Ampeg BA210V2 - any experience?

[slinkp]

My next gig is at small bar that has an Ampeg BA210V2 listed as their house backline amp.
I've never played through one. Anybody tried it?

[Chris P.]

No, but I never worry about in house backlines. I can always get a decent tone out of regular amps, like Ampeg combos, and if they're not powerfull enough, there's your monitor.

[amptech]

I always bring my own amp, at least if I'll be playing anything mudbucker equipped!

[slinkp]

I can't remember the last time I played a venue that had any bass in the monitors!

I do like using house backline to reduce load/setup/teardown time -- it's the usual NYC deal where there's four bands in four hours.
But I have been burned a couple times.  Like one time, surprisingly in one of the larger NYC places I've played, where the amp turned out to be a 100-watt ampeg 1x15 model (BA115 maybe), which barely enabled me to hear myself at all over the acoustic sound of the drum kit, to say nothing of guitars etc.

I'll report back on how this one goes...  It's on Saturday 5/13 at the Cobra Club in Bushwick (Brooklyn) if any area folks want to stop by!

[Nighttrain1127]

A friend has one and uses it at small to med gigs. Won't fill a big room with earth moving bass but it can and will carry a Med size room fairly well the biggest Issue is it sits kind of low so you may not be able to hear it all that well

[slinkp]

Verdict:  Plenty of power and low end for a smaller space.  As predicted the PA was totally inadequate - it could barely handle the vocals, let alone bass, so there was no DI or mic going on.  No mic on the kick drum either. The room was maybe only about 20 by 30 feet at most (6 by 10 meters). The BA210v2 was plenty loud and filled the room quite nicely and I didn't come anywhere close to pushing it hard.
If anything, I had to be careful not to get too loud with it.

Tone-wise the cab seemed a little on the dark side: plenty of bass and low-mids, not a lot of upper mids and treble going on, but that's OK in a small space without much acoustic treatment - there is so much treble bouncing off the walls from two distorted guitars plus cymbals, I don't need to overdo it.

In hindsight I suspect the tweeter mute switch was on.  I didn't realize there was one. Doh!  Just as well, I don't think I needed the tweeter, but would have been nice to see what it did.


I'm afraid I can't vouch for the preamp tone for my own purposes; I brought my Genz-Benz and plugged its send into the Ampeg's return, so I was only using the power amp and speakers from the Ampeg.  It's an extra thing to bring and plug in, but it means no time wasted getting used to an unfamiliar preamp when I have literally about two minutes to get dialed in.  The other bands all used the Ampeg and sounded pretty good (one guy had some sort of preamp / overdrive thing plugged in too but I couldn't see what exactly it was).

I wouldn't hesitate to use one again. If I had more time to play with it I'd like to give the preamp a whirl too.