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I found an Ampeg V4 at a pawn shop and was wondering if any inmates have used the V4, not the V4B, as a bass amp. I did some research and found that the V4 is a guitar amp and not a bass amp, however there are some bass players out there that use the V4. The two amps are "supposed" to be similar with the exception of a master volume and a reverb. I do prefer a tight clean sound with a big bottom end and have always liked the sound of tubes. My big question and concern is whether the V4 would be too prone to distortion to use as a bass amp?Thanks for your help!
Follow Ups:
Very little difference between the two. The V4 has reverb, which you can turn off if you don't want it, or even pull the associated tube and components if you want to completely get rid of it, and a couple of capacitors are smaller in the V4. Sound will still be good I'd think. The transformers are the same between the 2, so the iron is there. It would be easy to mod the V4 into a V4B if you decided that you wanted to. Just check the schematics and you'll see what I mean.Chris
Read Kurt Vonnegut, Tom Robbins, and Charles Bukowski.
If I recall, though the haze of many moons-ago, I believe the circuits are the same, minus the reverb of the V4B. And that the V4 is biased slightly hotter, than the V4B (-52 volts versus -64 volts) on those 7027A.This amp has a wild midrange circuit that gives the thing quite a unique tone.
Speaker types make a big difference in the final tone you are after. The loudest 100 watt head unit, I've ever heard.
Thanks for the goods. I picked the amp up last night and spent the rest of the night cleaning it up, switches, sockets etc. Even tried to wash away the smell of rock & roll.i noticed that all four of the power tubes have black spots where a piece of a round ring (looks like a small washer) fell of near the top and arced itself to the body of the tube. The amp seems to work and sound fine. Is this anything to be immediately concerned with? Should replace these tubes right away, or can I use as is for a while?
T,Try to have those power tubes tested, before using them in the amp. You don't want to put in shorted tube into this amp, for sure. Mucho damage is possible.
If tube are cool---plug them in and ramp up the amp with a Variac. Check for bad things, like sparks and the smell of frying electronics. CHECK that electrolytic multi-section can. If it seems hot or you are getting a lot of buzzing noise, even at low Variac settings---turn off the Variac and contemplate replacing that can. If the old one blows up on you---you will have a big time mess on your hands.
Be sure to have a spare speaker cab attached to the OPT. Check and adjust the output tube bias. For this amp it must be steady, or you risk frying other components.
If all seems good after a nice slow ramp-up (say, over 15-30 min)---plug in your axe and hit a few chords. If you get all kinds of strange overtones or static----could be dried out 'lytic caps---most common problem of these old amps, which have been sitting for awhile.
Good luck, this amp is really close to the SVT amps which Ampeg made. So, all the good and bad of the SVT can be applied to the V4.
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