Hartke HA5500 User manual

500 WATT BASS AMPLIFIER

HA5500

Hartke

HartkeHartke

Introduction 2

Features 3

Guided Tour

Front Panel 4-5
Rear Panel 6-7

Setting Up and Using the HA5500 8-9

About Equalization 10-11

About Compression 12

Appendix A: Block Diagram 13

Appendix B: Changing the HA5500 Voltage 14

Specifications 15

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Congratulations on purchasing the Hartke HA5500 Bass Amplifier! Although this
unit is designed for easy operation, we suggest you first take some time to go
through these pages so you can fully understand how we’ve implemented a
number of unique features.

The HA5500 provides 500 watts of power to a 4 ohm speaker system or 350
watts to an 8 ohm speaker system. With that kind of power, the HA5500 is
EXTREMELY loud and punchy. In addition, the HA5500 offers a number of
additional advanced features, including front-panel compression and graphic
equalizer LED indicators, effects send and return jacks, an effects send/return
balance knob, and a direct output with ground lift and pre or post EQ selection.

The HA5500 is optimized for use with electric bass instruments, and the front
panel controls in both models are virtually identical. You’ll find either to be an
excellent bass amplifier for live performance use in small and medium-size ven­ues; in addition, the HA5500’s advanced pre-amp features makes it ideal for
use in recording environments.

In these pages, you’ll find a detailed description of the many features of the
HA5500 bass amplifier, as well as a guided tour through their front and rear
panels, step-by-step instructions for setting up and using each product, detailed
discussions about equalization and compression, and full specifications. You’ll
also find a warranty card enclosed—please don’t forget to fill it out and mail it so
that you can receive online technical support and so we can send you updated
information about these and other Hartke and Samson products in the future.

SPECIAL NOTE: Should your unit ever require servicing, a Return
Authorization number (RA) is necessary. Without this number, the unit will not
be accepted. Please call Samson Technologies at [phone] for a Return
Authorization number prior to shipping your unit. Please retain the original
packing material and, if possible, return the unit in its original carton and pack­ing materials.

Introduction

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The Hartke HA5500 bass amplifier offers all the newest concepts in bass ampli­fication. Here are some of its main features:

• Power to spare — The HA5500, a full 500 watts delivered to a 4 ohm
speaker system or 350 watts to an 8 ohm speaker system.

• Our unique Transient Attack® circuitry which ensures that every nuance of
your bass performance is reproduced faithfully.

•Two Pre-Amp input knobs, allowing custom blending of tube and solid state
sounds.

•Ten bands of high-quality graphic equalization, allowing you to create a
broad range of tonal colors for your bass instrument. A dedicated in/out
button allows you to preset an equalization curve.

•Two fully adjustable contour knobs (high pass and low pass), which provide
further control over shaping your bass sound.

•Abuilt-in compressor which not only adds real “punch” to your bass sound,
but also allows you to smooth out volume differences between notes.

•Two independent inputs that accommodate both passive and active bass
guitars.

• Protection relay circuitry that protects connected speakers from dangerous
overloading and also prevents “thumps” when powering on or off.

•Effect loop send and return jacks that allow you to connect to professional
outboard effects processors.

• An effect Balance knob which enables you to adjust the relative amount of
Send (“dry”) versus Return (“wet”) effect signal being routed to the speaker
outputs.

• Electronically balanced direct output that provides a means of routing signal
to professional mixing consoles in both live performance and recording
environments. A ground lift switch helps prevent hum or buzz from entering
the signal, and a pre/post switch allows the direct signal to be derived
either before or after the amp EQ section.

• LEDs that show you the settings of the graphic equalizer in low-light envi­ronments as well as a two-color LED that continuously shows the status of
the compression circuitry in response to your playing.

• Rugged construction makes the HA5500 eminently road-worthy.

Features

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Guided Tour - HA5500 Front Panel

1. Passive Input jack - If your bass guitar has passive circuitry, connect it to the
Model 5500 here. This standard, 1/4” unbalanced jack provides a high imped­ance (100 k Ohms) input sensitivity of 20 millivolts.

2. Active Input jack - If your bass guitar has active circuitry,* connect it to the
Model 5500 here. This standard, 1/4” unbalanced jack provides a high imped­ance (100 k Ohms) input sensitivity of 60 millivolts.

3. Pre-Amp A (Tube) control - This determines the amount of preamplification
being provided by special circuitry which delivers the sound of a classic tube
amplifier (this circuitry actually includes a real tube!). Note that when both
Pre-Amp knobs are used at equal settings, the amplifier will be twice as loud as
when only one is used. Avoid setting both Pre-Amp knobs on maximum (“10”),
since the result will almost always be undesirable distortion.

4. Pre-Amp B (Solid State) control - This determines the amount of preamplifi­cation being provided by special circuitry which delivers the sound of a solid
state amplifier. Note that when both Pre-Amp knobs are used at equal settings,
the amplifier will be twice as loud as when only one is used. Avoid setting both
Pre-Amp knobs on maximum (“10”), since the result will almost always be
undesirable distortion.

5. Compression LED - Provides a visual indicator of the status of the
compression circuitry. When lit steadily green (for example, when the
Compression knob [see #6 on the next page] is set to “Off”), no compression is
being applied. When unlit, compression is being applied to the incoming signal
at a ratio of approximately 2:1. When flashing red, the compression ratio is
approaching infinity (limiting is being applied to peak signals). When lit steadily
red, the entire signal is being limited. This LED “follows” the incoming signal,
changing continuously as different amounts of compression and/or limiting are
being applied. For more information, see the “About Compression” section on
page 15 of this manual.

* Bass guitars that have active circuitry normally require a battery for the
circuitry to be functional.

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