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Ampeg PF-500


Lozz196
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Last night I was talking to the guy who owns the rehearsal room we use. He was asking how my PF-500 was doing. I told him about how it cuts out if I use the Peavey 4x10 cab thats in the room. His reply was:
"yeah, all my amps, but the Old Peavey Centurion, have cut out using that cab. A MB Little Mark Tube, a Peavey Tour 450, a MB LMII..."

he listed a couple of others too.

I guess it's his cab that caused the problem as opposed to the Ampeg having issues by itself...

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[quote name='bartelby' timestamp='1328797375' post='1532785']
I guess it's his cab that caused the problem as opposed to the Ampeg having issues by itself...
[/quote]

Why would you have rogue cabs like that available in a rehearsal room?
He could at the very least have warned you about it! :blink:

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[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1328836070' post='1533649']
Why would you have rogue cabs like that available in a rehearsal room?
He could at the very least have warned you about it! :blink:
[/quote]


No idea. But now I store my amp and cabs down there it doesn't really matter.
Of course if the cab was so dodgy to have caused major problems with the amp it'd be a different story.

I wonder how a full vale amp would react to a dodgily wired cab (sounds like it could be running lower than 4Ohm)

But is has made me a bit more confident in using the Ampeg live...

Edited by bartelby
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  • 1 month later...
  • 1 month later...

I bought the Ampeg PF500 and PF115 HE in March and got to gig them for the first time on Friday night.

I'm really impressed with it. The sound is just solid and I've had none of the afore-mentioned cutting out issues. In fact I purposefully went over budget when making the purchase to get the matching cab (even though it wasn't strictly necessary) not just to avoid such issues but so I could utilise the "flip top" feature too..Everyone who sees/hears it is blown away and the purple light on the front panel makes it look extra "cool".

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  • 1 month later...

I recently bought an Ampeg PF500 as I needed a lightweight amp to go with my Barefaced Compact.
My previous rig was a Trace Elliot SMC 300 watt combo 1x15 which used with the Compact produced a huge sound that I loved. However the Trace was just to heavy to move around (I'm getting on a bit) and I wanted something I could move around and carry upstairs to our rehearsal room.
I admit I was worried by all the internet reports of the Ampeg cutting out and also not producing enough volume and noisy fan, so I bought new with the option of a 30 day return if not satisfied. I bought from DV247 for £312 with a 4 year warranty thrown in.
First impression, on opening the box, was that the build quality was better than I expected. The casing seems quite solid, very well finished and looks really good to my eyes.
Setting it up was very straight forward. I'd seen all the videos so found a decent sound pretty much straight away. It didn't make me go wow and felt like I'd downgraded from the Trace for the sake of losing weight.
I had a rehearsal just a few hours after taking delivery so I took it along to put it through its paces.
I was so used to hearing the Compact in conjunction with the Trace combo so this was a solo test for both.
First impression was this combination really does produce deep bass (which I love) and that there's more than enough volume there for my band, a 7 piece prog/classic rock band. I set the gain so it didn't clip and set the volume to 5. I was pleased to hear that the band thought I was too loud.
As I said, the rig had lovely deep bass but I had trouble hearing notes played at the dusty end.
Since then, I've had time to play around with the EQ at home and have found a more balanced setting, can't wait to try it with the band next week.
I'm still in the honeymoon period but so far I really can't fault this amp.cab combination.
No cutting out problems.
Very quiet fan.
Great EQ. Small variations change the sound noticeably.
Great sound if you like the Ampeg sound but can do clean as well. It does sound different with each of my Precision basses which is what I wanted and also tells me that the amp/cab isn't colouring the sound too much. It really does pay to play with the EQ.
In conclusion, I now have a one lift rig, amp fits in a laptop bag (just) that I'd be happy to take anywhere.
I'd still like another Barefaced cab.on top just so I could enjoy the great sound from this amp but until then...................

Edited by pikeman
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Adding a BF Midget to that rig sounds great - I had that setup, and still miss it, but unfortunately it wasn`t the right sound for my band. I loved the combination of Precision/PF500/BF Cabs though.

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  • 5 months later...

My experience is similar to Pikeman. I have been using a Trace 350SMX and 2 x 15" cab = loud but heavy and as I wanted more definition decided to find a 2x10 with HF.

Picked up a nice one on ebay which is not the latest version where you store the PF500 in the top but an earlier cab with 2 round ports at the back. Although a few bass players I know have Mark Bass amps I decided to go for the Ampeg PF500 and am really pleased I did. Linked with a Hartke 15 XL and the 2x10 it sounds awesome. Like others I am unsure about the middle shift control as I don't like middle much so the Lozz196 settings are for me. (thanks Lozz for all the info)
Now I just have to worry about what HF setting to use.

Don't think I can bare to sell the Trace though! :unsure:

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