Thoughts On the SVT 3-PRO

I owned one for a week, and sold it. Sounded good by itself, but it is terribly underpowered. Could not produce enough volume for a normal band practice situation using an Ampeg 115 and Ampeg 210. If you get one, I would recommend some very efficient speaker cabinets. It will probably work well with an 810 cabinet.

 

I really like this amp. I've owned mine for about 6 months and have had no problems with it. I will agree that it doesn't quite have enough headroom (although now I'm only running it at 8 ohms, so we'll see once I get my new cab). The tone is great, if you're an SVT fan. It's built like a tank as far as I can tell, except I've heard that the knobs they use on the face are cheap and like to break eventually. The fact that the preamp is 3 tubes and the power section has the driver tubes makes a big difference in tone over other "tube preamps" with only one tube.

 

i used to have one and i sold it. it's the same of what other guys pointed, good sound but not enough volume. i prefer the swr SM400s that i own and use now. more powerful and good sounding too. the 5 tubes in the ampeg are quite easy to change. remove the screws that holld the high panle of the head and you'll see them. i changed the tube before selling the head and i tried chinese tubes, sovtek tubes and GT tubes. no one of these could help me. i sold the had at the same price i bought it . i suggest you to buy the svt preamp amd use another poweramp. i use to hear great things about carvin and crown poweramp. you'll spend less money and you'll have more power. good luck

 

I have two and love them both, I have a Blk face and a newer grey face model.
I find them sufficient enough for what I do for gigs and the tone is killer, I also play through the 210 and 115 and I am never lacking for volume.
JMHO!

 

I love mine, and never have had any problems with volume. Maybe it is just me. I like all the knobs and switches, it gives me plenty to play with.

jtbp

 

Tube Gain!!!!!!! A very cool feature. I own one big fan of it's clean sounds. I also like the power it puts out it is very effective and reliable. Stylish too.

I love mine.

 

I've said it a million times before, but i'm gona do it again.. DON"T BUY AN SVt3PRO!! Buy an SVP-Pro, and your choice of poweramp (carvin, mackie, crown, qsc).... it will sound exactly the same if not better because you can choose the poweramp you want instead of the one ampeg wants you to have...
its cheaper, its more powerful, its upgradeable, with the poweramp you'll have the option of bridging etc... the preamp has footswitchable options... there is, IMO no good reason not to buy seperate, unless having a rack system is against your religion.
look into it... a svp-pro and a carvin dcm1000 or less... or mackie or something... you'll have enough cash left over for a decent rack case...

 

The SVT-3 pro, which I paid $850 for, is still sheaper than the rack system, at least in my neck of the woods. The preamp itself (I haven't really looked into it, that much) would cost around $475 to $525, and that would leave me with around $300-350 for a power amp. Last time I checked they were more than that (new). I somewhat have a spending cap, and don't think I could have spent over $1000 for an amp at that time.

JMHO.


jtbp

 

the carvin DCM600 is $350 and that's 600 watts to the svt's 450 at 4 ohms, and the carvin can go down to 2 ohms, and the carvin can go stereo if you want to add stereo effects later... the svp has 5 preamp tubes, the svt has three.

I'm not saying that you made a bad decision, but i am saying that Dan Muller might possibly get more for his money by looking into the idea of buying seperately.