History of AMPEG
The SVT Story: 300 Watts of Bass Amp Glory
Giants shook the planet in 1969, and they needed massive amps. The action took place in stadiums and outdoor festivals, and 50 watts simply wasn't enough to stir the girl in the 61st row wearing her hand-embroidered bellbottoms. However, as seen by the walls of Marshalls, Hiwatts, Dual Showmans, and other loud amplifiers, it wasn't as if no one had responded to the need.
Amp designers Bill Hughes and Roger Cox, with help from Bob Rufkahr and Dan Armstrong, saw a need for Ampeg to compete, so they set out to build "the biggest and nastiest bass amplifier the world had ever seen." The crew created an all-tube beast they called the Super Vacuum Tube, or SVT, whose 300 watt output outperformed the ear-splitting Marshall Major's 200 watts by a whole 100 watts!
The SVT head alone weighed 95 pounds and contained 14 tubes, six of which were enormous 6146 power tubes. It was first displayed at the 1969 NAMM show in Chicago. Massive transformers with magnetic fields strong enough to alter genetic material were required to heat all those tubes. What kind of speakers could handle that much power? Not less than two cabinets, each weighing 105 pounds and housing eight ten-inch speakers.
After inspecting his creation, Cox became concerned about potential liabilities. He reasoned that when your engineers warn of the harm their designs may create, you'd better pay attention. Ampeg management took action and created a label that read:
This amplifier can deliver sound pressure levels that "might permanently damage hearing."
Some claim that we create our own luck, yet these are typically the lucky ones. Ampeg's good fortune resulted from the Rolling Stones' ignorance of different worldwide voltages, not from their own actions. The Stones brought their Fender amplifiers to the States to practice for their iconic 1969 world tour, and when they plugged them in and turned them on, the smoke and flames that ensued made the roadies realize that the amplifiers were calibrated for U.K. voltage.
Despite being "The Greatest Rock 'N' Roll Band in the World," the Stones enjoyed receiving free equipment, just like all bands. Ian Stewart, the now-deceased Stones keyboardist and tour manager, frantically begged Rich Mandella, Ampeg's Hollywood representative, for amplifiers for the tour, which was still a few weeks away.
The Stones were practicing on the Warner Brothers lot when Mandella, who could spot a good thing when he saw one, loaded up all the SVT prototypes and several vintage 4x12 cabs into his pickup and drove down to the location. The SVT prototypes were connected, and Keith, Mick Taylor, and Bill Wyman then turned them up to a volume that turned the unhip into blazing puddles of goo.
Mandella observed that the SVT prototypes were on the verge of melting down as a result of Keith's unrelenting beating, despite the Stones' seeming compassion for the devil. "Everything he was doing in rehearsal just kept getting louder, bigger, and crazier, with two or three heads per person," Mandella claimed. When I noticed one of the amps was going to blow up, I just switched heads and continued to watch the amps.
Mandella would follow the Stones on tour as their personal Ampeg technician because the prototype SVT heads were the only ones in existence—production was still some time off. Rich Mandella was behind the backline making sure everything was in order while the Stones rocked and the crowd swayed. Check watch Gimme Shelter, the Rolling Stones' own documentary about the world tour in 1969, if you want to get a taste of the mayhem. But hurry down and grab Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out if you want to hear those early SVTs blaring for all they're worth.
Since since, whether they are well-known or utterly unknown, rock bassists dream of the SVT bass amp. Fortunately, Ampeg still produces the SVT-VR, which is nearly identical to the ones the Stones used to set their Jack Daniels bottles on top of. The SVT idea has been tweaked by Ampeg for a wider variety of sounds. (There is also the SVT-Classic, which is extremely similar to the original.)
Scott Malandrone, a former editor of Bass Player, described the SVT in this way: "The SVT has done for the sound of electric bass what the Marshall Super Lead had done for the sound of electric guitar—it would give the instrument an identity."
The Meaning of the Sound
Everette Hull, a talented bassist and pianist, partnered with Stanley Michaels to form Michaels-Hull Electronic Labs in 1946. It was their goal to manufacture a brand-new microphone pickup that Hull had created. The Amplified Peg, or "Ampeg" for short, was a pickup that was attached to the end of an upright bass.
Hull changed the company's name to the Ampeg Bassamp Company in 1949 after becoming its sole owner. Since then, Ampeg has created some of the most ground-breaking and iconic items in the music industry, meeting the demands of musicians all over the world. Six U.S. patents with the Ampeg brand name are the consequence of many of these items having distinctive features and performance capabilities.
A combo amplifier with a chassis that could be flipped over and tucked inside the speaker enclosure was invented in 1960 by a design engineer by the name of Jess Oliver. This feature protected the internal components and increased portability. Known as the "Portaflex," this amplifier rose to prominence in bass combos in the 1960s and 1970s. Ampeg was the first firm to include reverb in an amplifier in the early 1960s. The Reverbrocket came out almost two years before Fender's Vibroverb, which is frequently regarded as the first.
Ampeg created the most potent instrument amplifier ever in 1969. The Super Valve Technology bass amplifier, or SVT for short, not only harnessed 300 watts of pure tube power but also debuted a revolutionary tube (valve) technology. Since then, the SVT has demonstrated its reliability on the road and continues to be the most frequently utilized bass amplifier on stages all around the world.
St. Louis Music Inc. acquired Ampeg in 1986 and carried on the legacy of producing high-quality, musician-pleasing goods. The most recent professional, cutting-edge, and feature-rich amplifiers are the Ampeg Classic Series and PRO Series models.
Following LOUD Technologies' acquisition of Ampeg in 2005, the Classic Series and PRO Series amps were expanded upon. Along the years, LOUD has created and revitalized a number of other series, some of which are still in use today. These series include the Micro VR stack, PRO Neo Series, Heritage Series, and Portaflex Series.
AMPEG NOW
In 2018, Yamaha Guitar Group, Inc. (YGG) purchased the Ampeg brand, bringing it under the same roof as Line 6 and Yamaha basses, guitars, and amplifiers. The Heritage 50th Anniversary SVT was the first product created by YGG in honor of the 70+ years of illustrious Ampeg history and the 50th anniversary of the amplifier that put Ampeg on the map of rock 'n' roll. This amp quickly rose to the top of the list of products sought after by touring musicians and backline companies.
In 2021, Ampeg unveiled a range of Rocket Bass combo amplifiers that had been totally revamped while also honoring its past. These combos are far lighter than previous Rocket Bass amps and feature the new Super Grit Technology circuit (abbreviated SGT) from the firm.
The SVT Suite bass amp and effects plugin is the result of YGG and Ampeg's continued pushing of analog and digital technology to their limits while looking into the future of bass amplification and anticipating the needs of bassists of all levels and styles.
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