Ampeg PF500 or Hartke LH500

[bebass]

I'd recommend the Hartke. I'm actually using it, but I've tried the PF500 as well. They're both good amps for their price, but I find the LH500 to be really exceptional.
It's just more natural to my ears, very clean with simple but effective controls, and you can't imagine how loud it is. You just can't go wrong with it. And it's even cheaper.
As Jimmy said above, though, you have to learn how the tone stack works, especially in metal where it's so easy to get lost in the mix. I play in a very loud death metal band with bass at 4, mids at 10 and treble at 7, and manage to cut through the mix really well. Keep in mind that, on these heads, a flat setting would be bass 0, mids 10, treble 0. In any case, I'd suggest starting with all the knobs at noon and find your own setting, it's a really "user friendly" head.

Well, here you go from someone who plays the style and who has tried both amps. I think this is good advice. I could say that I like the lightweight amps better due to the form factor, but know nothing about the PF500.

 

[pfschim]

without wanting to throw a match on the topic .. I would also say that the PF500 has an interesting habit of just shutting down if you push it too hard (and I don't mean amp failure, which is an entirely other issue). It's a matter of the amps Gain structure, the compressor, and some kind of very hard amp protection circuit in the PF500 design. I have not read any LH500 users complain of anything like this on the Hartke gear.

before any Ampeg fans get all excited by my post; I own, and still use a PF500+115HE rig and have experienced this hard shutdown situation 3 times in the past 2 years. No warning, same gain/EQ settings (not extreme in any way) and as a result the PF500 is a rehearsal only amp for me. I'm almost certain that other PF500 users will chime in with glowing reports on their experience with this amp, but the experience I describe are just as real.

When the PF500 works, it works fine and sounds great, when it shuts down on a gig (or these days, just in a rehearsal), it just feels like a piece of junk to me.

So, to the OP, good luck with the amp choice. You may want to consider the PF350 or PF800 which have nearly no reports of the kind of hard shutdown that I have described. Good news is there are lots of great options to choose from these days.

 

[Killer Of Giants]

I has the PF500 and liked it very much for two years; then, it started cutting out and died one nightingale the middle of a show. Tool it on to
My tech but it wasn't worth fixing. Bought the Hartke 500 and it has been great. Racks nicely in a Gator shallow 2U. It is heavy, and I'm 63, but a great amp for me; reliability is important to me, and I just don't trust these little amps anymore. Check the threads; they are notorious for cutting out and dying (at least the older ones were).

 

[tfer]

Zombie thread, but it was linked to because @pcake has purchased an LH500...

I own both the LH500 and the PF500.

I was an idiot, and stored my LH500 in our band trailer (its black...) during the summer, and the heat inside (well over 130 degrees) cooked some solder joints. So I needed a solid backup amp. At the recommendation of @JimmyM, I bought a PF500.

Here's my comparison:

Hartke LH500 is a great bass amp. The tone is exactly what I look for - the tube front end has a beautiful bloom to the notes. Big, warm and round, and they mesh wonderfully with a drum kit. The tone stack takes a little getting used to; bass and treble are boost, with the mids being cut only. If you turn the mids down, you cut the input signal. If you turn them all the way down, it will produce no sound. As such, I recommend keeping the mids at 10, and shaping your sound with the bass and treble controls. If you like how it sounds with everything at noon (or 5, depending on your lexicon) then pin all the controls. It'll be the same sound, and you won't sacrifice any output.

The amp is also LOUD. We play dance halls - big rooms with capacities of over 1000 people, and I've never taken it over halfway. I mic a speaker in my cabinet, but our PA doesn't have subs, so I mic a 10" speaker - not for bass, but for presence at FOH. My cabs carry the floor. I ignore the active, and always use the passive input. The active one is padded. The Brite switch seems to be all but useless as well, and just introduces high frequency hiss.

The downside is its lack of flexibility. Without a gain control, you are running clean.

If weight matters to you, then realize that it's heavy - about 30lbs.

The Ampeg PF500 is an entirely different beast. FAR more flexible.

The gain control allows you to add as much grind as you like. It's built in compressor is dead simple, and very effective. The tone controls are the familiar boost/cut style, with a selectable midrange frequency. It also has a -15db pad that I completely ignore. It isn't as outright LOUD as the Hartke, but its got all the volume that I'd ever require.

Weight is significantly less than the Hartke.

Comparing the two amps:

The Ampeg is an Ampeg. It sounds exactly like you'd expect. You can get a midrange grind that makes your mouth water! It seems to be more responsive to higher frequencies than the Hartke. String and fret noise are your's for the asking - and not in a bad way, but is very musical.

Where the Hartke is superior, is the bottom end. The tube preamp gives a depth and warmth to the bass that isn't there with the Ampeg. No matter how you manipulate the controls on the Ampeg, it simply can't reproduce the tube tone of the LH500.

For me personally, the bottom end is more important than the lack of flexibility of the Hartke. With the LH series, you either love the tone or move onto something else, because it is baked into the amp.

I have no qualms with using the PF500 and play through it regularly. But, it's my backup. And it perfectly fills that role. It goes to every gig, and sits on top of my LH500, in case I need it. It's got power, and all that is required to get up and running is to unplug the cabs from the Hartke, plug it into the Ampeg, hit the power switch and go.

As an aside - I've tried biamping the cabs, using the Hartke to power the 15" and the Ampeg to power the 210, but they didn't play well together...

In the attached pic, you can see the Ampeg in its spot, sitting on top of the Hartke.

 

[pcake]

View attachment 966826 Zombie thread, but it was linked to because @pcake has purchased an LH500...

I own both the LH500 and the PF500.

I was an idiot, and stored my LH500 in our band trailer (its black...) during the summer, and the heat inside (well over 130 degrees) cooked some solder joints. So I needed a solid backup amp. At the recommendation of @JimmyM, I bought a PF500.

Here's my comparison:

Hartke LH500 is a great bass amp. The tone is exactly what I look for - the tube front end has a beautiful bloom to the notes. Big, warm and round, and they mesh wonderfully with a drum kit. The tone stack takes a little getting used to; bass and treble are boost, with the mids being cut only. If you turn the mids down, you cut the input signal. If you turn them all the way down, it will produce no sound. As such, I recommend keeping the mids at 10, and shaping your sound with the bass and treble controls. If you like how it sounds with everything at noon (or 5, depending on your lexicon) then pin all the controls. It'll be the same sound, and you won't sacrifice any output.

The amp is also LOUD. We play dance halls - big rooms with capacities of over 1000 people, and I've never taken it over halfway. I mic a speaker in my cabinet, but our PA doesn't have subs, so I mic a 10" speaker - not for bass, but for presence at FOH. My cabs carry the floor. I ignore the active, and always use the passive input. The active one is padded. The Brite switch seems to be all but useless as well, and just introduces high frequency hiss.

The downside is its lack of flexibility. Without a gain control, you are running clean.

If weight matters to you, then realize that it's heavy - about 30lbs.

The Ampeg PF500 is an entirely different beast. FAR more flexible.

The gain control allows you to add as much grind as you like. It's built in compressor is dead simple, and very effective. The tone controls are the familiar boost/cut style, with a selectable midrange frequency. It also has a -15db pad that I completely ignore. It isn't as outright LOUD as the Hartke, but its got all the volume that I'd ever require.

Weight is significantly less than the Hartke.

Comparing the two amps:

The Ampeg is an Ampeg. It sounds exactly like you'd expect. You can get a midrange grind that makes your mouth water! It seems to be more responsive to higher frequencies than the Hartke. String and fret noise are your's for the asking - and not in a bad way, but is very musical.

Where the Hartke is superior, is the bottom end. The tube preamp gives a depth and warmth to the bass that isn't there with the Ampeg. No matter how you manipulate the controls on the Ampeg, it simply can't reproduce the tube tone of the LH500.

For me personally, the bottom end is more important than the lack of flexibility of the Hartke. With the LH series, you either love the tone or move onto something else, because it is baked into the amp.

I have no qualms with using the PF500 and play through it regularly. But, it's my backup. And it perfectly fills that role. It goes to every gig, and sits on top of my LH500, in case I need it. It's got power, and all that is required to get up and running is to unplug the cabs from the Hartke, plug it into the Ampeg, hit the power switch and go.

As an aside - I've tried biamping the cabs, using the Hartke to power the 15" and the Ampeg to power the 210, but they didn't play well together...

In the attached pic, you can see the Ampeg in its spot, sitting on top of the Hartke.

thanks for the comparison - good stuff!