attackbass

Ah cool, I look forward to seeing the review of the amp! As far as I know the 502 is pretty much the same as previously Reidmar amps but with the tweaked power section so it goes down to 2ohms. When I was speaking to Ralf about the amps first a few years back he said that when you turn the amp up loud it starts to clip it which creates a nice drive. This is why apparently there is a drive control on the 750 as it was impossible to get it loud enough to clip without blowing most cabs in the first place, or something like that... I may not have quoted him exactly right there but that was the jist. Hopefully I'll be able to test it at full, ear bleeding volume soon!!

Appreciate their is no interest in this thread 😂 But I will persevere anyway... Took the 502 out with my new EBS Neo 2x12 and I now understand what light weight really is. I could literally carry my whole rig in two hands! The cab is very nice articulate and very punchy and tight but somehow also very deep! The tweeter is extremely nice, not harsh at all. I know that people talk about amps having heft but this rig is like having the power of a superhero who has the ability to flatten buildings. I kid you not. At 1 - the first notch on the master volume - it was loud. Then, as I have a tendency to lay in more in the gig than during soundcheck, I gave it some and dug into my playing and I think the singer almost had a heart attack with the the sudden volume increase! The way this amp responds to you're playing is awesome, it appears to have a huge amount of headroom. This gig was just a wedding gig in a decent sized room and with previous amps with the same power modules, I would usually be approaching 3/4s of the way up on the volume dial. I know EBS have tweaked the module and done something that lets the power amp clip, so not not sure if this is the reason why there is so much available volume/headroom. I had a session gig last night where I was restricted to being only using the rented in backline, a combination of ashdown and orange. The gig was awesome with a highly talented band but the provided rig was not so much fun! Anyway, massively impressed and happy with my EBS rig!

Technically this arrived on Friday, but just getting a chance now to write this! Don't know why I didn't try out the Reidmar range sooner. The 502 has very much the EBS tone. It's clean and warm but I've found if I get the gain to the right place, with just a slight bit of clipping it has a very nice edge/grit to the tone. Whilst speaking to Ralf at EBS he mentioned that at high volume the amp actually clips the power amp in a nicer and more musical way, but I quite like the preamp clip gain tone too. This leads me to the volume of this amp. This amp is incredible LOUD!! I can barely get past the first notch on the master volume without the house shaking. I have a number of rehearsals and gigs this week so will hopefully get to hear how loud this amp really gets! I'm definitely not worried about not being heard tho! It definitely has a lot of punch and is a muscular tone! Couldn't imagine using the 750!! The compressor is amazing, always loved the multicomp and this is very musical, very transparent, you can't really hear it working until you get to extreme settings. EQ is super versatile, I have found that I haven't really needed to adjust the treble or bright controls, just adding some bass and adjusting the sweepable mid range to taste. However, when you add the bright and treble into the mix you can get those very Hi-fi funk/slap sounds but I tend to prefer the fatter, rounded tones this amp can provide as the notes are very clear anyway. The range on the EQ is pretty wide and love it, it really helps that it's cut and boost too, apart from the bright which is just a boost I like the character switch too, doesn't seem too extreme at all and like combining it with the filter section - I'll have to see how it works out in a live setting! The amp is built like a tank, feels very sturdy and has a nice assuring weight to it for its size! Really happy with it so far, can't wait to really open it up. I'm hoping that it's going to reduce the need to take anything other than amp, cab, bass, tuner and leads to gigs - I'll probably take my VT Deluxe as a backup which should fit in my pelicase with the amp and leads.

I play 5 string and 4 string basses. I find it easier to "think" over 5 strings when improvising and reading as you can stay in position more. I enjoy playing both, I think it depends on the music you are playing. I tend to use different basses for different styles. I've found that in my experience 5 strings sound different to a 4 string in drop D, most notably in rock music. I think if I had to choose I would go for 5 strings altho I'm in love with my limelight p bass at the moment, just wish it had 5 strings!

Yeah, the way this bass sounds whatever it is, it sounds great and that's all that really matters. If it works, it works... And I don't want to go down another pickup rabbit hole!

I have no idea! Not sue if he makes them himself or buys a certain brand... Whatever they are they certainly work!

Picked up the Limelight on Friday afternoon from Mark. The bass looks even better in real life, photos do not do justice to the relicing work that Mark does. The bass feels incredible, very comfortable and feels like a well used instrument. The rolled fingerboard felt great and just the wear and smoothness of the body made it feel like I had the bass for decades. I mainly play 5 strings or jazz basses so when I started to play it I felt like I had just been given my first bass and couldn't for the life of me think of anything to play! The sound... Well obviously it sounds like a P bass! But I have never played a P bass that has sounded so clear and that has resonated so well. Somebody mentioned before that the basses really sing, and they do. I was amazed as I have had bad experience of very dead sounding p basses in the past, especially on the E and A strings. The tone control is really useful, and can surprisingly get a nice range of tones out of the bass, especially when changing hand position. Took it on a gig last night, sounded great everything flat... It was a weird gig... And I wasn't able to turn up very loud so didn't get into eq'ing the bass with my amp and I just rolled with it, and the bass sounding good with little EQ really helped me just get on with the gig. Limelights are really great, having owned US fenders and Laklands etc I would never buy one again. Mark gave me good advice when ordering the bass and that advice has been realised in this great bass. Beyond pleased with it! Mark was also a really nice guy, friendly and approachable.. also hope I didn't slightly offend by thinking he was English when we got on to the subject of rugby... I'm Welsh.. didn't expect Mark to be Welsh too! Whoops.

Ventura - Aanderson.Pak Wasn't so much a fan of his previous albums, liked the music but the guy seems to just say "beaches" every 20 seconds which grinds. This album seems a step up! Also spent last weekend listening to Ice Cube, killer bass groove samples on 'No Vaseline'.

I remember playing Precision Lyte in the mid-late 90s as a kid in a music shop in Gloucester. I think it was the first time I played a bass and noticed the tone, and remembering thinking they sounded amazing. I think it had quite a pokey mid forward sound from my memory. Maybe I'll hunt one down, one day!

Ha! Yeah just did some digging. It's a shame they're no longer in every shop under the sun to compare! The HA35000 looks the more "fun" amp bit I expect the LH is probably the better sounding if not as flexible

I think the one I played back in 1999/2000 would've been a MOSFET one as it had the transient attack logo written on it. I wonder if they sound different and why the change?

What is the difference between the older transient attack models and the newer models of the HA 3500. Do they sound different, are they different or was transient attack just a bit of marketing hartke dropped?

Haha yeah... I actually got mark to base mine on yours in terms of the level of relicing! I spent hours trying to decide a colour!

Yes, it was on the spec sheet. I didn't request it so I think it's part of the relicing Mark does.

Haha! Cool. I quite like the look of the redesigned XLs but the weight of the 4x10 is probably too much and the 2x10s are still just rated at 200 watts.. you'd think they could do better than that these days, guess it's fine used with the 4x10 tho. The price of the LH is amazing. I'm not too concerned about the tone stack... I used to use the orange ad200b and I'm pretty sure the mid control didn't really alter much at all! I have a VT bass deluxe and darkglass vmt if I needed more control. I used the Hydrive 8x10 with the ad200b actually for a while European tour (same tour my head stopped working for a day). I remembering being a bit weary of it but it actually sounded good, different to my orange 8x10 - probably less deep but more punchy, with a bit more bite. There's definitely a bit of nostalgia attached to this sudden desire for hartke, I probably started playing bass at the tail of their golden era and remember the huge rigs buoy for advertising purposes (that worked! Haha). But I was surprised by how much I liked that XL cab!

Picking this up next week from Mark! Ordered it a few months back on the basis of the great reviews and to be honest completely forgot about it! I think it's based on a 65 p bass from what I remember, with lake placid blue over white. Not sure what to expect when I first get my hands on it. Hoping it will just feel like a nice, worn p bass that I can continue to add my own character to it as it will no doubt get from use. It certainly looks great! Apparently his camera has made the blue a little more vivid than it actually is. My trust worthy Fender Jazz 75RI has a neck problem so instead of replacing the neck etc I thought I would retire it (12 years of touring and playing and the frets are gone and it's done it's job!!) and get a p bass, after looking at fender US basses and playing my brother in law's 70s p bass these limelights looked perfect and incredible value in context to a US fender!

I don't know why but for some reason Hartke amps and cabs have been appealing to me recently. Most noticeable the LH amp and the 210 HD cabs. Seem loud enough and portable and would give me options for rehearsals and gig with cabs. My first serious rig as a teenager was a transporter 4x10 and a HA4000. I remember loving the kickback combos which lead me to trying out the HA transient attack 3500 which I also loved, but they were on a back order and so I settled for the HA4000 which I think was probably too advanced for me back then and always struggled with. I then moved on to ashdown to ampeg and a countless amount of other amps, and spent 5/6 years as an orange amps artist playing a huge all tube rig. I've had a few years of going through a number of excellent amps but haven't been able to settle.. apart from loving the VT bass deluxe. We had a 410XL in the rehearsal studios I ran until recently and found myself loving the tone from it, which has made my mind wander and wonder at going all hartke or perhaps hartke cabs with a GK head... A combination I hadn't heard about until searching Is anyone else still using the LH series amps, what's reliability like? Lots of old posts about but just looking for more recent info/opinions. Hartkes presence seems to have diminished it's visibility over here over recent years, it was once everywhere! Seems strange you can call Larry but have seen posts with nightmares contacting UK distribution for parts etc used one once, many years ago in Germany on tour when my orange amp wouldn't mysteriously work that night. I was surprised by the tone from the amp and the Hydrive 810. I play everything from funk, jazz to heavy/rock and hip hop.

I had the dug for a year. What I found was it sounded great for playing un-dynamic, hard hitting music where you want that grind with a big sonic low end. Unfortunately for me I couldn't get it to work for me as band I need "rock" tones for is very dynamic and when I would play softer, or thumb muted parts it sounded like the hi part of the pedal wouldn't quite engage enough and I would have this huge, sustained bass sound.... Which was actually kinda cool but you could almost see the sound guy scramble to deal with it! Ha What really did it was just wanting that slight overdrive and more unified tone rather than the clean low end and driven hi end, I just couldn't get the balance right for me. But it was awesome, and if I was rich I'd have kept it! And so I went for the VT bass deluxe! Almost tempted to get a new BDDI at some point.

i believe so... not sure how long it has been around for. the speaker sim stays active on the di regardless with the button only changing the 1/4 inch out jack to the amp.

I've owned and used over the years a lot of bass amps and preamps... Hartke, Ampeg, Ashdown, Orange, EBS, Eden, Warwick, Trickfish, Aguilar, Euphonic Audio, Tech 21, Darkglass, Fender,Trace Elliot etc... I currently own a Trickfish rig and own a complete Warwick Hellborg rig which when it was released was probably the most unattainable rig ever and mainly thanks to Thomann, I somehow now own it. All these amps sounded great, all had their own tone and this post is more about what I have surprisingly found as a great tone that I just really love and enhances my enjoyment playing live, and that is... The Tech 21 VT Bass deluxe! I bought it on a bit of a whim as a birthday present to myself as it's always intrigued me. Last two gigs I had been running it Infront of the Hellborg and it sounded great and didn't have the scooped sound of the old BDDI, so last night I just thought "I'll run it straight into the Hellborg power amp" and it sounded even better, the drive was clearer somehow and more audibly responsive to my playing. I then pushed in the speaker sim button and it sounded better again, tightening up the sound and adding a little more presence! It's the fullest, fattest sound I have ever had from a set up (apart from a raging SVT VR rig I had on a tour in Australia once). It was a driven tone and as it was a wedding gig I checked with our soundguy/guitarist if I was over doing it and the response from him and the brass section was that it sounded great and really helped to fill out the sound. Just a very satisfying tone and dynamic to my playing and it would clear up when I went to a slap passage or higher register part. Of course the Hellborg power amp and club cab is probably helping too but I think it's probably the solution of having my tone/sound on stage being represented through the PA. I'm not sure why it sounded better not going through the Hellborg pre, I think the Hellborg has its own little bit of compression going on which is why people compare it to using a tube pre and maybe it's just too much with Hellborg and VT together. I'm sure it's in part, a case of being conditioned to unknowingly loving the Ampeg sound and when I think back, even though I've gone for solid state amps over recent years I always have a tendency to try and add some sort of slight overdrive to them. I'm sure against an actual SVT that I would choose the SVT, but I have lifted or should I say tried to lift those and they are ridiculous!! Question is do I hang on to the Hellborg pre for when I need a clean tone or for studio use... The DI hasincredible high fidelity! It's been a funny year, I've discovered using flats on modern basses really works for me and that more vintage 'driven' tones really help fit in the mix for more music than just rock etc. I have to hand it to Tech 21, I love the VT Deluxe. Anyone else ever gone through this?