David Ellefson's Amplifiers
This video from Image Marketing shows Megadeth's bassist David Ellefson with the first rig sent to him from Larry Hartke. The first head he received was the Hartke LH1000 1000 watt hybrid head.
The video is set to show Megadeth's bassist David Ellefson's old rig consisting of a Peavey MAX 700 Bass Head. He later switch to Larry Hartke products and now uses the 1000 watt Hartke LH1000.
This has been his main amp since he changed from using the LH1000s, as show in this Hartke artist feature.
The interviewer here asks Dave if he remembers what amp he used before Hartke came out with the amp heads which he currently uses to which Ellefson responds, "Yeah, I used the GK 800RB..." going on to talk about the bass and cabinets which he used in conjunction with this amp.
In this video from Sweetwater Sound "David Ellefson (Megadeth) and Frank Bello (Anthrax) explain why they choose Hartke bass amps and cabinets for their bass rigs."
The video is set to show Megadeth bassist David Ellefson's old rig behind him. A Peavey MAX 700 and this Pro 810. This video is from the youtube series "David Ellefson's Rock Shop".
As stated on Hartke's/Samsontech's Artist pages.
In this video from Sweetwater Sound "David Ellefson (Megadeth) and Frank Bello (Anthrax) explain why they choose Hartke bass amps and cabinets for their bass rigs."
This video from Ted Brown Music shows Megadeth Bassist David Ellefson speaking at a bass clinic. In the right of the video, he has his Hartke LH1000 sitting on top of his Hartke 810 Cabinet.
"When did you switch to those? Didn’t you use [Ampeg] SVTs?
I started with Hartke very early on. I actually started using Hartke cabinets on the Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying? tour. They did not have heads at that time, so I used another manufacturer’s head, but I used their aluminum cone 4X10 speaker cabinets on about midway through the Peace Sells… tour. I then recorded So Far, So Good…So What!, Rust in Peace and Countdown to Extinction using all Hartke cabinets. That really helped me define my tone with the Jackson basses into the Hartke systems. There were a couple of years where I used some other stuff, but returning back to when we did the Megadeth 20th anniversary Rust in Peace tour in 2010 was when I came back to Hartke. We wanted to recreate the look, the sound and feel of that Rust in Peace era. Hartke has now improved their products and, as time will do, innovations and technologies improve which help improve the end product. So the Hartke stuff just sits right in the mix with Megadeth. I really feel that the new Hartke stuff that I’m sitting right inside Shawn’s kick drum."
In a news article on Megadeth's official website, it is noted that David Ellefson used a Peavey Kilobass amplifier during the 1990s.
This is a community-built gear list for David Ellefson.
- Find relevant music gear like Microphones, Bass Guitars, Amplifiers, Effects Pedals, and other instruments and add it to David Ellefson.
- The best places to look for gear usage are typically on the artist's social media, YouTube, live performance images, and interviews.
- To receive email updates when David Ellefson is seen with new gear, follow the artist.
Discography