Ampeg SVT-IV Pro

I purchased this amp in 01 after the namm convention. I got a smoking deal on it. I love the felxability and power it gives me. I use just about every feature it has on it and with the right modes you can get a great sound out of it!

The sound on this is awsome, if you know what you're doing. The tone is so warm and deep. I get total bottom end and excellent tone. I have an Ibanez 5 string, played out of an 810 cab. I always get a fat bottom end and bitchen tone end!!! For those of you who dont know how to use it......read a book!!!

I have my 4 pro head in a 4 space Grundorff case. The reliabilty is excellent. Its never let me down. Works every time. These things were built for the road! Ive given this thing hell. I used to have an SWR that had great tone, but kept breaking down on me, even while in the case.

I havent had any problems with my 4 pro head in the 2 years ive had it. So i have no need for customer support! Iv called about some footswitch settings and cab. control to make sure it dont blow out the cabs but all in all, i didnt have any problems with the support. They are stright to the point when you call!

Ive had a fair share of amps and nothing comes close to an SVT-4PRO. As for the price, its worth the money that I paid for it, but the sale price and list price is way too much!!!

I bought my SVT IV Pro new in October of '03, it is VERY versatile, variable midrange pre-sets, ultra low boost, ultra high boost and a bright switch backed by a 9 bang graphic EQ give me all of the tonal control I would ever need for pretty much any style of music. You can go to Ampegs website for all the little details, but trust me, if you want it, it is there.

I am currently using a couple of Spector basses, a NS4 and a Rex Brown (not the Rex 2000), both of these basses sound unbelievably smooth and punchy, a Senneheiser digital 1000 wireless, two Ampeg PR410HLF cabinets and hookin' it all up with Monster Cable. And of course the SVT4Pro. I play in a mostly (some orig.) cover band covering bands like Nickel Back, Creed, Puddle of Mud, 3 Doors Down, Staind, shit like that, playing mostly in drop-D tuning and I play LOUD. My master volume is set at max and my gain is usually at the 11-12 o'clock position with the EQ level at about 65% and the amp remains clean and NEVER gets hot (kept in a Anvil 6 space shock rack) and I still have head room. I keep the low boost on at all times for that big bottom end. I have been playing Mesa Boogie for years and just recently got rid of my Powerhouse 1516 & Powerhouse 1000 and MPulse 600 (lack of balls and power) and went with all Ampeg. I have read all of the reviews on this head and can't believe some people aren't getting enough power for stage volume (especially the jazz player; not knockin' ya' man, just can't see it), maybe the problem isn't the head but the gear (cabinets, basses, wireless systems, type of cables ect.) these guys are using, you need to have a cabinet(s) that will handle this massive power easily to eliminate the distortion (as a side note, if you have an ACTIVE bass the -15db cut is a must to use to avoid distortion, you have to cut that input level down to get high gains). My cabinets are rated at 1200 watts each and I push 'em as hard as I want and don't need to run through the PA for medium sized venues (run through slightly just to even out tone, 90% is stage volume) the 1600 watts is all you could ever need! And as far as I am concerned, and as we all know this is only one persons opinion, anything more is just over kill.

O.K., the down side (and there always is), in two months time I went through two of these heads. On each one one of the two power amps had gone out on me. I took it back to Guitar Center where it was orig. purchased and they gave me a new one each time, no questions asked. I HIGHLY recommend that you shop (or purchase) from someone that has a 30 day no question refund policy like Guitar Center just in case. Ampeg does have a 5 year warranty, but if the store you got it at won't give you a loaner you are probably screwed for a few weeks. I have had no problems with the last head I got, it has worked flawlessly every weekend. But then again, for $1300 I never shoud have had a problem to begin with.

As I mentioned earlier I had a couple blow on me. After I took the second one back, the Guitar Center manager (in Indianapolis, In.) Called the Ampeg rep. on a Sunday and asked him if he could talk to me about the problem (assuming I was dicking something up). Well, the rep. was shopping near by and came in, with his three kids in tow to talk to me. How cool is that. The company is eager to help in any way that they can to rectify any problems. He stayed for over an hour on his day off with his kids with him, working with the store manager to work things out for me. A great credit to AMPEG and GUITAR CENTER!!

All in all, the Ampeg SVT4PRO head has been awesome, I have never had a problem with the Ampeg cabinets. The perfect balance of tone and power. I just think someone in quality control needs to lay off the two hour lunch breaks!

What I thought I was getting was the Cadillac of Bass amps when, in fact, it was the Ford Vega of amps.

Very noisy when trying to use a wireless system. Although music store sold me a wireless system, they later told me that they don't recommend using a wireless, because the amp is just too powerful. I have been a professional bassist for 25 years. I thought I had heard everything. The fan is noisy and still have to use an extra fan to keep the thing cool.

Channel A would fizzle out after about 20 minutes of playing. A giant pain in the butt, but hey, it was only $1,100.00.

They have the best warrenty in the business, but you have to verbally beat the hell out of them to convince the store to give you your money back. Expect a good screwing without the perverbial kiss. I am so glad that I got out from under this stink beetle.

Ampeg has really gone downhill over the years. If by Pro they mean "Perpetually Repairable Object" then I guess that's an accurate statement. Pure unreliable peice of crap. Would make a great anchor.
Don't waste your hard earned money.

I purchased it new in April 2003. It has plenty of power with 1600 watts into 4 ohms. It has a worthless built-in compressor, so I use a dbx 160A compressor rackmount with it instead. The limiter doesn't seem to be doing a good job, because it farts and pops everytime I push it too hard (I play very loud -- gain set to 1:00 and master at 3:00). You need to purchase patch cables in order to use the bi-amp feature which is sort of annoying. They should have had an internal wiring configuration that enables bi-amping like the GK 800RB does. I don't use the bi-amp feature anyway. The eq is nice for tone shaping and boosting your sound. I avoid using the tone buttons (ultra high, ultra low, and bright) because they are too extreme and take away from the natural tones of my basses. I have the treble set at 2:00, mid at 10:00, and bass at 3:00. It seems to be the best settings for me.

I play mostly modern and hard rock, and I play MusicMan, Warwick, and Fender basses. I have two Ampeg SVT 8x10 classic cabs, which I love. The sound of the amp is loud, but the tone is not too impressive. I sounds very flat and hollow. I think if it wasn't for my 8x10 cabs, it would sound like total crap. It lacks the warmth and clarity of tube heads. It sounds a lot like the SWR heads, which I don't really care for (very "metallic" sounding). The best sounding head I've ever played through is Mesa Boogie 400+ (which I regretfully sold to get the SVT IV Pro). I got a louder, cleaner tone from the 400+ than I get with the SVT IV Pro. I like to play very loud, and I seem to get lost in the mix when I play with my guitarist and drummer. I have to boost the treble to hear myself, which ruins the warmer, fuller tone I'm am trying to get.

No problems in the reliability department. I play very loud, and the amp takes the beating. I never gets too hot either. I switched to solid state because I prefer the reliability of solid state over tube heads.

I've called before about purchasing accessories. They were very helpful.

I decent amp, but not worth what I paid for it. If it were lost or stolen, I'd probably look into alternate heads. It great for power, but not for tone. I may look into a pre-amp (like the Sansamp RBI), bypass Ampeg's preamp, and use only the power section of this amp instead.

1600 Watts of power (according to Ampeg), graphic EQ, effects loop, tuner mute switch, Tube pre-amp, 2 mosfet power amps, Capable of running mono, stereo, bi-amped or bridged.

I ran this through an SVT810E. I play Fender, Warwick and Musicman basses. This amp sounds like shit with all of them. If you are looking for that vintage SVT sound, this amp is not for you. It also seems to be very under powered. I tried another 4Pro and had the same problem. I then compared it side by side with an SVT Classic 300 watt all tube head. The classic had much better tone was louder. I traded the 4Pro for the classic head and love it.

Didn't have it long enough to comment.

I contacted customer support about the apparent lack of balls with this head. They were helpful and answered all my questions.

I would not recommend this head to anyone. I love Ampeg and have always used them but this head is a piece of shit. I play in a 4 piece blues band (guitar,bass, keys, drums) I set the gain so the clip light comes on only at the strongest signals as recommended by Ampeg and I still had to turn the master up to 3/4 in order to hear myself. By comparison I tried my buddies Gallien Krueger 800RB and only had to turn that up about 1/3 to 1/2 of the volume. With my SVT Classic I run at about 1/4 to 1/2 volume depending on the room. I also play large outdoor venues around the country and the SVT Classic sound awesome and has more than enough power.

Tube pre amp with mosfet power amps. This head has 2 seperate power amps which allows you to run mono,stereo or biamped. You can also bridge the power amps to get 1600 watts of power. Effects loop, tuner in with mute switch, direct out, 9 band graphic equalizer.

Sound was O.K. Didn't seem to have the power I expected from 1600 watts. I ran it bridged through Ampeg SVT 810E cabinets and was disappointed with the tone and volume. I play in a blues band and I had the gain set to just before the clip light came on (as directed in the owner's manual) and had the master up to 3/4 and still had trouble hearing myself. We are not a very loud band. My Gallien Krueger 800RB was much louder and clearer than this head.

I didn't keep it long so I can't comment on the reliabilty.

I contacted customer support and they were very helpful. They suggested that the head might be defective and that I should return it and exchange it.

I didn't like this head at all. I took it back thinking that maybe it was defective but had the same trouble. I ended up trading for an SVT Classic all tube head which I love. For comparison, I took the SVT4Pro and the SVT Classic side by side. I set the tone controls flat on both and set the gains and masters the same. The all tube SVT Classic had much better tone and was at least 1/3 louder. I gradually increased the master volume on each head and found the SVT Classic to be louder and clearer throughout the range of the master.

I bought this amp 5 years ago. I believe it was about 3 years old when I got it off a internet auction. It has all you could ask for in the feature department. Like so many amps these days it's almost too much. I play alternative / metal and tone wise it worked out (at low volume) but volume was another story. The louder you try to go the worse this thing sounds.

Now to the volume issue. This thing is so under powered. I'm using a Rick bass (non active) with a old ampeg 4x12 (8 ohms) and a Sunn 2x15 (8 ohms). I got this thing so cheap I couldn't say no to it but it never did get used in a live situation. In fact, I couldn't use it for anything othe rthan a practice amp. I couldn't get over the drums. To be completely honest I hated this amp. I mean Ampeg really gave people the shaft on this particular model. Over priced and under powered. As you crank the volume up you would start to get alot of noise and loose your tone.

Oh yes there is more bad news about this amp. It gets hot and it shuts down. Luckily I sell electronics and one of my customers is the authorised Ampeg repair station. I turned it over to him. They went through that thing frontwards, backwards and sideways and found it to be perfect. The man told me my best option was to sell it to someone I didn't know. How comforting...

Ampeg is the big name in bass equipment and they will handle any problems or questions you have about their products. Have to give em credit in this department.

I have been playing 14 years. I currently use a Sunn 300t stack. For smaller venues i use a Carvin r600 solid state. I wouldn't recomend the Ampeg SVT Pro-4 solid state to anyone. i just couldnt use it for anything more than jamming at home alone or playing to a record. It's live aplication just never happened. if you are looking for power look somewhere else. I sold the thing for basically what i had in it($400.00). The guy who uses it now had the same problems so he bought a 1000 watt power amp to push his 8X10 Ampeg. He doesn't have any complaints once he did that. But at what this head would normally cost. It's just not worth it.

This a message to the last entry - Acme's only come in 4 or 8 ohm impedances.

What this means is that if you are currently running an 8 ohm cab, adding an 8 ohm cab in parallel (unless you are re-wiring, thats what you are doing) makes the amp see a 4 Ohm load.

If you are adding a 4 ohm cab in parallel, the amp sees a 2.667 Ohm load. Well below recommended rating, thus causing the thermal shutdown and damaging your amp.

I purchased this amp new about 4 plus years ago. I have played in at least one but useually two busy cover bands playing Beatles to Godsmack and just about every style in between. This amp has just about all the features you'd ever want. Built in compression is nice (and rare) but I would like a bit more control as there's just one knob. The effect of the compressor is VERY subtle.

The only other feature I would LOVE is if they built in a tuner on the face of the amp. But it seams no manufacturer ever gets it completely right.

I have been powering a very inificient but incredible sounding 8 ohm Acme B-4. Recently I added an Acme Low B-2 which has dropped the impedence to 5.6 ohms. I'll address this issue in the reliabilty section.

I mainly play two Dingwall 5-strings as well as a G&L L2000 4-string and a Charvel neckthrough 4-string for slap. The Ampeg has the most robust tone of any amp I've used and has that coveted "Ampeg" sound. It has a very round and warm bottom end and the mid's are voiced just right. Tons of flexibilty on the controls, plus three tubes in the input section will get you any sound you desire.

I play the amp pretty loud. The input gain is set to 12 o'clock and the master volume is about 3 o'clock. No real heavy boosting or cutting in the eq or tone controls.

Here's where the problem lies. It has worked well for 4 years but I have always been suspect of it because it has always run VERY HOT. This has been powering an 8 ohm cabinet until about 2 months ago when the impedence the amp saw dropped to 5.6 ohms when I added more speakers.

After using the new speaker set up for about two months, the amp fried during the first set of a gig. Luckily the preamp out still worked and I had a spare amp in our slave rack and was able to get through the night.

I keep the amp racked in an SKB 4 space case along with a Furman power conditioner with built in tuner.

Upon opening the amp to have a look at the fry job I did, I noticed what I believe to be an absolutey horrible design. The air vents are located on the left and right sides of the amp case so once it's racked there is practically no air flow acrross the power transistors or the power transformer. Plus, the fan is located in between these two heat makers. To me this is down right stupid. Suck it in the front and exhaust it out the back.

Another idiotic design which I see many manufactures employing is a thermal switch on the cooling fan. One more thing to fail. Now your high priced amp is depening on an 89 cent part to stay alive. You can't make power transistors too cold, so just wire the fan to the power switch so it's on all the time. Is that so hard to figure out?

Ampeg's literature says it can drive a 4 ohm load but I'm here to tell you there is no way unless it's for a very short while and not turned up very loud.

I believe the amp may work well if the air flow is modified but that's not something I'm going to tackle. Once it's fixed, it's going on e-bay.

Luckily the amp was still within it's 5 year warranty and is being fixed locally for free. Since I couldn't find the receipt from 4 plus years ago I called Ampeg who looked up the serial number and said "abslutley it's under warranty and if your shop has any problem with that you have them call me direct!" I thought that was nice.

I have been playing bass for 27 years. I have a GK 800RB I use as a backup amp and two Euphonic Audio single 10 cabs. The Ampeg sounds sweet through the EA's as well.

After the "fry" incident and discovering Ampeg's poor cooling design I would not buy another one. A killer preamp (TBD) and a very lightweight QSC PLX 1602 will make up my next rig.

With active EQ and the extra punch selections, this amp is un-touchable. I love the input/output ports and tone selections. To me this is the only amp on the market to buy.

I use two ampeg 4x10 cabnets with an Ibanez Ergodine 4 and 5 string. I can get any sound i desire with this setup. The amp is powerfull. useing both channels and speakon cables you can't stop this beast. My shit says BOOOOOM.

I bought this head two years ago. The first head i took back to the seller do to a popping after the tubes warmed up. The new head I have had no trouble with. I play 4 days a week and I am extremely hard on my gear and I have no complaint about this gear.

The first head I returned do to a pop. I had no problems with this task. Ampeg is the shit. If you are dis satisfied with the gear get off your ass, stop crying and use the warrenty. Duhh

I have been playing for over 20 years. I have owned all types of gear. I am so happy I have my SVT-4. If you are looking for clean solid power this head is the one. I suggest no other...