TH500 idiots guide??

[dannybuoy]

I don't find it to hard to get my head around. Drive off, it's just like any amp, gain doesn't have any real effect on the sound. Dialing in drive lowers the headroom, so that the gain control starts to produce soft clipping overdrive.

It also starts to roll off highs and lows as you turn it up, so you can think of it as a modern/vintage knob. At low gain, you could just use this drive control as a HPF+LPF speaker simulator.

The final thing to realise is that the mid control is placed before the clipping section, so has a massive effect on the overdrive character. Boosting mids gives you more drive, but boosting bass/treble does not, since those controls are placed after the clipping section. Therefore don't be afraid to drastically scoop mids if using lots of drive!

[acidbass]

I owned a TH500 and struggled to get a clean tone at anywhere near gig volume. Tried various cabs including Aguilar and Barefaced. I found myself preferring to use a Bugera Veyron (which I also had at the time) - none of the Drive EQ nonsense and much easier to get a good clean tone. I sold the Aguilar soon after.

[Dan Dare]

THs do have a baked in tone (warm/thick), which you can modify but not lose completely with the eq (which is only 4 band) in my experience. If you like the sound, great. If not, you're probably better looking at alternatives. I have an AG700, which is less coloured by nature, although even it has some of the trademark Aguilar sound. Fortunately, I like it.