Nashville 400???

Kurt Graber · Post by **Kurt Graber** » 27 Jan 2003 8:07 pm

Is it me, or is there really something wrong with this amp. I own 3 session 500's and I think this is the ultimate Steel Amp. I am bringing this topic up because we someimes have to fly and rent equipment and everytime I get my 2nd choice(Nashville 400) I just hate it. I'll fight it all night long to get the tone that I want. It just sounds so hollow.

Glenn Austin · Post by **Glenn Austin** » 28 Jan 2003 8:10 am

I've never owned a Nashville 400, but I've tried a couple. An older model with the silver corners that I tried sounded great. Then there was a guy who brought his Nashville to try out with a steel I was selling, a newer model with the black corners, and it sounded awful. Didn't even sound remotely like the first one I tried, and this was with the same guitar. Maybe its the speaker?

Richard Mitcham · Post by **Richard Mitcham** » 28 Jan 2003 5:40 pm

I have a session 400 limited and when you said the amp you played on sounded hollow it rang a bell. My amp sounds that way to. I wonder if the Peavey mod would help this sound? My old 70's session 400 sounds better to me.

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Buck Grantham R.I.P. · Post by **Buck Grantham R.I.P.** » 28 Jan 2003 6:47 pm

I had a 500 and every time I changed clubs it took me 2 weeks to get it EQ'd again to sound good. Since then I have had 5 NV400 and get a good sound out of then. But the older ones with the chrome corners had paper speakers in them and they sounded better than the newer ones do. Sometimes the guitars make a lot of diffrence . Maybe it's the pickups.

Mike Brown · Post by **Mike Brown** » 29 Jan 2003 12:18 pm

Just by your comments, I believe that you are "tuned in" to the Session 500 and what you hear is what you prefer out of this amp. Switching to a Nashville 400 will probably take time for you to get used to.

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Larry Bell · Post by **Larry Bell** » 29 Jan 2003 1:09 pm

My experience was the same as Buck's for ANY of the Peavey amps with parametric mids. It was like the original Session 400 was difficult to find BAD sounds on and from the 500 on, dialing it in when playing a new room became a chore. But, of all the post-Session 500 amps, I probably like the Nashville 400 the best.

Mike's right -- a lot of it is what you're used to and the sound you hear in your head.

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Larry Bell - email: larry@larrybell.org - gigs - Home Page
2000 Fessenden S-12 8x8, 1969 Emmons S-12 6x6, 1971 Dobro

Bobby Snell · Post by **Bobby Snell** » 29 Jan 2003 3:03 pm

Kurt, ask for a Nashville 1000 on the contract rider: It's brighter and tighter than the N400. The N1000 should be available from good backline providers as that is Peavey's current amp, whereas the S500 is an older model than the N400.

I have never owned a S500, but I have played my guitar through a few. And I think the N1000 is closer in sound to the S500 than is the N400. And I've owned those 2 (N400 + N1000) amps.

Now, if a N1000 leaves the station at 3S, traveling at 600 mph.....(sorry for the math)

!:^)

(edited to include this link to actual contract riders at mature humor site)
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/backstagetour/index.html
[This message was edited by Bobby Snell on 30 January 2003 at 03:28 PM.]

Roger Rettig · Post by **Roger Rettig** » 29 Jan 2003 4:48 pm

I must say I prefer the NV1000 to the NV400 - I find the 400 sounds 'boxy' in comparison, 'though it's perfectly acceptable once the Profex has 'warmed it up' with the EQ on the 'patches' I use.

I find the NV1000 to be much closer to the old Session 400. The 1000 is also (for me, anyway) a much better amp for my 'Tele' than the NV400.

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Roger Rettig [This message was edited by Roger Rettig on 29 January 2003 at 04:50 PM.]

Brad Sarno · Post by **Brad Sarno** » 31 Jan 2003 10:58 am

I think people often overlook the simple factor of cabinet size. You could run your favorite amp into the exact same speaker but with different cabinet sizes, the tone changes dramatically. I've tried it here. Running the head of a Nashville 400 or a Fender Twin into both a Vegas 400 cabinet and a Nashville 400 cabinet. The tone is very different with the different cab's. The larger Vegas cabinet sounded a lot like a Nashville 1000 and the low end and low-mids were big and deep. The Nashville 400 cabinet, being so tiny, had a boxier low-mid hump. I actually like the hump but it made me set the eq differently, shifting the mid frequency a bit lower to help reduce the "honk". Each cabinet has it's coloration. Sometimes people look too much at the electronics when it's primarily an acoustical issue.

Brad Sarno
Blue Jade Mastering
St. Louis, MO

Gino Iorfida · Post by **Gino Iorfida** » 31 Jan 2003 12:18 pm

Factor in with the cabinet construction, the baffle board.
-- loading the speaker from the front sounds different than rear-loading it
-- thickness and material of baffleboard DOES matter - a good grade plywood resonates better than particle board, there is an optimum thickness as well-- too thin and the bass gets flabby, too thick, and ti refuses to resonate enough....
-- how the baffle is mounted. Mounting on all foru sides can tighten up the bass response, however a 'tighter' bass doesnt alwas mean the deepest bass. A 'floating' baffle (i.e. one mounted at top and bottm only, allowing the sides to freely resonate) will make a difference

I think I've done WAYYY too much playing around myself with this, only to find that when I found the 'perfect' baffle for an amp I was designing, it to not be perfect when I tried a different speaker *laugh*