Michael's Ampeg SVT
Not much is mentioned of Michael's bass guitar amplifier - it's an original Ampeg SVT (Super Valve Technology) head and cabinet. The head appears to have been re-tolexed at some point, possibly to match the "lovely blonde necks" of her Fender Precision Bass guitars.
In the December 2003 issue Bass Player Magazine, it states that "Michael prefers a clean melodic sound and sees no need for effects." Settings of the tone controls are unknown, although there are observations at a show in Paris that state:
"All knobs were around 12 o'clock (+/- 1 hour tolerance)"
Bass Head Configuration
The Ampeg SVT uses a total of fourteen vacuum tubes: 5 small signal triodes in the preamp/tone section and 9 (3 small signal triodes and 6 power tubes) in the power section. A massive power transformer feeds a solid stage rectification stage, running at 660 volts B+ on the output tubes. All heaters are 6.3VAC with a hum balancing potentiometer. 12DW7 vacuum tubes are used in the preamp section, with a 12BH7 phase splitter and a 12BH7 in cathode follower (buffer) configuration. Six 6650 beam power tetrode vacuum tubes make up the output stage arranged in standard parallel push-pull configuration. Ampeg claims 300 watts output of the 85 pound amplifier.
Cabinet
The Baltic Birch plywood cabinet (shown on its side) contains 8 x 10" speakers, at 32 ohms each connected in parallel for a total of 4 ohms impedance. Weight of the cabinet was over 100 pounds.
History
Ampeg states that they created the amplifier to satisfy the demands of stadiums and outdoor festivals. They set out to create "the biggest, nastiest bass amplifier the world had ever seen."
After surveying his creation, Cox was actually concerned about potential liability—when your engineers warn of the possible harm their designs could cause, you'd better listen. Ampeg's management did and devised a warning label which read:
"THIS AMP IS CAPABLE OF DELIVERING SOUND PRESSURE LEVELS THAT MAY CAUSE PERMANENT HEARING DAMAGE."
http://www.ampeg.com/history.html
references:
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ampeg
• http://www.drtube.com/guitamp.htm#Ampeg
• Michael Steele Harmonic Re-emergence, Bass Player Magazine, December 2003, p.14
Not much is mentioned of Michael's bass guitar amplifier - it's an original Ampeg SVT (Super Valve Technology) head and cabinet. The head appears to have been re-tolexed at some point, possibly to match the "lovely blonde necks" of her Fender Precision Bass guitars.
In the December 2003 issue Bass Player Magazine, it states that "Michael prefers a clean melodic sound and sees no need for effects." Settings of the tone controls are unknown, although there are observations at a show in Paris that state:
"All knobs were around 12 o'clock (+/- 1 hour tolerance)"
Bass Head Configuration
The Ampeg SVT uses a total of fourteen vacuum tubes: 5 small signal triodes in the preamp/tone section and 9 (3 small signal triodes and 6 power tubes) in the power section. A massive power transformer feeds a solid stage rectification stage, running at 660 volts B+ on the output tubes. All heaters are 6.3VAC with a hum balancing potentiometer. 12DW7 vacuum tubes are used in the preamp section, with a 12BH7 phase splitter and a 12BH7 in cathode follower (buffer) configuration. Six 6650 beam power tetrode vacuum tubes make up the output stage arranged in standard parallel push-pull configuration. Ampeg claims 300 watts output of the 85 pound amplifier.
Cabinet
The Baltic Birch plywood cabinet (shown on its side) contains 8 x 10" speakers, at 32 ohms each connected in parallel for a total of 4 ohms impedance. Weight of the cabinet was over 100 pounds.
History
Ampeg states that they created the amplifier to satisfy the demands of stadiums and outdoor festivals. They set out to create "the biggest, nastiest bass amplifier the world had ever seen."
After surveying his creation, Cox was actually concerned about potential liability—when your engineers warn of the possible harm their designs could cause, you'd better listen. Ampeg's management did and devised a warning label which read:
"THIS AMP IS CAPABLE OF DELIVERING SOUND PRESSURE LEVELS THAT MAY CAUSE PERMANENT HEARING DAMAGE."
http://www.ampeg.com/history.html
references:
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ampeg
• http://www.drtube.com/guitamp.htm#Ampeg
• Michael Steele Harmonic Re-emergence, Bass Player Magazine, December 2003, p.14
Michael Steele
Michel's Ampeg SVT Bass Head and 8x10 cabinet. Onstage 2003
12BH7 vacuum tubes used in Ampeg SVT (preamp stage)
6550 vacuum tubes used in Ampeg SVT (output stage power tubes)
March 19, 2012 corrected pic - thanks alert reader Dave Smith for pointing out the mistake!
March 19, 2012 corrected pic - thanks alert reader Dave Smith for pointing out the mistake!
