Ampeg V9 9x10" cabinet + V4b folded 2x15" cabinet for one bass stack?

Cambo Funk

Cambo Funk

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May 6, 2017
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Wrightwood, CA
#1
I recently purchased a V9 cab which I've been using for guitar and violin. So I have been told that's more what it's designed for. Tonight though I got my hands on an early 70's V4b cab.

My question to you vintage gear junkies...
Is this a good or bad idea? I want to lay them on their side, on top of eachother, then use it as one big bi-amped bass cabinet with my SVT-5 PRO head. Run the highs to the V9 and the lows to the V4b. Would it hurt anything? Sound like hell? Etc... Thanks for reading and your input.
 
#2
I had a V9 cabinet for a number of years (which i purchased from a bassist that had 2 of them) and pushed it with a 70s SVT bass head with no problems. It handled low frequencies extremely well (my main bass at the time was an Ibanez SR406 6 string bass). I had a V4B also (got it for a song) but didnt like the sound so i rented it out constantly until I eventually sold it. Once for ***** and grins I hooked them both together and it sounded great, but with the size of the bars and clubs i played at it didnt justify using them both so i mainly played out with the V9 until I sold it also.

Go for it. It'll be loud as all hell and the V4B will really push the low end. You'll absolutely love it but the bars will probably hate you unless yoi can prove to them that you can control it without being too loid.
 
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#3
In 1971 I had a 2000s head on a new V4b cab. (Cut a 1x4 to replace rubber feet that fell off every time cab was moved) (Acoustic 360 had the 1x4 OEM) Next to it I had a flatback SVT cab with Marshall Major head. Next to that a Leslie 147. So do it but that's a lot of loud. You have roadies? I was a 150 lb. bass waif at the time. When you look like some American version of some skinny Brit your rig looks more huge. This you see was unnecessary.:)

Let me break this down. The Leslie wasn't loud but sounded amazing. For most anything the Marshall/SVT was enough. The V4b projects so far that it didn't have the front loaded presence of say a 2000s cab.

Except for moving any of it...I miss it. Except for how large a practice space was needed..I miss it.
Except for how loud guitarists could be...I miss it.
Except for not knowing how much better any of those amps could sound if they had tech checkups once regularly..I miss them.
I miss the wonderful smell of Marshalls when they were warm.
We intermittently understood ohms (2 8ohm cabs do you set selector to 4? ......which leads to....
I don't miss but remember when a British head would blow a fuse and the whole back wall would flash a pattern of the screen in the back of the head on the wall in bright blue and thirty times the size. It would eclipse the light show projected on the wall for a few seconds.

Before you say it, I was not hallucinating any of this. :)
 
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#7
As some of you are saying... I am only going to be using it for outdoor festivals and HUGE shows. I think it'll sound great and look great on stage but I'm curious on other people's input, I always am.
To make it short though, I got both cabs for $150 from the origional owner and they're in great shape. With that being said... can you blame me for wanting to do this?? :-D
I love owning equipment that other people don't.
 
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#10
tenor.gif
 
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#14
Cambo Funk said:
The V4b is missing the grill but I already found one to purchase. ;-)
View attachment 1182814 View attachment 1182815
Click to expand...

I bought the Animals comeback album "Before We Were So Rudely Interrupted" from 1977 a few years ago (great album) and there was a 12"x12" photo of the band playing live included inside the album cover and Chas Chandler was playing a nice Ric 4001, using a Hiwatt tube head and two Ampeg V4-B cabs just like yours and he had the grilles off, I think those things just look so cool without the grilles.
 
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#18
Have fun with that, don't bother biamping it just run it as is. Before running a PA stack I use to run 3 SVT heads, 2 V4B cabs, 4 8x10 (flatback) cabs. Great, loud bass amp but not clean enough for what I was looking for at the time. You'll get plenty of projection with the V4B's
 
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