Ampeg Venture Series

[BassAdder60]

Why is it you don’t hear much about these amps ? Have they been a flop ? 

[Lozz196]

I don’t know why, as I used one as a provided amp at a gig and really liked it. Maybe people are wary, following the SVT 7-PRO and PF500 issues? Shame, was a really good sound, just tweaked eq slightly on line check and away I went.

[MichaelDean]

I think the pricing is at an odd point. Not enough to be premium, but too high to be budget. Just kinda sitting in no man's land. 

[Minininjarob]

Ok so I demoed one of these at a friends business - he owns a backline company and was lent one to try out to see if he wanted to add it to his stock.

He had a 700w version and the matching Ampeg 2x10 cab.

Construction - all seemed pretty good, nice and solid. Wouldn't transport it around without a bag but as good as any others I've seen of the same type. The low and high switches weren't amazing but functional and easy to use, I would have used a metal switch but apparently they are copying the SVT Classic style which makes sense.

Was pretty easy to figure out how to use it, and I ran it pretty much flat with the super low switch on the mid position and the super high on. Sounded really nice and powerful, no obvious issues, I was really taken with it to be honest, made my P sound great! The overdrive was really nice too, no loss of bass and sounded quite natural to me.

I had the idea of trying it against some other Ampeg amps in his warehouse to compare it.

Ampeg SVT 4 pro into a 8x10 - sounded brittle and sharp and just unpleasant compared to the Venture. Not used one them before so it might be user error but when you try it flat and it sounds awful that's not a great start is it?

The a SVT Classic full 300w all valve goodness into the 8x10. Oh. My. God. I WANT ONE. As we all know they sound amazing BUT what I thought was the Venture did a good job tonally against the SVT - no it would never have the velvety smooth sledgehammer power of the SVT Classic but the character was very similar to my ears.

Hope that helps - I was never a huge Ampeg amp fan but I've been looking at maybe getting a Venture in the future. Or an SVT if I can afford a roadie as well.

[BassAdder60]

The V4B is very nice too 😉

[thodrik]

I did a gig on Saturday and one of the other players had a v7.

There are definitely a few about in the wild but I suspect that those who bought them do not frequent bass gear forums.

 

I didn't get to use it. I used the house supplied TC Electronic BQ500. It was perfectly fine given that I was running a Sansamp through the preamp anyway.

 

Personally, I think that the Venture designs look nice but the product line is about 7-8 years too late to make a significant splash in the market.
 

[Bass Direct]

Loving the Venture Series, really versatile amps, sold loads to customers using them for a whole host of different situations

[Russ]

21 hours ago, Bass Direct said:

Loving the Venture Series, really versatile amps, sold loads to customers using them for a whole host of different situations

Have you had many returns? Curious because their predecessors, the Portaflex series and the SVT-7, were plagued by reliability issues, and I'm really hoping the Ventures have moved past that. 

[Bass Direct]

3 minutes ago, Russ said:

Have you had many returns? Curious because their predecessors, the Portaflex series and the SVT-7, were plagued by reliability issues, and I'm really hoping the Ventures have moved past that. 

One, which was remedied really quickly too  

 

[BassAdder60]

2 hours ago, Bass Direct said:

One, which was remedied really quickly too  

 

Are they loud for their rated wattage as the Portaflex were underpowered for sure 

[Bass Direct]

4 minutes ago, BassAdder60 said:

Are they loud for their rated wattage as the Portaflex were underpowered for sure 

Come and give some a try

[Minininjarob]

1 hour ago, BassAdder60 said:

Are they loud for their rated wattage as the Portaflex were underpowered for sure 

They weren’t compared to the SVT we compared it against but that’s not a fair fight. 😂😂

[ProjeKtWEREWOLF]

Dumb question; is the venture capable of more than one 'baked in' sound e.g SVT? 

I'm looking for replacement for my Tech 21 VT Bass 500 which does SVT through to a B-15 reasonably well for a solid state amp.  

[Russ]

1 hour ago, ProjeKtWEREWOLF said:

Dumb question; is the venture capable of more than one 'baked in' sound e.g SVT? 

I'm looking for replacement for my Tech 21 VT Bass 500 which does SVT through to a B-15 reasonably well for a solid state amp.  

It's got the SGT circuit, with SVT and B-15 voicings. Supposedly sounds quite authentic - it has no valves, but that's not a big problem these days. I've not had the chance to try it firsthand yet though. 

[ProjeKtWEREWOLF]

10 minutes ago, Russ said:

It's got the SGT circuit, with SVT and B-15 voicings. Supposedly sounds quite authentic - it has no valves, but that's not a big problem these days. I've not had the chance to try it firsthand yet though. 

Interesting. I don't have much opportunity to try stuff in real life nowadays. 

[Minininjarob]

17 minutes ago, Russ said:

It's got the SGT circuit, with SVT and B-15 voicings. Supposedly sounds quite authentic - it has no valves, but that's not a big problem these days. I've not had the chance to try it firsthand yet though. 

When we tried it the B15 setting sounded lovely and smooth and the SVT more gritty but you can dial in the amount of each feel you want. Against a real SVT i thought it did a really good job. 
I wasn’t expecting much after disliking a Portaflex I tried once but I walked away very impressed. 

[Minininjarob]

10 minutes ago, ProjeKtWEREWOLF said:

Interesting. I don't have much opportunity to try stuff in real life nowadays. 

It helps I have a friend who runs a backline business! Trying to get him to get one of the handmade Hiwatt heads in!!

it was his place I fell in love with GK amps after trying out the frankly terrifying 2001rb. 

[Russ]

30 minutes ago, ProjeKtWEREWOLF said:

Interesting. I don't have much opportunity to try stuff in real life nowadays. 

I've tried the SGT-DI pedal, and it definitely sounds the part, but not a Venture head.

 

I've actually been avoiding them a bit, because I didn't want to end up really liking it and eventually being disappointed when it conks out. They do seem to be working out to be more reliable than Ampeg's previous Class D stuff though.