HARTKE VX3500 Combo Amp - Best Settings?

Good luck, that amp sounds best turned off.

 

I have a 3500 head with VX 410 and 115. For hard rock it plain sucks. Im upgrading as we speak. For the time being try rolling off some highs, ul lose some of the snap but at leats u wont get as much of the horrible hissy farting sound

 

eq something close to this ^^, pre amp A at about 2:00, pre amp B at about noon, low pass about 9:00, high pass about 7:00. It sounds better on than off.

 

If your a jack bruce fan do you have any idea what he uses for a head? A hartke ha5500 which is the identical pre amp section as the combo. Just roll off the subs and shape the eq with a frown like jack bruce does and it will sound great. If it still doesnt cut it try an extension cab with it

 

+1 username1's EQ suggestions (as well as the rest of his post).

 

forgot to mention.....the preamp comes with a low quality sovtek tube that doesnt have any headroom. That is what is farting out on the highs. Try a grove tube 12ax7m or c and you wont believe the difference.

 

I'm sure Jack Bruce doesn't use stock Hartke gear.

 

mabe check his website and see for yourself

 

Perhaps it's the magician NOT the wand!!! Besides, if they tweaked amps just for him, why wouldn't he just run them flat?

I looked at www.jackbruce.com and saw that he always has a speaker in his VX810 mic'd and sometimes an aluminum 15. A HA5500 through a VX810 is essentially the same amp (with a little more power and four extra speakers). Perhaps we gear snobs are missing something!!!!

With regard to username1's comments, the VX3500 doesn't even have an extension speaker jack since the internal cabinet presents a 4 ohm load to the amp... While the stand alone VX410 is an 8 ohm cabinet and the HA3500 can go down to 4 ohms, the VX3500's speakers are 16 ohms each rendering a 4 ohm load to the amp (just looked at the manual on-line and confirmed it). http://www.samsontech.com/products/relatedDocs/vx3500_ownman_v1.1s.pdf

I've owned a couple HA5000s (and still have an HA4000) and found that it sounded pretty good (with a 1x15 EVM and a Avatar B210 Delta per channel) by leaving the Graphic EQ flat, adding a touch of bass and treble and having the two gain controls about half way up (equal at any rate).

How does your bass sound through other amps? Maybe new strings would do the trick... I used DR Hi Beams on both my passive P Bass (DiMarzio Will Power Middle pup) and active J style 5 (with EMGs) and am always happy with the tone.

Be sure to leave the Compressor OFF!!!! It sounded terrible to my ears.