New Rig Day: crazy rare Ampeg

Chris 'Wighat' Jordan

Chris 'Wighat' Jordan

Apr 27, 2005
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Port Aransas, Texas
#1
When SLM bought Ampeg from MTI in 1986, they got a couple of trailers full of parts. They had zero stock to sell. In desperation, they hastily made a few bass amps out of parts from the production of the MTI-era V5 guitar amp. They changed the pre-amp and had face plates made that read "SVT-100". These were made at the same time they put out the "Skunk Works" SVT's. The SVT-18E cab is from the same time and is 27" wide to fit the head. SLM made cabs this wide for a short time. Note the absence of white piping around the grill. Thanks to @rustlander1 from whom I got the amp.
 

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#4
Chris 'Wighat' Jordan said:
When SLM bought Ampeg from MTI in 1986, they got a couple of trailers full of parts. They had zero stock to sell. In desperation, they hastily made a few bass amps out of parts from the production of the MTI-era V5 guitar amp. They changed the pre-amp and had face plates made that read "SVT-100". These were made at the same time they put out the "Skunk Works" SVT's. The SVT-18E cab is from the same time and is 27" wide to fit the head. SLM made cabs this wide for a short time. Note the absence of white piping around the grill. Thanks to @rustlander1 from whom I got the amp.
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Very cool, Nice score man
 
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#11
JimmyM said:
Pretty smokin'! Have you tried it yet?
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I have not. I have put the brakes on booking my band a little bit.. down to about once a week. Day job, you know. Although we did play Thursday night, the amp didn't come until Friday. Looking forward to it though!

Vintage-Blue said:
Congratulations on the new amp! Here is some paperwork you may find useful. It was in a service manual I got from a former Ampeg employee.
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Wow that is awesome, thank you.


beans-on-toast said:
Ampeg amp with a Fender influences such as the tone stack. The 6550's will last a long time in that amp.
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Huh. Could you elaborate a little on that?
 
#12
Chris 'Wighat' Jordan said:
Could you elaborate a little on that?
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Ampeg always tried to do things differently to set themselves apart from their competition. At one point they came out with some amp designs that were Fender influenced.

Rather than a James tone circuit, this one has the classic Fender stack. Marshall and others also use it. The Presence control is also borrowed from Fender. The power tubes are being run at a conservative plate voltage. As set up, they will have a long service life in comparision to a 6L6GC.
 
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#13
beans-on-toast said:
Ampeg always tried to do things differently to set themselves apart from their competition. At one point they came out with some amp designs that were Fender influenced.

Rather than a James tone circuit, this one has the classic Fender stack. Marshall and others also use it. The Presence control is also borrowed from Fender. The power tubes are being run at a conservative plate voltage. As set up, they will have a long service life in comparision to a 6L6GC.
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Gotcha. Another noteworthy feature on this gear is the grill cloth. Not the plain black that Ampeg has used ever since but a black sparkle like the Heritage line has. I wonder if this brief period of initial SLM production grill cloth was the inspiration.
 
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#14
Vintage-Blue said:
Congratulations on the new amp! Here is some paperwork you may find useful. It was in a service manual I got from a former Ampeg employee.
Click to expand...

Incredible! I take this to be the original, hand-written script for the modifications that turned the V5 into the SVT-100. Technical spec's, too. Interesting that the frequency response is stated to be -6db at 40HZ. I wonder if that's going to translate into real-world lack of lower note fundamental on a 5-string.
 
#18
Vintage-Blue said:
Congratulations on the new amp! Here is some paperwork you may find useful. It was in a service manual I got from a former Ampeg employee.
Click to expand...
Is this second column here meant to indicate a "cut" at those frequencies? That would bring the functionality of the "ultra lo" circuit in line with its usual implementation.

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#20
Chris 'Wighat' Jordan said:
When SLM bought Ampeg from MTI in 1986, they got a couple of trailers full of parts. They had zero stock to sell. In desperation, they hastily made a few bass amps out of parts from the production of the MTI-era V5 guitar amp. They changed the pre-amp and had face plates made that read "SVT-100". These were made at the same time they put out the "Skunk Works" SVT's. The SVT-18E cab is from the same time and is 27" wide to fit the head. SLM made cabs this wide for a short time. Note the absence of white piping around the grill. Thanks to @rustlander1 from whom I got the amp.
Click to expand...
Man, that thing's gotta be a beast! 18" speaker? Woot woot! My favorite kick arse configuration! Excellent score, thanks for sharing!
P.S. Let us know how far above 3 you have to go to shake things off the walls! :thumbsup:
 
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