Bass Gear Review

Reviewer	Davide Radice
Experience	about 10 years
Email	droot@libero.it
Review date	September 03 2001
Manufacturer	Ampeg
Model	SVT-3PRO
Price	1.500.000 ITL
Item owned for	1-2 years

Dimensions	19 x 3.5 x 15.5
Weight	26 Pounds
Power	275 Watt (8 ohms), 450 watts (4 ohms)
EQ	9 Band
Other	5 tubes (preamp has 3 x 12AX7), Mosfet power amp

It is my first tube amp but I've tried a lot of amps before I decided to buy this one. I'm pretty happy with it, even if just after 2 years it has started with an evident distorion at low volume (The local repair shop told that it is quite strange since the Ampeg products are reliable and affordable) I found the sound I was searching for. It has a lot of "pressure", I think that for that price nothing is comparable with this head. Of course the sound one is searching for it depends also on the bass and the cabinet. I use with it a 6-string fretted status energy, a LB76F Carvin (6-string fretless) and a Yamaha TRB5PII. My cabinet is an Ampeg Classic 4x10T that perhaps is not the best choice for the SVT-3PRO. On the front panel you find: a 9 band EQ, a mute switch (useful when are on stage and you have to change the bass in the middle of the session) bass, treble and middle plus a 5 positions middle selector, a ultra-bass switch (I'm not sure what frequency it adds, but it adds a lot of bottom) a bright switch (very useful for the slap) a ultra-high switch (very useless, since it adds too highs and is quite noisy) a tube gain. An of course the master volume and the gain knobs. On the rear panel: unbalanced and balanced out and other stuff you can find on the Ampeg web site. The drawbacks: it weights a lot and the fan coiler is quite noisy (but this is noticeable only if you are not playing).

Construction	90%
Clarity	95%
Versatility	95%
Volume	95%
Value	90%
Overall	95%