Hey everyone, I am going into the studio soon and I want to record my Ampeg SVT-CL into the board without a cab. This means I have to get access to a dummy load. I know nothing about this and I have no idea where to begin. What are some decent brands? What is the usual price range? Help point me in the right direction.
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You'd be much better off just using an amp sim / modeler in this case, IMO. Kemper, Helix, Fractal Audio, or even one of the various higher-end VSTs would be better. Though I am curious as to what your goals are.
Cruise Ebay. I bought a couple of load resistors via them. 4Ω at 500W. You Will need to mount these to some sort of a fan cooled heatsink to avoid blowing them and damaging your amp. In your place I think I’d beg or borrow a lower power amp for the session.
...or try one of the (discontinued) Ampeg Preamps:
Ampeg SVT-IIP (imho the best choice)
Ampeg SVP Pro
Ampeg BSP
Ampeg SVP CL
or the Ampeg SCR-DI
Ampeg SVT-IIP (imho the best choice)
Ampeg SVP Pro
Ampeg BSP
Ampeg SVP CL
or the Ampeg SCR-DI
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My bench load is massive and rated for 1,200 watts. It gets warm after pumping 300 watts into it for only 20 seconds or so. My advice? Forget the dummy load and look for other options.
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Why, if you don’t know how to use it?
As mentioned above, over 5 years ago, that it’s not a good idea.
To have knowledge about something doesn't always have to mean that I want or will use it or even that I have the said device/amp/etc. And when it's about the knowledge about bass, this is the forum. And I understand that it's very probably not a good idea to use dummy load with tube amp like SVT.
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That's a single 300W 4 ohm power resistor. AFAIK, they are not designed for continuous use, and if you hit them with 300W continuously they get really hot rather quickly. Perhaps you could wire 4 of them in series/parallel and put them in some sort of a mineral oil bath. Then you would have a 1200w 4 ohm power soak. Sounds like a lot of hassle.
Here is an article you might like: How to Build a Dummy Load for Testing Large Amplifiers (prosoundtraining.com)
My solution was to buy an Ampeg PF50T. It sounds fairly close to an SVT and has a built-in dummy load.
I used a V4B with a 300 Watt ballast resistor with great results.
In fact, it was one of the best recorded tones I ever got. I can't remember the DI box but it would have been either a passive Sescom with a Jenson Transformer or a Countryman.
It could be used with an SVT so long as the volume wasn't up high.
In fact, it was one of the best recorded tones I ever got. I can't remember the DI box but it would have been either a passive Sescom with a Jenson Transformer or a Countryman.
It could be used with an SVT so long as the volume wasn't up high.
Resistance is too high 12.8 ohms. Would need to use 3 in parallel to get close to 4 ohms. Design voltage squared divided by rated wattage.
I use foot long "brown devil" resistors with a sliding tap from a scrapped mechanical relay elevator control panel to dummy load amps for testing. When testing an SVT they do get quite hot, and that's using 2 set at 8 ohms in parallel. The danger of mickey-mousing a dummy load is more the chance of accidentally having a live connection touching anything metallic. Mine are mounted with the clips that originally held them, in a screened metal enclosure with a muffin fan. I'm surprised the rear panel of an SVT doesn't say "class 1 wiring required"
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