Aguilar Tone Hammer 500-Watt Bass Amplifier Head

I purchased this for a back up for my other amp that was out being repaired, thinking when i get that one back, it will be the back up, this sounds great, and lightweight, simple controls and plenty of power, running it through a 2 x 10 cab in small to medium clubs and cuts right through

Tonehammer is pretty sweet! I recently switched from Ampeg B2RE to the TH because the solid state Ampeg just did not sound great as DI, it was scratchy live and tough to get a good sound even using the 10 band EQ. The TH is very versatile using my Ibanez SR 500, even though my bass has a lot of highs and active electronics I can still use this pre-amp to get me a nice deep tubey sound and take most of the highs right out of there, or put everything right at 12:00 (except for maybe mid frequency selector and sometimes bass) and it sounds like my bass. Adjusting the drive flattens out the highs and lows and really helps the whole tone come out evenly across all 4 strings so you're not fighting the EQ and adjuting your playing style to be quiter on the high strings, that drive knob and the gain structure just works so you know if you want hi-fi slp pop take drive out and if you want warm tubey goodness put drive to about half (I usually set it around 1:00) then you can crank it to get a sweet drive tone, although I don't htink you would wnt it all the way up, if you want ridiculous distortion you may use a pedal because this depends how you have the mid frequencies set... If your mid frequencies are all the way down, you won't really hear any drive, and if the mids are all the way up it's ridiculous distortion.. Anyhow, the drive knob and "Aguilar sound" is the magic of this amp - It really can even out your bass so you can play instead of worrying so much about dynamics to the Nth degree... Last thing is I ntoce when I go DI that having the High frequency at 12:00 or higher results in a lot of unwanted hiss in the signal, to compat this you want to make sure the -10dB is off so your signal is great as possible and adjust your treble on your bass. All in all I love it.

Aguilar officially has my business from now on. I have played Eden, Ampeg, Gallien Krueger etc...and I wanted to try out this 500 watt as an introduction to Aguilar. Not only am I happy and very pleasantly surprised by it's power....I am in shock by this beasts tone.I have a Fender Deluxe American Jazz bass and a Fender Fretless American Jazz bass and they sound so good it literally is hard for me to turn this thing off. I find myself shutting it down and then getting right back to it within 5 minutes to make sure that tone that I heard is still there. It always is.I'm no spring chicken either. I've played in traditional blues bands, metal bands, pop-rock bands, traditional jazz 3 piece bands, done house gigs for nearly every style out there. I was the guy who got the call. So when I tell you that this head has the "it" factor...please know that I have gigged for more hours in certain years than the majority will ever gig in their lives. This head is truly a stand out.I play only with this head and an Eden 4x10 cabinet. The sound is unreal. Do yourself a favor and get one. My next head will be an upgraded Aguilar if and when I return to larger room gigging. Enjoy.

This is the first time that I bought an amp head with this technology, I want to say that I've been totally impressed by the power this little guy delivers. It was a right decision to buy it and it totally exceeded my expectations, I recommend this amp to anyone who is looking for something professional and wants to give the extra step from a combo amp to a cabinet with an amp rig. I combined this amp with the Aguilar DB 212 Bass Cabinet, 4 Ohm and I was blown away by the sound. Both of them worth the price.I was going to buy a Markbass rig but at the end this was my choice and I don't regret it.

The great and powerful Tone Hammer 500 is enjoying a wave of popularity now . Although brand recognition and hype are boosting its sales this is a really good amplifier . Small and light to carry around and DI options with a simple Eq section . You can find other amps similar for less if you cant shell out the big bucks . Also there are some amps way more expensive which may make the 500 a midrange option with professional quality .

I play weekly gigs, and with some back issues was getting tired of carrying around all my gear, I was a bit suspicious of a four pound amp sounding very good next to my tube hybrids and ss monsters, but was pleasantly surpised. A warm tone that responds well to attack, slap, plucks and whatever style I throw at it. Great amp

Very disappointed. Given the consistent rave reviews I was expecting a gorgeous sound. I bought one new from Amazon. I was pumped. I plugged it in. It is quiet, nice. Then I played through my sweet sweet 4ohm 210DNA cab with my 80s Japanese Jazz and all I heard was mud and clipping. The amp sounded slightly distorted at all settings. The low end was muddy. It was loud but undefined. Slap sounded like hitting a cardboard box, as though the circuitry doesn't handle the current and has a choking point. I was hoping for a hi-fi experience but this simply does not compare to the sound quality, response and features of my Ashdown ABM 500 evo iii.

I am a working bass player who has gone through several amps in search of that elusive tone. It should be mentioned that I use a P-Bass with flat wound strings. In many songs I use a pick, which when combined with the flat wounds, yields a classic "old school" Joe Osborn/Carol Kaye tamber. The Aguilar Tone Hammer 500 with it's unique gain structure, drive circuit and sweepable mid-range frequency provides tonal colors that are tight and deep. When playing finger-style, the Tone Hammer 500 responds brilliantly to changes in attack or plucking hand position. AND it weighs about 4 pounds!