JapanAxe

Are you perchance bionic in all your limbs? And do you have a titanium alloy spine?

I have had a hankering for yer actual Ampeg for some while, so having recently parted company with my TC Classic, I was pleased when an SVT 3 Pro came up for sale on BC at a very reasonable price. (Yes I know the 'real deal' is an all-valve job but they weigh a ton and they're too wide to sit on top of my cabs without looking a bit ridiculous.) Anyway, said head turned up on Wednesday so I have had a couple of little goes with it. Btw none of the following should be taken as criticism of the BCer who sold the head to me - it was used, the price was right, and (as with used cars) you do expect to spend a few bob on tweakage to get a used amp how you like it. The seller had wisely suggested checking that the valves were still correctly seated after shipping, so before powering up I unscrewed the top and tested each valve in turn on my Orange Valve Tester(TM) (which has probably paid for itself already). The valves are a mix of Fender/Sovtek, GT/Sovtek, and EH - three 12AX7 in the preamp, and a 12AX7 and 12AU7 to drive the power MOSFETs. The tester failed a couple, apparently because of the mismatch between the two triodes. This is not necessarily a problem, but having studied the schematic, the 12AU7 seems to work like a phase splitter, so that one needs to be well balanced. I also noticed that the toroidal transformer is slightly loose, so I need to locate a suitable box spanner to tighten this down. I connected the amp to my BF Midget to check out the sound. the fan is a little noisy so I may look to replace it. I reckon the bearings have become worn over time. At gig levels you wouldn't notice it at all, but I wouldn't want it to fail in use! Considering that the bass and treble controls are passive, they have a good range and are smoothly graduated. I am likely to use the 5-way mid frequency switch in position 1 (220Hz) or 2 (450Hz), to control the low mids. I had thought I wouldn't be bothering with the graphic EQ, but it is very musical-sounding. I dialled in a gentle low-mids hump, and really liked the effect on my sound, plus the extra volume available. Neither the Bright nor Hi switches are of much interest to me, but I was pleasantly surprised by the effect of the Lo switch (which scoops the mids and slightly raises the bass) as it gives you a different voice to play with. I didn't hear much difference from the Tube Gain knob until I connected the head to my full speaker setup (Compact plus Midget) and wound the wick up. This control actually adjusts the plate voltage in the last valve stages, so it goes from compressed/distorted at 0 to full headroom at 10. At gigging levels you can create the impression of a valve amp at full tilt without actually running the amp at full power. As many have remarked, you do have to turn this amp up to get the most out of it. (Okay you may get the same volume from another head with the master at 4, but by 5 you may have hit the buffers.) There seems to be an element of overdriven sound that won't go away, regardless of gain structure. If it was a MOSFET bias problem I would expect to hear it as the note faded away, but I don't, so my money is on one of the valves, most likely the 12AU7 with mismatched triodes. I am confident I can track it down by monitoring the signal at different points in the chain, so no biggie there. I have some 12AX7s in my spares box but I'm going to have to order another 12AU7. All part of the fun, and once again, no reflection on the BC seller. I am currently chilling at my sister-in-law's, but I will post some pics once I am home, and report on my findings at a later date.

Mr Axe junior is about to start gigging in a blues trio in Madrid, and he needs a powerful rig that is portable enough to lug around on the Metro along with his Hohner Jack and a few cables. His budget was €500, which I thought was unrealistic until I came across a deal on Anderton's website - Ashdown MiBass 2.0 combo for £379! It is rated at 400W RMS into 4 ohm and weighs only 15kg. Having moved on from an ABM rig about 18 months ago, and read mixed comments on the original MiBass, I was a bit dubious, but while he was over in the UK we took a trip down there to try one out. Well I was pretty impressed. I took my G&L 5-er for reference, and I had no problem in getting the sort of sound I favour. The amp has a lot of mid-range 'push', but you can turn up the bass EQ without suddenly running out of headroom, and there is plenty of top end available too. It's very hard to assess the volume of an amp in a small room (Anderton's bass basement) but I could still hear it upstairs with the door shut! I came to the conclusion that you would hear this over a drummer provided he wasn't going bananas. It is a 1x10 after all (with a concentric HF cone), but it I reckon it will be fine for smaller bars, and will be DI'd in larger ones. For comparison we also tried - MiBass 2.0 head with 1x12 cab - slightly bigger sound, but the cab on its own is heavier and bulkier than the combo; TC BG250 2x8 combo - even more portable than the Ashdown, but far less volume available; and Markbass Little Mark 1x15 combo (can't remember full details) - would have gone for this except that it is a large and unwieldy cube that you wouldn't want to be dragging on and off the tube! Mr Axe junior booked the amp (well packed in its original carton) as hold luggage on his return flight, which worked out much cheaper than shipping it separately. The first proof of the pudding will be band rehearsal next Friday. I'll keep y'all posted.

Plenty in the Yamaha stable that meets these criteria.

[quote name='lemmywinks' timestamp='1397898915' post='2428302'] Do CTS pots sound any better than decent generic ones that aren't oversized and have standard size shafts? [/quote] No but ime they will last a lot longer. Also the taper on some cheap pots is unsatisfactory.

Congrats Rob, if it's both a looker and a player then you can't go wrong. I hope to see it (and you) at this year's SE Bass Bash!

[quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1397840826' post='2427889'] I have no desire to play music with anybody who thinks that The Velvet Underground were some kind of high- watermark in popular music or that Nick Cave is a singer. [/quote]

[quote name='moonbass' timestamp='1397838446' post='2427853'] I'd say they're just two very different beasts. Both do valve tones, but with completely different vibes. I personally found the MarkBass TTE 500 much closer to an Ampeg tone than the Streamliner. The Ampeg has got pretty comprehensive tone shaping, so for money has greater variability. I find the Streamliner always sounds like a Streamliner. [/quote] I can certainly confirm that the SVT 3 Pro has greater tone-shaping capabilities than the Streamliner. If you like the SL's core tone (which I do), then that is not a problem. It's too early for me to comment further on the 3 Pro in this thread, but generally I found the downside to lots of tone controls is 'option anxiety' - which control do I need to twiddle!?

[quote name='Jonesy64' timestamp='1397824324' post='2427704'] Can a Streamliner do the Ampeg tone? [/quote] I'm more interested to find out whether an Ampeg can do the Streamliner tone!

What a thoroughly ridiculous situation!

I've just (2 days ago) got a used SVT 3 Pro to use with a BF Compact or Compact/Midget setup. I will record my thoughts elsewhere, but my top advice would be to [b]buy used[/b]. A new one (far East manufactured) will cost you about £1,000, whereas used they go for £350-£450 here and on eBay, and many of those available are USA-made (fwiw). Yes you need to turn the master up high to get the full beans, but you can add more volume by using the graphic's volume control. One issue to be aware of is that the bias of the output transistors can drift, resulting in loss of power and/or crossover distortion. Setting the bias requires a tech with the right gear - if you just get in there and twiddle the trimpot you can fry all 8 MOSFETS in seconds. Ampeg have fitted a cheapo trimpot, so you may want to budget for getting a multi-turn trim fitted. There are a couple of threads on TalkBass about this - just put the following into Google: [b]site:talkbass.com svt 3 pro bias[/b] Having studied the schematics of both the SVT 3 Pro and the Streamliner 900 (which I also own), the overall concept of the preamp is very similar: 1st valve - buffer stage 2nd valve - passive treble/bass 3rd valve - active mids with selectable centre frequency I suggest you also look into the Genz Benz Streamliners. Although they lack the extra tone-shaping gizmos of the Ampeg pre, they are currently excellent value if there are any left (600 @ £399, 900 @ £499), light, loud, and compact.

Sean bought a micro head from me. A quick and painless deal. Absolutely no complaints from me! Graeme

Bought an amp head form Martin, who was up-front about a minor issue with it. Martin kept in touch throughout the transaction. The amp arrived very well packaged and in good working order. Thanks Martin! Graeme

Welcome to the '73 P club!

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1397503620' post='2424625'] Coupled with the fact that bass guitar strings appear to have a lot more inertia when it comes to making them vibrate using magnetic fields. [/quote] Yep, loads more metal to get wobbling!

[quote name='Jack' timestamp='1397502332' post='2424593'] Is that what they're worth these days? I have a natural with an uprated preamp that I was thinking of moving on to a more loving home, but if they're only worth £180 or so I may keep it! [/quote] Sold my natural (with J-type pickups) for £150 to my son. He is just about to start gigging it around Madrid in a blues trio! It's a very comfy bass to play. I sometimes wonder what the HB model would sound like.