Tech 21 bass vt 500 vs ampeg pf 500

[Gojiberry22]

Hey Guys im in need of some help deciding between these two potential amp candidates.

What I’m looking for was a very portable amp that was powerfull enough for close to everything that I will face aswell as versatile.


I mainly play in a rock band so the tone I’m after was mainly a overdriven rock tone which both of these amps can deliver.

The way I see it right now is that the ampeg has a more versatile eq with the switches and variable mid knob, though it seems to have some issues which may or may not have been correct by now.

The tech 21 has less midrange eq options (2 frequency switches) but is somewhat smaller and lighter. I also like the fact it it has a built in sansamp pedal. It sounds great in my opinion. Though I’ve found a deal on a b stock with full warranty, which would reduce the price by about $100 less then the ampeg.

The ampeg pulls slightly ahead due to the compression option aswell. Though I don’t know if it’s good enough to completely eliminate the need for a compression pedal.

I’m unable to try either of these amps out myself so I’m really just relying on opinions and online video reviews here.

 

[mattbass6945]

From everything I've read, the PF500 had some failure issues early on, but was corrected fairly quickly.

 

[Fair Warning]

If you are already playing through a VT-Bass pedal, pumping that signal through a VT-500 makes the thing sound too muddy at higher volumes. Otherwise the VT-500 is a great sounding amp.

The lower prices of the second hand Ampeg PF's tell me that they are not regarded as keepers. Who knows why.

 

[BBQV]

I've got a VT500 and an Ampeg PF800 (with the same preamp as the 500) and I like them both.

The PF800 sounds like an Ampeg is supposed to sound and the EQ section is the same as on the SVTs. It'll give you a great clean sound and can be pushed into a bit of OD.
The compressor is simple to use and sounds good, at least up to 12 o'clock.

The VT500 is more versatile in the OD department, everything from a slight edge to full on growl. It doesn't do fuzz, it's a tube overdrive emulation circuit. The mid shift combined with the Character knob make the EQ more flexible than you might expect and the Blend control gives you a chance to bring in a bit of clean bottom end even if you dial up masive OD.

If you want the Ampeg sound, go for the Ampeg - if you want OD, get the Tech21.

 

[quickfix]

If you want the Ampeg sound...get the PF 800. It's a wonderful sounding amp.
If you want that overdriven tube sound also, then I would suggest getting the Tech21 VT Bass DI pedal and use it in conjunction with the Ampeg PF 800 as required.
I do this from time to time depending on the gig. Best of both worlds.

 

[Gojiberry22]

I’ve actually gone ahead and bought myself the tech21 head, should arrive by the end of the month.

The thing that drove me into choosing the tech21 over the ampeg was mainly the sound in demo videos I watched. The sound of the ampeg was pleasant and good and all but overall didn’t impress.

I’ll add a little review after I’ve had it for a while for anyone who’s interested in the future.

 

[Daniel Piper]

The VT500 is an amazing amp.

The VT series pedals are my favourite ever.

 

[Gojiberry22]

Oh man its been a while, i completely forgot that i wanted to write a review on this thing. Luckily i've had over a month with this head now and will be able to express my opinion based on more experience with it.

So ive been playing the Tech21 vtbass 500 head through a Hartke hx112. I mostly play my own shortscale franken-bass with a single emg 35dc humbucker and bqs controll. Now that ive covered my setup for context ill move to the head itself.

I bought the vtbass 500 because I wanted something on the smaller side that was powerful enough for close to everything even without pa support. And I believe the 500 watts has me covered in that regard although ive never really had to turn the level over 12 o'clock much. Its small and light enough to be carried in a backpack without any trouble.

In terms of tone, i was coming from a tc electronic bg250 combo, The TC's flat tone i would describe to be somewhat sterile, and i really did not like the sound without heavy eq tweaking after which it sounded simply "decent" to me. Comparatively upon plugging into the vtbass 500 there was immediately more fullness and depth in the sound, and i really dont turn the eq all that far away from flat settings. It's difficult to find a sound i didn't vastly prefer to the TC head.

In terms of variety and versatility the tc head obviously wins due to the option of tone print effects, the vtbass 500 on the other hand is more geared towards the sansamp/svt tone which it absolutely excels at in m opinion.

Moving to the eq the bass and treble knobs have less of an effect then average, but i believe this amp is all about the mids, despite only having two different mid frequencies to select, switching between them drastically changes the sound you get. Personally it sounds great to me. I also have to comment on the bite switch, turning it on and off drastically changes your overall sound aswell, It really adds that top end zing for clarity and removing it gives a far more mellow and rounded tone.

Turning the character knob reveals several great sounding options although i personally leave it at 12 o'clock for the most part.

One thing that this amp delivered that i did not necessarily expect was the incredible sound you can achieve by turning up the gain knob. From light growl to beautiful heavy fuzz, which you are able to blend with the clean signal as well to keep your low end, which i was extremely delighted to discover.

Finally one thing that took some time to learn for me personally was how all the knobs interact with each other, for instance the eq behaves differently with the level, blend and character knobs together. Changing any one of them seems to effect the others in some way. Admittedly this isn't something i have completely explored yet but i think it just adds to the overall adjust-ability of the sound.

Some other people who reviewed this head felt that it would not be possible to get a truly "flat" tone from it, in my opinion that is untrue because u could simply turn down the blend and have a standard head.

In conclusion im really happy with the VTbass 500 and I would recommend it to those looking for the convenience of a baked in sansamp in a lightweight and powerful package.

 

[fdr1031]

Oh man its been a while, i completely forgot that i wanted to write a review on this thing. Luckily i've had over a month with this head now and will be able to express my opinion based on more experience with it.

So ive been playing the Tech21 vtbass 500 head through a Hartke hx112. I mostly play my own shortscale franken-bass with a single emg 35dc humbucker and bqs controll. Now that ive covered my setup for context ill move to the head itself.

I bought the vtbass 500 because I wanted something on the smaller side that was powerful enough for close to everything even without pa support. And I believe the 500 watts has me covered in that regard although ive never really had to turn the level over 12 o'clock much. Its small and light enough to be carried in a backpack without any trouble.

In terms of tone, i was coming from a tc electronic bg250 combo, The TC's flat tone i would describe to be somewhat sterile, and i really did not like the sound without heavy eq tweaking after which it sounded simply "decent" to me. Comparatively upon plugging into the vtbass 500 there was immediately more fullness and depth in the sound, and i really dont turn the eq all that far away from flat settings. It's difficult to find a sound i didn't vastly prefer to the TC head.

In terms of variety and versatility the tc head obviously wins due to the option of tone print effects, the vtbass 500 on the other hand is more geared towards the sansamp/svt tone which it absolutely excels at in m opinion.

Moving to the eq the bass and treble knobs have less of an effect then average, but i believe this amp is all about the mids, despite only having two different mid frequencies to select, switching between them drastically changes the sound you get. Personally it sounds great to me. I also have to comment on the bite switch, turning it on and off drastically changes your overall sound aswell, It really adds that top end zing for clarity and removing it gives a far more mellow and rounded tone.

Turning the character knob reveals several great sounding options although i personally leave it at 12 o'clock for the most part.

One thing that this amp delivered that i did not necessarily expect was the incredible sound you can achieve by turning up the gain knob. From light growl to beautiful heavy fuzz, which you are able to blend with the clean signal as well to keep your low end, which i was extremely delighted to discover.

Finally one thing that took some time to learn for me personally was how all the knobs interact with each other, for instance the eq behaves differently with the level, blend and character knobs together. Changing any one of them seems to effect the others in some way. Admittedly this isn't something i have completely explored yet but i think it just adds to the overall adjust-ability of the sound.

Some other people who reviewed this head felt that it would not be possible to get a truly "flat" tone from it, in my opinion that is untrue because u could simply turn down the blend and have a standard head.

In conclusion im really happy with the VTbass 500 and I would recommend it to those looking for the convenience of a baked in sansamp in a lightweight and powerful package.

I've been looking at this head and I was concerned after an review (I think in musicradar.com) about it perhaps needing an extra gear. It's important to me to err to the side of having lots of headroom and having the option of not having to rely on FOH - so I was wondering if this was more than enough or just barely, and whether it moved air. I do like the fact you can blend the dry signal.... overdrive and distortion units on most every amp I've tried are worthless as I get lost in the mix with 2 guitars, keyboard and double bass drums.....

 

[Gojiberry22]

I've been looking at this head and I was concerned after an review (I think in musicradar.com) about it perhaps needing an extra gear. It's important to me to err to the side of having lots of headroom and having the option of not having to rely on FOH - so I was wondering if this was more than enough or just barely, and whether it moved air. I do like the fact you can blend the dry signal.... overdrive and distortion units on most every amp I've tried are worthless as I get lost in the mix with 2 guitars, keyboard and double bass drums.....

In my opinion the issue of not relying on foh is more Dependant on the amount of cabs your using (amount of air being moved) rather then the head you use. I haven’t actually gigged with this head yet but I think it should suffice for 90% of situations in terms of power/wattage.

 

[Daniel Piper]

In my opinion the issue of not relying on foh is more Dependant on the amount of cabs your using (amount of air being moved) rather then the head you use. I haven’t actually gigged with this head yet but I think it should suffice for 90% of situations in terms of power/wattage.

Well said.