This amp sounds incredible out of the box, extremely warm with a crisp tube tone offering Mesa like clarity with a stable response from the power section

"The Bright Switch" kicks any amp into "Modern Mode" allowing for the Mids of any instruments to shine through the mix. Tube warmth is lost in compensation for clarity.The limiter seems to cut the power section while adding a transparent compression allowing users to dial the amp volume to max without blowing a cab speaker.

Plug and PlayWith a 3 Dial EQ, users can set it and forget it.

This amp is built out of military grade materials; I'm convinced!Nothing but Solid SteelThe amp is incredibly light. maybe 10lb max.

I've used this for church I've also used this for metal and Funk gigs. it does everything right

I've no reason to contact Hartke unless I where to provide a 5-star review

This amp is sleek, blends in and sell the "Professional Musician" look.Without being too flashy. This amp lets the audience really admire the total bandwidth of the Class A EQ by not advertising it It just sounds good.

I've been playing for 8 years, Play Bass live, and host jams at home.

Prog, Improv, Funk, Jazz, Classical

Sounds excellent right out of the box. With only Bass, Mid and Treble booster you can dial in a great tone in minutes. The lows are very full and prominent and the mids and highs are very clear and crisp. I play in a hard rock band and can cut through the mix no problem with this. After I got this I heard for the first time from my guitar players with Marshall half stacks "Damn man can you turn down just a bit" Best thing a bass player can ever hear LOL!

Not many features, Just a "Brite" Switch that I don't use, sounds ok but mainly for soloing I think. A limiter that works pretty well and has a direct out which is nice. The only thing I don't like is that it doesn't have SpeakON connections but I can live with that.

Very easy to use, Plug in and dial in.

Very well built. The metal frame is super durable and all parts seem to be very good quality.

This amp is more than worth the money. I would compare it to some units which sell for up to $1200 .

Never had to use it.

It's just a wicked amp. Built well, looks nice and sounds great!

Have been playing bass professionally is bands for 19 years

Rock, Metal, Blues

the sound of this head is powerful and has guts. my fender active deluxe jazz bass sounds awesome with this 500 watt workhorse!

it has basic features. simple to set up. it's designed to be a basic workhorse only! it's for power and versitility! if you got to have 100 different sounds and tones; you may need to switch over to lead guitar.

very simple controls. easy to use.

this head is hartke tough! a gigging machine! not a humpty dumpty head.

i've researched amp heads for a solid month. this is the only quality and powerful amp head i could find, for this incredible price.

have'nt needed to contact hartke.

this head looks the way a professonal head should look like. it's tough and serious looking, but pleasing to the eye.

active musician

country, gospel

Easy bottom end to dial up. No silly shape functions or buttons. Solid bottom end.

Tuner output patch, effects loop, and controls for limiter would be desirable.

Power up, plug in, dial up and thump!

Well built. Sturdy and looks like a bass amp should look. Laid out well. Well pleased thus far.

Dollar per watt you can't beat. Come on, 500 watts for less than 400.00 bucks is a dynamite deal! I bought mine when it was still $449.00.

Haven't had to deal with them yet. Harkes been in business a while now, they build solid gear.

Wanted the LH1000, or the BR series, but these were priced right and I saved on not having to buy higher wattage cabs. Bass is DI's to board anyway, so it's plenty for stage volume.

Active musician, recording engineer, live sound engineer

rock, blues, southern rock, gospel, christian

7yrs guitar bass

Progressive metal.

Pretty musical for a 3 band para eq. Easy to dial in a good punchy tone. This is a no frills ready to work amp. Turn it on and start pumpin out bottom end. Tube in the preamp is a plus for this workhorse. Best value for the buck per wattage!

Stand by switch would be nice, as well as tuner out. The xlr direct out is clean. I'm not impressed with the limiter, maybe if it had a couple of control pots incorporated and was more of a compressor. It does work though, just not effective or pleasing.

Turn it on and plug in and you've got bottom bounce baby!

It's Hartke, sturdy, looks good, sounds good, does what they say it will do!

Best value per dollar per watt! No frills easy dial up bottom end!

Haven't had to use them yet.

The LH1000 is a better unit, but you've got to have the wattage in cabinets to use it! A bit pricey, but compared to others in its range, and the tube preamp, this one wins hands down. I researched dozens, Hartke wins hands down. Bottom line, she'll hold up well, resell well, and 3-500 watts will handle any medium to large gig. I'm sold!

active musician, recording engineer

christian, rock, alternative, southern rock, blues

The sound is great, the tube pretty amp is just what I need. It only has the three eq knobs but you don't have to work very hard to get a great tone. You also get very full and crisp tones which I really had to work to get on my previous head.

The most useless feature to me is the brite button. It would be good for a solo situation. Or something just not needed by me. The most useful would be the limiter button.

easy easy easy. Pulled it out of the box, hooked it up to my cab and dialed in some decent tones in about 5 min.

it seems to be made very well. It has a metal casing with heavy duty handles and can be mounted in effects case as well. The knobs are like chrome hard plastic that seem very strong. Overall it will be a great gigging amp.

for the power, sound and quality it is more than worth the money. I'd suggest picking one up.

have not had to

it is a very sexy amp lol

I have been playing music for 17 yrs and professionally in a band for about 12.

Hard rock, metal,

The sound is perfect for what I play (blues, rock, some jazz). Great tone

The features are slightly limited with the lack of effects and only 3 controls for bass, mid, and treble, but it's really easy to dial in a quality sound.

Very easy to get set up and sounding the way you want

Couldn't ask much more as far as quality. Very nice design.

It's a great "bang for the buck" head.

Had not had to use the support at all so far.

Really impressed with the power output.

15 years guitar, 3 years bass. Casual musician / weekend "gigger"

Blues/ Rock,

I've been playing bass for about 30 years.

I play all types of music

35 years of noise

Anything and everything, excluding Polka and Rap/HipHop.

Playing bass for two years

R&B, Christian, Rock

I have been playing for almost 30 years. I play the bass guitar, guitar and drums. I play recreationally.

Rock, Classic Rock, Southern Rock, Country, 80's Hair Metal etc.

playing guitar 40 years

rock

Playing music for about 22 years. Play bass in two bands - one blues and other rock

blues, rockabilly ( country rock ), classic rock, heavy metal

a few blue moons

rock, Christian, blues

The Hartke LH500 is a very nice unit. I play punk, and do not get me wrong; I love good sound, Despite what some may say about punk music. My band and i started playing a few years ago, and recently my Ex Bass head (Berhinger 4500x?, cheap Model) started getting really Muddy. I could not stand the sound it was making. When it worked it was good, and it did its job. But it bit the dust (Seen that coming)and the Left side quit working. So i started looking at a new bass head, i hit local and in state Craigslist, Online retailers, and guitar shops to find what i was looking for. I came across this head before on zZounds and when i saw that the price had been reducted i started researching This unit. All the reviews i came across helped out very much, and led me to exactly what i found in the UPS box! The sound is Amazing, i never really saw the ugly sound i was getting out of my Ex Head until i had actually played with this unit. And like many reviews said "It has the Hartke Mid range" I do not know what they do to get the sound, but they have it down, and it sounds great! Playing through a set up of 1-15 EV loaded Cab and a 4-10 Unknown cab (Really nice cab though) it shakes our practice Pad. The sound as i had it set up is warm, Driving, and a nice low end.

I love the limiter on this thing, it does exactly what the manual stated it was there for. It cuts any spikes in FreQ and keeps it straight across the board. the Bright Feature is not really any use to me, but sounds good.

Simple 3 Band EQ is simple, i basically hooked it up to my Cabs, Turned on the volume, turned the EQ bands on to some random settins, bass at 5 o clock, Mid at 3, and Treble at 5. Took about 15 seconds to dial in the sound i was looking for. Simple. Its exactly what i was asking for. My old Behinger unit has too many Knobs for a bass head.

I was really surprised at how well this unit was built. It will stand up to the abuse we put our stuff threw. The knobs have resistance when you dial then, they do not wiggle, and look sharp.

The Price was right, i am very happy with this unit for what i payed, i expected less.

None yet, but the warranty Card it came with is nice! Just in case Anything ever happens.

... I want it... yes.

Active.

Punk, Metal, Jazz, anything fun to play.

Bass player I jam at home and with other musicians. I have been playing 9 years

Metal, Motown, and rock

I play professionally and studio work for 35 years

R&B Funk/ Jazz

The sound is amazing you can get alot of tones with just the bass, med, and treble knobs. If your looking for bass that would shake a church, a house, or the Neighborhood! Than this is it.

4 ohm head, very sturdy, the fan is super quite, and simple E.Q.

Its easy to handle. You don't have to worry about switching a bunch of switches just to get the sound you want.

The head is made to survive on the road. This head would last a long time before it breaks.

Cheap yet quality is excellent. Price should of been more higher but Hartke has made an amp head that is powerful but won't kill your budget.

I'm not much of a Hartke fan since most of amps are at 8 ohms and I don't like caring two cabinets to make 4 ohms, BUT the heads they make are good quality amp heads but for the cost it won't kill you. I'm more of a Fender, Acoustic, and Behringer fan when it comes to amps, but I seem to have found a place for Hartke along with my favorites.

Powerful! Cheap! Sturdy! A must buy!

Been playing music all my life playing bass, drums, and piano.

Christian, Latin Gospel,

Very simple amp, but it does get a good sound if you know how to mess with the EQ and the EQ on your bass. I normally never use the bright especially on my musicman bass... but the limiter switch helps the sound quite a bit. I did some research and flat EQ on the amp is something like 2-10-3...so keep that in mind when you are adjusting EQ because if you start everything at 12 o'clock or "5" then you will notice how much of a treble and bass boost that is but I like it at about 6-5-4 for a 4 string bass and then for my shecter 5 string i turn the treble up to about 6. The passive and active inputs seem to make a huge difference in not only volume but sound as well. I'm running hartke cabs (4.5xl and 115xl) so its definitely a crisp, bright sound that im getting. I recommend that if you own this amp that you should get at least a good compression pedal. I bought a Boss GEB7 EQ and the Zoom b9.1 big multi-effects pedal and I can achieve any sound I want and it doesnt mess up my bass signal. Granted it takes some tweaking but once you get your sound you will love it.

I wish it had speakon outputs for the cabs but oh well just run a nice thick 1/4in speaker cable and you'll be fine. I also wish there was a level knob for the direct out... but hey for what you pay for the amp its at least got an fx loop, its rack mount design, seems to have a heavy duty fan... good for the money.

Like I said you need to know about EQ to get the perfect sound but if you just play around with it for a lil bit and make small adjustments it makes a big difference.

This is my second one. My first one fried within the first month... I dont know what went wrong... there wasnt a fuse I could find to check or replace but luckily it comes with a good warranty and zzounds let me send it back to them and they sent me another one very quickly and its been great.

500 watts for this price and considering you get a good tone I think the value is great

When my first one went out I called Samson and they were pretty helpful about telling me a place I could go nearby where i live to get warranty work done.

Its not a beauty queen because it doesn't have a lot of features to it but at least you can rack mount it and it does look like a professional bass rig. which i guess really it is.

active musician

hard rock, metal, funk

Pro Musician, Luthier, Recording Engineer.

Alternative, Rock, Prog Rock, Fusion, Electronica.

very straight forward simple amp but with great tone. I use with the 4.5xl cab and it has plenty of punch. i play a sterling music man bass and i can get the perfect slap tone that i want without any effects but i sometimes use the the zoom 9.1 to get some even better sounds. The only thing i dont like about it is there isnt much to play around with as far as eq but i use a boss eq pedal along with the zoom which also has a good eq. I recommend this amp to someone looking for the swr/hartke/GK sound if you want ampeg sound this is not the amp for you.

the limiter and bright switch are pretty cool to mess around with but other than that there arent too many features.

plug it straight in and dial in a good eq for your sound and you will be happy

its nice and heavy...has a fan filter and seems to be built very solid.

I think you get a lot of amp for half the price of a lot of other good sounding heads.

just got the amp not too long ago so far so good

rack mount design is cool and its just a solid looking head

hobbyist

rock, metal, alternative, funk

This amp has a great tone right out of the box. The volume control is a master volume after the preamp, and the tone really starts to shine when you have the volume at about 6. I leave the bright and limiter switches engaged. It has a super warm, clean tone with an amazing amount of low end. It won't get fuzzy like amps with separate gain and master volumes, but it does get a nice grind if you really dig in. Using it with one 8ohm cab gives me 350 watts. So far I have played three gigs with it, one being an outdoor party. I had more than enough clean power. Best of all, it sounds like me playing my bass, and not like what the amp sound like. If you are looking for tube sound, get this instead of some Ampeg junk.

It's a simple amp, which is what I wanted. My basses have on board preamps for song to song changes. I emanated something that gave me the tone of my bass, but louder. I had been using a BlueTube pedal for some tube warmth, and this gives me that in spades. The DI works great.

The tone controls are mostly boost only, like on an old Fender amp, or something like the Alembic F-2B preamp. To set the amp flat, set tone controls at; bass = 3, mid = 10, treb = 2. I like to set them all at about 6-7.

Seems like a solidly made amp. I took a peak inside and it's laid out neatly with a large toroidal power transformer, and the Sovtec 12AX7 is shielded, which is a nice detail. The fans are quiet. Before taking it out on gigs I picked up a Gator G-PRO-2U-19 2 unite rack case to keep it safe.

For the price, this is one great amp. 500 clean watts with a great sounding class A tube preamp. I may pick up an LH1000 just to have on hand. ;)

Haven't had an issue, but Larry is always very helpful on TalkBass and even gives out his own cell phone number.

Everyone has been commenting on how great the amp sounds. I also have a Trace Elliot and Mesa 400+, but they stay home now. The Trace is only 150 Watts. Great sounding head, but I needed more headroom. The Mesa is 350Watts, but weighs a ton. This head gives me my sound with all the volume I need.

Been playing professionally for 40 years. I play bass, guitar, keys.

Alternative, progressive rock, fusion, classic rock.

I have been playing live gigs since 1974, many bar band gigs, some touring and recording

Southern rock, blues, country modern/traditional, classic rock, bluegrass and pop

Intermediate bass player, play out ~twice per month.

Classic rock and blues.