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No more Procrastination! (An interesting small valve head story)


Bridgehouse

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On 17/09/2018 at 18:37, afterimage said:

Mine is quiet too  but in another room it does hum a bit till I put a decent hi fi   mains cable 

Noisy mains when  full load electrical  Washing machine and Fridge freezer etc 

Does this cable have some kind of suppressor fitted? Maybe that is filtering out mains-borne noise.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Had some people round this weekend. We had a nice little jam in our music room. Drums, Bass and two guitars.

Gave me a chance to try out the PF20T and the Ashdown CTM15 in a smallish setting.

Both amps were used with a Vanderkley 2x10.

PF20T: Felt very traditional - lots of good ampeg tone, and was surprisingly loud and had plenty of presence. It behaved how I expected it to, and it did a great job of carrying bass against a full kit and two guitars going into Boss Katana amps. 

CTM15: Properly surprising amp. With no gain and master on full it was loud enough to carry through - not as loud as the PF20, but decent though. With gain dialled in at 50% it was positively raucous and had a really biting and cutting sound that sat really nicely in the mix - needed an eq tweak to get it to work, but it was really surprising. 

I can see them both being very useful in small band situations and for recording. The pf20t for "that" sound, and the CTM15 for a whole different type of sound. 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

All this talk of valves - as tempting as the pf50 was, I was thinking it was just too small. Then this turned up, and I figured, probably still too small, but it wasn't that expensive (sh), so worth a spin. Turned up tonight:

IMG_4984.thumb.jpg.48551c4cdb891625f0b082c87ada7d24.jpg

Certainly looks the part. Have a gig at one of our regular places on friday so I will take it along and see what I can make it do!

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I tried my PF20T at rehearsal the other night.  Used the cab from the rehearsal room (some Hartke 15" I believe).  Was almost maxed out, Gain at about 1 or 2 o'clock, bass at about 4 and volume around 3 to be heard against kit, keys, 2 guitars, trombone, trumpet and vocals.  With the gain there, had to play gingerly to stop it going from a purr to a growl but it held its own against all that.  I'd have no qualms gigging it with PA support at a larger gig or by itself with a smaller band.  The difference with a second cab when playing at home is pretty huge too so if I could be bothered to take 2 cabs, would be fine for most regular gigs.

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On 15/09/2018 at 11:05, Bridgehouse said:

 

Just received a PF50T from Kenny's. No sign of hum when hooked up to a TC electronic cab. Really impressed by the sound for the price. Fantastic recording tool when plugged into my DAW which will probably be it's main use for me. 

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Ok so I finally got to use my new Ampeg PF50t in anger last night.  I depped for a friends band, a 5 piece 2 guitar, heavy hitting drummer doing classic rock covers (GNR, ACDC, Thin Lizzy, etc).  I used just one cab, a Barefaced Super Compact so I switched the amp to the 8 ohm setting.  I was a little worried that it might not be able to handle the gig so I brought my Ampeg PF500 with me too just in case.  Well that stayed in its case all night.  The PF50 handled it with flying colours.  Lovely sound, enough volume (got told that the bass was too loud but mgt) not lots of headroom but enough.  I had a friend who is a musician in our audience who said it sounded fantastic.  I also used a P bass (round wounds) with no pedals as there was not enough room on stage.  Very happy bunny.  Buy with confidence.  Oh and the guitarist said "wow it looks like a V8 engine".

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1 hour ago, pbasspecial said:

Ok so I finally got to use my new Ampeg PF50t in anger last night.  I depped for a friends band, a 5 piece 2 guitar, heavy hitting drummer doing classic rock covers (GNR, ACDC, Thin Lizzy, etc).  I used just one cab, a Barefaced Super Compact so I switched the amp to the 8 ohm setting.  I was a little worried that it might not be able to handle the gig so I brought my Ampeg PF500 with me too just in case.  Well that stayed in its case all night.  The PF50 handled it with flying colours.  Lovely sound, enough volume (got told that the bass was too loud but mgt) not lots of headroom but enough.  I had a friend who is a musician in our audience who said it sounded fantastic.  I also used a P bass (round wounds) with no pedals as there was not enough room on stage.  Very happy bunny.  Buy with confidence.  Oh and the guitarist said "wow it looks like a V8 engine".

 

Result!!

I wonder what it would be like with two cabs? Do you think with a 210 and a 115 it would keep up with a hard hitting drummer and three guitars (which are mostly overdriven)?

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9 hours ago, Thunderpaws said:

 

Result!!

I wonder what it would be like with two cabs? Do you think with a 210 and a 115 it would keep up with a hard hitting drummer and three guitars (which are mostly overdriven)?

Maybe but I had it matched to the cab for maximum spl or whatever it's called. If you have the option of PA support, then I wouldn't hesitate but if they are really loud and you don't then I think you might struggle. Sorry for sitting on the fence. Probably doesn't help. 

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Used it again at rehearsal last night with my souly/bluesy/rocky project.  The keys player wasn't there last night so it quickly morphed into a 3 piece blues rock trio.  The guitarist always plays far too loud with a very bright tone.  Not pleasant and has a million super expensive pedals that all sound very similar.

Anyway, the PF50t sounded great, didn't run out of power and looks great.  Still happy with the decision.

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My PF20t exchange unit arrived today.  It is different in two respects.  Hum has almost completely gone - its perfectly acceptable now, in fact barely audible.   The amp overall is also noticeably louder.  There was clearly a fault on the first one, though the character of the sound hasn't really changed.   Big thumpy tones on tap.  I still can't get much in the way of change in tone with the gain turned up though - no noticeable change in tone regardless of the level of gain, just makes it louder.  Cab still MB 1516B - deafeningly loud now if you want it to be.

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10 hours ago, converse320 said:

I still can't get much in the way of change in tone with the gain turned up though - no noticeable change in tone regardless of the level of gain, just makes it louder. 

I thought that at first but when I took it to rehearsal after about 20 minutes of play, it really started to growl.  Maybe it just needs a little more time to warm up?

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