mrtcat

[quote name='wateroftyne' timestamp='1443438418' post='2874602'] Wow.. that's a shocker. I thought Hartke CS was better than that. [/quote] I was gobsmacked by how bad the whole situation was. I was most annoyed that this was actually a recognised problem with the Kilo across the world and that they were refusing to talk to me about it. The engineer at Korg said that they had been dealing with literally hundreds of them and many kept coming back. I was in PMT a few weeks back and they were selling of a whole load of used Kilos. The lad there said they were all repaired ones. My two threads on it are here: http://basschat.co.uk/topic/235977-hartke-kilo-tearing-my-hair-out/page__p__2498021__hl__kilo__fromsearch__1#entry2498021 http://basschat.co.uk/topic/229792-retailer-issues-really-hacked-off-now/page__hl__kilo__st__30

I feel your pain, I had horrendous issues with my Kilo last year. It died suddenly like yours mid gig so I sent it off to Dawsons music where I'd bought it. Two weeks later I'd heard nothing so after chasing like crazy it turned out they hadn't even sent it for repair yet (they have to go to Korg for repair) I blew my lid on here and luckily a chap called Gareth who works for Hartke saw my post and intervened. It finally got fixed and returned (turns out I live less then 10 miles from where it was fixed in milton keynes). Two gigs later in the middle of a wedding it died again..GRRR. I contacted Gareth again but he didn't respond to any of my messages so I had to arrange to drive the amp to Korg again for a repair. It took two weeks and loads of calls before I could pick it up again. When I got it home I found they had damaged the front of the amp. I was beside myself with anger. I phoned them and they agreed to put a new front on it. By this point I had done lots of trawling online and it seems there are loads of reports of these failing and Hartke were well aware of there being an issue. I therefore tried Gareth at Hartke again but no joy so I directly messaged Larry Hartke and again nothing. Before I had a chance to send it back for the face repair it died again. That was the last straw. I binned it and have vowed never ever ever to get involved with Hartke gear again.

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1443291013' post='2873651'] I've been telling everybody this for years but no-one will listen! [/quote] I did. I bought the 21012 that came up last week. Very very happy at tonight's gig.

What is your transport and storage situation like? Do you want powered or passive? Do you own an iPad because if so you could get a small digital mixer and negate the need to ever buy racks full of processing gear? Have a good shop around and £1000 can get you a great set up. I sold a full BFM rig earlier this year for £800 including amps which absolutely wiped the floor with many off the shelf rigs (we used it at a rock wedding where there was a DJ with a QSC K12 / sub rig and it beat that all ends up for detail, volume and dispersion) but it was bulky and a pain to store. If you want powered I'm always a fan of RCF tops for reliability and build quality. the 322a's, 422a's, 722a's are great and less harsh than the 312a's etc. Our 322a's cost just £380 for a pair last yr from a sound hire company moving on older stock. They've done over 100 gigs now and are still brilliant. I heard a pair of these recently and they were very good http://www.thomann.de/gb/the_box_pyrit_15a.htm . I was surprised by the price too.

I used to use something similar to a gramma pad but instead of flat foam on the bottom it had a wedge. Worked brilliantly and cost about £4 to make.

When I had one a decade or so ago I used a Marshall footswitch and it did the job well.

I'm amazed anyone uses his studio at all. One wrong comment and he'll lambast you on youtube.

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9btkeN05-8[/media]

Really like the tonecraft and the reddi but was also pleasantly impressed with the Markbass too. Great review.

Would never use an agent for pub work. If you're a decent band you'll get plenty of work without one as long as you go about it right (good demo vids, fb page, website etc). We use an agent for function work and rarely play pubs unless we feel like playing for fun. We get a good few bookings at a good price from it and also some short notice stuff. Again, good demo videos, a slick website and the likes goes a long way but nothing beats being a decent band.