The Ampeg mid control is active (which enables the selectable frequency), while the treble and bass are passive Baxandall shelving controls. The main difference between this and other clean amps is the tone stack - with knobs at noon, it's actually flat frequency response, whereas Marshall/Fender/Hiwatt tone stacks still have a big mid cut with knobs at noon. They're designed to sound clean and even at any volume. Plexis do that because they have 'treble bleed' capacitors across their volume pots. it's the later distortion-channel model that sounds abysmal.) Ampegs are MUCH MUCH more consistent across the volume range than a Plexi. (Side note, the master volume model sounds exactly the same with its master all the way up. It stays clean to really high volumes, so I think it makes a great pedal platform regardless of what volume you're playing at. People generally consider the non-master-volume V4/VT22 to be the more desirable model. I’m not worried about the weight or volume, I’ve got the necessary tools to make it usable in whatever circumstance so no need to bother with the anti big iron propaganda ) I’ve heard ampegs can be challenging to get worked on and the tubes used arnt common, have any ampeg owners had major issues with this?Īlso just overall thoughts would be appreciated. The ampeg has no master volume which is fine but does it need to be turned up to a certain level to sound good with pedals? The plexi turned down can be very very bright but fattens up when it’s louder, is it the same deal with the ampeg?

The plexi sounds amazing on its own and with a slight boost but it can be a temperamental amp and has next to no clean headroom. I currently use a 50 watt super lead and while I love it very much I’m toying with the idea of more of a pedal platform setup. I know they are very heavy and very loud. In my area I’m looking at an ampeg vt22, I play in a loud, punky indie rock band and I’ve always been interested in old ampeg amps but I’ve never played through one.

Nate newton ampeg v4