Here's a quick early morning (and very hungover) video comparison between the two. I'm finding that the TH500 acquits itself quite nicely.
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Aguilar ToneHammer 500 vs DB750 (video comparison)
- Thread starter punchdrunk
- Start date
- May 16, 2009
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- Former Manager, Bass San Diego
On the video I really do like how the TH500 sounds, but I know how they each sound live too, so...
I use both depending on the gig, but there is something spectacular about 750 onstage. It just whallops.
Cool video! I know lots of people love the DB750, but personally when I tried it I found it a bit wooly for my taste. The TH500 sounds more defined, so my vote goes there...
Thanks, and I agree, the 750 can get a little wooly, I tend to try and guard against that by trimming the gain and the bass. It can get quite articulate when q"d correctly. But the to me TH is a better combination of fat warmth with clarity. I just wish Aguilar would create a TH750 and be done with it.
Me too. . . . and goes to 2 ohms.
So far, it's a dead heat between the two amps, and the tacos!!! 
I like tacos.....but they'll make you fat. So I voted for the TH500
Swap the V1 tube out and it clears right up
Pardon my ignorance -- but swap out the V1 for what exactly?
Another preamp tube. A lot of people rave about JJs, but I think they sound sterile. I personally love TungSols. They have a thick bottom end while maintaining a lot of punch and grunt in the midrange.
Nice posting, i've never had the opportunity to try one of their larger amps but I love my TH. Very versatile after you learn how the Drive and Gain work.
No one is gonna argue with the Doctor... (greatest Doctor of all time)
Can you elaborate on the "wooly" sound? I read it before but don't know what I'd be looking for to hear that tone.
I gave it some thought and, since I'm not a native english speaker, I think I might end up confusing you even more. So I'll leave it to those with better language skills. OK, for what it's worth, I'd say more tubey in a loose/flabby kind of way. But I'm sure others can help more.
Dragonlord, you summed it up fine. The easy way to say it is that the at gig volume, once the tubes get good and warm, the tone can become slightly saturated (in a musical/pleasing way). Couple that with its inherent bassiness and low mid push, and the overall tone develops a burnished type quality. It's feels absolutely fantastic in a mix, but it you arent careful that can lead you down the path of too loose of a bottom end. I usually end up (on the gig) dropping the gain down to around 10:30-11:00, and recovering the volume via master. It cleans things up, and I never engage the bass boost. That thing can be fatal to a good mix. I think a lot of the looseness stems from people eqing too much bass and oversaturating the gain.
Ah yes. I know this sound. It's quite easy to do on my Mesa. I had a TH500 and SL112 for a couple weeks and just didn't fall in love with it. My wife's P bass sounded great through it but my ATK 5 string did not. So back it went. I could EASILY see applications for its sound but it just wasn't me.