Hartke Aluminium neck bass

[TheGreek]

Never seen one of these before but the neck must be worth the £300 BIN price surely..

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hartke-aluminium-neck-electric-bass-guitar-electrical-company-active-pickups-/261449392777?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item3cdf992289

[Jonnyboy Rotten]

I'm awaiting the inevitable 'Must be good for metal' post.

Doh!

[bassmanady]

There is a review of this in the April 2000 Bassist mag,its a XK-4 and got a 90% rating and cost £599 new.
The neck is maple with an aluminium centre section running the length of the neck with a chromed aluminium headstock
The USA version XL-4 cost a big £1349

[3below]

Can't comment on this one but, my aluminium neck Kramer DMZ4001 has the best clarity of note on any bass I have ever owned (have done Fender, Gibbo, Ric, John Birch). It also has no dead spots. A bonus is the weight, cheaper than going to the gym and managing some neck dive strengthens the arms

[paul_5]

£300 scrap value? Possibly...

[Bassassin]

Interesting, but I wouldn't touch this without seeing it first. About 8 years so back, a bunch of these necks were doing the rounds on Ebay, I picked one up for a project, when I got it, it was obvious the headstock was bent forward from the wooden back component of the neck & the fretboard was delaminating.

Fair enough, returned it for a refund no problem, but I did a bit of reading about these and it appears this was a common issue - the headstocks are welded on (presumably not particularly well) and the necks are very susceptible to temperature changes - I found details of extreme examples, eg where a bass had been in the luggage hold of an aircraft, temperature changes & string tension causing the head to detach completely.

Pretty sure the neck I'd had was failing in the same way - it had signs of use and I think it was being pulled apart by string tension.

Jon.

[rubis]

There's been a purple/blue one on ebay on and off for quite a while [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hartke-XL-4-Bass-Guitar-US-made-with-Vaccaro-aluminium-neck-/191162736496?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item2c822fdf70"]http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hartke-XL-4-Bass-Guitar-US-made-with-Vaccaro-aluminium-neck-/191162736496?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item2c822fdf70[/url]

[TheGreek]

[quote name='rubis' timestamp='1399734489' post='2447163']
There's been a purple/blue one on ebay on and off for quite a while [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hartke-XL-4-Bass-Guitar-US-made-with-Vaccaro-aluminium-neck-/191162736496?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item2c822fdf70"]http://www.ebay.co.u...=item2c822fdf70[/url]
[/quote]

I quite like the look of that one...glad I've got no money...

[Bassassin]

[quote name='rubis' timestamp='1399734489' post='2447163']
There's been a purple/blue one on ebay on and off for quite a while [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hartke-XL-4-Bass-Guitar-US-made-with-Vaccaro-aluminium-neck-/191162736496?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item2c822fdf70"]http://www.ebay.co.u...=item2c822fdf70[/url]
[/quote]
That's our resident Weird Bass Guru, BigRedX selling that one.

J.

[Shockwave]

[quote name='TheGreek' timestamp='1399653039' post='2446384']
Never seen one of these before but the neck must be worth the £300 BIN price surely..

[url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hartke-aluminium-neck-electric-bass-guitar-electrical-company-active-pickups-/261449392777?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item3cdf992289"]http://www.ebay.co.u...=item3cdf992289[/url]
[/quote]

And this one is Mr_Foxens

[BigRedX]

The purple one which I'm selling is the made in the US XL-4 version. According to those in the know they are less likely to suffer from headstock joint failures. If the colour is putting anyone off I have black body that I could be persuaded to throw in. ;-)

[lemmywinks]

Was looking at the purple one when your weird metalwork bass was flagged on here a while ago, looks ace!

Edited May 13, 2014 by lemmywinks

[BigRedX]

Thanks!

It's a nice bass. If I hadn't made a decision to move on all my 4-string basses I'd be keeping it.

Edited May 13, 2014 by BigRedX