Hello

I'm about to buy Sovtek MIG100H, and would really appreciate some info on them.. as to what's good about those amps (except for prices ), and whats bad.. how do they sound on record, and how do they sit in the mix. I keep thinking about those as GRUNGE amps.. am i right?

thanks

if anyone out there could compare and contrast the sovtek mig h to a fender bassman, i 'd appreciate it.

This is only one man's take. When it comes to Sovtek the truly useful ones are the Mig 50 and the Mig 60. The 100 is pretty metal/grunge ready but my personal feelings are that it isn't magical. It's a cool amp though. They made a bass version that's kinda like a master volume Super Bass.
The Mig 50 is a dead ringer for a bassman with running higher voltage. Because that's basically what it is. Think Marshall JTM 45, which was a hot bassman itself. As you may know there is no master volume. They sound better with European 6L6's than with their stock russian 5881's.
The Mig 60 is, in my opinion, similar to a JMP Marshall Master Model. Classic master volume Marshall tones. I'm trying to find one of these myself. The sound of this amp through Greenbacks makes me smile.
They also made those midget models. The ones I've heard suck by comparison. But they're better than a fuckin' Crate. I don't recall what the exact difference between the Mig 50 and Mig 50 migdet were.
The bottom line is you'll be happy with any Sovtek. They used great components, lots of hand wiring, and they are based on tried and true designs. Own one and you'll get it. Own 10 and live it.

One easy upgrade you can do yourself is to replace those cheap plastic toggles and such the Sovteks come with. A fast trip to Radioshack and a few moments work can add a ton more reliability to that amp. I remember people talking about the same thing with those big muff pedals. Upgrade the connectors and the switches.

I wil second the crappy plastic switch/jack replacement. My Mig 100 has all of it's jacks, front and back, busted off. Granted, I treated it like shit through high school, but still, if they were metal they'd still be there.

My amp is not the "h" version, which stands for "heavy" I believe. I fucking love this amp. It can sound tough as hell or clean and crisp. I listen to some of my older recordings and totally miss the guitar sound I would get with that thing (it hasn't worked in a year). Im looking at a 50 and a 60 now. Both are very good amps. They make a 50 in a finished wood head enclosure that looks really fucking great. It would be cool for a studio amp, but would get dinged up pretty quick on the road.

good luck
mike

Luke wrote:if anyone out there could compare and contrast the sovtek mig h to a fender bassman, i 'd appreciate it.

I've never owned a sovtek, though most of what I've heard about them falls in line with what's been said here: good to great sounding, with terrible hardware.

I have, however, owned a couple of bassman's in the past, and my roommate currently owns 3 ...a bassman 20 2x6v6 combo, and 2 bassman 100 heads 4x6L6, all silverface... and they are all awesome. Very simple amps.. no frills, but reliable as hell and always sounding great. Also very easy to repair and modify. It can depend on what model bassman you are thinking of however, I would try to stay away from any reissue stuff made in the 90's or later.

In regards to Bassman amps vs Sovtek amps...
I currently have an original blackface Bassman at my studio. Sounds totally awesome... used to belong to Brainiac. Sounds nothing like any Sovtek I've played, although I can''t say Ive used the MIG 50 or 60 enough to be certain. When you put the bassman to 10 though... holy jewish Jesus.

Ill be getting an original brownface and silverface at my studio soon and then I can compare them all! Ha.

l'chaim,
mike

michaeltheangryrussian wrote:Ill be getting an original brownface and silverface at my studio soon and then I can compare them all! Ha.

l'chaim,
mike

I have a sort of brownface bassman copy that my friend built.. the tube rectifier is amazing, particularly for recording. if there's any drawback to it, its just that it doesn't seem as loud as a black or silverface - which, with an amp like that, can cause me not to use it when playing with certain drummers.

I've owned and worked on Sovtek amps. Here's my thoughts.

Mig 50 (non master volume)
Pretty damn cool tone, great when cranked. However, it's built like crap with pots soldered to the pc board. these pots always break and replacements are near impossible to find. The transformers can blow if cranked a lot. If you cen work on amps, this is not bad to have aroind.

Mig 50 midget (tiny full gain head)
like a jcm800 with some gain mods. Cool for hard rock. Don't know about the build

Mig 60
this amp is rad. true point to point wired, el34 power tubes, like a 2204 marshall. master volume. AC/DC kinda sound. So good.

Mig 100 and 100h.

midddle of the line build quality. The mid knob is wired funny. Change the tone stack to classic marshall and do a 6L6 to el34 mod and it'll rule. As is, it's a great deal, but nothing astounding.

ben adrian
oakland, ca

Hi boys and girls of the tech room,

My Mig 50 turned up today. I'm running it into an Orange 2x12 cab and finally feel like I can hold my head up like a real, tube-amp wielding man of the PRF. Welcome me with your open arms.

However, this is my first tube amp and as such my masculinity is offset by some likely retarded questions:

1) Why do the 16 and 4 ohm outputs not seem to be wired up? The 8 ohm is a-okay, but nothing from the other two.

2) There was a blue flash that seemed to come from somewhere around the leftmost (as you look at the back of the amp) tube and what I assume to be the capacitors when it was first switched on. I read this thread but that doesn't seem to nail down whether this is a bad or okay thing--it should probably be noted that I was running the 8 ohm output into my 16 ohm cab for reasons noted above.

3) The leftmost tube glowed a hell of a lot more than the right one for a while, and continued to increase its glow until we chickened out and cut the power. After that it acted normal from that point. What was this phenomenon and is it related to number two above?

4) possibly the most stupid question of all: what's the deal with the standby switch? I assume it's to warm the tubes or something? Should I play with this switch on or off?

Thanks for enduring my barrage of questions.