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UF NAD: Ampeg Micro VR Stack

#61
I love the way it looks, I just hope it's built better than the (non-longhorn) Dano bass I told somebody I'd fix up/set up once......It was a picture of a bass cut out of plywood (double thickness to make 1-1/2") and had a cardtable top for the front and back. No extra braces where the neck fastened or where the bridge mounted, and these dinky little guitar tuners. The covering was that stuff your Mom or Grandma put in the bottom of the kitchen cabinets that they thought looked so great and was easy to clean.....the sticky backed plastic/vinyl stuff....there's a word for it, I'll find it, give me a minute......
 
#63
If it's really masonite, it's good, I have a 1949 National lap steel made postwar like that and it's good. This thing I worked on must have been a budget Dano or something 'cause it wasn't no masonite man, it was a (cheap) card table top and chinsy little guitar tuners on a bass......:smug:
 
#65
i thought all danos were made with plywood and masonite. they do give that impression of flimsiness, but i think they're stronger than most people think. except for the cheap guitar tuners. i could replace them with a good set of guitar tuners, though. but they have to be guitar tuners. i've seen danos with bass keys fitted on them and i'm sorry but it just doesn't look right.
 
#67
98dvl said:
Screw that... ;)

The real question (maybe I missed it?) is... How does the 810 sound with the VR head?
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excellent. hey, $300 ss head vs. $2000 tube head...you can tell a difference. the micro vr will go as far as a moderate breakup tone whereas you can get super nasty with an svt cranked. and of course there's that dynamic thing happening with the tube amps that you just can't get with solid state imho. but the tones are amazingly close.
 
#68
JimmyM said:
wow, very nice guys, thanks so much! hope you all have christmases this good every year!

so look, what i'm about to say may be controversial. but those who know me know i wouldn't say this if i didn't believe it. i am a huge ampeg nut but i've always been honest with my opinions about their products. some i love more than anything ever made, some i don't love so much.

i did another gig on my micro vr stack tonight and mic'ed it, no di. the speakers are by now nicely broken in, and this is a venue i play all the time with my 69 svt/73 810 flatback, so i'm very familiar with how the big rig sounds there. used it with both electric and upright. i had it tilted up so i could hear it properly, i hopped all around the stage, and went out in the room a couple times and heard it in the pa, too. i kid you not...the 210av may be closer to the cts flatback 810 ideal than i've ever heard in an ampeg product since they quit making the flatback in 1974.

i can't quite call it a 100% dead ringer yet. obviously it's a 210 and you can't expect it to behave like an 810, and also it's only my second gig with it. but i know that cts tone like the back of my hand and i got it out of it tonight. the low end response was nearly identical to the 810, and right up the whole range it just felt so familiar to me. i don't play 5's but i use an oc-2 to drop some low notes now and then and it was right there. and through the pa, it sounded just like i always do with the 810. if you can stand to lose some of the concussion value of the 810 onstage, it's amazing how close it comes tonally to the flatback.

i did the micro combo route before, and while it was cool, i always felt like they missed the mark by enough to where it was worth it for me to start lugging the big iron again. the guys in my band felt it, too. but this micro vr rig nails so much about what i love about the sound of my svt, save for some air movement and that certain great feeling and response you can only get from playing through a tube amp, i'm finding it hard to find a reason not to use it most of the time and save my tubers for the bigger gigs. you might think i'm all swept up in the newness of it but i assure you i'm not. ok, i am, but that's beside the point. i've not played all ampeg products ever made, but i've played the major ones and a handful of minor ones. this is subject to change when the pf combos come out, but to me, the micro vr is the best combo in its price class they've ever made, and if you're into ampeg tones, the best combo in its price class period.
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+1 You have more experience than I regarding vintage SVT rigs, but what you are hearing lines up pretty well with my experiences, as well. When I first saw the Micro-VR stack (2008 Winter NAMM, I believe), it really struck me as a toy (a toy I must have, mind you!). But after getting them in for review, this rig really blew all of us away.

Merry Christmas! :D

Tom.
 
#69
JimmyM said:
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It stands for "Unexpected Free New Amp Day."

:hyper::hyper::hyper::hyper::hyper:

this was quite the day for me! the most unbelievable thing happened...a rather well-to-do friend of mine and my band who likes to play bass and is into ampegs like me sent me a freakin' micro vr and 210av for christmas! man, sometimes the kindness of people really blows me away...especially since all i got him was a nice bottle of wine and a card...better go get him another bottle or 5!

it came as i was loading up for my gig, so i figured what the hell...it's cold out, this thing is nice and light, and it'll frighten and confuse the other guys in the band, so i threw it in the van and played an outdoor gig in front of about 3000 people with a micro amp i had just unboxed a couple hours before. yeah, that's livin', baby!

up until today, i had only played them at stores and had no idea what it would do onstage, so i chickened out on using a mic and just used a separate di. and that way i could play with the gain knob and not make levels go wild, too. turns out i really should have mic'ed it. it may be a lower wattage small class ab micro rig, but it's an amazing sounding lower wattage small class ab micro rig.

i won't lie to you...if you're blindfolded and you hear the micro vr/210av ab'd with an svt-vr/810e, you're going to be able to tell the difference :D but for a micro rig with a 210, they managed to squeeze a hell of a lot of what people like about svt's and b-15's into it. everyone in the band who looked at me funny when i brought it up there were giving it respect by the end of the night. there was no shortage of air movement, that's for sure.

i went through the controls trying a bunch of different stuff...clean and even response tones, jamersonish slight breakup, fat clean low end with no treble, 70's rock, leaning on the gain...did it all very well and filled the stage nicely. it won't blow your head off with volume or get as dirty as a b-15 on 10, but it does a great job of copping the tones you expect from ampeg tubers, the cab moves as much air as a good 115 and has a hefty yet tight bottom end just how i like it, and it will get a good head of steam going for its size and wattage (150w @ 8, 200w @ 4). it also has really good dispersion. one column of 10"s disperses mids and highs better than two because of the beaming effect, so i was able to walk the stage and have more mids and highs off axis than the 810 and 215 rigs i usually use. that was very nice.

now i know all you folks who complain about never seeing any cons in reviews are just dying to hear my list of cons, but as of my first 4 hours playing it i haven't found any. it's got plenty of power and kick for my needs, it really does sound like a miniature svt, the whole rig weighs just a little over 40 lbs., and it's in a class by itself in the micro rig looks department. i love my tube ampegs, but all my gigs are one nighters and i must admit that at my advanced age it's started to wear me down to lug a bass, an upright, a pedalboard, and a heavy tube amp and cab(s) to play oldies at low stage volume. so i will show this friend of mine (to whom i shall now refer to as "the most wonderful human being to ever walk the planet") my appreciation for this great christmas present by putting it to work pretty regularly.

i am feeling very blessed tonight, no doubt about it! hope you all have a joyous holiday season filled with phat bass tones!

EDIT: Added a pic...Micro VR + Dano Longhorn, my other early christmas present from my wife.
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God Bless that person JimmyM. He is a great person and wanted to see a nice fellow such as yourself have something that would help you in the long run. He truly is a great person indeed. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays all.
Lanis
 
#70
tombowlus said:
+1 You have more experience than I regarding vintage SVT rigs, but what you are hearing lines up pretty well with my experiences, as well. When I first saw the Micro-VR stack (2008 Winter NAMM, I believe), it really struck me as a toy (a toy I must have, mind you!). But after getting them in for review, this rig really blew all of us away.

Merry Christmas! :D

Tom.
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tom, you are rapidly catching up with me on vintage ampeg experience! yeah, a lot of people seem to think of it as a toy, but it feels very solid. the cab is made of thinner wood but it's birch plywood. bill fm always says to tap on the back and listen for a solid thump instead of a drum-like resonant sound to tell if a cab is well braced and solid, and it's thumpy and not drummy ;)

merry christmas to you, tom, and genstormbringer as well!
 
#72
JimmyM said:
cab's 8 ohms. i haven't tried my svt with the 210 yet but i will, but only briefly. i know i shouldn't run an svt at 8 ohms but i have to now if only for a minute. my previous post talks about it more.
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I didn't know that a SVT shouldn't be run at 8 ohm. My VB-2 has a 8 ohm setting and I use it with my 115 Orange cab. I measured the cab and my VB-2 will just sit on it if the cab is sideways. I laugh to myself at the thought of needing two hands and a strong back to carry the head and one hand to carry the cab :hmm:
 
#73
hdracer said:
I didn't know that a SVT shouldn't be run at 8 ohm. My VB-2 has a 8 ohm setting and I use it with my 115 Orange cab. I measured the cab and my VB-2 will just sit on it if the cab is sideways. I laugh to myself at the thought of needing two hands and a strong back to carry the head and one hand to carry the cab :hmm:
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i've run svt's at 8 ohms before. not very loudly, and not longer than a day, and never my own! they can take it. won't destroy them in seconds ;)
 
#75
i do have a great friend, mojo! hope you enjoy it if you get it!

i almost forgot the best thing about this little amp. my new roadie works for cookies!

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