Bergantino Forte HP2 amp gear review from a blind player's perspective

[JGSpector]

Overview.

I recently purchased a Bergantino Forte HP2 along with a Forte gig bag. I have to say, I absolutely love it. The amp isn’t absolutely perfect from a blind user’s perspective but the imperfections can easily be worked around and to anybody who is not blind, I doubt they would even be considered to be imperfections. So, here are my thoughts.

Disclaimer: I’m just a dude who plays bass in a few projects and bands for fun, I am by no means a pro musician or online reviewer. All views are my own and I have not received any payment or other incentives to produce this review. I am only reviewing gear that I actually own or that I have access to due to items being on loan from various friends.

Build Quality.

The amp: I think the form factor of this amp is very nice indeed. It’s immediately clear when taking it out of the sturdy and padded box that this amp is built with extremely high quality components. It has a smart aluminium body with unusual but very grippy rubber feet at each corner. It feels really sturdy and none of the knobs or switches feel loose or cheap.

The gig bag: Again a very nicely made product, is well padded, has good quality zips, has a large outer compartment that is big enough to fit the amp power cable, speaker cables and the bluetooth footswitch and still have space for ear protection, spare batteries, screwdriver etc. The main compartment is perfectly sized for the Forte HP2 and because it is top loaded the amp is easily accessible without having to lay the bag on its side to get to it. The shoulder strap is a permanent part of the bag which I like as there is no chance it can become unclipped. I’m definitely glad I bought the gig bag, it somehow manages to do a superb job of protecting the amp whilst not being bulky, which I very much appreciate.

Amp Dimensions & Power.

Dimensions: Width, 13.25” (33.66cm), depth 8.375” (21.27cm), height 3.75” (9.525cm).

Weight: 6.4 lbs (2.9 Kg).

Power: 600 watts into 8ohms, 1200 watts into 4 ohms, 1200 watts into 2ohms.

Knobs & Switches.

The knobs on this amp are nice and solid and feel good under the fingertips. The master volume, input gain, compressor and drive knobs all have an angled slice cut out of them that has a recessed line in the centre so you can easily feel what position the knob is at if on a dark stage or if you are blind like me.

All of the EQ controls have a centre detent which I always like to find on an amp. The input gain, compressor, drive, high and low pass filter and master volume knobs do not have a centre detent which makes sense of course.

Something I absolutely love about this amp is that the master volume knob is massive. In fact Bergantino themselves refer to it as “one big knob”. As you can no doubt imagine, having a master volume knob that is 4 or 5 times the size of all the other knobs is perfect for blind players or people who are forever operating on dark stages.

The push buttons are of good quality and respond well under the fingertips. However, they are the type that do not stay in or pop out when pressed. This did throw me for a minute to be honest, mainly due to my tactile requirements as a blind player. Having said that, it is immediately obvious whether the Mute, Punch and Bright buttons have been engaged. This is also true of the Drive Engage button, although if only using low levels of drive it might not be quite as obvious. What I do is turn the Drive knob all the way up before pressing the Drive Engage button. That way it is immediately clear that the drive circuit has kicked in. All I do then is dial back the Drive knob until I have the level where I want it.

The DI pre/post function is controlled by pressing the Punch button for a few seconds. Similarly the 4ohm/2ohm setting is toggled by pressing the Mute button for a few seconds. You can also switch between two high frequency EQ settings by pressing the Bright button for a few seconds. In all cases an LED next to the button changes colour to indicate which setting has been selected. This of course poses a problem for blind players. Ultimately you could ask a band mate to confirm which colour the LED is displaying. I think realistically this would be the best and safest way to get around this as the last thing you want to do is set the 4ohm/2ohm setting wrong and end up damaging your equipment. This won’t actually be a problem for me at all as I have an 8ohm cab and a 4ohm cab that are never used together meaning that when I use the 8ohm cab the speaker load is 8ohm which has the amp running at 600 watts, whilst when using the 4ohm cab the amp will run at 1200 watts which is the default setting for the Forte HP2.

The power switch is a rocker style, is good and solid with a positive clunk under the fingertip when engaged.

Features, layout & ease of use.

Front Panel, from left to right.

3.5mm aux input jack (top): For connecting external devices.

1/4” instrument input jack: (bottom).

Compression knob (top): Turn clockwise to increase amount of compression.

Input Gain knob (bottom):  Adjust for instrument input level.

Overload indicator LED (next to input gain knob): Flashes when input stage is being overloaded.

Master volume knob: You can’t miss it, it’s massive!

Protect indicator LED: Comes on when amp is overheating, if it is receiving dirty power, if air vents are blocked, if cables are damaged. The amp automatically mutes if this occurs.

Clip indicator LED. Comes on if output signal is clipping.

Drive knob (top): Turn clockwise to increase amount of drive.

Engage Button (at 5 o’clock position next to the Drive knob): This button engages/disengages the Drive effect and is also switchable

via the Bluetooth footswitch. Press and hold this button or the Drive switch on the footswitch for 2 seconds to toggle between primary and secondary Drive functions. The amp will always power up with the Primary Drive function selected, regardless of whether it’s engaged or not.

Drive engage indicator LED (next to Drive knob): Lights up when drive circuit is engaged. Flashes once when primary drive is engaged, flashes twice when secondary drive is engaged.

Variable low pass filter (bottom): This control adjusts the Low-Pass frequency of the amp from 1 khz when the knob is turned fully to the left and 10 khz when the nob is turned fully to the right.

Variable high pass filter (bottom): This control adjusts the High-Pass frequency of the amp from 30 hz when the knob is turned fully to the left and 120 hz when the knob is turned fully to the right.

Bass EQ knob (bottom): Adjusts the bass frequencies, plus or minus 10db @ 65 hz

LoMid EQ knob (bottom): Adjusts the LoMid frequencies, plus or minus 10db @ 250 hz

HiMid EQ knob (bottom): Adjusts the HiMid frequencies, plus or minus 10db @  1khz

Treble EQ knob (bottom): Adjusts the treble frequencies, plus or minus 10db @ 3.5 khz

Punch Engage Indicator LED (top): This indicator illuminates orange when Punch is engaged

Punch button (top): Engages the Punch filter of the amp and is switchable via the footswitch. It also toggles between Pre and Post EQ for the DI select when pressed and held for 3 seconds.

DI Pre/Post EQ Indicator LED: Illuminates green when “pre” is selected and yellow when “post” is selected.

Bright Engage indicator LED: Illuminates green when the Bright filter is engaged

Bright button (top): Engages/disengages the Bright filter and is switchable via the footswitch. It also toggles the bright frequency between +6db @ 2khz and +8db @

7khz when pressed and held for 3 seconds.

Bright Frequency Indicator LED: Illuminates green when 2khz is selected and yellow when 7khz is selected.

Mute Engage Indicator LED: Illuminates red when Mute is engaged.

Mute button (top): When engaged the Main output and DI output are muted. The tuner output in the back of the amp remains

unmuted for silent tuning with a connected external tuner. Pressing and holding the Mute button for 3 seconds will toggle the amp between 4/8-ohm operation and 2-ohm operation.

4/8-ohm or 2-ohm Indicator LED: Illuminates green when 4/8-ohm operation is selected and yellow when 2-ohm operation is selected. (The fan is automatically engaged when in 2-ohm mode).

USB Port: Use this port to insert the Dongle for the bluetooth footswitch or to install new firmware from a flash drive. It can also be used to power/charge an iPod or similar device.

Rear Panel, from left to right.

Power Switch (top).

AC socket (bottom).

1/4” Tuner jack (top).

1/4” Headphone jack (bottom).

1/4” Effects Send jack (top).

1/4” Effects Return jack (bottom).

Ground Lift switch (bottom).

Direct Out socket.

2x locking speaker connectors.

Sound quality.

This thing is absolutely amazing! Without any drive engaged at all and with the EQ flat the amp is crystal clear and is completely neutral as far as I can tell. The EQ is incredibly easy to use and I found that minimal adjustments made a big impact on my tone whilst keeping everything as clean as a very very clean thing.

Once you start using the various tone shaping tools built into the amp, pretty much any bass tone you could possibly wish for is right there at your fingertips. The Punch and Bright buttons make a significant difference to the tone even with the EQ set flat. The variable high pass and low pass (VHP and VLP) controls give you the ability to filter out any pesky boomy frequencies from your bottom end or tame any unwanted frequencies from the top end. Moreover, they give you even more control over any of the available overdrive and fuzz firmware options you use. I really like the compressor on this amp too. It does a wonderful job of smoothing out your tone whilst somehow managing to not compromise it in a negative way regardless of where you set the compression control.

Using the firmware options.

The ability to install overdrive and fuzz firmware options onto the amp was, along with all of its other great features, a major point of interest for me.

As a rule I do not like using digital equipment as it invariably features digital displays which as a blind player, I have no chance of being able to use. However, when I looked into this amp and learned that the firmware could be installed using a flash drive, my cautious interest became a full blown desire to get one and I have to say, I am not disappointed.

As a fully blind but competent computer user I am more than capable of using flash drives for file transfers and storage anyway, so downloading the multiple firmware options from the Bergantino website is easy. There are 17 firmware options currently available for the Forte HP2 on the Bergantino website ranging from a B15 to Tube Screamers and multiple fuzz offerings. Once you’ve downloaded the files and made sure you’ve followed the detailed instructions on the web page for how to format your flash drive and name your firmware files, installing your chosen option is incredibly easy.

If you are blind, here’s how to do it.

Step 1: With the amp switched off, insert the flash drive with your chosen firmware file on it into the USB port on the front of the amp.

Step 2: Switch the amp on and immediately press and hold the  Bright button for a few seconds. Basically, I count to 5 before letting go and that always seems to work. I always leave a good 20 seconds before I remove the flash drive to allow time for the firmware to install.

It’s as simple as that. Once you’ve removed the flash drive, you’re good to go with your awesome new firmware choice.

Summary.

Quite simply, this amp is the best amp I have ever owned or played through. It’s incredibly easy to use, has intuitive controls and a logical layout. It’s beautifully constructed, light and looks great. The range of tones it’s possible to get out of it are almost unbelievable and the amount of head room is ridiculous.

Even though the amp is not technically 100% accessible to me as a blind player due to the style of push buttons and use of LED lights to indicate certain functions, it’s incredibly easy to work round those issues and to be perfectly honest, there isn’t an amp anywhere that I have found that doesn’t use LEDs to indicate things like clipping, mute on/off, drive on/off etc, it’s kind of a necessity really. The fact that it’s so easy to install different firmware options and use the amp in general outweighs the slight inaccessible bits by a loooooooong way.

So would I recommend this amp to other blind players? Yes, but only if,

- You are a competent computer user, as installing the firmware will not be possible if you are not.

- You don’t mind finding a work around for the bits that aren’t accessible or are happy to just ask a band mate to tell you what colour an LED has changed to when you press a button.

Every time I play through this amp it sounds fantastic. Ultimately it makes me want to play more and I think any piece of equipment that inspires you to play more can only be a good thing.

To find out more about the Forte HP2 and other Bergantino products, visit the Bergantino website at: https://bergantino.com/

[barrettisgold]

Great review and very interesting to hear about it from a blind perspective. Something you would hope is always considered in the design process of products but sadly I think that is often not the case. Particularly with electronic products that have menu systems.