- Mar 8, 2011
- 12,232
- 51,187
- Disclosures
- Authorized greenboy designs builder/Owner of BNA Audio
I’m sure the post office is not slowing down just to frustrate me, but...
Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Thunderbird Club
- Thread starter TBird1958
- Start date
-
- Tags
- club thunderbird
Nah, it's a conspiracy. They do it to me too!
I don't know none o' them fancy words Kat throws around... but I know that, in a music store setting... walking down the row plugging into this amp & that amp... I generally find it pretty easy to dial in something I like. Not "my sound" per se (I'm still tryin' to work on exactly what that is)... but a sound I can be happy noodling with. I struggle more with that on a Hartke. I don't know if it's a low-mid thing or something maybe... but it's consistent among Hartkes. It's unique to Harke's. I just call it "the Hartke sound". Even though I haven't had recent experience with them... it's still a sound I can only refer to as "modern". I'm from the Blues & dirty old Rock & Roll. In Fantasy Land... I'd have a big fat tube rig! I like life, and breath, and space in my sound. I find modern sounding amps to be quite dry and focussed. Nothing that isn't a tube amp, will ever give you breath or space, but I like GK because I find them to have a very "lively" sound, and because they do a great job of putting out, what's being put in without really coloring it (unless you choose to use the "contour" feature and the likes). GK is certainly capable of procucing a modern sound if you want it to... but they do a better job of not doing that, than most other modern solid state amps IMO. I'm far from the most experienced with Hartke's stuff... but the experiences I've had, led me away from them. I'm not saying it's a "bad" sound... it's just a sound for people that aren't me
Also worth noting... I don't have any experience with running anything other than Hartke power into Hartke cabs (wellllll... I was in a band for a short while with a guy who ran a GK head into a Hartke cab... but he played slap on a Jazz bass. It sounded like he kicked a box of spoons down a staircase!). I don't know how much of "the Hartke sound" to attribute to the cabs. Just being familiar with the kind of sound that Hartke aims for, is enough to make me look at other options when there's no clear reason not to (other than the fact that they do look really cool)
I now have the pleasure of informing you, that you have just participated in a drinking game! Everybody hasta do a shot fer every time they read any form of the word "Hartke"
I am a bit like you too, I think. I struggle to describe what I hear.
I know what bass sound I like and am looking for.
I was an "old Fender Bassman" guy for decades- but eventually my age and a desire for more volume set me looking.
I looked at an array of SS heads- settled on the hybrid GK Fusion 550 for exactly the reasons you mention- I could do Bassman but growlier. I love it. I have since added the more compact MB Fusion 500 and it is great too.
Those two amps give me the sound I am looking for in my band at an acceptable weight.
Ampeg, TC, Genz didn't do it for me. I particularly hated the Genz amps I used- too wooly.
I have used Hartke stuff at an open mic I used go to and I hated it- not the sound in my head at all.
I have used the modern SS Bassmans and I like them- particularly with the vintage button engaged. I reckon I could gig them and be happy too.
My practice amp is a little Fender Frontman 15B I have had for years and I even like the sound of it.
I have an older ICB 300- not particularly heavy.
That's cool. I also remember the neck being super chunky. Is yours?
Thanks for the links. The only Rotos I've tried were Roto 77 Jazz flats (which are the only flat I like) and Roto Black tapewounds which I hated (too stiff and too thudy).
The Optima Unique strings are probably close to the Roto flats in tension but somewhere between a Roto flat 77 and Chrome Nickle Rounds in tone (obviously much closer to the Chromes). I find that Chromes start out fairly bright and over time calm down to a more sedate level. The Optima strings are much brighter than broken in Chromes but not quite as bright as brand new Chromes. The big difference is the Optimas keep their new sound for a long long time.
To put a relative time line on it - most round nickel strings I play sound bright and new for a month or two, then sound broken in for a few months, then sound dead at about 6 months. On the same bass with the same usage the Optima strings sound very slightly broken in right out of the box and stay that way for a couple of years then slowly mellow out over the next year or two. The only time they've actually gone dead on me is the one time I tried boiling to clean them. Huge mistake! It destroyed the finish and caused the core to start rusting, within a week they were throw aways.
- Mar 8, 2011
- 12,232
- 51,187
- Disclosures
- Authorized greenboy designs builder/Owner of BNA Audio
Great guy, pro player down in Florida. He frequents amps, basses, effects...basically all the forums. Also the main Ampeg apologist
I personally find the Hartke amps I've tried to be too sterile for my taste. I like a little richness and a fuller bottom end than I normally get it out of Hartke.
Hartke is like a pool cue to the forehead vs a Mesa or Bergantino solid uppercut punch to the gut. You're gonna feel both, and they're both going to hurt but one will make you shake your head and stammer a bit, while the other will knock the wind out of you and bring you to your knees. Then there's the Ashdown and Eden stuff that just ain't fair, it's a swift kick in the crotch.
It would be interesting to see 410 cabs put on a tone continuum. I'd place Ashdown, Eden and maybe Trace Elliot at the dark end of the spectrum and Hartke, SWR and Warwick at the bright end with Ampeg just bright of center and Bergantino just dark of center along with Mesa. YMMV
Great guy, pro player down in Florida. He frequents amps, basses, effects...basically all the forums. Also the main Ampeg apologist
Yep, I've been over reading Amps/Cabs stuff lately and he's all over the place in there... seems super nice & extremely knowledgeable.
- Mar 8, 2011
- 12,232
- 51,187
- Disclosures
- Authorized greenboy designs builder/Owner of BNA Audio
He’s extremely knowledgeable about Ampegs and P basses. Very outspoken about what he likes, which is cool by me. Great guy!
You ask that like someone who only ever hangs out at Thunderbird Club.
Back in prehistory, before I started coming around here and blathering about whatever sh!te comes into my head, I used to spend my TB time in the the Amps&Cabs forum, reading thousands of posts about mixing cabs, arguments about 'solid state vs tube watts', the latest super light 110 cabs, how to boost your mids and cut your bass, yadda, yadda, yadda. I suppose because I was mainly interested in getting an amp/cab and I had yet to discover how much fun I could have here.
Jimmy is TB's resident Ampeg endorser, boss of Ampeg club etc, and has the highest post count on TB (he's about 55,000 in front of the next most prolific).
Yeah, but someone was actually asking the other day, so I took the time to type it out.
He knows his stuff. But don't ask him anything about what the new Ampeg company might be releasing. His lips are sealed.
Ha!!!!, same here Kat. He only knows how many times I've pm'd him regarding this or that. And he was extremely gracious about it all. He is one of the good ones for sure.
