Hartke HA5500, Owner'S Manual

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Guided Tour - HA5500 Front Panel
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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 imped-
ance (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 imped-
ance (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 preamplifi-
cation 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.