Help...
 

Ok. I need some advice. I just bought a Mesa 2x12 powerhouse 8 ohm 600 watts cabinet. I have a hartke lh500 head which through the cab is very quiet. I also have an old fender 140 head which sounds loud as hell through the cab. This does not make any sense to me because the Hartke is 500 watts at 4 ohms which should make it 350 watts at 8 ohm. The Fender 140 is 140 watts at 8 ohms. If I keep using the 140 head, will I damage it with the 600 watt cab? Dont want to fry either of them. What are your opinions folks? Thanks for your help.

No experience with either amp. On the face of it the Hartke is duff.

The fender will be fine.

It is the amp head that outputs the power. The "rating" on the cab is what it's maximum is that it can accept FROM an amp. The fender will be just fine. I am getting the impression from a couple threads that the LH series requires some different thinking to get full power from? Tone control position seem to be different than most also. Have you read the manual for info on setting it up?

Yes I have read the manual. I bought the lh500 used, so that may be the problem. When I used the Fender 140, it got pretty hot, pretty fast. That is worrisome to me. Dont want to fry it because they are irreplaceable. We shall see..

If this is the Tube Fender 140 then tubes do get very hot!. As long as the black part of the big output tubes don't start glowing you are good. If you see those tube plates glowing the amp needs immediate service and do not use it. The cab would have nothing to do with the problem.

Don't know if I remember this correctly but the LH volume control is not like the Fender. The Fender gets up to full clean output between 11:00 and 1:00. The LH requires you to crank it much more (just a different way to setup the control sweep).

Maybe I will get a clip on fan to help keep the amp a bit cooler. Thanks for the advice yall.

I must be crazy here.....the LH1000 and LH500....from what I learned on here, operate on the Fender tone stack or something similar. Flat settings are Bass and Treble at 1.5 and Mid at 10. Try that setting and see what happens. I have played this head as part of a backline at certain shows and running the controls on the flat setting got me plenty loud! When I ran everything at "5", my tone cut through NOTHING. I could barely hear anything I played.

I just checked out the manual, the all "5" setting is basically a mid scoop setting. Keep that in mind.

Wouldn't the Fender 140 have the same tone stack?
If so, that wouldn't explain the "volume" difference.

True to a point. It really depends where the knobs are set on both amps. Also, if the Fender 140 is getting too hot, the tubes might be getting too much voltage and just blasting every ounce of power away as they go. You can do this with most tube heads, just be prepared to replace tubes much more often.

I assumed the OP had the "tone" knobs set the same on both amps when he did the comparison...possibly not a good assumption to have made.

Well just wanted to let you guys know I returned the lh500 head to guitar center. I think the previous owner messed it up somehow. The fender 140 sounds incredible paired with the mesa 2x12 powerhouse. I may get another LH as a back up though, because I have heard so much good stuff about them. Never a bad idea to have some back up. Thanks you guys.

When I owned the LH500 it seemed that the mid knob was a volume control in itself.