Snowblinder wrote:It did actually have kind of a Wipers feel to it when it started to overdrive. I played a Stratocaster through it at the store and it was very nice. I know Keith Richards used these amps in the 1970's as well.

It's a great sounding amp. I'm hoping it'll serve as a good bass amp too, for smaller venues. The tubes in it currently are Sovtek 7027's, not Magnavox, so they're not original.

(Not mine in the photo, but you get the idea)

I had a very similar amp, but it was B-410. Solid state I beleive. It was never loud enough, so I sold it. I'm not sure whether it was the age of the speakers (they were the original speakers) or anything else, but for 100watt, it wasn't loud enough on stage. One awesome thing was being able to slide the head out and use that by itself. Perfect for touring. I wish I never had to sell it, but when I buy one piece of equipment, I usually have to sell another.

scott wrote:You could also pull two of the power tubes and get wikked sounds at lower power.

I assume this would mean pulling either the outer two or the inner two, right? No risk to the amplifier by doing this?

Also....judging by the rear panel, it is possible to run the preamp of this out into another amp. Driving a power amp with the VT-22's pre....1/4" cable from the Ampeg's Preamp Out to the power amp's input....again, any risk to the amp by doing this? While I'll be using the amp alone for guitar, I think it might be cool to try this setup for bass, and I could (presumably) bypass any risk to the 12" speakers in the VT-22 since the power amp in question is going into an Ampeg 8x10.

I'm not going to do any of this for a while, until it's in excellent working order again. Just wondering.

madlee wrote:the v-4, v-4b, and vt-22 are all the same, with the one difference being that the v-4b doesn't have reverb.

Also, the V-4B has an 'ultra low' switch. I think it drops the center frequency of the bass EQ down an octave.

Snowblinder wrote:

scott wrote:You could also pull two of the power tubes and get wikked sounds at lower power.

I assume this would mean pulling either the outer two or the inner two, right? No risk to the amplifier by doing this?

Don't assume this. As I recall from looking at the layouts a long time ago, the older ones and newer ones are different.

You will change the output impedance of the head by doing this. Otherwise, no big deal.

Also....judging by the rear panel, it is possible to run the preamp of this out into another amp. Driving a power amp with the VT-22's pre....1/4" cable from the Ampeg's Preamp Out to the power amp's input....again, any risk to the amp by doing this? While I'll be using the amp alone for guitar, I think it might be cool to try this setup for bass, and I could (presumably) bypass any risk to the 12" speakers in the VT-22 since the power amp in question is going into an Ampeg 8x10.

You can do this. I can't remember if you can have the amp in standby while using the preamp out....maybe. I'd leave the 12" speakers hooked up just in case (even tho no sound will be coming out if you use preamp out).

I have wanted to get a VT22 and put high-wattage Webers in it, but I already have a couple V4s, so it's kinda overkill.

Those are my favorite amps, the whole Ampeg V family.

Hey, if you just have an overall lack of volume but otherwise the amp sounds OK, you might try just replacing the phase inverter. It's probably a 12AT7 or a 12AU7 if you have a master-volume VT22. It is laid out so it's kind of off on its own from the rest of the preamp tubes (at least that is where it is on V4s).

I think I'm going to get rid of the Sovtek 7027's, which most everyone I've spoken to seems to believe are the problem, and install a new matched quad of Svetlana 6L6-GC's. My amp tech uses Svetlana's exclusively unless asked to install something else, and I've had nothing but good experiences with their EL-34's (in a JCM 800) and 6550's (in an SVT). Anyone used them in their amps? Opinions?

I want to play this amp so bad. Waiting for repairs, while worth it in the long run, is always a pain.

I have JJ/Tesla 7027's in mine. Sound good, never used anything else, so yeah.

I swear by svetlanas. I have them in my Sunn, Bassman and Guild. The only time I've had tube issues was when I let my amp tech talk me into Tung-Sols and a 6l6 shorted out 5 minutes into a tour.

i'm looking into snagging a 90's reissue of a v4.

yay or nay?

that damned fly wrote:i'm looking into snagging a 90's reissue of a v4.

yay or nay?

I don't really have any experience with the reissue V-4. I did used to own a 70's V-4B head though which was great. It was $300....this was about four years ago I guess. I only got rid of it because somebody offered me an SVT Classic for it, and honestly, through an Ampeg 8x10, the V-4B wasn't cutting it live, despite having a really great tone. I was playing with two guitarists using 100 watt JCM 800 full stacks, and a very powerful drummer. It was awesome for recording bass though. If you've ever listened to the album "The Lipstick Game" by Rye Coalition, it sounded almost identical to the bass tone on that. Which in turn sounded a lot like the bass tone on the Jesus Lizard albums. Which comes back around to the TS-50B...again. But I digress...

Anyway, try it out. I agree with the above post in that you could definitely find an old V-4 or V-4B for the same price, if not less. Check out this place:

www.mikesmusicohio.com

It's in Cincinnati, Ohio. Disregard their online inventory, as they have at least five times the amount of gear that is listed. I know I've seen many V-4's in there in the past. Give them a call.

My VT-22 now has another issue. It has been working fine...I just took it to my local tech this afternoon to have a brand new matched quad of Svetlana 6L6-GC's installed (I wasn't sure how old the Sovtek 7027A's that came in it were) and to have the amp biased accordingly. He also cleaned the tube sockets, checked the amp over fully, fixed the wiring of the speakers (it was a mess). For free.Took it to practice, played it loud for about an hour and a half. Sounded great. And then.....the amp just died. The whole thing shut down. Power went off, everything.

I pulled the fuse out. Sure enough it was blown. The amp takes 6 amp, 250v fuses. I examined the one that I pulled and it was a 5 amp, 250v. I'm hoping that when i pop in a 6 amp fuse tomorrow, all will be well again. Still....does this sound like a potentially larger issue than simply a case of the wrong fuse being installed? I'm really afraid of it being a blown transformer...can't afford that magnitude of a repair right now.

I have a VT-40. I have had it for years and my friend had a VT-22 and we love them.

I am no guitar tech but as your tech will probably tell you the word is that our amps were apparently designed to take 6L6GCs (I hear Svetlana brand are the toughest) as Ampeg knew they would be discontinued and made provisions for it by wiring the circuits to take them i.e. they did not use the extra pins on the 7027A. I understand it will roast early straight 6L6s. Apparently our amps can be converted to EL-34s (like Marshall, Orange & Traynor to name 3) or 6550s (USA Marshalls for about 10 years) power tubes. The conversions are covered in The Tube Amp Book at least the edition I have.

As you have probably discovered, it will be ultra loud once it is re-tubed. I went for the VT-40. It has half the tubes and therefore less weight. It is still loud. Sounds fantastic with or without my POD. Fantastic amplifier. Terrific mid-range section and input controls via rocker switches.

Check with your tech first, but I believe you can replace the 12DW7s preamp tubes with 12AX7s. You may want to also track down a couple of those 6K11s to be safe.

By the way if you concerned about weight Celestion has a lightweight 12" G12 Century Vintage (as in vintage 30-like) speaker used in the new Traynor Custom 90 you might consider. They sound great and really significantly reduce the weight. In fact the 2 x12 Traynor Custom 90 is lighter than the 1 x 12 Custom 50 which has half the power tubes. Go figure. Hopefully you will never need to replace them. They have a reputation as very rugged amps in general.

The speakers in mine are Altec Lansing 417-8Cs. I picked up a couple of spares but I haven't needed them yet. I don't know if they are original but my friend’s VT-22 has them too.

Hope the fuse is the problem.