Hartke VXL vs EHX Battalion

[uk_lefty]

I know, not another "VXL v Batallion" thread

I've been looking at downscaling my board. Currently I have a Boss LMB-3 Limiter Enhancer that only ever gets used on the enhance setting with my fretless... That's rare. I have a Hartke VXL and I briefly had an EHX Bass Soul Food. I play through an Ashdown RM500 head with onboard compressor and footswitchable drive and sub octave. So I wanted to reduce pedals.

I made an early decision that the Soul Food wasn't giving me anything that the rest of the set up wasn't already doing. I've now got the issue of the Compressor on the LMB-3 which I never use. So that's more dead space. I always liked the Hartke. For over a year it was "always on" but this year and gigging season it's not been used much at all. 

I figured the Batallion could do a job to replace three pedals: Soul Food, LMB-3 and the Hartke. 

I want a DI pedal with good onboard EQ, the Batallion fixes that. I wanted a more gnarly distortion than my amp drive, and I also sometimes use provided backline so having it on the DI pedal helps. The Hartke "harmonics" function provides a nice light drive, whereas the EHX provides a more sculptable but more on your face distortion. 

I have not yet used the Batallion with the band or with all my basses, but I'll add to this thread as I go. Both are great pedals and can be picked up at good value, but YouTube demos don't always tell us what we need to hear, so I'll try to go in to detail here if anyone is thinking of buying either.

[Cuzzie]

Be good to hear thoughts on this.

IMHO Pound for pound you don’t get better than a version 1 Hartke VXL on the second hand market, I love it and stack it with my Two Notes LeBass.

If you really want a tiny footprint, massive sound with gnarly top end the 12Oz pencil case size Tech21 DP3X is pretty awesome 

[Bridgehouse]

I have the Battalion and like it a lot. It's been on my nano board for a few months - wireless -> tuner -> battalion -> QSCk10.2

It bumped my Ampeg SCR-DI off as I fancied a change - it's a different sound entirely, and a different feel to it. Though I have to say the drive is so much better than the scrambler on the SCR-DI.

I don't have the Hartke - but might pick one up if one pops up cheap S/H.

What I do have though, is a Hotone B:Station. Crikey. That's good for the money as well. I put it on the board last week - it's got great compression, brilliant drive, great EQ and an FX loop. I like it a LOT - probably more than the Battalion (but still too early to tell)

[Osiris]

I've got the Battalion too. As a clean pre-amp and DI box I think it's great. The EQ points are more sensibly voiced for gigging that the specs might have you believe, the bass shelf cuts off at 200 Hz giving you control over the bass you can hear frequencies, rather than the bass you can feel lows. Likewise the top at 2 Khz end is good for brightening things up without getting too shrill. But if you want those ultra highs that slappists like you might be struggling. The mid frequencies also give a good level of control at useful frequency centres. 

The drive doesn't really wow me personally, it's more of a distortion than overdrive to my ear, even at lower gain settings. But drive is a very personal thing so you may well love it especially as you say you want a gnarly distortion - it does that easily enough. There's plenty of control available for the drive section to find what works for you. 

The compressor doesn't wow me either. I'm a bit of a stickler for compression and although I don't generally have an issue with 1 knob compressors like some of my more esteemed brethren do, I find it very dark sounding and it takes some serious EQ'ing to add the brightness back. But from what I'd read on Talkbass according to one of the EHX engineers who posts on there, the compressor is voiced to work with the drive section, and together they do seem to complement one another even if the sound isn't for me. I also have an LMB-3 and that is on the board alongside the battalion (plus a tuner) as I much prefer it for compression duties than the built in EHX one. 

Despite these gripes I do rate it highly. With the EQ set flat it is completely transparent on the clean channel, no colouration or tone changes, you get out what you put in. The DI is noiseless too. 

I've no personal experience of the Hartke but I know @Cuzzie rates his highly, but it's worth bearing in mind that he and I like different bass sounds, he favours a more bright mid scoop, which I believe the Hartke does very well, whereas I'm more into more vintage mid rich sounds - which the battalion excels at.   

[Cuzzie]

@Osiris lovely review.

I do favour a mid scoop and when I play a jazz I tend to play nearer the bridge with a bridge flavoured blend, brighter high and fatter low compared to The above gentleman’s much more organic rounded tone.

Hartke does do drive with mids, and actually I EQ a tiny bit more back after after the Two Notes scoops it a bit on the setting I have.

Hartke definitely gives you that attack to a note to really punch through

[uk_lefty]

From a brief play through my short verdict is:

Hartke does "punch" whereas EHX does not. I think that comes through in the boost the Hartke gives and the Hartke Shape function. The Shape function is personal taste, I never move it anti clockwise from 12, for instance... 

The EHX compressor is a bit.... Well it just dulls the sound for me. More experiment needed, especially with the fretless. 

More to come later...

[uk_lefty]

I've got both set up on my board and had a good hour with them this evening. 

I played both through a fender bronco practice amp emulating an SWR Red Head so it was all clean, using my jazz bass which is the current go-to. 

I tweaked both around a lot. Tone-shaping wise there's not much in it through head phones, though I wasn't getting the punchiness the Hartke usually gives through a rig. Both seemed equal in terms of what they give, though the low mid control on the Batallion is the one that makes the real difference and that probably shades it for the Batallion. 

Drive wise I pushed the Hartke "harmonics" a lot and got to almost the same territory as the Batallion on full drive, but the options with the Batallion make the drive far more shape-able. I got to a point where I had a good "always on" drive useable for pick and finger style and either front or back pickup really easily. Again I think the eh Batallion just edges the Hartke here to my taste at least.

The Batallion compressor sucks. It sucks volume and it slightly takes the tone. I got the most out of it bringing in my Boss LMB-3 on the compressor setting. The Hartke doesn't have a compressor at all.

What I did find was that the Hartke wasn't giving me the full guts it gives when playing through a rig. It will be a few more weeks before I get these in a band setting so for now they're staying side by side.

If you put a gun to my head right now to choose I'd say the EHX. Tone control is easier and there's more control over the drive. It's a tough call though, it's not so far ahead of the Hartke that I'd call it a revelation.

More will be revealed when tested at volume...

[Bridgehouse]

We should have some sort of a Preamp-in session somewhere - would be brilliant to put some of the ones I have up against these too

[uk_lefty]

update... Sort of.

Band took a hiatus through most of August due to holidays. By the time we got together for a rehearsal I'd bought a new bass so testing out the preamp pedals went to the bottom of my list. However, my findings so far are that a great sound for a passive jazz bass on the Batallion does not work for an active jazz bass at all! I'm also a bit miffed that I can't just kick in the distortion, I need to have the EQ section running, so I can't just use it as a distortion pedal for the active bass. I might whip out the passive jazz on tomorrow night's gig and engage the Batallion to see what it does live, but I honestly can't see me putting down the new active bass while I'm having so much fun with it.

The Hartke is now off my board asking what the hell it ever did wrong.

 

 

On 08/08/2018 at 21:26, Bridgehouse said:

We should have some sort of a Preamp-in session somewhere - would be brilliant to put some of the ones I have up against these too

[Cuzzie]

Hartke is vastly underrated, get it back on there!

[uk_lefty]

Gigged on Saturday night with the new bass and the EHX, no Hartke. Turned off all other EQ sources to purely get EQ from the active bass, but kicked in the Batallion when I brought out the passive fender jazz bass for a few mins. Using the pedal helped me compensate for volume differences between the guitars and allowed me to get a familiar EQ immediately without too much faffing about. Having listened to the recording now, it sounded pretty darn good too.

I'm now in a quandary. My active bass is probably going to be my "number 1" for the foreseeable so this makes both the Hartke and EHX a bit of a bystander until I use a different bass for certain songs or gigs. 

In conclusion, I'm thinking of moving on the EHX and keeping the Hartke, mainly down to familiarity and the 'punch' it adds which I can't replicate through the EHX alone or in combination with other pedals.

What I would say about the EHX is that the EQ section is easier to use, the distortion is good and it works very well with other pedals in the chain. This is a tough decision!

Edited September 3, 2018 by uk_lefty

[uk_lefty]

Update. Shortly after buying the Batallion I pulled the trigger on a Sire bass and was using that with nothing else in the chain, not even the amp EQ and it quickly became my go to.

A few weeks back I depped for the band supporting mine and used my passive P bass. The Batallion was excellent for getting the right tone and giving me some dirty distortion when needed. I can't seem to find a way to use it with my active Sire though, but I haven't invested the time. I considered keeping it on the board for when I bring out a passive bass, but I've decided to stick with my Hartke. I can use the Hartke with the Sire to give me the punch I really appreciate from that pedal and I can get it working better with the active bass. I also used to have the Hartke "always on" for my passive basses. 

The Batallion is a cracking pedal, it gives you three in one with the EQ/DI distortion and compression but I like to stick to what I know with the Hartke. The Batallion is back on the marketplace if anyone is interested.

[The59Sound]

 

[uk_lefty]

Quick revival... Is anyone using a Battalion with a Stingray? 

I got rid of the Sire, stupidly - probably going to get a other soon, and my go to bass is a Stingray now. It punches, oh my gosh it punches!!! And I have a massive Boss GT10B multi effects board with far more effects than I will ever need. Am thinking of doing a small board: tuner, Batallion, compressor. Just need to know if the Batallion plays nicely with a Stingray as it didn't like my Sire.