Ampeg svt 3 pro bass rig question

[stankybudz]

I was with a buddy about 6 years ago and he purchased the svt 3 pro and 8x10 cab for 1400 bux. I now have another buddy selling the same setup, and said he would take 800 cash for it, this is a great deal that I should jump on top of correct? We need a good bass rig for the band and these setups rip from what I can remember arty07:

 

[Cagey]

If I was a bass player, I'd be on that like white on rice. Ampeg SVTs are beasts!

That 8x10 cabinet will be no fun to move, though. Think refrigerator. Damn things are heavy and unwieldy even with nothing in them but air.

Which brings up a question - where are you even going to use it? That's a LOT of amplifier and speaker. I'd question whether most bars/clubs will even let you set something like that up. It's getting tough to get a 4x12 for guitar in the door at a lot of places. They wanna mic a little combo and use the FOH system to handle the heavy lifting if/when necessary. Often, the stage size reflects that, too. You get a postage stamp-sized piece of real estate to set up a 4-5 piece band on. There isn't any room for stadium-sized gear even if they'd let you use it.

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

810s actually don't take anymore room than a 210.  They have the same footprint.  Stage sizes are measured horizontally, not vertically. 

An 810 can throw off the visual symetry of a stage if it's a trio and the guitar player has a 112 combo.  With FOH sound, any sized bass rig is useless.

They aren't difficult to move, as long as there's no stairs.

But...they look cool, so I'd jump on it.

 

[Cagey]

Maybe I'm thinking of something else. I played in a band with a guy who had a V4 and what I thought was an 8x10. Thing was as wide as a 4x12, but about 50% taller. Weighed about 7,892 pounds. I mean, it was a back-breaker for two guys, and this was when we were young and invincible. Thing even had handles on the back that resembled the helper bars you see in the lavatory handicapped stalls.

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

You're thinking of the right thing, but the footprint of a 210, 410, 610, 810 are all the same, just taller.  Most have wheels where you can tilt them back, so unloading from a trailer with a ramp, rolling through a parking lot into a building with a ramp, onto a stage with a ramp, no big deal.  That never happens though.  Most bar gigs, you bring stuff in your car.  If there is a stage, it has steps.  For a big 810 sound, I much prefer 2 410s for portability. 

But an SVT 810 rig is dead sexy!  It's the bass equivalent of a Les Paul leaning against a Marshall.  It's classic.

 

[stankybudz]

The main bar that were trying to play in is this hole in the wall bar in our small hometown but they alwayshave the music turned up too loud so we would be alright there, and as for taking up too much stage space, we are just a 3 piece band and are keeping it that way for a while at least.

 

[Patrick from Davis]

The SVT 3 Pro is not quite the same as an old SVT tube head.  The 3 pro is a rack mountable hybrid that is 450 W at 4 ohms.  There are a lot of grumbles about this amp.  There are 12AX7 and 12AU7 's in it, and don't get their places mixed up, it makes a big difference.  Also the bias was frequently set too low on the MOSFETs causing them to be a very quiet 450.  A tech can fix this for about 50 bucks, it is not an uncommon problem, they just built them not to blow up at the cost of being a bit quiet.  Once it is tuned properly, it is a nice amp with a lot of room that it'll cover.  They seem to be going for $1100 at the megamarts these days so 300 more for an 8 x 10 is a pretty nice deal.
Patrick

 

[stankybudz]

Yea portability wont be an issue honestly, I will throw some casters on it if I have to. I just need to come up with the funds and the beast is mine!