VTypeV4

At the time of writing, this vintage SVT doesn't quite belong to me just yet but I've been making use of it since April and there's a deal in progress.. A little history.. From 1967 onwards, Ampeg was no longer an independent concern with Unimusic acquiring a majority share in the company. Apparently this was later, much to the regret of founding partners Everett Hull and Stanley Micheals - both had left the company within 12 months of Unimusic being involved with Ampeg. With a new vision for the company, Unimusic had financially elevated and stabilised the business, redesigned the logo plus they were very aware of Leo Fender's success who was definitely watching and listening to the ever changing music scene. Ampeg knew something special was needed to best Fender, so had engineers Bill Hughes and Roger Cox working on a new, world beating rig - today we all know the SVT and it's cab(s!) as a monster in every sense. Ampeg had changed hands a few times during the '70s with Magnavox and later MTI purchasing the company. The SVT itself had gone through a few detail changes but from 1970, it was fundamentally still the same machine which had been made in the US with US parts including the heavy duty mains and output transformers. This changed in around 1979 with production being moved to Japan by owners MTI - the SVT now had different cosmetics, slightly different component parts and transformers some of which had changed it's character just a little. Today, vintage 'MTI era' SVT models are still reasonably sought after and are apparently an excellent amplifier although I've never had the pleasure of playing through one, personally. Interlude.. The world of music and undoubtably, the sphere of electric bass had changed alot since (and no doubt, because) the original SVT had been introduced in '69. By the mid-eighties, companies like SWR, Trace Elliot and David Eden were putting out sophisticated, high power transistor based amplifers that were now capable of matching the muscle of the Ampeg. Many had comprehensive, active EQ, pre-shape filters, compressors, balanced inputs and outputs, some had crossovers and bi-amp facilities whilst others sported stereo fx loops and side chain insert points - all very high tech. The original SVT had a basic active EQ which still sounded good and was certainly advanced for the late sixties but offered none of the clever and modern features offered by this new wave of amplifiers. What it did have, however, was a legacy, charm and a sound that was loved by a generation of players - the new owners of the Ampeg company knew this and would use it as their jewel in the crown to rebuild the company. Enter St Louis Music.. MTI sold the designs, production rights and existing stock of Ampeg parts to SLM in 1986. To put Ampeg back in the limelight, SLM concluded that products should be American made once again playing on the appeal of home-grown, top quality products - as such, the 'Skunkworks' team was assembled. This comprised of a small group employed to make 500 'original spec' SVT amplifiers. Between existing inventory and transformers supplied by the Electrical Windings company in Chicago, production of the 'Skunkworks' SVT-HD began. I say 'original spec' as they weren't quite truly original spec - some of the original valves were becoming harder to find in the '80s so some subtle component substitutions were made to make use of the ubiquitous 12AX7 / ECC83 rather than the 12DW7. Beyond that, as I understand it, this version of the SVT was a real 'oldskooler'.. In brief.. What is it? A limted edition, US built all-valve SVT head. How old is it? It was built in 1987. Which number is it? 191 of 500. How powerful is it? 300w RMS at 2 or 4 ohms. What valves are in it? 6x 6550, 5x 12AX7, 2x 12BH7 and 1x 6C4. How much does it weigh? 85 lbs / 39 Kg. Is it worth it's weight? No doubt. Does it sound good? Really..(!)? This example.. So, this particular unit has come to me via friend Craig, famed for The Sisters of Mercy, The Mission, The Alarm and more recently, Spear of Destiny. As I understand it, this was one of his main gigging amplifiers on larger shows up until around 15 years ago when it began to develop some reliability and performance issues. It was sent for service / repair and returned in an apparently healthy state, however, it had since been replaced and, from somewhere around 2010, the SVT had simply sat in a lock up doing nothing. On arrival at the studio, it was grubby, smelt bad and looked very unloved. I gave it a thorough wipe over, laced it with contact cleaner and allowed it to aclimatize in the live room before making any attempts to fire it up. Craig was unsure as to whether it would work properly or if it still had some problems so intreague got the better of me and I ran it up - the lights came on the panel, the fan spun and valves began to glow which I figured were all good signs. After a few minutes, I threw the (very questionably placed) standby switch and there was a thump then a slight hiss and a low-level hum through the Ampeg PR810 it was plugged into. Grabbing the nearest Jazz bass which happened to be my Squier VM, I plugged into the front panel and, after it's long sleep the SVT lived once again. Almost instantly, it sounded glorious. In Use.. Since then, it's done a few gigs with me and seems to have settled into regular use without any real dramas. The live situations have been with the electronica duo 'Disastrous Robots' so no acoustic drums or big Marshalls but it's still been required to support the bass without any help in a moderate space - more on this later. There are a few minor issues still to be dealt with. 1: the patching points on the rear panel aren't great with the preamp out partially bypassing the EQ section and radically changing the sound, 2: the bass control on channel 2 does nothing and the fan is the noisiest thing I've ever come accross in the world of amplification. Despite these minor (and soon to be rectified) issues, this SVT is amongst the lovliest, most musically complimentary amplifiers I've ever plugged into. Does the Ampeg knock my beloved green and black all-valve Trace Elliot V-Types off their much prized-perch as 'best amps ever'? I may have asked this question before.. The whole SVT thing has been a real eye opener for me in the last few years, and, at the time of writing, I'd be hard pressed to choose between them. It's a good job I don't.. 🥰 Whilst the Trace V-Type and the SVT are certainly different machines, It does seem prudent to make some comparisons between the 'Skunk' and the CL that I've owned for a little while, now. As you might expect, I've done the whole 'lets put the same settings on and see how they compare' - rather unsurprisingly, they do sound similar. It should be noted that absolute direct testing wasn't possible owing to the Skunk driving either the PR810 or my SWR Goliath Jr III cabs whilst the CL was plugged into a 410HE and 115E setup. For both rigs, I'm once again employing use of a Jazz, the lovely Yamaha NE-1 EQ unit and Ampeg Opto Comp before the amp. Of course, it should also be noted that the CL is a gain / master setup whereas the vintage amplifier is simply a volume. Any comments I make should be taken strictly as opinion as I've made use of nothing but my eyes and more importantly, my ears to draw the conclusions - as ever YMMV. Enough waffle, how does it sound.. It sounds absolutely killer in nearly every way. It can be fat and warm, it can be bright and edgy, it can be thick and smooth - I can't really see how almost any player couldn't find a useable sound using just channel one. The EQ is similiar to that of the CL but has two less mid positions with only 200Hz, 800Hz and 3kHz being available plus the Ultra Hi and Ultra Lo controls seem to work in a more exaggerated way - the latter having three positions with an addition 'cut' option rather than just in or out. The three-way midrange switching can bring about a high degree of tonal change - of course, assuming there's a degree of cut or boost applied. The whole EQ works in a reasonably linear way although the mid range control, towards the end of it's travel, feels like there's a bit 'more' happening which I'm assuming is some saturation within the tone circuit. The modern SVT exhibits a similar characteristic albeit a little more tame. My personal preference for tone is for fat low mids, attenuated upper mids (no clank, please) and plenty of sparkly 'ping' so using the left position on the mid select switch (200Hz) with a fair amount boost, a slightly cut bass, a slightly cut treble and Ultra Hi switched in, the amp sings. The note definition and delivery are near perfect for me - not too burpy (although it'll do that if needed), just fat and present whilst the top above around 5kHz is transparent but still sounds like it's glued to the lower frequency portion of the tone - something very tricky to define using words. Running the amp only a little louder than bedroom level does nothing but improve this seemingly natural cohesion of the notes and, whilst I don't operate it at stadium rock levels, that small increase does make a difference. I expect that subtle change is possibly a little bit more of that saturation through the various EQ stages although the amp has power for days. As mentioned above, I've done a few shows with it - the SVT being a full fat 300w all valve amp, it's available power and scope for volume certainly aren't something I've found lacking..! Much like it's far newer stable mate, the CL, it could have easily overwhelmed the modest PA and guitar amp setup we use. I can't decide if it's louder than the CL as they've never been through the same speakers but it does feel 'fat' (phat, maybe?) and possibly a little 'fatter' than the more modern example. With a few more hours on it, hopefully I'll be able to say for sure. I also 'jumped' channels in the traditional Marshall / Fender way with the 'bright' input on Ch1 feeding the 'normal' input on Ch2. Being entirely objective, this wasn't at all needed as I ran the level quite low compared to ch1 but it made me feel better as I was using 'all of the pre-amp' despite channel two having less facilities and less character of the first input. Maybe this has added to the fat I feel? Arguably, (and on the forum, it really has been) the numbers mean nothing, at the gigs, the volumes have been at 2.5 and 1 respectively - no master, just input volume controls governing everything. Whilst it's probably fair to observe that a number of my reviews suggest there's something uniquely special about every amplifier - and, I believe there is - in this case, this SVT-HD really does have a bit of magic and mojo about it. Whether that was something baked into the original design of the SVT or something that's come about in it's use as a true piece of rock n roll history or maybe it's simply something I feel and hear as a player, this amplifier has 'it'.. My friend Phil, who has owned and played through everything (including my V6 as it used to be his) with valves inside over the last 30 years and is currently using a Boogie 400+ said it was the best sound he'd ever heard after just two minutes with it. I suspect it's clear if you've managed to read this far, I'm particularly taken with the sound and feel this amplifier. Features.. Being based on an amp with it's roots, in the late 1960's, these vintage models aren't exactly bristling with features but there's more than enough to get by. The useable, active EQ works very well and is reasonably predictable plus patching points (once sorted) offer a degree of useful I/O although there's no modern amenities like an FX loop, balanced outputs or any other bells and whistles such as a tuner out etc.. Two inputs per channel - one is hi-passed and the other is full range. Ch1 - Volume, bass, middle and treble plus a three position ultra low, a three way mid frequency change plus a two position ultra high. Ch2 - Volume, bass and treble supplemented by two position ultra high and ultra low. Preamp out and power amp in patching points. Output impedence select switch. Parallel speaker output jacks. Build and condition.. Despite being made nearly 40 years ago and having led a true rock'n'roll life for at least half of that, the SVT is in reasonably good shape. There's a number of marks on the tough looking tolex plus some surface corrosion is apparent in places but other than the previously mentioned minor faults, it's in good order. The Marshall branded 12AX7 tubes and odd-ball 6C4 in the preamp work well plus the two 12BH7 and big-bottle Sovtek 6550s all seem to have plenty of life left in them, too - there's no lack of go nor are there any or odd noises to mention. On that front, no news is good news. If we were to wind the clock back to 1987 and inspect the amplifer as new or simply pretend it's not had many years of use, it's apparent the build quality is very good. Whilst not boutique in terms of component choice or finish, as per a MESA or even my V4 Mk2, the SVT was assembled with the same quality and care comparable to that of an eighties Marshall. The knobs are a little stiff but not sticky, switches are satisfyingly 'clunky', chassis panels are solid with prints and paint being clean and accurate, all of the hardware including the chunky side handles are up to the job plus the upholstery is finished cleanly. Looking on the inside, I'm surprised that based on the size and density of iron in the transformers that the Ampeg didn't come with a warning about having it's own gravity field - it's unreasonably weighty. Also on the plus side are the size and number of large PSU capacitors both on top and inside the chassis - I feel there's no skimping on parts here. One element I'm less sure of is the cooling fan. It's rear panel mounted to the left of the output valves, is quite large and seems to run very hard causing it to be exceptionally noisy - it roars, however, it's placement hardly seems ideal for optimal airflow through the wooden case. It's entirely possible that I've missed the point in it's design but it almost feels like an after thought.. Having said that, If it's lasted this long, then surely it's doing it's job. So, where from here.. In short, I intend to keep it going and continue to both record and gig with it - afterall, it's what it's built to do. Yes, as mentioned above, there are some small issues but I have little doubt, Kev the repair man can easily remedy these - he's very good indeed. There are a few other things to observe and consider when owning and running such an amplifier. The weight is something that is simply unavoidable - it's exceptionally heavy. The cost of replacement valves is something that never gets cheaper with time and with so many of them, a full change will be mighty expensive plus the 6C4 is out of production. Tweaking and correct setting of bias and balance adjustments will require a scope, a dummy load and a meter - almost certainly a job for a proper tech. Whether reliability will become a problem in the future is yet to be seen - so far, it's given no cause for concern but I'm aware that given it's age, problems might well present themselves at any time. Despite all of these, the amplifier is an absolute gem and I feel the sound alone makes all the potentially negative aspects absolutely 100% worth while. I have recently sold my superb Trace Elliot 122H on to a new and loving home via this fantastic community. It's performance was truly excellent but for it's size and weight, there's little difference between moving that or the SVT and a 2x10. For the future, I've bought an inexpensive, used Ashdown 2x10 + HF cab that I will re-driver (possibly with Ashdown drivers or Celestion Pulse - I'm in cahoots with Phil Starr currently) to be a four-ohm enclosure which will give me a compact, single cab solution to go with the heavy Ampeg. The added bonus being I can also use the CL, the V4 or the V6 with it, too. If you're looking for an amplifier that does the 'SVT' thing, then this will do exactly that but by the same token, if you're looking for something that does something a little left or right of centre, then this may also fit the bill. Maybe you're in a shop and there happens to be an old HD sat there, give it a whirl and see how you feel about it but be warned, you might well take it home. As ever, in the crazy, opinionated and often less than objective world of instrument and amplification, one size never fits all but as long term Trace Elliot user, the 'Skunk' certainly floats my boat.. 🥰

The V4 had a little hiccup a few months back with a horrible cracking through the speakers, lightning inside one of the EHX KT88s and ultimately a fried fuse. The EHX are still currently untested but being safe rather than sorry, I replaced the fuse and installed some old SED 6550C that I'd acquired - these thankfully brought it back to life. They've been fine but I wanted something a bit newer and special for the big Trace so having done a bit of research, I came across these 'Linlai' branded '88s. Initially, I thought they were re-branded premium Shuguang but seemingly, I was wrong and it's a new factory set up by former emplyees of both Shuguang and Psvane specialising in big hifi tubes such as 845 and 811 plus smaller 6SN/L7 and ECC83/2/1 types.. With only about 45 mins on them so far, it's nowhere near enough time to evaluate them but initial impressions are very good. They look fantastic, biased up and remained stable after about 25 mins plus I noticed an exceptionally low noise floor - the V4 isn't noisy anyways but it was near silent with these. We'll see how they go - I got the best part of ten years out of the EHX (and there's a chance they're still ok) which is longer than I've had out of any other set that have ever been in there. Whether these will match the Russian built valves is yet to be seen but having paid £150 including delivery, the V4 feels great and I'm a happy camper.. 🥰

Many thanks to Wayne for a great transaction. My old Trace Elliot 122H has gone to a loving home in the North East. Have confidence and faith in this guy - he's 100%.

There's the Ampeg book, too although it covers all models up until about twenty years back. It's little out of date now but is still an easy and interesting read. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ampeg-Story-Behind-Gregg-Hopkins/dp/0793579511 Thanks, I'm reasonably confident we'll put something together as the fella that owns it is a good mate. 😎 For the record, it's number 191 / 500.

In a change from my usual love for 'all things green and black', I've been using this lovely old thing of late. It's an '87 Skunkworks SVT-HD which I don't yet own it but there's a deal in progress. It's got bags of power plus it's amongst the most 'musical' of things I've ever plugged into, and yes, it's totally worth the weight..

Making use of Mark's Wing at St Joes although thankfully the college now has it's own Wing and two SD16 stage boxes. There's almost as many photos of M32 consoles as there are 02Rs on this thread. 🥰 This particular example has been my trusty steed at Bloodstock Festival for the last 5 years, now - still reliable, still up to the job and still great to mix on. Yes, they're showing their age a little, now but I'm more than happy to mix with them. It's looking likely that a different company will be providing the audio on both Sophie and my stage so next year so A&H and Yamaha are a possibility. Thankfully the new company have retained the staff so we've all kept our places for next year - it's just different gear, seemingly. The mighty Midas HD96 pictured here at the 2025 Notting Hill Carnival. This was one of two examples at the Hornimans Garden site - I used both but not at the same time. The above pic was my mix / recording console used for the 'Panorama' Steel Bands night whilst the other was somewhat under-utilized as FOH console. They're an intuitive machine taking the best of the Wing and the best of the Pro series into one console - I'm more than happy to have one of these.. ❤️ Various stages and consoles pictured throughout the UK on the recent TOH 45th anniversary tour. Allen & Heath and Digico have been common place on this run with a single Soundcraft VI and a solitary Pro2 - not a single Yamaha in sight! 😬

Thanks for the replies so far, folks.. 👍

Very recently, I picked up an exceptionally cheap Ashdown 2x10 cab. It works perfectly and sounds really very nice but I want to use it with all my amps so it needs to be 4 ohms not eight. The V4 will operate happily at eight but the Ampegs, Beavis and the V6 need two or four.. I've looked at various drivers and a while back, remember modelling some Celestion Pulse (not the XL) in the very similarly sized Trace Elliot 2x10 cab with seemingly favourable results. Frustratingly, my Eminence cab modelling software doesn't like this computer. The cab itself is just over 100 litres and tuned to around 50Hz. Tonally, I'm after non-rising-rate mids so a smooth, flat-ish response and the Celestions seem to fit the bill quite well. Has anyone done similar or used different drivers and found great results?

I think my 400SMX sounds better than my 300SMX - only by a hair but there's something about it that just 'breathes' in a slightly more natural way.. Hope you get to the bottom of what it is - very cool. 👍

Looks like it could be a MK1 GP11 although I'm not so sure the case is original.. With the first couple of generations of Trace Elliot gear, I believe all woodwork was painted black before the change to the grey 'pimple' type that lasted until the mid / late '90s ie, the early SM and SMX ranges.. Hope you have fun with it..

You've all seen it before but I thought it looked particularly good with a bit of light on and the Fender / Ampeg back drop..