Ampeg SVT or other 200-300W bass amp?

[selloutrr]

Just for reference top bass amps all of these are great!

Alembic preamp (modified fender showman)
fender dual showman
fender bassman
ampeg b-15n
ampeg V9
ampeg svt blue stripe
ampeg svt skunkworks
trace Elliot 12band and 7band sm series preamp/ ported combo
swr studio 220 900 pre fender
Walter wood
Avalon U5 directbox
countryman direct box
tech21 sansamp
orange / matamp
fender twin reverb (surprisingly great bass amp in the studio)
the thunder funk sounds good
Marshall major
trace Elliot V8

these amps are my top rental / go to amps

[selloutrr]

You also build / buy a soundcity 200B (poor guys hiwatt). Or build a dumble winterland combine an ampeg V9 preamp and SVT power section.

IMHO any b-15 or showman front end with KT-88 output is fantastic

[jon]

You also build / buy a soundcity 200B (poor guys hiwatt). Or build a dumble winterland combine an ampeg V9 preamp and SVT power section.

IMHO any b-15 or showman front end with KT-88 output is fantastic

I agree. I built an ampeg B-18n and I love it. I did build the ps large enough to handle 6550's. Just my 0.02 but a Sunn 2000s is an amazing amp.

[Structo]

Here it is

[selloutrr]

You also build / buy a soundcity 200B (poor guys hiwatt). Or build a dumble winterland combine an ampeg V9 preamp and SVT power section.

IMHO any b-15 or showman front end with KT-88 output is fantastic

I agree. I built an ampeg B-18n and I love it. I did build the ps large enough to handle 6550's. Just my 0.02 but a Sunn 2000s is an amazing amp.

the sunn model T also makes a great bass amp

[Cliff Schecht]

I've devised a 5F6A channel and an Ampeg-inspired channel. With two channels and a parallel effects loop I still have a whole AX7 left over to play with. I'm dumping the reverb in this beast because it's going to be a dedicated bass amp (plus the whole thing sounds kinda lame!). The two channels will mix and go into a simple effects loop before hitting the PI.

The PI and power amp in this PA100 were already changed to more typical Fender Twin values. I wanted to leave this the same and just muck with the preamp but I'm also considering some post PI cathode followers like the SVT. But this seems unnecessary with only a 100W output stage, the typical 12AT7 PI-->4x6L6 output stages I've heard have plenty of punch..

So leave the PI "stock" or drive the piss out of the 6L6's?

[selloutrr]

I've devised a 5F6A channel and an Ampeg-inspired channel. With two channels and a parallel effects loop I still have a whole AX7 left over to play with. I'm dumping the reverb in this beast because it's going to be a dedicated bass amp (plus the whole thing sounds kinda lame!). The two channels will mix and go into a simple effects loop before hitting the PI.

The PI and power amp in this PA100 were already changed to more typical Fender Twin values. I wanted to leave this the same and just muck with the preamp but I'm also considering some post PI cathode followers like the SVT. But this seems unnecessary with only a 100W output stage, the typical 12AT7 PI-->4x6L6 output stages I've heard have plenty of punch..

So leave the PI "stock" or drive the piss out of the 6L6's?

Anyway to boost the output power up by at least double? 100watts gets eaten up pretty fast with low freq drivers. You'll need the extra power to keep the notes clean on the low end.

[Cliff Schecht]

You bring up a great point and something I've been unsure about really. We just built a ridiculous PA and are mic'ing everything now so I figured 100W would be enough power. But he wants to run a 1x15 cab and a 4x10 cab which I know needs some real beef in the output stage to stay clean.

I heard a friends SVT Classic through an 8x10 cab and he couldn't turn it up past 3 without shaking shit off the walls so I figured 100W would be enough. I'd definitely have to upgrade the transformers to get to the 200W mark but at that point, I would just go all out and use a quad of 6550's instead of the 6L6's.

I was trying to keep this build simple but I fear even the OT on this amp is to wimpy to sound good with bass. It's not much bigger than the 50W 1966 Bassman iron I used in my Vibroverb. I do still have the hifi iron Pete Millett gave me which is labeled 100W but is much fatter than your typical 100W job. It's sure to have great bass response but I was saving these specifically for some 829B builds (which is what they were given to me for). Something along the lines of a Fender Twin with 829B's in the output stage I think is where that conversation went..

[selloutrr]

It's more about having the power on tap then running it loud. It takes so much energy to move the large speakers or multiple speakers in the lower foundation. If you have a professional PA you can take a DI of the bass and return the feed to the monitors for the bass amp. A feature I really enjoy in a good bass amp is an isolated Direct out. It can be taken at the input as a thru. or after the EQ (though this can be frustrating!!!) Everytime the bass player turns up the volume or makes an eq tweak for the speakers it changes the mix.

When I toured I was a bass player. My rig was over kill but it was built for one purpose... Clean tone. I ran a prototype SWR220 preamp Urei 1176LN Blackface, Klark Technic 31 band graphic EQ for each of the 4 SVT 810cabs, 2 SVT215 cabs each cabinet that where each powered by a Crown K2 power amp pushing 1200watts. With a Trace Elliot SM7 preamp as a backup. SVT Skunkworks anniversary head and matching 810 cabinet. It was 90% looks to fill stages. I usually only used 1 of each cabinet and the SVT rig. Never turned up louder then 3 or 4 usually about 87db but because of the power on hand the amp was able to handle every note like a piano clear and crisp. all the voicing was then taken from pedals and active electronic at my fingers or at foot.

The SWR rig was clean where the SVT was wooly and hungry.

Sorry long story short huge iron and over powering the speakers is a benefit for bass.

[Firestorm]

I think 6L6s are the weakest link in most commercially produced bass amps (read Fender). 6550s are good, KT88s better (IMHO). I also like UL OTs in this application. For jollies (and if you elect to bias each tube individually), you might try running KT88s along with 6L6s, which seems to add some "body." The KTs are very clean. If you're limited by OT or PT, maybe 7027As?

[rdjones]

What, no love for Traynor in this thread ?

When the SVT was introduced it was clearly a shot across the bow of Traynor and the YBA-3A Super Custom Special with it's 8x10 "Big B" cabinet.
Although Traynor didn't publish power wattage ratings, the YBA-3A was considered the most powerful bass amp at the time.

An improvement Ampeg made in the cabinet design was to separate the speakers into pairs in 4 sub-enclosures.
The Big B has one common internal volume in a "hopscotch" pattern.

[img:421:600]http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee29 ... r_BigB.jpg[/img]

rd

[C Moore]

Didn't Hiwatt make a 200 Watt head.?
Seems like those would make a great bass amp.....
Best

[C Moore]

Didn't Hiwatt make a 200 Watt head.?
Seems like those would make a great bass amp.....
Best

[selloutrr]

Sunn out performed traynor 4 years earlier.
Hiwatt makes a 200B. They are great but usually they are modified to some degree before they are the "it" tone.

[selloutrr]

What, no love for Traynor in this thread ?

When the SVT was introduced it was clearly a shot across the bow of Traynor and the YBA-3A Super Custom Special with it's 8x10 "Big B" cabinet.
Although Traynor didn't publish power wattage ratings, the YBA-3A was considered the most powerful bass amp at the time.

An improvement Ampeg made in the cabinet design was to separate the speakers into pairs in 4 sub-enclosures.
The Big B has one common internal volume in a "hopscotch" pattern.

[img:421:600]http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee29 ... r_BigB.jpg[/img]


Traynor used multiple speakers to increase the air volume moved however the speakers were very low wattage 15-20watts prone to blow and sounded cheap. However this allowed the smaller tubes and lower wattage traynor to pump out some volume. Sunn was the first bass amp manufacture to start really pushing high wattage ampeg noticed a surge in sunn amps on stages and was quick to respond with the svt and a legend was born. The hiwatt matamp soundcity didn't really come to light until the really 70's shortly following was the dawn of solid state and the bad taste left over from the '80's.
rd