Been waiting, waiting, waiting... NAD!

Hi everyone!

Little backstory here…

In June of 2022 I was in need of an amp since the only one I had was a hot pink 5w VOX DA-5 I’d originally purchased for my 16-year-old daughter to use with her Hello Kitty Strat…

I did a lot of online research… visited a couple of local music stores… finally decided on a Harmony Series 6 amp - they were newly designed, looked great, sounded good in the samples & reviews I found online, not too expensive for a guitar player at my level (early Grade 2) & also very important for Peace at Home… a built-in attenuator! So I decided on the H605, the smallest of the series & what I thought would be best for my situation… only to find out that ALL of Harmony’s amps were on backorder everywhere - I checked all over the internet, even at Long & McQuade in Canada, Anderton’s & Thomann’s in Europe - couldn’t find one for sale.

I checked with my gear advisor at Musician’s Friend (an online retailer here in the US who are partners with Guitar Center brick & mortar stores) who told me that the amp was supposed to ship from Harmony in ~late November or early December. Great! I thought that it would take away my wife’s need to shop for my Christmas present that year - this is 2022, remember! Christmas came & went… no amp. Father’s Day 2023, no amp. Birthday, Anniversary, Christmas… no amp. Every time I called to check, I was told that Harmony had been promising delivery ā€œsoonā€. Well, Musician’s Friend has a loyalty program & I’d used quite a few of my points towards this purchase but wasn’t actually charged for it - I thought that I’d just be patient…

My wife called me the day before yesterday, UPS had delivered a large box that was blocking our screen door from opening & could I come home from work & move it for her because it was a heavy box…




Christmas 2022 has finally arrived!!! :rofl:
How cool is that??? :sunglasses:

Then, my wife asks if I saw my Christmas present for THIS year… in my office I found…

I’m not :100: percent sure, but I think she’s found a new guitar for me!!!
God, I love that woman!!! :grin:

This weekend I will have time to play with the H605!!! I’ll let you know how it sounds!

Merry Christmas / Happy Holidays All!!!

Tod

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Fuseball table :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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I hope not!!! I don’t have anywhere in the house to put one of those! (not a whole lot of room for a new guitar either, for that matter!!!) :smile:

Tod

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Congrats on the new amp Tod!

Hope ya let us know how you like it.
When I was looking at amps, the harmony’s were on my short list. The utubes did them justice I thought. They sounded pretty good.
I sure looks like a upgrade from you vox modeler.
I think there’s good reason folks like tube amps. I personally find the ones I have dynamic. Will say it did take me a moment to learn how I wanted to dial them in for the tones I was looking for though.
A plus for you and your harmony is ya get that power scalier. Seems like a most useful feature. Especially for keeping the wife happy. :wink: That very important imho.
Happy NAD man and rock on… :slight_smile:

PS, let me know if that 5w is to loud. I’m curious. I went with 12w and 15w. Both can get me in much trouble if I’m not careful…

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https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&sca_esv=3a7bfd77522cf669&sca_upv=1&hl=en-us&q=harmony+h605+review&source=lnms&prmd=vshinmbtz&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjLp-vf1bWEAxUuLUQIHQMoDKEQ0pQJegQIChAB&biw=390&bih=660&dpr=3&udm=7#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:801c84c6,vid:5JuCwu4tTK8,st:0

Hey Jim @HappyCat !

This video is one of the reasons I decided on this particular amp back 2 1/2 years ago. Ryan with the 60 cycle hum channel is a bit over the top for me, but I do like the energy he brings to reviews!
I’m guessing that the 5w setting won’t get much play here!!! The 1w or .1w will be the ā€œnormā€!
A year or so ago, Musician’s Friend had a Katana 50 Mk II on one of their ā€œStupid Deal of the Dayā€ sales & after applying loyalty points, it cost me about $25 actual dollars! I love the Katana but have been wanting a tube amp since I got my 1st electric! I couldn’t justify the cost with my current level of playing for a long time, though!
Thanks for cheering me on!!!
Happy Holidays to you & yours!!!

Tod

By the way… dumb question here but this amp has separate Power/Standby switches.
Is there a ā€œcorrectā€ way to use these? I’ve seen conflicting advice online about this & don’t want to blow up/burn down my house!!!

:exploding_head:

Tod

Standby switches are a most debated discussion I think.
I got one amp with the standby switch. I read my owners manual for my amp and it told me how the oem thinks I should use that switch.
That’s what I do. For good or bad.
My instructions said turn on power switch, after a min. turn on standby switch. I generally adhere to this. My owners manual didn’t say how to turn it off. I generally turn off the standby, moments later the power switch.

Hopefully you owners manual will inform you as to how harmony wants you to operate that switch.

fwiw. my other tube amp don’t have a standby switch. It all just powers up when ya turn it on. Let it warm up a min. or so and start playing.
Perhaps the standby switch is irrelevant? I don’t know. I follow instructions. It’s the best I can do. :slight_smile:

ymmv

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I think it depends on what make the amp is. My owners manual has exactly opposite instructions to Jim’s @HappyCat I have to turn standby on, then main power, then wait for the valves to warm up , then switch standby off!

RTFM is really important, if the manufacturers website doesn’t have a download, in the past I’ve found with various devices that if you google ā€œ[make & model] owners manualā€ you can find a pdf somewhere on the intertubes

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The instructions don’t address this, that’s why I’m asking!
Sounds good to me though… I’ll try it tomorrow!
Thanks!

Tod

I’ve just been experimenting with my amp and the instructions are wrong! it’s a good job I hadn’t been paying them any attention :rofl:

Try what Jim said - standby OFF, Power ON, wait 1 min - if at this point you don’t hear anything from the amp when you strum your guitar (which you plugged in before switching on, of course) then you have got the correct procedure and should hear your guitar when you turn Standby ON

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Congratulations Tod! Just today I was having a conversation with a friend about our general societal tendency toward immediate gratification, and how we’ve lost the wonderful experience of anticipation. But seriously - two years?!? I’m beyond impressed. Looking forward to hearing your new amp. I’m GASsing after a tube amp myself…it’ll be a while though.

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That’s socks for sure

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Already got my tube amp… so I need some tube socks to play around with the amp!!!

Tod

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Hi Tod

I am amazed by your patience. I would not have been able to stand such a long wait and I would have ended up cancelling my order and buying something else that I didn’t really need !!

I have an Orange crush 35RT (not a tube amp) but it only gives really good tones if you turn it up to a point that I think is going to really annoy the neighbours. I’m really interested in getting a tube amp with an attenuator, if it still sounds good on the lower output settings. So I would be very interested to hear from you about the tone at the lower output levels and also how loud/quiet the low settings are. I live in an apartment and although my neighbours never complained, I always worry that I might be disturbing them.

Enjoy the amp. Looks very nice and I bet it will sound great. You will be rewarded for your patience.

Ian

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Hi Tod,
Happy NAD :partying_face: :sunglasses:
Have fun moving a lot of air :sunglasses:

Greetings

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ā€œ It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas ā€œ

Have fun with your new amp, Tod.

Cardboard boxes have many uses. I’m sure you’ll have fun with that too!! :wink:

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Happy NAD/NGD/Early Christmas, Tod :smiley:

If I were you, I’d carefully cut the tape on that box and ease it open, just to ā€˜make sure’ there was no damage in transit :rofl:
(you should probably check the action/intonation/electrics as well :wink:)

What about an NGD- New Gear Demonstration in the New Year?
I can’t remember if you’ve shared any of your playing with us before, but if not this would be a grand occasion! :smiley:

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The standby switch is there to allow the tubes to preheat. It is not used to mute your amp if you take a break from playing.

If you’re happy with the amp, why not just get an attenuator. I have this budget Harley Benton one from Thomann and it works fine, so I can crank my tube amp up to get the right tone, without deafening myself or the neighbours!

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Thats a good idea. I didn’t think of that.

I always saw that people use those attenuators so they can crank up tubes to sound nice and get to that edge of breakup type sound and then reduce the power output so they get a cranked tube sound at lower output. But my Orange amp is transistor not a tube amp, so I don’t know whether it will work as well.

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