Hey all you musicians.....

I just bought myself a new bass amp head. I've been using a Hartke 3000 300w head, plugged into a 2x10 & 1x15 Avatar cabs, which I like very much but I had the desire to step up a couple hundred watts for some headroom. I decided on the new Hartke 5500. This one pushes 500w and adds a tube-pre and graphic eq. It also has a variable compressor. I hope to have it by this weekend or the beginning of next week. I have a gig next Friday and I'll post a review afterwards.

David,

Congratulations! Always glad to hear someone bought gear.

Headroom has changed my life. I got a new power amp last year (I'm embarassed to say how much power I have now), and I am so happy with it. All of the sudden I can hear myself on stage and it is as clean as can be.

Rob

I hear ya. I was thinking of getting a power amp/pre-amp setup but I re-thought it out and decided I really didn't need that much power. Then I started to look at the new Carvin B1500 mono block head that puts out 1250w @ 4ohms and the price is nice too but I re-thought it our again and just decided I really don't need that much power as I'm not in a rock band nor do I need to be that loud. My 300w head does a really good job for me and I've never had to dial past 12 o'clock. 500w will do me just fine. Espescially through my cab setup. Avatar Speakers makes some really nice cabs that can handle a ton of power. Needless to say, I'll never clip 'em. My 2x10 can handle 700w and my 1x15 can handle 600w!

No doubt when I first got my new setup I was LOUD! I was just so excited to be able to hear myself so clearly, I couldn't help myself. As time has worn on though I've been able to dial back my volume and get a little more sophisticated with my EQ. What I love about all the headroom is that it sounds good at low and high volumes. No distortion.

Now, once I get this rig going I have to start working on a new bass. I'm gonna try and save enough money to buy an MTD or Modulus or something similar. I just want to have 1 really good bass and a good solid backup and just get rid of everything else I own. I dig Hotwire basses as well and may consider one of those or a Benevente Jazz model. I like traditional body shapes and I like Tobias and MTD body shapes as well. I hate Warwicks!

Right now I have a Stingray, Carvin LB-75 and a Yamaha (I can never remember the model). All 5-strings. I've been meaning to sell the Yamaha but I've just been lazy about it. I like it quite a bit, but like you I'd like to get down to a primary and a backup. I have to keep the Carvin because it was a birthday present from my wife.

DW, that sounds like a great rig- I'll just envy you from afar, ok? HA!
Gear is always cool, but I need to get the most of what I have now, and until we start "mixing it up" more, what I have works great. Plus, since I'm basically playing the same room all the time, I'm in the house amps anyway. My Fender 1x15 300 w just serves mainly as my monitor. The house has 12 Crown 600's (6 amps on each channel, probably more like 250 each into 8 ohms in stereo) driving the PA, so the power is there if we need it to drive the central speaker and horn clusters, but we've never cranked it up that much.
In our chapel (which is now called Video Cafe, seats 150-175 or so and has 2 big screen TVs with live feed for the teaching time, but a separate live band for music, more of a younger crowd) The system has a subwoofer, and that makes all the difference in the world to me......it's so much warmer.

Check this out, talk about a radical departure.
[URL=http://www.bose.com/controller;jsessionid=1ymkGWKrgpiQvk4PZuVKv5MWQNqqAw8Z223zv1REyuKnvhETpC5o!-1306527806?event=VIEW_STATIC_PAGE_EVENT&url=/musicians/index.jsp&pageName=/musi cians/solutions/reverb.jsp]Bose New Amps for musicians[/URL]

Oh well, for some reason that link won't hypertext for me.

Yeah, I've been reading about that system for a while now. Looks like a good deal for monitoring. Very expensive for a whole setup. I wish the folks who research audio can come up with a solution to feedback. That would be something to invest in. This is pretty much for folks who have some disposable income.

OK, I received the amp on Wednesday and just fired it up this morning! Firstly, anytime I fire up any of my amps, they just don't seem that loud until I get into a band situation and then it seems to blend in nicely. This amp does seem to have some serious balls to it. I hooked it up to my main rig which are 2 Avatar cabs (a 2x10 and a 1x15). With everything set flat and the eq disabled, it has a very clear defined sound and will reproduce exactly what you put into it. Then I boosted the lows on my bass, boosted the highs, turned the highs up (on the amp) to 2 o'clock and the lows to 3 o'clock and BAM! Whoa! Some serious deep end here! Then, I enabled the eq and boosted the last 2 sliders to about 3/4 up and boosted the first slider about the same.....Holy cow! I then turned on the compressor and set it at 12 o'clock. Very nice even slap sound! Volume was at 12 o'clock which is the norm for me. I forgot about the neighbors so I cut my demo short! I can't wait to try her out tonight at my gig. Will re-report tomorrow.

So how about that new amp? How did it perform?