stubass Posted September 20, 2013 Share Posted September 20, 2013 Well, tonight I got to put my new hartke head through its paces. Happy! I purchased it from dv247 via some advice from some learned folks on here. I paid £250 for it by requesting a price match from musik productiv. I must say, its probably the best value ive come across. The sound stays sooo clean, even when I attempted to deafen everyone! Its a basic head but im not that into the fiddly stuff so its 3 band eq does fine for me. Its pretty good on the mids, certainly a match for the ampeg pf I used to use, if not slightly better. The bright switch didnt make much difference imo but I'm not fussed. Its a big heavy son of a bitch, solid as hell, can see it lasting the pace no problem. I ran it through an ashdown 810 which is reasonably new and it sounded sweet. Its just a great sounding amp, great tone and you can't really go wrong! The most pleasing thing for me is that I practice with a wee vox pathfinder which I adore and I can get that same kind of tone out the lf500, I kinda struggled to achieve that with the portaflex. Anyway, I'd recommend it if your in the market for a new, great quality amp and your willing to sacrifice some features for the value for money. I was and im bloody delighted. Thanks again to those who advised me on this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charic Posted September 21, 2013 Share Posted September 21, 2013 Excellent to hear! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RandomBass Posted September 21, 2013 Share Posted September 21, 2013 Nice one! And a great deal too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anton346 Posted September 22, 2013 Share Posted September 22, 2013 Interesting to hear. How do you feel that it compares to the Ampeg? (Was it a PF350 or PF500?) I get along with the Ampeg tone very well, so wondered whether the LH500 was able to achieve something similar to the 'Ampeg sound' or whether it's a totally different kettle of fish? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stubass Posted September 23, 2013 Author Share Posted September 23, 2013 Its different I'd say. I did like the ampeg sound but I was on a budget! I'm surprised at the quality for the money though, that's why I compared the two. The ampeg wins with its on board features but as I said, I like a simple set up. The ampeg is definatly less scoopy but the lf500 has that tubey sound I was after. I think I will invest in a sweeper at some point to even things out. Got a 3 hour job tonight so we'll see how that goes, its a notorious room for sound! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
6v6 Posted September 23, 2013 Share Posted September 23, 2013 I'm considering one of these - have you tried it with any pedals to add some grit? I'm also looking for a tubey, fat/warm/punchy amp on a budget, so this appears to suit. But some for some songs I need a little bit of drive, so I'm thinking of adding something like a VT Bass pedal, anyone tried this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stubass Posted September 23, 2013 Author Share Posted September 23, 2013 Yeah, I run a crappy DigiTech bp50 and have a boss overdrive too. The bp50 is actually OK apart from it being plastic. Some nice effects in there. Once we've finalised our set I might get some specific pedals but it does for now. I fancy trying vox stomplab sometime though. Heard good things. Tonight went really well again, I am really happy with the head. Had the frickin pa speaker in my face but it was punchy enough to cut through. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sofrimo Posted November 5, 2013 Share Posted November 5, 2013 I have the same amp, but am looking for a new cabinet to run it through... What Ashdown 810 Model did you play through? The MAG 810 Deep? or ABM 810? Best regards, Sofrimo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Conan Posted November 7, 2013 Share Posted November 7, 2013 They are lovely and simple. When I had Trace Elliot of Ampeg amps I used to spend forever faffing on with graphics and tone settings... With my LH500 I may occasionally need a bit of a tweak to the bass or treble settings, but that's all. It allows me to concentrate on more important things! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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