Hello. I recently purchased a holy grail amp for myself: a 70s Magnavox Ampeg SVT head (post '72 and pre '75 I believe judging by the faceplate) and a '79 towel bar 8x10 cabinet. It was for sale near a town where my band was playing and I couldn't pass it up. It sounds amazing! My only concern is that, as someone who likes to jumper the channels, use the Ultra Lo and push the volume to 11:00-noon-ish, I'm worried I might end up blowing the original Eminence squareback speakers, as I've heard these are only rated for 50 watts apiece, or 400 watts total. Plus, on certain notes, I feel like I'm occasionally hearing some unnatural and unpleasant fizziness, especially on the upper register of the D and G strings. I was told this was purchased from the inventory of a backline rental company in NYC in the early 2000's, and that before that it was a regular backline amp for CBGB's, so I'm sure the speakers have taken some punishment over the last 45 years. Anyway, I'm wondering if I should consider swapping in some new speakers for peace of mind when playing live, something like maybe the Eminence B810, and keep the old speakers around to swap back in if I ever want to record with it. I have no experience with the B810, just the super dark and muddy stock speakers that were in the early 2000's SLM cabs. Thanks!
Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
Welcome to TalkBass! Want to remove ads? Register an account and login to see fewer ads, and become a Supporting Member to remove almost all ads.
Vintage Ampeg SVT owner. Replace stock Eminence speakers?
- Thread starter TonyAsh
- Start date
- Feb 12, 2006
- 52,447
- 176,650
- 14,248
- Disclosures
- Development Engineer-Mesa Boogie, Development Engineer-Genzler (pedals), Product Support-Genz Benz
Well, the head and cab were being sold as a set so I didn't have the option to take one and not the other, not to mention that the price for the set was lower than what I typically see the heads alone going for.
I don't have any real complaints with the sound of the cab other than the occasional upper register fizziness. It actually sounds pretty awesome. I'm just asking, before I spend money on a set of Eminence B810's, if those will compare favorably to the squareback Eminences currently in there while giving me peace of mind about accidentally blowing one or more of them.
- Feb 12, 2006
- 52,447
- 176,650
- 14,248
- Disclosures
- Development Engineer-Mesa Boogie, Development Engineer-Genzler (pedals), Product Support-Genz Benz
They will be different sounding, you may or may not prefer them to the originals. That’s a lot to spend on an unknown imo.
How can you tell if the fizz is from the speaker or the amp breaking up? How often do you push the rig into distortion? I believe most SVTs will distort before they hit 400W. If you are barely pushing into distortion, it may be fine. However if you slam the amp in hard distortion, it will probably put out a bit more than 400W.
The first rig I ever bought was a new MTI era SVT and 810. From what I remember the cab was rated 400W. I could push the rig into distortion, but I didn't feel like the 810 was overly stressed. I never had any drivers crap out.
Replacement Driver Options:
- Aftermarket: B810 (150W)
- Standard 810: 86-032-01 (100W)
- Heritage 810: 86-032-01-9 (100W)
I believe the B810 is voiced fairly similar to the standard driver. I do not know if it can actually handle more power in the cab. Actually I believe it runs out of excursion below 100hz at about 100W in the 810E.
The Heritage driver is supposed to sound more like the original alnicos. AFAIK, most prefer the Heritage drivers, but some prefer the standard drivers. Every time I have checked Full Compass, the Heritage drivers are out of stock.
You don't necessarily have to replace all 8 drivers. The cab has four sealed chambers. As a minimum, you need a pair of matching drivers in each chamber. So if one of the drivers fails, you can check to see if it can be reconed. Or you can buy a pair of suitable replacement drivers. If one driver is still good, keep it as a spare.
The weakest drivers in the cab determine power handling. For example if you have two 50W drivers and six 150W drivers, the total power handling is 8 x 50 = 400W
Last edited:
I can tell you from experience the B810 will not sound like the old square back speakers, they’ll be much closer to other modern eminence/ampeg speakers. I would rule out other issues if you can, play another amp through the cab to see if it’s the cab. If it is the speakers and you want something closer in sound to the vintage the heritage are nice (though expensive), could also check out the weber 10FL which are supposed to be close in sound.
The Heritage 8x10 is the best sounding bass cab I've ever played through along with my beloved 3015 loaded Orange 1x15's. I was looking everywhere for those Heritage speakers even before I stumbled into this vintage SVT rig and they're of course sold out everywhere. And I just can't justify dropping $1700 on a new Heritage cab right now. Maybe one day though. And I wasn't familiar with that Weber model. I'll look into it, thanks!
FYI, I've plugged my GK 800RB and my Orange Terror Bass into this cab (playing exclusively passive P-Basses, by the way) and, while they all sound fantastic through it, I'm definitely still hearing that occasional unpleasantness on the higher notes, though I'm admittedly nitpicking at this point because overall it is an amazing sounding cab.
Have you mic’ed and recorded the cab? If you are playing through that cab at fighting volume it could be causing items/walls to buzz
I would definitely open up the cab to see if any stray wire, insulation piece, etc., is laying on or near one of the drivers to see if its the cause of vibration.
I love these stories where amps have history. If it was indeed at CBGBs its quiet possible the Ramones or Guns and Roses or a slew of rockers might have rocked out this amp. I mean this is just speculation but wow! and if it was in NYC no telling who might have dimed that amp.
I felt the same when the guy, who was super cool and friendly, mentioned that. He certainly didn't have to sell me on it, I was already handing over the cash, haha. And I mean, obviously there's no way to verify any of it. But it's cool to imagine anyway.
If you love the sound, keep it for recording and low volume practice and spend your money on a different cab. You could find the weak speakers and replace them in pairs but then you'll always be worried about damaging other original drivers when you play. The cost to replace 8 drivers is >$1000, which is almost the cost of a brand new high end cabinet.
If you're going to be pushing the head into distortion you might want to change them. I have no experience with Eminence B810's. I have two early 70's cabs with the original speakers and have had to no trouble but almost always play clean but one cab will distort when played loud with the head. I believe all the cabs made until 1980 were rated at 240 WRMS making the speakers 30 watt speakers. I used to blow speakers years ago with a single cab but I was playing loud, didn't use only one for long, Ampeg always recommended using two cabs back then.
bassfreakah
Supporting Member
- Mar 26, 2011
- 2,264
- 886
- 4,866
- Disclosures
- Endorsing Artist Ernie ball strings
I think that you had the right idea just to enjoy that killer rig. I wouldn’t stress over the what if’s. IMO
I had a sort of personal revelation after some serious playing time through this thing, which I know is pretty common knowledge to most: the Ultra Lo can be avoided altogether. Instead, I simply cut a little of the midrange at 220Hz which tightens it up a bit. I do like a little "clank" so I'm using the Ultra Hi, but slightly reducing the treble to avoid it getting too bright.
These are the settings I've settled on for the sound I like. With a P-Bass it's the growliest rock tone that doesn't disappear in a mix at all. And the speakers don't seem as stressed now, so it's a win/win.
Yup, ultra lo sounds great up close or in a small room but cuts the definition and can make your bass sound muddy if you're not careful. You can use ultra lo though with the 220 boosted instead of cut but yeah that looks good. I leave the mids switch in the middle usually. and add or cut depending on the bass and the room.