Questions about my Fender and Hartke Amps.

[Avalis]

Hey Guys and Gals of Talkbass,
So I just got my first two amps (a Fender Sidekick and a Hartke 1415 combo)tonight from a friend that didn't need them and they were cluttering up her basement, so naturally since I was in need of amps, I offered to take them (she has like an entire room of of these things...it's ridiculous)

Here's a picture of both
Fender:
http://soniccircus.com/site/amps/all...files/l207.jpg
(Is this a Keyboard amp or not? I'm not sure, I think so, but I figued I'd ask) Could I use a keyboard amp with a bass guitar?)

Hartke: http://cachepe.zzounds.com/media/qua...3da0bcc665.jpg

Anyway, I've been playing around with the Hartke and I have some question I would like answered, please note that I'm new to electric bass, I usually only play acoustic so I'm getting used to electric basses, so a lot of my questions are going to float between electric bass, amp, and effects, but they are all going to center on the amp aspect of them.

1) What is bass and tremble? There are settings for it on my Dean EAB Playmate and a knob on my Dean Edge, so I figured I'd ask.

2) There is a switch that says Contour (Flat-Exchance), what does that mean?

3) What's compression? because there is an on/off switch.

4) For effects it has send and return... explanation?

5) What does an overdrive and distortion pedal do to the sound?

6) If I use a pedal, will I need to buy another cable to attach it into the amp?

7)What is involved in replacing input jacks? The Fender is missing both input jacks and the volume controls are loose so I might want to fix those.

8) On the Hartke, it has four knobs labeled, low, mid-low, mid-high, and high. What's that?

9) The Fender as a red light with the word Limiter, what is that?

10) Also the Fender has a Treble, Middle, Bass, and Master. What do each of those do?

I'll post more questions when I think of them but these were a lot of the questions I've been wondering.

-Avalis

[JimmyM]

wow, lots of questions!

my hand is killing me right now, so i can't answer in detail, but 80% of your questions can be answered simply by moving the knobs and seeing what they do. the rest can easily be answered in a google search.

have fun and good luck with your new amps!

[nicoli]

OK, I'll bite...

The sidekick does appear to be a keyboard amp. I don't think you'd do any harm to it by playing bass through it, but I also wouldn't bother putting any money into getting it fixed. It probably won't be better than the Hartke.

Questions 1, 2, 8, 10 are all EQ related. The 'contour' button usually does the same thing as turning down the mid knob. Master is your master volume.

[Avalis]

Thanks guys, even though I'm just about as confused as before.

@JimmyM, At some level I'm sure I've figured it out, but just no consciously to put words to it, which is what's bugging me.

[SurferJoe46]

Sometimes, James is a little - er - curt. Please don't hold that against him though! He's really a sweetheart!

Just look at his avatar - that's a real picture of him and you'll notice he's kinda altitudinally-challenged and he wears flower pots for hats. He may even be bald and covers his shame that way.

YOU'D be curt too, if you looked like that. We love ya anyway, James!

1) What is bass and tremble? There are settings for it on my Dean EAB Playmate and a knob on my Dean Edge, so I figured I'd ask. Tremble is usually brought on by too much caffeine and generally is not a good thing.

TREBLE however, would be more correct and it's the higher tones/notes that is emphasizes, unlike the BASS which does the opposite.

2) There is a switch that says Contour (Flat-Exchance), what does that mean? This is prolly one of Fender's settings for adding or deleting the middle tones. SOME amps did this by going from P/P circuits to just P-circuits and it was 'heard' as fatness or more Hi-Fi type sound.

3) What's compression? because there is an on/off switch. This keeps your notes more volume-consistent and at a fairly more-equal quality, if you follow me with this concept. It can be a nice effect as it adds a certain ethereal, plastic-y or chorus-y/flange-y effect sound to the overall output, but usually an advanced player finds it's not necessary after a while to keep from 'booming' a particular string or note. This will come with time and experience

4) For effects it has send and return... explanation? This is more commonly called an 'Effects Loop". That's for the effects stomps when/if you decide to use them. It allows the effect to get into the final amp and not mess with- and will bypass the pre-amp, that's all.

It's not REQUIRED that you insert the stomp there, but it's another access point for what you will eventually call 'your sound' or anyone else's you want to clone. More on that later though.

5) What does an overdrive and distortion pedal do to the sound? Just for now - try to dial-in the amplifier without clouding up what's happening first. Basses, for the most part respond just like a guitar to effects stomps and they are kinda cute (IMHO) and although they are great in bedroom playing, I find them really unnecessary and limiting in an odd way at a gig or jam.

Effects are fun, not something I use much - (or at all really) and you can play with those toys later on in my opinion.

You will find that many, but not all stomps will work with a bass as well as a guitar. Not all - means those that can't work with the lower frequencies.

6) If I use a pedal, will I need to buy another cable to attach it into the amp? You will need to have TWO - an IN and an OUT cable to use the loop position or you can add the stomp to the input with a single cable - but remember that you will then be doubly-preamping the sound and distortion (if you don't want that much) will go to 13 o'clock on your pretty fast!

MOST ALL stomps are also a preamp of sorts and you should remember that you are pushing a pre-amp'd signal into your pre-amp and then that's getting amp'd by the final amp. Too many amps spoil the sound for me IMHO.

7)What is involved in replacing input jacks? The Fender is missing both input jacks and the volume controls are loose so I might want to fix those. I don't think missing those is a good idea - you can't levitate the sound into the amp, nor control it well as some of the more important parts are just missing! I mean - ya know!?!. Input jacks are really a prerequisite to actually using the amp I think.

Most amps are removable pretty easily, so I'd look for some hold down screws. Some combo-amps (which is what you have there) HANG the amp chassis from the roof of the top of the cabinet. Look closely for screws that don't appear to be necessary and that might be they way to access the amp itself for access to the jacks and such. I bet there's a PDF online somewhere with that info though - or a specialist will pop in about now and tell you exactly the unscrewing sequence to use.

Un-unscrewing, will of course, be the exact opposite of the unscrewing procedure, so you likely will know that un-unscrewing process at that point.

NOTE: SOMEtimes, you can just take the affected knob off the loose pot shaft and if you watch very closely, you can re-tighten the gland nut on the shaft itself and not have to take the amp chassis out for this repair. DO NOT ALLOW THE POT ITSELF TO ROTATE - this will let all the magic smoke out!

But you also have jacks to replace, so that might not be the best option at this time. Yank the whole amp out and have a good (read: accessible) go at it.

8) On the Hartke, it has four knobs labeled, low, mid-low, mid-high, and high. What's that? This is part of the EQ circuit and will become very self explanatory in a short time. You can twist those knobs as much and as often as you want until you find 'your tone', whatever that is.

9) The Fender has a red light with the word Limiter, what is that? This is usually telling you that you are exceeding the parameters of a clean signal and are going into overdrive - which may or may NOT be to your liking.

On most amps, this is not a problem and just sends the distorted signal to the main amplifier as a dirty, distorted sound, but a Fender amp isn't something I currently own or want to and that may not be totally accurate.

BEWARE that SOME amps use this light to tell you that the electronic components are suffering from thermal overload and it is telling you to cool it or it can punish you, mightily!

10) Also the Fender has a Treble, Middle, Bass, and Master. What do each of those do? Again, more EQ'ing controls for 'your personal, signature sound'.

The MASTER is the final volume that you perceive coming outta the speaker (driver) from the last amplifier. If you have another knob called GAIN - that is a control for the preamp. It's kinda like the accelerator pedal on your Prius: you can push it all the way down, but you'll prolly hurt something if you do. And your amp will appreciate it not going to 13 o'clock either! .

I'll post more questions when I think of them but these were a lot of the questions I've been wondering.

[JimmyM]

actually it's that i think i gave myself cts and should take a break for a few days