LH500 More Mids?

[higgins666]

Hi all, I'm just wondering, is there a way to get more mids out of a Hartke LH500? Atm I'm running the EQ like this: Bass: 2/3 Mids: 10 Treble 2/3. It sounds pretty flat/abit scooped to my ears, one idea I've had is getting an EQ pedal, & running that into the FX loop, or maybe just getting a differently voice preamp.

I play in a hard rock band, with active T-bird/Jazz style basses, generally I like the sound of Marshall/Hiwatt/Orange valve amp, buuuuut, I really don't have the budget for one of those

Any suggestions/advice would be really REALLY helpful. Thank you!

[alexclaber]

If you currently run both pickups at full volume, turn one of them down a bit (or a lot).

[Mr. Foxen]

You have pretty much as much mids as you are gonna get with those settings, its the classic Fender tone stack, the Orange (proper ones) use a Bandaxall type, that is less knobs and more flexibility, so you can get a mid boost. Middly cab is about the only way to get a mid boost, once the sound out you bass is done.

[paul_5]

I read somewhere that to get a completely flat response out of the LH series amps you need to run the bass at 10 o'clock, mids at full and no treble. This seems to suggest that there is no way to actually boost the mids with that sort of tone stack.

[Prime_BASS]

Bass and treble at 2 -3 or 2 thirds?

Either way turning both those down will give you more mid boost. Also are you setting the gain right (not sure if this amp has this feature)

New strings?

What cab you running?

All else fails, plug into the amps receive on the effect loop which cuts out the preamp altogether see how that sounds.

[paul_5]

I used to run an MXR DI+ before the amp and boost the mids that way. Swapped my LH for an Ampeg head and never looked back. Not that the LH amps aren't good, there's just not much flexibility as regards pre/post DI switching and the tone stack isn't to everyone's taste. LOADS of power for the money, and the Hydrive cabs are superb.

[Dood]

I see your basses have active electronics - in which case, turn the bass and treble down a little on the instrument and turning LH's volume up will have the same effect as boosting the mids (along with truning the bass control on the amp down too).

[higgins666]

Thanks for the replies, I'm thinking that next practice I'll have a fiddle about with cutting more bass/treble etc.

Prime_bass... They normally vary between 2 & 3, as for strings, I'm using Dean Markley NickleSteel Rounds, but I'm thinking I'll try the Blue Steels next time I re-string. Cab wise I've got a Marshall VBC 412, that sounds middier than alot of other cabs I've tried out, & it helps to bring out the overdrive I use (Ashdown Hyperdrive, but it only seems to boost the mids when I turn it on).

I've thought about getting a pedal based preamp & running that into my FX-Loop aswell, has anyone tried the Tech 21 Leeds/Oxford? (I'm not much for the Ampeg voicing, so that puts me off the VT Bass abit)

[Dood]

[quote name='higgins666' post='1209163' date='Apr 23 2011, 01:48 PM']I've thought about getting a pedal based preamp & running that into my FX-Loop aswell, has anyone tried the Tech 21 Leeds/Oxford? (I'm not much for the Ampeg voicing, so that puts me off the VT Bass abit)[/quote]


Well, unless I'm mistaken - certainly for the BDDI , it's 'speaker simulation' has a massive scoop in the mids and is likely to make things worse for you. I am making an assumption based on the fact that I haven't tried the Leads or Oxford models that they may do the same.

[higgins666]

[quote name='dood' post='1209168' date='Apr 23 2011, 01:54 PM']Well, unless I'm mistaken - certainly for the BDDI , it's 'speaker simulation' has a massive scoop in the mids and is likely to make things worse for you. I am making an assumption based on the fact that I haven't tried the Leads or Oxford models that they may do the same.[/quote]

Yeah, I did used to use a BDDI, it sounded ok, but I didn't like the mid scoop, even when I only blended in a little of it's drive, I'm finding the character pedals more tempting though, as they have mid controls & I think you can turn the speaker sim off... although I havn't been able to try one.

[Prime_BASS]

Overdrive is generally about mids. Which is why I dont understand tech 21's scooping on the para driver and BDDI

I don't know about the character pedals however.

2-3 is practically off then? I'm not sure I'm still a little confused.

I guess you can just try it flat( or at least all EQ knobs at 12) then compare that to the sound of the bass into the fx loop (which should be as flat as you can get through your cab) you should try this with bass pre-amp flat aswell.

From there you can work on how the heads pre-amp is voiced(for example the orange terror bass sucks the highs and adds a bit too much bass to give it a vintage sound)

I can't imagine ever having the mids on a head on full.

.
What I tend to do is use a head that is pretty even spending across all frequencies with a tube pre-amp for those tubey dynamics. Then EQ using my bass' on board pre-amp.

If you get the sound out of the bass right first everything tends to follow after wards.

[Sparky Mark]

I struggled with the mids on my LH for some time before giving up and selling it. The minimalist EQ is fine if you like the head's basic tone, but if not your stuffed, and left searching for a pedal to help out.

[chrismuzz]

If you want mids, i'd go for a Markbass head. They sound brilliant through absolutely any cab. You get a transparent sound and the mids are very pronounced. The filters are fun too! the VLE really does emulate vintage loudpseakers! Now that my bass has good pickups in it, I'm currently running mine with a totally flat EQ! I needn't even mention how stupidly loud they are. And the supposed gimmick of lightweight is just a nice bonus! MB heads always sell on here for between £200 and £500 depending on what you go for.

If you can't find a solution with your Hartke i seriously doubt you'd regret getting a tiny yellow and black head for your collection

[Sparky Mark]

[quote name='chrismuzz' post='1212255' date='Apr 27 2011, 02:06 AM']If you want mids, i'd go for a Markbass head. They sound brilliant through absolutely any cab. You get a transparent sound and the mids are very pronounced. The filters are fun too! the VLE really does emulate vintage loudpseakers! Now that my bass has good pickups in it, I'm currently running mine with a totally flat EQ! I needn't even mention how stupidly loud they are. And the supposed gimmick of lightweight is just a nice bonus! MB heads always sell on here for between £200 and £500 depending on what you go for.

If you can't find a solution with your Hartke i seriously doubt you'd regret getting a tiny yellow and black head for your collection [/quote]

+1. Exactly what I did, sold my LH1000 and put the money towards a Little Mark III.

[Prime_BASS]

My little Mark tube is for sale.

Very nice!!!

[AttitudeCastle]

The Orange Bass Terror isn't too far out you budget haha

I've used one and i love how gainy they get, but the sound isn't for me!

Spend a good hour or so just twiddleing every knob till you get something too work (taking into account whats been said here!)

Thats what i did on my current amp to dial out some "wool" on my Ashdown MAG and now i really like the sound!

[Conan]

[quote name='famstd' post='1232137' date='May 15 2011, 04:17 PM']The Hartke HyDrive cabs will give you great mids.[/quote]

Maybe. I play my LH500 through two different 2x15 cabs. Through the Trace Elliot, the sound is very smooth with plenty of top and bottom, but it's through the BareFaced Vintage that the mids really shout.

If you like the LH500, it might be worth experimenting with a few different cabs to get more midrange out of it? Also, maybe your bass of choice has a scooped sort of tone too?

[Wil]

I played through an LH500 at a gig with my old Spector and I had more mids than I could shake a stick at. I'd fiddle with it some more if I were you first before spending.

As Alex suggested, if you have a two pickup bass, generally when both pickup volumes are up full there will be a mid scoop because of the way the pickups are wired. Just nudging the bridge or neck pickup down a smidge should give you a little midrange bump.

[thisnameistaken]

I've also had no problems with getting midrange frequencies from my LH500 into my Schroeder 1212L. I have Jazz basses and a Thumb bass (which would probably sound mid-heavy through a piezo tweeter tbh...)