinderman]

OP your opening post says it all -- boomy and out of control cabs.

That very well sums up most of all I've read about that cab... so many times that I've developed such an aversion I haven't even tried one to find out firsthand.

 

[gstaats]

We have a 410hlf at our rehearsal space. They are boomy cabs (no news there, right?) I do bring my Mesa TT-800 and run that through the cab. With a decent hpf and some tweaking of the EQ, it sounds decent. Not great, but good enough that I don't care for rehearsal, and if it was in the backline at a gig, wouldn't mind either. The TT-800 makes about any cab sound good, and a great cab sound, well, great.

Honestly, I wouldn't put too much effort into trying to make the cab sound non-boomy beyond something like a broughton HPF. I'd save the ca$h and grab something else honestly. There are many options out there, like the Mesa Subway series, that will sound much better and won't be a tank to move like 410hlf. The 410hlf's are heavy cabs. Personally, I run a pair of Barefaced BB3 cabs with my TT-800. Love that combo. I had a chance to demo a subway 115 - if I didn't already have my BB3 cabs, I would have 2x Subway 115's to go with my TT-800.

 

[Element Zero]

Man I LOVED the my 410HLF and SVT 6Pro back in the day. Authority for days. I was playing in a more metal ish Tool shoe gaze kind of band and it was incredible at shows lol.

Different strokes for different folks…

… that being said, the Mesa D-800+ and Subway 410 is the best sounding rig I’ve ever owned.

 

[makanudo]

There's nothing wrong with cutting back the bass knob on the amp. Turn it down to 0 and turn it up slowly until you get something that works for you. Ditto for the mids. Select the 800/3k frequency and dime it if you need to.

 

[rodl2005]

I've used a H410HLF many times at supplied backline rigs.

Always been able to get a good sound by cutting the bass eq and boosting the mids.

 

[JeezyMcNuggles]

So, I acquired recently an Ampeg Heritage series 410HLF, as I wanted practicality married with low end extension and the Ampeg-sound. These things I got, but frankly it's enormously boomy and the mids are definitely more on the sluggish side. It feels like the amp is almost unable to control the cab. Now I'm using the cab with an SVT Classic tube head, and from what I understand, this might not be the ideal combo.

Does anybody here have experience using a 4-pro or other more high watt hybrid amps with this cab, and in comparison with the 300cl, have gained more control over this particular cab?

H.

Hpf. Removing low end, makes the rest of the spectrum stand out

 

[Zooberwerx]

In addition to the HPF, I would also employ a para EQ and do a fairly aggressive cut & sweep to attenuate any "masking" frequencies. I have one on a multi-FX and, while not great, it does the job.

Riis

 

[Onomatopoetikon]

Well it’s not that I cant get a usable sound, it’s just not what I thought it would be.

Anyway, I get the EQ and hi-pass filtering, but was thinking perhaps a different type of power section might work differently. Could it be the CL and 410hlf have different crossover points? Anybody have luck using the crossover frequency control on the 4pro?

 

[eee]

I love my HLF, sorry!!!

 

[Onomatopoetikon]

I love my HLF, sorry!!!

 

[Jazzjames]

The 410HLF is with some margin the loosest and most wayward cab I’ve ever used. No fun at all.

I assumed the reason for them sounding so poor was because they had been ragged to within an inch of their lives (hired backline), but I guess that’s just how they sound. I got a passable sound in the end, but with very aggressive EQing.

For my own big-ish setup, I use a Markbass Casa 104, which is a sealed 410. Roll the tweeter off and it has that nice bouncy, tight sound. Enough low end for me, and I play 5/6 strings. For a 410 it’s easy to move about, and much more compact than the HLF. I love some Ampeg products, but I don’t understand the goals of the HLF.

 

[DJ Bebop]

The ideas to try an HPF are great. I never did that with my 410 HLF cabs with anything other than the TT800 which has an HPF on board. However, I didn't really understand how properly to use that function at the time.
I recently (and with more knowledge/experience gained in the few years since I sold my Ampegs) got a Broughton HPF/LPF along with the new UA1176 compressor pedal and it has absolutely transformed my tone/sound in ways I never imagined! While I still have my doubts that this pedal combo would have made up for the loss in mids/note clarity, proper HPF application definitely would have helped cut the fat/mud back quite a lot. That may have helped net a better result for sure.
I still believe that I am getting better results now with my Subway cabs and/or the GK NeoII 112 cabs I use most often (a little lighter and easier to schlep than even the Subways, but not as powerful.)

I had a Peavey 410 TXF that exhibited the same low-frequency mud and lack of clarity. Great for bedrooms and reggae but not much else. Got a WD 800 and with it's HPF was able to get a good usable tone out of it. But that 98 lbs. of cabinet made it easy to part with despite being able to make it sound better..

 

[Baker69]

I had one for a while, fantastic powerful sound but at pretty much every gig I was always getting told to turn the volume down so I got rid and got something smaller.

Basically it couldn’t be played at a low volume you need to crank it up to get that sound.

 

[JeezyMcNuggles]

Well it’s not that I cant get a usable sound, it’s just not what I thought it would be.

Anyway, I get the EQ and hi-pass filtering, but was thinking perhaps a different type of power section might work differently. Could it be the CL and 410hlf have different crossover points? Anybody have luck using the crossover frequency control on the 4pro?

Amps send what they send to whatever is attached to it. The 4 pro is a stereo amp. It's two amps in one box. On that amp, you have the option of splitting your signal between the two power sections. These frequencies here, these ones here. In other words, the preamp utilizes high and low pass filters on each power section, if you're in bi amp mode.

 

[Tim Skaggs]

I had all the same issues and tried all the same remedies being suggested. The one problem I couldn’t improve to my liking is lack of mids. Lack of mids from a speaker cabinet can’t be replaced simply be cranking the mid EQ knob / slider any more than you can dial in lows into a speaker that won’t reproduce lows. You can get an improvement, but not the same if the speaker inherently has good mids. I tried about everything I could think of, including plugging the ports, but didn’t get what I wanted out of it.

The only thing that seemed to work was trading it off….

 

[agedhorse]

Well it’s not that I cant get a usable sound, it’s just not what I thought it would be.

Anyway, I get the EQ and hi-pass filtering, but was thinking perhaps a different type of power section might work differently. Could it be the CL and 410hlf have different crossover points? Anybody have luck using the crossover frequency control on the 4pro?

No, that’s not how it works. The raw response of the 10” driver is what’s dictating the mid response.

Amps send what they send to whatever is attached to it. The 4 pro is a stereo amp. It's two amps in one box. On that amp, you have the option of splitting your signal between the two power sections. These frequencies here, these ones here. In other words, the preamp utilizes high and low pass filters on each power section, if you're bi amping.

This doesn’t apply to a single, non-biampable cabinet.

 

[3toes]

I picked up a late 90s SVT410hlf about a year ago and I absolutely I love it. I push it with an SGT-DI and a QSC GX5 power amp. While it isn't the best choice for some of the smaller rooms I play, I absolutely love how it sounds in an outdoor/festival setting, and in the bigger rooms (especially the older wood-encapsulated honky-tonks!).

It's a very specific flavor; not the most versatile cabinet. And if it isn't your jam then you definitely need to look elsewhere. I love gnarly, vintage tones with big low end, and this rig gives it to me in spades.

I will say I always play through it with some drive, and I feel like the harmonics help move it from "muddy and boomy" to "warm and wooly."