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IMHO, the SVT8-Pro captures the upper mids and grind of a vintage SVT pretty well. There is a certain range of OD in the Drive circuit that adds authenticity. I think the higher gain settings are usable, but they don't really sound quite like an SVT being pushed over the edge.
Also, the Bass control does not respond quite the same. I believe the issue is a vintage SVT centers the Bass control at 40hz and the 8-Pro centers the Bass control at 20hz. There seems to be some high pass filtering going on above 20hz so I don't understand the logic. Because of this, you have to run the 8-Pro's Bass control substantially higher to get a similar amount of low end, and it doesn't seem to reach up into the low mids as far. Either that, or perhaps the 8-Pro lacks the SVTs slight wide-band boost centered at 400hz.
I think the Mesa Titan captures the lows and low mids of a vintage SVT better, while the SVT8-Pro captures the mids and higher frequencies better. I wouldn't be surprised if you could fix this with a small amount outboard EQ.
Overall, I think the SVT8-Pro is an awesome amp that can get fairly close to the sound of a vintage SVT, only way louder. Since most people seem to think an SVT is already brutally loud, I'll leave it to you to decide if the extra power is useful.
Congratulations!
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IMHO, the SVT8-Pro captures the upper mids and grind of a vintage SVT pretty well. There is a certain range of OD in the Drive circuit that adds authenticity. I think the higher gain settings are usable, but they don't really sound quite like an SVT being pushed over the edge.
Also, the Bass control does not respond quite the same. I believe the issue is a vintage SVT centers the Bass control at 40hz and the 8-Pro centers the Bass control at 20hz. There seems to be some high pass filtering going on above 20hz so I don't understand the logic. Because of this you have to run the 8-Pro's Bass control substantially higher to get a similar amount of low end, and it doesn't seem to reach up into the low mids as far. Either that or perhaps the 8-Pro lacks the SVTs slight wide-band boost centered at 400hz.
I think the Mesa Titan captures the lows and low mids of a vintage SVT better, while the SVT8-Pro captures the mids and higher frequencies better. I wouldn't be surprised if you could fix this with a small amount outboard EQ.
Overall, I think the SVT8-Pro is an awesome amp that can get fairly close to the sound of a vintage SVT, only way louder. Since most people seem to think an SVT is already brutally loud, I'll leave it to you to decide if the extra power is useful.
Congratulations!
Thanks Wasnex. I'm a little more flexible in my expectations of the 8 pro. I'm looking for a modern amp that can hang with the best of them, and I think this amp ca do that in spades. I've got a V9, V4, B25, and SVT 2 pro so, I'm covered in that saturated tube department. If this amp can cop what the 6 pro can do, I'll consider this a major win.
On another update...my SVT-300 came in today. Packing was alright but the rack ears were bent. I took a soft rag and some channel locks and straightened them out. The tubes a cheap as @#$&. Four KT88's and two 6550's (all made in China). Amp sounded good and nothing alarming in the 40 minutes I played it. I'm just shocked that they didnt put any fragile stickers on it. I'm hoping my 8 pro gets here in one piece.
what I have experienced is not to worry about the peak light. In fact, the sweet tube tone comes when you increase the gain until the light is constantly on.
Btw, I’m pairing my SVT-8Pro with an SVT-610hlf. It sounds sweet and damn loud
Btw, I’m pairing my SVT-8Pro with an SVT-610hlf. It sounds sweet and damn loud
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Came in yesterday!
I'm shocked at the condition...not a scratch or mark on it! Looks brand new and taken care of. I don't think the GC sales associate who took this in knew what it was based on the price! I lucked out and got a USA model and I'm really happy so far.
It will take some time to tweak the tone. My first impression is bright and aggressive tones upon playing. Its been a good year for my Ampeg collection.
I'm shocked at the condition...not a scratch or mark on it! Looks brand new and taken care of. I don't think the GC sales associate who took this in knew what it was based on the price! I lucked out and got a USA model and I'm really happy so far.
It will take some time to tweak the tone. My first impression is bright and aggressive tones upon playing. Its been a good year for my Ampeg collection.
With all the selectors in the right position, the mid and treble controls on mine behave almost identically to a vintage SVT, but the bass control has to be run about 1/3 higher. Also I think the amp sounds more authentic to a vintage SVT with the Power Reduction/Drive circuit engaged and setup just below the edge of breakup.
The Drive control doesn't seem to do much on mine. I can turn it from full CCW to full CW and it barely changes the sound. There is maybe 4-5dB of a gain change and most of it is concentrated in the final 2/3rds rotation of the control. Does your Drive control make more of a difference?
I use the preamp Gain control to set the distortion level in the Power Reduction/Drive circuit. Unfortunately the circuit begins to break into OD at a Gain level that is well below where the preamp clips, so it compromises the S/N ratio and headroom of the amp a bit. Basically I have to turn up the Master volume to make up for the reduced preamp gain, which results in the amplification of circuit noise in the middle of the signal path. Probably not a problem at the volume levels I normally play at, but if I needed to take full advantage of the amps 2500W output and wanted an authentic, but cleanish tone, I would need to disengage the Power Reduction/Drive circuit which which is where the grind and feel of a vintage amp is hidden (IMHO).
Prices for these are all over place. My US made amp is pretty clean except for a bit of road rash on the top panel. I paid $696 shipped in 2015 after winning the bid on Ebay, and I am pretty sure I was the only bidder.
I think it was a good idea, but just too much power for anyone to actually need, and pricey. When a 7pro can make you just as deaf, and costs less, why buy an 8pro unless you just like to tell people you use a 2k watt amp lol.
The drive knob on mine go from clean to dist/fuzz. I keep it about 12 o’clock. That gives me a nice tube tone. I don’t go with Volume past 12 o’clock neither or I can tear down the building.
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Sounds like my Drive control may not be functioning properly then. My Power Reducation/Drive circuit will go from clean to OD to fuzz just like yours, but I need to fiddle with the preamp Gain control to get the drive in the ball park. Then I can fine tune it with the Drive control. I normally set mine up so the amp's output is the same with the circuit on and off. This occurs with the Power reduction control at about 2 o'clock. The idea is to have two sounds, one super clean and one more authentic to a vintage SVT.
I noticed the same thing on mine as well. I almost have dime out the drive at low to moderate volumes to hear a difference. For me it was a mixture of instrument, gain, and balancing the "power" knob to get a good setting. I bet running the drive and power wide open with the gain and master would sound killer. I'd like to use the DI out on a recording and see how the drive emulation works at bedroom volume. When see rack gear, I automatically thing recording friendly. My SVP-CL certainly was and I used it for a promo recording a year ago and loved it.
I did notice that the it took a few seconds for my drive emulation to track. I'd like to do some more investigating to see if this is the case.
Watts doesn't always equate to loud. Sometimes it relates to more control over EQ and frequencies. I can tell you that the 8-pro can bark like a all tube SVT with clarity in all ranges. My 4 pro and SVP-1600 can belt 1600 watts in bridge mode and have more grunt in the bottom register. Those amps were from the cross over era where you were expecting to run rigs low clean/dirty and highs/lows. Ampeg engineers were ahead of the game but, after much reading, the then president (Jamie? E) ruined the development process on a lot of amps (5pro, 6pro, and 8pro). With the SVT 2 pro being phased out at the time, I think this was more of a cash grab than a development cost recovery.
Had this amp succeeded, it would have been (IMO), one of the defacto amps in the industry. True tube hybrid with unquestionable power on hand for studio and stage application. The fact that it is bedroom friendly tells me alot. My 55 watt B25 can generate noise complaints if left unchecked. The 8 pro is very flexible amp and I was able to pick up on this the first two hours of playing. I'd LOVE to see Yamaha resurrect this amp as a possible flagship.
The reviews I have seen suggest the 8 Pro sounds better and more like a vintage SVT than the 7 Pro. The 2.5kW output is at 2 ohms. 1.3kW at 4 ohms. I don't have any trouble playing mine at low volume
. I believe the output section is extremely sophisticated (expensive and difficult to repair) and had some serious problems during beta testing. I get the impression the model fell victim to a wide range of unfortunate events, but it was expensive and probably designed to be somewhat exclusive and have low sales volume. Perhaps it never really had a chance to succeed.
That's possible, but I am pretty sure the Power Reduction/Drive circuit is solid state. It actually sounds really good, just the gain staging is a bit odd and the range of control of the Drive knob seems a bit limited. The Drive knob is not scratchy or intermittent though.
Here's an older post from Jerrold (one of the engineers of the 8 pro) and some the challenges of the amp. It appears this amp was rushed due to poor leadership. No doubt in my mind this would have been a huge success if properly tended to.
Jerrold Tiers:
There should, IIRC be somewhere around 100. I don't know for sure. I doubt if Loud does either.
Most of them went off to Artist Relations, but a number made it to dealers. probably the AR units have been swapped for other new stuff since, so they are probably in circulation somewhere.
It got very confusing, because IIRC some went off to AR before the final compliance testing. AR nabbed units and basically left us a note...... By the time it was done, we had been moved to our "temporary quarters", prior to Loud upchucking all the SLM people (except for Dino and Ray Wood), and I was busy with other Loud products, some of which never came out*.
The compliance engineer had an equipment fault that showed the unit passing, when it did not. Turned out there was an inductor carrying 50A or so that was inducing signal right into the line filter, but the fault meant it wasn't noticed. So then the units needed a new line filter, and there were delays, some AR units came back, some probably did not.
There was a thought that the 8PRO could be regarded as a done deal, but as with many other relatively ambitious products, there were things that needed to be changed, at least in detail.
Not unknown at Ampeg........ the original SVT got a new output section a year or so after coming out..... and other products have had substantial re-vamps after some production, eitehr due to nagging problems, or parts issues, etc.
* That was probably a good thing, the process as done under Jamie Engen was more-or-less of a disaster......there was no time to make changes to things like power supplies when there were substantial spec changes in the things being powered, but then 3x more time was wasted on nonsense than it would have taken to do it...... what a zoo, despite weekly progress meetings...... The process was in control, bigtime.
I hope they are doing substantially better now that J.E. and his engineering VP are just a bad memory..
Jerrold Tiers:
There should, IIRC be somewhere around 100. I don't know for sure. I doubt if Loud does either.
Most of them went off to Artist Relations, but a number made it to dealers. probably the AR units have been swapped for other new stuff since, so they are probably in circulation somewhere.
It got very confusing, because IIRC some went off to AR before the final compliance testing. AR nabbed units and basically left us a note...... By the time it was done, we had been moved to our "temporary quarters", prior to Loud upchucking all the SLM people (except for Dino and Ray Wood), and I was busy with other Loud products, some of which never came out*.
The compliance engineer had an equipment fault that showed the unit passing, when it did not. Turned out there was an inductor carrying 50A or so that was inducing signal right into the line filter, but the fault meant it wasn't noticed. So then the units needed a new line filter, and there were delays, some AR units came back, some probably did not.
There was a thought that the 8PRO could be regarded as a done deal, but as with many other relatively ambitious products, there were things that needed to be changed, at least in detail.
Not unknown at Ampeg........ the original SVT got a new output section a year or so after coming out..... and other products have had substantial re-vamps after some production, eitehr due to nagging problems, or parts issues, etc.
* That was probably a good thing, the process as done under Jamie Engen was more-or-less of a disaster......there was no time to make changes to things like power supplies when there were substantial spec changes in the things being powered, but then 3x more time was wasted on nonsense than it would have taken to do it...... what a zoo, despite weekly progress meetings...... The process was in control, bigtime.
I hope they are doing substantially better now that J.E. and his engineering VP are just a bad memory..
I noticed he made no changes to the instrument level as well. I did notice that mine kicked in after adjusting the gain level. The confusion is that those two controls are boxed off and user may think they work independently of the rest of the settings.
All I can say about this amp is that an owner should be very, very careful what he connects up to it. The shear power that this unit can put out would demolish most speaker systems. It is 2Ω stable so there is some leeway on that score. It’s about 1KW at 4Ω.
- Apr 3, 2003
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- Editor-in-Chief, Bass Gear Magazine
