On November 27 and 28, 1969, the Rolling Stones headlined Madison Square Garden with opening acts Terry Reid, B.B. King, and Ike and Tina Turner. The New York Times declared it “the major rock event of the year.” The Stones’ backline? A wall of Ampeg SVTs. Eight SVT heads perched atop 8 x 10″ cabinets powered Keith Richards’s and Mick Taylor’s guitars, as well as Bill Wyman’s bass. Ampeg totally lucked into this phenomenal public relations coup. Months earlier, the Stones had shipped their own amps to Los Angeles to rehearse for their upcoming US tour. However, it wasn’t until they switched them on and they blew up that they realized the amps were set up for UK voltage. Luckily, Ampeg was in a position to capitalize on this most unfortunate of circumstances. You see, Ampeg had a new super amp — the SVT — and it was a beast. There was only one slight problem: it was still in the beta stage.

With the first tour date only weeks away, Stones keyboard player and road manager Ian Stewart reached out to Ampeg’s Hollywood rep, Rich Mandella, who saw an opportunity, loaded up all the SVT prototypes and some old cabs into his truck, and headed over to the Warner Brothers lot where the Stones were rehearsing. Richards, Taylor, and Wyman plugged in and cranked the 300-watt behemoths up to face-melting levels. Rich kept a wary eye on the amps (which immediately started showing signs of stress), and when he noticed one was about to fry, he’d swap it out. Since production was still months away and those prototype SVT heads were the only ones in existence, it was decided that Mandella would accompany the Stones on the tour as their personal Ampeg tech to patrol behind the backline and make sure everything was copacetic. The Stones’ soon-to-be-legendary ’69 tour was off to an auspicious start — quite the baptism by fire for Ampeg’s new amp.

The Backstory

The SVT story would be incomplete without delving into the history of Ampeg itself. Before the invention of the electric bass guitar, if you were a bassist, you played upright. In 1946, Everett Hull, a talented pianist and bassist himself, invented and patented a novel way to amplify the upright bass by attaching a microphone to the bass end of the metal “peg” that rests on the floor to support the instrument’s weight. The mic-equipped peg was carefully reinserted into the instrument through its F-hole. Ampeg subsequently developed the Baby Bass, a solidbody electric upright, and a line of bass amps that included the 825 and 835; but it was the 1960 Ampeg B-15 Portaflex, designed by Ampeg engineer Jess Oliver, that would become the benchmark for bass amplification thereafter. As the new electric bass guitar gained popularity, the B-15 quickly became a fixture in recording studios and was adopted by top session players such as James Jamerson and Chuck Rainey. It would go on to become the most recorded bass amp in history.

Evolution

Pushing 25 tube watts into a 15-inch driver loaded in an innovative, tuned double-baffle “flip-top” cabinet on wheels, the Ampeg B-15 delivered a round, punchy sound and portability that was perfect for session work and club dates. It would not fill an arena, but no one played stadiums in those days. Then the Beatles performed for 56,000 screaming teenyboppers at Shea Stadium in 1965, and the band’s instrument amplifiers proved incapable of delivering sufficient sound levels to most of the audience (notably, powerful PA systems designed for music did not yet exist). Over 400,000 showed up for the Woodstock festival four years later. Although a bespoke, first-of-its-kind PA system was jury-rigged for the occasion, delivering clean, rock-level sound to the population of a small city spread over acres of farmland was no easy feat, given the state of the art in musical amplification at the time. We were going to need a bigger boat; and, under the steady guidance of engineers Bill Hughes and Roger Cox, Ampeg set about designing just that.

A New Sheriff in Town

Unveiled at the 1969 NAMM show in Chicago, Ampeg’s 300-watt SVT (Super Vacuum Tube) bass head weighed in at 95 pounds and contained 14 tubes, six of which were big-bottle 6146 output tubes. To heat all those tubes, massive transformers that generated magnetic fields powerful enough to cause genetic mutations were needed. The amps even came with a warning label: “This amp is capable of delivering sound pressure levels that may cause permanent hearing damage.” And what kind of speakers could handle all that power? Nothing less than two cabinets, each weighing over 100 pounds and packing eight 10-inch speakers. And so began the legend of the SVT, which has set the standard for professional bass amplification for a half century.

Ruling the Stage with Massive, Roaring Power

From digital wireless and in-ear monitoring to new PA system concepts, live sound technology has taken major strides forward in the last decade or so. But back in the 1970s, being heard in the back row was largely dependent on how loud your amp was — and no amp was louder than the SVT. With the Ampeg SVT, performing bassists finally had an amplifier that could hold its own against their guitarists’ wall of tube stacks. From Stanley Clarke and Tony Levin to Darryl Jones and Robert Trujillo, the SVT has garnered a fiercely loyal cadre of devotees who have played versions of the iconic amp over the decades. Aside from various rackmount versions, SVTs in the classic “head” form can be divided into two main variants: “Blueline” and “Blackline.” Cosmetic changes in the front-panel design marked the transition from Blueline to Blackline SVTs, which coincided with Ampeg’s 1971 acquisition by Magnavox (shortly after the switch to 6550 output tubes). Collectors take note: Blueline models with 6550s are the rarest SVTs and are quite pricey — when you can find them.

A Half Century of SVT Domination

Both Blueline and Blackline tone circuits are now incorporated into the special edition SVT Heritage 50th Anniversary that Ampeg released this year to commemorate a half century of SVT domination. At Sweetwater, we consider this the ultimate SVT, and rightly so. In designing it, Ampeg evaluated the historic designs and tone stacks of the SVT in order to make the amp a sonic tour de force. Channel one delivers the authentic sound of the original 1969 SVT that launched the series, while channel two is voiced from a hand-selected mid-’70s model that represents the definitive evolution of golden-era SVT tone. So, not only does the 50th Anniversary SVT give you a choice of two historic SVT channels, but you can also jump the two channels together to create unique, hybrid SVT tones. Both channels of the SVT Heritage 50th Anniversary are still amplified with the fearsome and unrivaled 300-watt tube power section with specially sourced and matched Ampeg Super Valve 6550s.

A Super SVT for the New Millennium

Each special edition SVT Heritage 50th Anniversary is handcrafted in the USA and utilizes high-quality, state-of-the-art components and production techniques. Expected high-end modern features have been incorporated, such as an XLR DI output, Neutrik speakON outputs, user biasing, and spring-loaded side handles. Ampeg has paid meticulous attention to detail, as evidenced in the laser-etched front panel, robust cabinet construction, and top-quality hardware. The “best-of-the-best” channel selection, legendary SVT tone and power, modern USA assembly, and highly detailed cosmetics all add up to a super SVT for the new millennium. The special edition SVT Heritage 50th Anniversary brings the SVT saga full circle with a bass amp of unparalleled power and tonal superiority. The SVT, it would seem, is poised to rule the stage for another 50 years.

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