Hartke LH500 Bass Amp Issues

Terry,
No worries, just call my service manager Joe Antonelli at 1-800-328-2882 (New York) and he will get you up and running. The fans do come on at startup and the delayed audio start up time is just the pre-amp tube warming up and that is completely normal. It might even be that a bad tube is causing your problem. Give Joe a call, he just got back from vacation today so he's probably pretty busy, but leave a message if you get his voicemail, tell him I sent you and he will call you back.
Don’t worry about the warranty; we’ll fix it for you!
If you need further help you can always reach me at 201-452-4960 Cell or [email protected]

 

And this folk... is why Hartke is the BEST!

Larry, I am looking forward to rockin out this summer with my new LH1000/HX410 stack. Now if that shipment can just come a LITTLE faster.

 

+1 for Hartke CS.

And logic, that's the rig I run myself. You will enjoy!!

 

This exaclty explains the problem I am having with my amp. Is there any way I can fix this?
I saw in a lot of threads that its suggested to call this Joe Antonelli, But I live in The Netherlands so that really isn't that much of a option to me.
This is also the second time this amp broke down on me the first time the transformer had a short circuit and I got a new one from Hartke them self, but it took the store where I got it almost 2 months to actually send it so I had to play gigs with a amp from a friend of mine. I don't actually want to do this again.

Any advice on what to do?

 

Hey DirkJan,

You can contact my distributor in the Netherlands and they should be able to help you out. If you need further help just e-mail me at [email protected]

Total Sonic B.V.
Boekweitstraat 1B
GK Nieuw-Vennep
Netherlands
2153

Phone: +0252 629 340
Fax: +0252 629 364

Website: http://www.totalsonic.nl/
Email: [email protected]

Thanks for playing Hartke!

 

Freakin NINJA! Yet another reason to love my Hartke gear.

 

Hi,

I would like to share the information, that, I hope, will be useful for Hartke LH500/LH1000 users.

I bought some time ago LH500 amplifier. It's really good amplifier.
However, I've found that my exemplar generates very big noise, even when volume control potentiometer is set to a minimum. My analysis of reasons showed that C302 and C306 polar capacitors in power amplifier are used in inverted polarity. I've opened scheme and found that these capacitors are mounted so in accordance with scheme. In my opinion, it's not correctly, because polar capacitors are very sensitive to polarity.
If you open electrical scheme, you will see that output of amplifier has (should be tuned) zero potential relatively of ground. A current to a base of Q067 transistor provides some drop of potential (about 0.1-0.2V) on R316 resistor. Therefore, the bases of G067 and G302 transistors always have some negative potentials relatively of ground (-0.1...-0.2 V), but on the scheme the polarity of C302 and C306 capacitors are marked so that they should be set in inverse polarity. Manufacturer sets the capacitors in accordance with scheme, i.e. also in inverse polarity. As a result, some leakage currents through these capacitors may take place that generate big noise in my amplifier. Other exemplars may have much smaller noise but in any case life of these capacitors may be very short due to inverse polarity.
I've replaced these capacitors (C302 and C306) by new ones, having mounted them in correct polarity: "+" - to direction of "ground" and "-" - to direction bases of transistors. Also, I've replaced nonpolar capacitor C304 by polar one, also "+" - to a ground and "-"- to the bases of the transistors.
Now, after these corrections and a tuning of 0 V on output of amplifier by the SVR301 resistor, all polarities and voltages are true, and any noise is absent in practice at all.
Now, I can hear just small noise of tube but only in maximal position of volume control potentiometer.

I tried to inform Larry Hartke about my find, but didn't get any reply.
I hope, my remark will be useful for all users of this amplifier.

Finally, I would like to say that in spite of the mentioned remark, the LH500/1000 amplifier is very good. I am satisfied completely by its work and recommend it to all bassists.

Best regards,
Sergey

 

I have own two LH500 and I dont remember any noise at all, neither practice nor gig level. I would like to heard what Larry has to say about.

 

How cool is that? ^^

Way to go, Sergey.

 

I said already that it's not necessarily that the noise should be in each exemplar. No of course. Especially, if amplifier is new. However, after some time (maybe even after very long time), such noise may take place because these capacitors may be failed.

 

I used to have a Hartke HA7000 head that powered a 410.5xl and 115xl cabs (still have the cabs). I was in love with the sound it had but after a while the amp started having a flanger type swishing sound to it when I would stop playing. I talked to the local authorized repair man in town and he said he could fix it but then he found out I used to bang his wife (before he knew her) and i didn't trust him with it so I traded it for a peavey t-max. Now they don't make them anymore! If I had known then that I could have talked to Larry Hartke myself and got it fixed i would have never gotten rid of it!