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Aguilar Tonehammer 500


scalpy
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I really, really like the look of these. The LMT is great but it's niggling away in a few areas. I'm itching to have a go with a TH500 but live miles away from anywhere that stocks one. Has anyone cracked one open yet and given it the beans?

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[quote name='Clarky' post='1257436' date='Jun 5 2011, 04:22 PM']Guitar Guitar has them in stock but I am waiting for Phil at BassGear to get them in (I guess around the end of this month as they are making them for him this week)[/quote]

Cool - I've been a bit wary of them in the past as I bought something that was listed as being 'in stock' but it turned out that not only did they not have what I wanted it was actually not going to be available at all :)

Could just have been a bit of a 'one-off' bad experience though!

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I helped out on that stand too. There were a few queues to try out some of those Foderas, no question. Yes, they are expensive, but once people started playing them, they generally kept on for a good while.

Wouldn't mind trying out the amp as well, wonder how they would match with my GS 112's ?

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[quote name='molan' post='1260491' date='Jun 7 2011, 11:07 PM']I think it's within easy striking distance of London, circa 30 mins I think :)[/quote]

Obviously better for business, but bad news for northerners :lol:

All 4 bass specialists are fairly southern, so once I move back to Newcastle I've got no chance! Support the north plx :)

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I saw a demonstration of the ToneHammer 500 head at the London Bass Show in Olympia a few months back, played around with it and talked to Aguilar's CEO about it. Great tonal flexibility, from clean to full-on rock, weighs next to nothing, looks uber-cool (the classiest looking micro head in my view). On the strength of that I am happy to place an order ... and with BassGear!

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[quote name='essexbasscat' post='1260488' date='Jun 7 2011, 11:05 PM']Wouldn't mind trying out the amp as well, wonder how they would match with my GS 112's ?[/quote]


I've used a tone hammer pedal as a pre through GS112's. The sound is nice. If you like GS112's and I do, then I can't see that the Tone hammer will
be a problem. What are you currently using..? I use a SWR SM400

For my own indulgence..I would like Aguilar to include a valve at the pre stage. I know you have that in the DB amps but they are touring amps...with all the
weight/carry issues that go with it.

I may well go down that route with my DB cabs and plop a DB7 series on top ...but it will add up to very expensive unless it gets more than a few outings.

Still a work in progress sort of thing for me..and am not entirely sure if I will go to all that, in the end.

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  • 3 weeks later...

[quote name='Clarky' post='1260722' date='Jun 8 2011, 08:42 AM']I saw a demonstration of the ToneHammer 500 head at the London Bass Show in Olympia a few months back, played around with it and talked to Aguilar's CEO about it. Great tonal flexibility, from clean to full-on rock, weighs next to nothing, looks uber-cool (the classiest looking micro head in my view). On the strength of that I am happy to place an order ... and with BassGear!![/quote]


... and it arrived Chez Clarky this afternoon :) Had a quick blast with my Jazz bass and it sounds very nice, just as I remember it form the Bass Show at Olympia. Not pushed the Drive level up for mega-distortion as my Jazz has Roto Tru Bass black nylon strings on and its too mellow for that - however at lower Drive levels its nice and creamy sounding. Can get a great DB sound out of the Jazz too. Cool!

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Love the way you are so supportive of bassgear. The tonehammer looks amazing, and what a cool name too! But I'm put off by the same niggle I have with my shuttle 9. This whole mid freq/mid level malarky. I like to control the high and low mids separately.

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[quote name='molan' post='1292749' date='Jul 4 2011, 09:34 PM']So how's the TH now you've had it a while Clarky?

Very tempted by one of these now that BassGear has a few in stock :)[/quote]
I've not really explored it's potential yet as I have had band rehearsals each of last two weekends (we are getting ready for the Upton Blues festival) so it's been full-on DB time.

I have spent an hour or two with it and my Jazz bass. It has a lovely smooth tone, not as tube-y as my old Mesa or the TC 450 but nice and round all the same and with the potential to go clean or gnarly. It looks very classy and seems to me a great rock amp. For more clean hifi or modern sounds it's probably not as appropriate as my old MarkBass F1. The true test is gigging it of course but thats a bit tricky given that I only play DB in my band.

Based on my limited experience so far though I am very pleased with it and do not envisage me moving it on as it sounds good, looks great and has the simplicity of controls that I like in an amp.

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  • 4 weeks later...

[quote name='pietruszka' post='1301435' date='Jul 12 2011, 07:02 PM']Im very keen to know how it compares to the AG500. Is it the same or are there noticeable difference in sound. Im tempted by one to reduce my baggage.

Dan[/quote]

Definitely smoother and 'warmer' than the AG500. I think the AG is a much cleaner amp (with everything set flat) than the DB750 as well so I'd think the TH is closer in some ways to the DB. Unfortunately it's a while since I've had a DB so I can't remember exactly how close they might be.

The drive circuit feels 'softer' than the AG's saturation channel. Bit more expressive and sounds very nice with a P bass. I was playing my '63 through it into a pair of Bag Ends yesterday and it sounded nicer than the best sounds I've managed to coax out of either the AG or the Thunderfunk I have at the moment.

I'm not sure it works as well when used with something like my Fodera. Both the AG & TF really come into their own here. Could be that the AG 7 TF are more 'immediate' sounding so maybe I need to spend some more time on this combination.

Haven't gigged with the TH (I only have it 'trial') but a couple of us wound it up to some pretty serious volume yesterday through three different rigs. It goes pretty loud but does, unsurprisingly, start to break up a bit at near full whack. In most cases the cabs started to lose definition before the head though and the break up from the TH sounded quite 'musical' and not at all harsh like an older tranny amp might sound.

I would say that both the AG & the TF seemed to go louder than the TH (all three rated about the same power) but I think that's because the other two were able to retain their clean volume higher up the volume scale. We were testing in a smallish room so couldn't really tell which amp/cab combination had the longest 'throw'.

We did think that at one point the TH on near full whack prompted either the neighbours to bang on the wall or for something like a picture frame to be rattled loose so I guess that's some sort of recommendation :)

It also weighs nothing and is a great little size. Would be perfect with my Bag End 1x10 for rehearsals and small gigs as I could carry the complete 'rig' plus a bass in one simple trip. . .

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Tried one of these at GG last week. I really liked the tone and felt it sounded warm with the drive up a bit. Didn't play about with heaps of settings but you can tell the flexibilty is there (I've some experience recording with the TH preamp/di). I didn't have time to A/B with anything an was playing through a DB cab with the tweeter at about 9 o'clock.

Seems like a great compact package and is really too light to believe.

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[quote name='Clarky' post='1257436' date='Jun 5 2011, 04:22 PM']Guitar Guitar has them in stock[/quote]
Let me know if you fancy coming and I'll give you a private booth to have a noodle in.

Sadly haven't tried them myself yet but I've been pretty impressed with the other stuff from Aguilar I've used!

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[quote name='Bankai' post='1334445' date='Aug 10 2011, 02:26 AM']Let me know if you fancy coming and I'll give you a private booth to have a noodle in.[/quote]

Too slow - he's already got one :) Bought it from Phil at BassGear (who also lent me one for a few days to try out at home!).

I think Phil has several in stock as well now :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

[quote name='pietruszka' post='1347829' date='Aug 22 2011, 10:32 AM']I got to try one at GG in Newcastle. Amazing heads!! Can't believe the sound from something that small and light. Im going back with my cab to try it again and play it side by side to my AG500 SC. I may be putting a deposit down!


Dan[/quote]

I spent some more time A/B'ing the TH vs the AG yesterday.

I find the core sound to be really quite different. Could even see a reason to keep both for different situations :)

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