Ampeg SVT 150H Head

I bought this head second hand mid 2005. I have no idea in which year it was made but mine came in an absolute mint condition.

It's a 150 watt @ 4 ohm, solid state, head with all the controls you need. Nothing flashy but not too sober either. It has a single input with a "pad" button (-15Db) for active/high output pickups, a gain control, three-band parametric EQ (bass/ultra-mid/treble), a nine band graphic EQ, a master control and drive control. The master control is mounted on a push/pull pot with which you can turn the graphic EQ on and off. On the rear panel it has a 1/4" jack speaker output, a speakon output, an effects loop, an XLR balanced output and a footswitch input. The footswitch also serves as a way to turn the EQ on or off.

This amp has all the features I'd like to see on an amp. Especially the drive control is one the reasons I love this amp. It can sound super clean if you want it too but you can also have that SVT roar or beyond that. Only lacking feature... it's a solid :( so it gets a 9

I play it with a Fender Aerodyne and with an Ibanez TR Expressionist 500. The styles I play vary from L.A. hardrock, to alternative rock and some punk and grunge stuff when I feel like it. I think it goes without saying that this amp is perfectly suited for those styles. Even though it's a solid state head the sound is nice and warm, not at all harsh. Quite amazingly it keeps it's pants on when played at it's loudest, which is enough to my liking. Basically the cab only functions as a monitor to me, when gigging I plug it straight into the board.

Smart people never gig without a backup. I would when absolutely neccesary, this amp has my total confidence... but still I make sure I always have a backup :P Since it doesn't have any tubes the only servicing it really needs is dusting from time to time. It has never broken down on me and I'm not expecting it to do so either because, call me stupid, it's an Ampeg.

Overall I'd say that the Ampeg customer and tech support is excellent. They've always answered my questions within 48 hours, they're easy to find and always cheerful... Ok, maybe not cheerful but atleast friendly and helpful.

I've been playing for about five years now and since I've started I've basically had gear come and go every couple of months because nothing really satisfied me but this amp is here to stay. Atleast until I can afford that SVT-CL. I play a Fender Aerodyne (Japanese domestic model) and an Ibanez TR 500 which is basically a Precision with two soapbar pickups with exposed pole-pieces, kinda like P-90's.
In the effects loop I have a Boss ODB-3 for the slightly heavier OD and a modded Ibanez TS7 to add a little crunch to the tone. Duff McKagen does the same by adding a Marshall guitar head to his rig but unfortunatly I'm not that wealthy.
If it were stolen or lost I'd replace it with the same amp if possible but I can imagine myself going for the CL model.
Besides the sound I absolutely love the drive control and the way this amp looks. It's all SVT... but without valves.
Other amps that I've considered are the GK 800RB, GK MB150E-III and the Ampeg 350H. The main reason why I chose this head was the way you can control the drive of the amp and because it was the best bang for your (well mine actually) buck. If this was amp had valves I would have given it a 10.