Operation Manual

10
About Equalization
Equalizer controls
The Hartke LH Series Bass Amplifier gives you enormous control over
shaping the sound of your bass, using a process called equalization. To
understand how this works, it’s important to know that every naturally
occurring sound consists of a broad range of pitches, or frequencies,
combined together in a unique way. This blend is what gives every
sounditsdistinctivetonalcolor.TheLHSeriesEQcontrolsallowyou
to alter a sound by boosting or attenuating specific frequency areas—
they operate much like the bass and treble controls on your hi-fi amp,
but with much greater precision.
The LH Series tone stack equalizer offers three bands of “boost
only”equalization.EachEQknob(labeledBASS,MID,andTREBLE,
respectively) affects a different area of the frequency spectrum. Since
the LH series equalizer is comprised of boost only filters, when you
turnalltheEQknobsdown,thesoundwillgocompletelyoff(unlike
antypicalPEAKEQcircuit).WhenallthreeEQknobsareintheircenter
positions (“5”), the response is actually set to a preset equalization
curve, with a low and high-end boost and a mid-range cut, producing
anEQcontour(atHartke,weliketosay,SHAPE)thatsoundsgreat
forbass.Ingeneral,whenanEQcontrolismovedrightofcenter,
the particular frequency area is being boosted; when it is moved left
of center, the frequency area is being attenuated (or less boosted).
However,theLHseriesEQcontrolsaresomewhatinteractive,since
electronically, the BASS feeds the MID, which feeds the Treble. So,
experimentwiththeLHSeriesEQandyourparticularbasstodial
up the best sound. The most important thing to know about the LH
equalizeristhatit’sextremelymusicalandsoundsgreatwithallEQ
knobssetto“5”.Actually,it’shardtomakeLHseriesEQsoundbad.
TurningallEQcontrolsupthesameamountwillhavevirtuallythe
same effect as simply turning up the VOLUME; conversely, turning
them all down the same amount will have virtually the same effect as
turning down the Volume. Both approaches are pointless (after all,
that’s why we gave you a Volume control!)
InadditiontothethreeEQcontrols,theLHSeriesalsoincludesaBRITE
switch, which will add an overall boost to the high-end frequency
response.UsetheBRITEswitchinconjunctionwiththeEQtocontrol
your tone.
In many instances, the best way to deal with equalization is to think
in terms of which frequency areas you need to attenuate, as opposed
to which ones you need to boost. Be aware that boosting a frequency
area also has the effect of boosting the overall signal; specifically, too
muchLowEQboostcanactuallycauseoverloaddistortionoreven
harm the connected speaker.