Ampeg SVT-IV Pro

I think Ampeg has went downhill as of late. I've owned an Ampeg PR810H Pro series cabinet and two PR410H Pro cabinets and I've blown speakers in all of them. The warranty helps but it is very annoying to have to be replacing speakers. The Ampeg SVT 4 Pro has great tone and is very powerful.My problem with this amp is that I purchased the amp "NEW" in January and after having the amp for only 2 months the amp developed a loud, annoying, clicking sound that you could hear when you'd stop playing. To tell you the truth, I never even sent it in for warranty work. I sold the head and got out from under it. I've owned Trace Elliot, GK, SWR and Eden heads and never had one problem out of any of them. It really aggrivated me that after having the amp for only 2 months it had a problem.
My advise is if you like the sound of Ampeg gear and have to have it, buy it knowing that there is a good chance that your going to have to have it serviced within a year. This has been the case with all of the ampeg gear that I have bought, speaker cabs included and I baby my equipment. I can see any company having a problem every now and then but not with every piece of equipment that you buy.

Features already mentioned below.

Veriety of Basses from Gibson 4 Artist to custom 10 string Accacia. This amp allows the character of the instrument to come through with a openess of rich highs and thunderous lows. I amazed at how clear and articulate the tones are with each setting.

This is my first Ampeg piece of equipment, but they have been around since I heard the SVT's back in the late 70's so that should give a little hint.

Excellent warrenty 5 Years and Customer Support seems to be pretty good. I called three times just for general information and someone got back to me fairly quickly eiather by calling or e-mail.

I've been playing for 30 something years and have played on everything from SWR, Fender, Eden, Hartcke, GK, Peavey,..etc and this buy far is the best for my purposes. Note: Everyone has different ears, but the tones and power that this amp generates is truly an experience you have to hear and feel. I know if I had to do this all over again no question... I would purchase!

Can't get it to work....I think I got a bum deal...

I can't get it to sound good at all.. I am running into one SWR 4x10.
Honestly my old Peave 4x10 cab with the 400w Yourkville had more balls.

I get a strange cackle for the first 20 min everytime....someone help me

Haven't even tried yet

Not impressed. Like I said earlier I think I got a bum deal. I know other bassists who use it and love it. Just after I bought it I found out it was just returned from another unhappy user. Maybe there is something wrong with it and I am stuck. I brought it back to the dealer and he can send it away .... well we all know what thats like, maybe in a month or so I'll get it back...what am I supposed to use in the meantime.... I am going to try my luck with Ampeg direct. If anyone can help please do so.

its got it all!! all you need is an effects board .

this is the coolest amp iv'e ever bought . it has a wide variey of ounds. can keep you very busy .

i have owned this amp for only 4 months but , know peope that aplause ampeg fo reliability . THE " TOYOTA'S" of amps. a fie year warranty is a good sign.

ive never dealt with them . have a feeling i wont need to either .

overall i give this amp a 9 . if i have problems i will cahnage it. the best thing ive ever bought.i use a 4 - 10 classic ampeg cab. souds amazing. cant wait to get 2 - 15's and 2 - 12's !!!!

This beast is packed with professionally features. It won't be necessary for me to get into detail, the reviewer belowed just about covered it. This animal has more power than I can ever handle..1600 watts whew!! but i run it to an ampeg hlf cab that handles 500watts at 4 ohms and from the specs it puts out 490 RMS at 4 ohms..so that's how much i'm using, which is plenty . I know I won't have any more problems geting lost in the mix going up against those damns Marshalls now....bring it on!

I use 2 Ibanez SR400 with EMGs...boy can they punch through anything! I also have a fender jazz with EMGs and a Stuart Spector Czech. All my basses sounded great through this amp! It does have a bit of hiss with the treble boosted, but all ampegs are like that as well as most if not all bass amps that has their treble at higher settings, other than that it's just wonderful. This amp is extremely flexible, it definitely retains the traditional ampeg flavor of the past with it's all tube preamp , but also giving you todays cutting edge sounds with excellent flexiblity with it's mosfet power section. You can get just about any sound imagine, from slap and pop to finger style to picking.. all it takes is some tweaking and you've got tone for days. One thing I have to mention is that it does have some noise coming from the fan.

I have great confidence that this baby will last me for many years to come! I still have my svt III since 91 and it's never let me down...not once! Gigs, rehearsals... it's always been there when i needed it. It's a workhorse and i have no doubt this will be also. I heard many people saying how reliable their ampegs are... and i will say the same thing...no question about it.

never had to deal with them. The 5 year warranty is great! 2 thumbs up for backing their products up!

I've been playing for 12 years. I've tried out many bass amps and their are alot of good ones out there! Eden, GK, SWR, Ashdown, Trace Elliot and many others. You really couldn't go wrong with any of them, you just have to pick out the one that suits your taste. The only one that has relability issues is GK...unfortunately it's true, but they do provide great customer service. Ampeg has been known for it's reputation for quality, reliablity, and most importantly TONE! This is definitely a winner!

It has so many features i dont even know em all yet! its got all the tone shaping tools i would ever need...9 band e.q plus another three band e.q. witha mid selector...compresor/limiter,gain controls to get that growl..mute and -15db switches...speakon connectors..its got all kinds of plug ins on the back for other inputs..other amps and mics...features 1600 watts mono-bridged..kinda useless unless you have an ampeg 8x10...which i do...those two together sounds so awesome and to top it of i have a spector ns5crfm...this rig sounds great...i wish it had more gain...so i could get some distortion..but its all good...i probably rather use a pedal..like a big muff...it features three tubes for the pre and a solid state mosfet power section...this amps got everything!

This and my spector go hand in hand..this amp really makes some great noise...cause it makes all the noises you would want..i can get basically any tone i want from this amp and it has an awesome grwol and bite to it...ive never played on a better amp..and thats the truth...ive played on alot of differnt ones at stores like swr...hartke etc. etc...and even other ampegs, but none of them sound as good as the svt4-pro..its the best in my opinion

It seems pretty durable but i still need to buy a rack for it...its seems somewhat fragile without the rack..but i know it wont break...the fan inside, which is also a great feauture, is starting to make some noise but i dont think it will be a problem...just replace it easily..pretty tough

havent had to but we will see...tube replacements..fan replacement...

like i said this is the best amp in my opinion and it sounds soo great with my other equipment...i love all the features but they can almost, but not quite, get to be too much...atleast in the beginning beacuse i couldnt find the right tone...but that came with experiance and gettin used to the amp...if it were stolen i would buy the excact same amp...no doubt about it!

Too many to list. Check out Ampeg website.

The sound is somewhere between classic SVT and SWR. Not as sterile or modern as the SWR but not the real warm tube sound of the original.Plent of power but only if you use 4 or 2ohm speaker cabs. Especially effective in bridged mode but make sure your speaker(s) can handle the output.Not as sweet a sound as some seperate tube pre-amp/ power amp rigs but more convienient and powerful enough.

I had some trouble when I first bought it. The first one had a loose piece of wire or solder and it shorted out the voltage regulator and fried all of the ICs. The replacemet was fairly reliable but very sensitive to low voltage and would go into protect intermittantly at the worst times on stage. Usually when at an outdoor festival in front of thousands of people. Luckily I'm an amp tech and can fix my own stuff.

i think the warranty is 5 years but I allways do my own work to save time and frustration.

I've been playing for 20 years now and have owned and tried many amps. I am currently enjoying tube amps for there tone and warmth. This amp doesn't really capture the "ampeg" sound and it doesn't do the modern SWR/Eden thing either but it does have a lot of features and power in a relatively small package. The mute switch is nice for tuning. The compressor is practically useless because it is in the wrong place in the signal chain. It should be somewhere after the EQ section working at line level, not instrument level. The limiter on the other hand is quite effective and can prevent a very expensive repair bill if the the amp was clipped to hard.and last but not least, it should have a ground lift switch for the direct output. About a third of the time the soundman would have to use a direct box because of AC hum.

Gain, variable Compression, Ulta Hi-Ultra Lo, Bass, Midrange, Mid Frequency, Treble, Brite, Graphic EQ, Line Out Level, Effects Bypass, Limit Defeat, Master, Frequency-Balance. The graphic EQ adds a sub roll-off and has freq. of 33,80,150,300,600,900,2K,5K,8Khz. The rear panel has line outs, effect loops, multiple spkr.outs, and connectors to loop signals for Bi-Amping. This amp is a dual amp that can run bridged mono, dual mono, or Bi-Amp modes. Power is rated at 625 watts X 2 @ 4 ohms, or 1200 watts bridged.

I play Fender P basses thru this head. This amp produces a full sound that is clean and tight. With the Ultra Lo switch on the lowest notes are very rich and deep, the midrange scooped, and the highs are clear and controlable. This amp lets you select your tone shaping and has plenty of power to deliver what you select without any limitations! The internal fan can be heard in a studio or quiet environment when you're not playing. The 3 12AX7s produce a clean sound that has more "life" and dynamics than pure solid state amp circuits. I'm using this head with a pair of EVM 15s (1 15L & 1 15B), so other speaker combinations would change the quality of this head. When I fire this up I am always amazed how good it sounds!

I've only had this amp for 6 months, but it seems to be rock solid and overbuilt to hold up to heavy road use.

Haven't needed it.

This is definatly the most versital bass amp I've ever owned. With the effects and line outs I could use this in almost any situation, in any size venue. One could argue that it doesn't have that "SVT tube sound", but it provides a full, clean, powerful sound that is maybe a little more sophistcated than the pushed, round tubey bass sound.