Anybody delt with an SVP-PRO?

[toomanyslurpees]

Ok, so I've parked the SVT in search of something lighter, I ended my search with an Aguilar AG500, which is lighter and has enough power for anything I'm going to do (and is small enough for my smaller gigs, so basically my one amp for everything) I also picked up an SVP-PRO which I'ld like to use to get a bit of that tube tone back and dirty up my sound when it's called for.

Now, what I've found about the SVP-PRO is that it's got a nice tone, but it's STUPID NOISY! there's a hum that is completely independant of the volume settings on the preamp and is there with no input into the preamp, it's not a tube issue, and I would even think it has an issue if I hadn't found reviews of this with people saying the same thing, or talking about having to use it with a noise gate. I'm looking forward to my next practice to compare the noise in a live situation instead of my appartment but the noise level with the preamp into the AG500 as compared to the AG500 without it is rediculous.

Anybody delt with this? Any thoughts on noise gates? I haven't used a noise gate on my own gear ever and I remember playing with a noise gate and it annoyed the crap out of me, but that was 10+ years ago.

 

[Moondog]

Don't have the Pro but know a few who did and never heard them described ast noisey - should get yours checked out . . .

I ditched my SVT-CL and Fridge for an SVP-CL and Berg IP and couldn't be happier. The SVP-CL is DEAD quiet.

 

[shakinbacon]

alternative

If it were me (and its not - but I realize spending other people's money is so much fun ), I would consider a rackmount sansamp RBI into either a poweramp or a micro head (markbass, genz benz, gk, take your pick)

I was very impressed with sansamp but feel their pedals have too little headroom for Musicman basses. The rackmounts have much more headroom (30V vs 9V if I'm not mistaken). I kept overdriving their pedals when the sansamp was disengaged (they aren't true bypass).

Their equipment is very, very quiet.

 

[toomanyslurpees]

I took the preamp into work today, I work in aircraft electronics which comes in pretty handy sometimes, I had ruled out a couple of things but we have a guy who's a wizard on the bench and he didn't find any problems so I'm fairly confident this is just how noisy this preamp is, which does fall in line with some things I've read from other reviews. Hmmm kinda disappointing. I'm not sure whether I'll try a noise gate or what.

I should say I'm 100% with the AG500, it's a great amp with tons of clean power and punch, just sometimes I don't want it that clean. I'm not talking full on distortion just that slight break up.

Does the RBI do that slight break up with any warmth?

 

[shakinbacon]

Does the RBI do that slight break up with any warmth?

I've only tried their pedals (bass driver, bass driver delux and paradriver) but they all could do slight to full on dirty distortion. I used them for slight breakup myself. The RBI should do it no problem.

Check out reviews and discussions on it at TalkBass

 

[oli@bass]

Does the RBI do that slight break up with any warmth?

I think so. A MarkBass F1 paired with a SansAmp RBI is my "cheap and light" solution to get the SVT sound (sans SVT).