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moosers
Published on 02/28/11 at 14:39
The Ampeg Portaflex PF-500 is a 500 watt bass amplifier, sold both with a speaker cabinet and without one. The preamp is a MOSFET and it's a solid state amplifier. In the back of the amp there are connections in 1/4" form for a speaker output, a send and return effects loop, a foot switch, a tuner output, and both a preamp out and power amp in. It also has an XLR output for taking a direct signal from the amp, and a speak-on output as well. The direct XLR output also has buttons for a ground lift, setting the EQ pre or post, and a -40 db pad. On the front panel it also has a 1/4" input, and 1/8" connections for sending audio in and for headphone monitoring. As with most Ampeg amps, you're getting more than the full compliment of routing options here.
UTILIZATION
The Ampeg Portaflex PF-500 is a pretty easy amplifier to manipulate in my opinion. The front panel has a slew of parameters to work with, including knobs for compression, gain, bass, midrange (with extra adjustable frequency parameter), treble, fx mix, and volume. It also has 'ultra' hi and low boost buttons as well as mute and a -15 pad buttons. It should be pretty self explanatory, so I don't think most users will need to look at the manual.
SOUNDS
The sound of the Ampeg Portaflex PF-500 is definitely impressive to say the least. I've only used this for recording inside the studio along with an also Ampeg cabinet, and only for one session where the bass player brought it all in. I was really happy with the sounds we got for bass as this amp has a serious amount of low end presence happening as which is needed of course in a bass amp. Ampeg is widely known for making some of the best bass amps available, and while this isn't one of their best, it's still quite effective.
OVERALL OPINION
The Ampeg Portaflex PF-500 is an overall really solid bass amp. It's a good way for experienced bass players to get a very nice amplifier without spending a boat load of cash on a head alone. It's of course more expensive to buy this with the cabinet, but I'd recommend finding a cheaper cabinet and buying the PF-500 individually as it seems to make financial sense to do so. Ampeg makes a ton of great amps, a lot of which are better than the PF-500, but it's still very solid in it's own right and one of the best amps you can find for the money.
UTILIZATION
The Ampeg Portaflex PF-500 is a pretty easy amplifier to manipulate in my opinion. The front panel has a slew of parameters to work with, including knobs for compression, gain, bass, midrange (with extra adjustable frequency parameter), treble, fx mix, and volume. It also has 'ultra' hi and low boost buttons as well as mute and a -15 pad buttons. It should be pretty self explanatory, so I don't think most users will need to look at the manual.
SOUNDS
The sound of the Ampeg Portaflex PF-500 is definitely impressive to say the least. I've only used this for recording inside the studio along with an also Ampeg cabinet, and only for one session where the bass player brought it all in. I was really happy with the sounds we got for bass as this amp has a serious amount of low end presence happening as which is needed of course in a bass amp. Ampeg is widely known for making some of the best bass amps available, and while this isn't one of their best, it's still quite effective.
OVERALL OPINION
The Ampeg Portaflex PF-500 is an overall really solid bass amp. It's a good way for experienced bass players to get a very nice amplifier without spending a boat load of cash on a head alone. It's of course more expensive to buy this with the cabinet, but I'd recommend finding a cheaper cabinet and buying the PF-500 individually as it seems to make financial sense to do so. Ampeg makes a ton of great amps, a lot of which are better than the PF-500, but it's still very solid in it's own right and one of the best amps you can find for the money.