Looking for 500 watt bass head soon

[buff]

Have tried a ashdown abm 500 head which i liked the sound of, im also keen on the peavey tour 450 head and the hartke lh500. Anyone had any experience with any of these heads ? Budget is about £450.

[KASH]

[quote name='buff' post='652581' date='Nov 12 2009, 01:02 PM']Have tried a ashdown abm 500 head which i liked the sound of, im also keen on the peavey tour 450 head and the hartke lh500. Anyone had any experience with any of these heads ? Budget is about £450.[/quote]

if you're going down the solid state route you may want to consider the gallien krueger 700rb 480w..it's a little bit more expensive though. i have the 1001rb and it's a beast!

[Merton]

The Hartke LH500 is a fabulous head, dead simple to use and dead easy to get a great tone from. And it's perfectly powerful for almost anything you'll need :-)

[RussFM]

I'm selling my Musicman HD500 if you're interested, made by MarkBass in Italy and is essentially a TA503 without the yellow. 500w solid state with tube preamp.

[crez5150]

try the GK MB2..... outstanding!

[Les]

Haven't tried the others but have recently moved from Trace to the Hartke LH500 and I'm very happy with it. Not a lot of knobs and buttons and that suits me. And it's plenty loud enough.

Les

[buff]

Forgot the other thing is its got to be repairable, my local amp tec shook his head a while back when i mentioned G&K. Had a little 250watt G&K back in the mid 90's and loved it. Not sure if its down to digital stuff or printed circuits thats the problem.

[chris_b]

LM 2

[Musicman20]

[quote name='chris_b' post='652936' date='Nov 12 2009, 07:24 PM']LM 2[/quote]
+1

[buff]

Have also noticed the peavey tour 450 comes with a 5 year warranty

[Uncle Balsamic]

Hartke LH500 or a Markbass LMII.

[cLepto-bass]

My vote goes for the Markbass LMII. At least give it ago.

[phatbass787]

This to me seems bargain of the year. Really good heads, simple, powerful and made in England

[url="http://www.soundslive.co.uk/product~name~Ashdown-MAG-600-EVO-I-(Limited-Run)~ID~11199.asp"]http://www.soundslive.co.uk/product~name~A...n)~ID~11199.asp[/url]

[buff]

Its a good price, not really up on ashdown stuff to know if there's much differance between the mag stuff and the abm heads ?

[Mr.T]

ABM500....

Would look amazingly great on that BIG cab of yours.
... and only 5 minutes away!

[buff]

Haha was going to pm you mike about popping over and giving it a try funnily enough

[xgsjx]

+1 on the LM11. Or LM111?

[jim_bass]

[quote name='buff' post='653230' date='Nov 12 2009, 11:51 PM']Its a good price, not really up on ashdown stuff to know if there's much differance between the mag stuff and the abm heads ?[/quote]

ABM has a valve pre in it - MAG is solid state all round. Get the abm500 it's lovely. I've got a klystron500. Love the sound and has all the built in effects that I need.

That said, with my recurring hernia problem , I do wonder whether I should have got a nice lightweight LMII - which sounds great too - but very clean!

[bassmansky]

you can pick up a 500w abm 11 head off evilbay for £250/300.great amps imo.cheapest new is £499.i have had mine for 18 months without any problems and ashdowns after sale service can not be beaten.

[basshead56]

Ampeg B 500DR

Awesome head, 500 watts into 2ohms, SVT sounds, four programmable channels with two inputs- you can dial up any sound-without having to change basses!
and all into a 2U rack unit. Also, the last USA built Ampeg amp!
Fantastic!

[Plux_the_Duck]

LH500 - best choice if you want a simple crisp sound!!!
loads of grunt, loads of volume to grunt
really simple use, basically just plug in and go, no fiddling with eq knobs and that stuff

Got my recommendation to anyone who needs a 500 watt amp for less than £450

(haha, I got mine when it was £180, cos I got it last christmas - though it was a gamble then)

[stingrayfan]

[quote name='Merton' post='652589' date='Nov 12 2009, 01:08 PM']The Hartke LH500 is a fabulous head, dead simple to use and dead easy to get a great tone from. And it's perfectly powerful for almost anything you'll need :-)[/quote]
+1. Really pleased with mine. It's an antidote to over-complicated amp heads.

[Bottle]

[quote name='crez5150' post='652611' date='Nov 12 2009, 01:23 PM']try the GK MB2..... outstanding![/quote]
+1 for the GK MB2 - had mine for a few months now. Very happy with it, and I can push the full 500w into my EBS 4x10 cab (which is nice ). Add a slight amount of grit courtesy of the SansAmp, and you've got a killer combination.

Very easy to dial in a tone, EQ is pretty good, contour filter is a nice touch.

Anyway, there's lot to choose from at that price point (I paid a smidge over 500 notes for the GK) - LM3, Shuttle 6.0, the new Orange Bass Terror 500, TC RH450, plus I'm sure if you try first, you can pick up a bargain second-hand (lots of LM2s come up for sale). Give Darren at Bass Merchant a call.

Anyway, hope this helps

Ian

[Moos3h]

I recently tried the Peavey Tour 450 (not bad at all), Hartke LH500 (nice sounds but heavy and the shop I was in had a few back), the Markbass LM3 (didn't like it but not sure why) and the Orange Bass Terror.

The Orange TOTALLY destroyed the others for me, BUT it's not going to be to everyone's taste.

[JTUK]

for that money I'd check out the LMll on here and the SWR900 .. the latter being a stupendous spec for the money..IMO