Aguillar Tone Hammer / Microtubes 500-v2

[Gary Skip Price]

Are there any "Old School" guys out there who were raised on Ampeg SVT's - Hartke 3500's - Acoustic 371's - and Mesa Boogie 400's that have any experience with the Tone Hammer 350 / 500 or the Microtubes 500v2. I am having difficulty letting go of my Hartke 3500 for a very expensive 5 lb amp. I could really use some "schooling" on these new modern analog preamp / class D drive bass heads. Thanks

 

[Gearhead17]

Honestly, try the newer light weight heads and decide for yourself. I don't miss my SVT 4 PRO, Mesa 400+, Trace Elliot, and so on heads. My 5lb mesa D800 is loud, sounds wonderful, and is reliable. I can get any tone I want out of it.

Tone Hammer heads - Quite loud! It's heavily baked-in tone with non-intuitive controls. However, it sounds really good. I have heard Darkglass heads directly going into a PA system and they sound awesome.

 

[Jeff Scott]

Are there any "Old School" guys out there who were raised on Ampeg SVT's - Hartke 3500's - Acoustic 371's - and Mesa Boogie 400's that have any experience with the Tone Hammer 350 / 500 or the Microtubes 500v2. I am having difficulty letting go of my Hartke 3500 for a very expensive 5 lb amp. I could really use some "schooling" on these new modern analog preamp / class D drive bass heads. Thanks

I had a Hartke 3500 for awhile. No question, my Tone Hammer 500 is way better in every respect.

 

[Gary Skip Price]

I had a Hartke 3500 for awhile. No question, my Tone Hammer 500 is way better in every respect.

Care to elaborate? How is that possible? Is the Tone Hammer an analog tube pre-section? What exactly makes it "Way Better"? The HA3500 has so much "sparkling" thunderous presence & tone. Hard for me to understand a class D amp can sound so much better than a class A with a tube pre-amp.

 

[Jeff Scott]

Hard for me to understand a class D amp can sound so much better than a class A with a tube pre-amp.

Your Hartke is not a Class A amp; where did you get that from?

 

[Gary Skip Price]

Explain. It is a Mosfet HA3500 from the very early 1990s. As far as I know class D amps are a product of the early 2000s. What say you! Give me documented proof please, not spin.

 

[Jeff Scott]

Explain. It is a Mosfet HA3500 from the very early 1990s. As far as I know class D amps are a product of the early 2000s. What say you! Give me documented proof please, not spin.

Oy!

 

[musicman556]

I had an HA3500 for about 15 years. I absolutely agree that the TH500 blows it away. No, it doesn't have a tube pre, but somehow Aguilar has made the "tubiest" pre in that little thing! Thick and warm to thick and grindy is all very easy to get out of the Aggie.

What you WON'T get is razor's edge brightness/sharpness. Go to GK for that. I'm not sure what you mean by "sparkle". Do you mean glassy cleans, or that sweet right-at-the-edge-of-breakup goodness when pushing the tube pre on the HA3500?

Cuz if it's the breakup goodness you're after, the Aggie is yer huckleberry.

 

[xj98jeep]

I have a '70s V4B and a Tonehammer 500. The V4B sounds great. The TH500 also sounds great, requires zero maintenance, and weighs 1/10 as much so it's hard to argue with if I'm playing anything that involves moving gear. It definitely has a little baked in tone and the EQ is versatile, but not intuitive like others have said.

There's a really great thread on here somewhere where someone actually hooked up their Tonehammer to an oscilloscope and turned all the knobs so you can visualize the different interactions between them, that really helped me understand what was happening.

 

[svlilioukalani]

The Mesa 400+ changed my world. I love that amp. It’s my favorite amp I have ever used. The new Mesa lineup comes real close.

A Tone Hammer is one of the few amps I did not get along with. They have a great tone but lack the high end brightness I want. If you play with a dark tone it may work well for you. My only experience with Darkglass is there pedals.

The new Mesa amps will get you what you are looking for.

 

[chris_b]

Are there any "Old School" guys out there who were raised on Ampeg SVT's - Hartke 3500's - Acoustic 371's - and Mesa Boogie 400's that have any experience with the Tone Hammer 350 / 500 or the Microtubes 500v2. I am having difficulty letting go of my Hartke 3500 for a very expensive 5 lb amp. I could really use some "schooling" on these new modern analog preamp / class D drive bass heads. Thanks

If you need convincing you shouldn't do it.

20 Years ago I had a 400+ and I'm not sorry I sold it. I've been gigging a TH500 for 10 years and love it. It's now my backup amp, my go-to is an Aguilar AG700, but there are so many great sounding D class amps out there, Aguilar, Mesa Subway, Genzler, etc.

IMO the cab is the more critical part of your signal chain. If you are looking to upgrade I'd get a new cab fist. A good one will make your current amp sound much better.

 

[J-Mags]

I have a Darkglass Alpha Omega 500, but I also have a Vintage Microtubes Pedal, and I've played the Microtubes 500. I don't play metal or anything, and I really like my Darkglass stuff. The Darkglass stuff is peculiar in that it has a strong, tight but uncolored clean sound which is generally blended with parallel overdrive or distortion.

Even the low-gain overdrive sounds can sound slightly grainy on their own, but they mix with the clean sound of the amp to provide a lot of clarity. It'll never sound like a V4 or an SVT in that the overdrive sound is seldom entirely cooked. It's always a tiny bit separate from the clean sound. Even with blend maxxed it sounds like it was designed to let some low end cleans through. By contrast, I tried a a Markbass Little Mark Vintage that sounded a lot more like a regular amp. I imagine a TH500 also has a more integrated sound.

That said, the parallel dirt, whether on the Microtubes or Alpha/Omega, sounds amazing in a live mix because it'll give you the dirt you want along with the low-end clarity you want. The Microtubes engine does a decent job of emulating classic Ampeg sounds, and the Darkglass can go a lot further into distortion.

I wouldn't worry too much about the Class D aspect. Your Hartke was similarly newfangled in its day. The technology has been around for a decade or so at this point.

 

[Gary Skip Price]

I have a Darkglass Alpha Omega 500, but I also have a Vintage Microtubes Pedal, and I've played the Microtubes 500. I don't play metal or anything, and I really like my Darkglass stuff. The Darkglass stuff is peculiar in that it has a strong, tight but uncolored clean sound which is generally blended with parallel overdrive or distortion.

Even the low-gain overdrive sounds can sound slightly grainy on their own, but they mix with the clean sound of the amp to provide a lot of clarity. It'll never sound like a V4 or an SVT in that the overdrive sound is seldom entirely cooked. It's always a tiny bit separate from the clean sound. Even with blend maxxed it sounds like it was designed to let some low end cleans through. By contrast, I tried a a Markbass Little Mark Vintage that sounded a lot more like a regular amp. I imagine a TH500 also has a more integrated sound.

That said, the parallel dirt, whether on the Microtubes or Alpha/Omega, sounds amazing in a live mix because it'll give you the dirt you want along with the low-end clarity you want. The Microtubes engine does a decent job of emulating classic Ampeg sounds, and the Darkglass can go a lot further into distortion.

I wouldn't worry too much about the Class D aspect. Your Hartke was similarly newfangled in its day. The technology has been around for a decade or so at this point.

Thanks for an honest review.