beerdragon Posted August 11, 2007 Share Posted August 11, 2007 Played my first gig with a new band last night, a guy down the road has his own business making and selling guitar stuff, he had a hartke HA3000 300watt amp and his own make cabinet, two 15inch celestions. so i managed to borrow it for the night with a view to buying. coupled with my Fender jazz fitted with 84 wound wizard pickups i found it, well, very bright. in fact i could not get the sound i wanted, i did'nt have a lot of time to play around with it but when i got a decent sounding E string the D and A strings still sounded very bright, and the clipping light kept coming on. i found out after the speakers were only 150watt each so thats probably why, so i wont be buying the cab, anyone have any experiece of the Hartke amp? He wants £300 for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johngh Posted August 11, 2007 Share Posted August 11, 2007 I've has a HA3500 for a few years and used a various Basses with it through a Hartke 1x15 and a Hartke 2x10 transporter cabs. The set up has been 100% reliable and I've also got a good sound very quickly wherever I have used it. I think its the Cabs that have let you down, not the amp. £300 seems a bit on the steep side though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vasquez Rich Posted August 11, 2007 Share Posted August 11, 2007 300 quid is way too much for a second hand HA3000 IMHO. With regard to sound, I think the HA3000 doesn't have the 11 band graphic EQ? That may be part of the issue. I have a HA3500 (with graphic eq) coupled with the 410XL cab and it's a very good combination. They are good amps and the cabs (specially the XL range) are pretty much bulletproof, tight punchy and VERY loud. I've never run it above 5 at a gig, even on a big festival stage. If you buy the amp, you might look for a 410XL to go with it, or the 4.5XL (a 4x10 with an extra horn thingy). Richard just checked ont'ebay and £279 + postage will get you a brand spanking new HA3500 with "buy it now". A much better bet. [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Hartke-HA3500-Bass-Head_W0QQitemZ230160922981QQihZ013QQcategoryZ58719QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem"]HA3500[/url] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beerdragon Posted August 11, 2007 Author Share Posted August 11, 2007 Thanks for the replies. the hartke amp is new but i know the guy i'm supposed to be buying it off is a little on the dear side. thanks Vasquez Rich that HA3500 could be a better bet, i'll print it out and show it to him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peted Posted August 12, 2007 Share Posted August 12, 2007 I love my Hartke 3500. It is a very bright sounding amp when run flat. I believe this is something to do with the 'Transient Attack' thing they put in it. Very responsive and not at all woolley like the Ashdowns. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich Posted August 13, 2007 Share Posted August 13, 2007 I've got brycebites' old 3500 head, I use it for rehearsals etc. with my Nemesis cabs and it sounds great. I'd highly recommend it if you can pick one up cheap. Can't comment on the HA3000. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scoop Posted August 13, 2007 Share Posted August 13, 2007 (edited) I used an HA3000 for well over a hundred gigs linked up to an SWR Triad with a rock covers band. It will clip out if you drive it too hard, no question, but I *always* managed to get a really great sound out of it with minimal tweaking. The four EQ knobs would be set at 2pm, 10pm, 10pm, midnight and I'd use the frequency shift to tailor for the room acoustics and attenuate the cab's horn to a little below halfway. I use my Trace AH350SMX or the Peavey PROBass 500 usually these days because of the extra power available but, having chosen which of those two is going to be the amp for the night (one is in a 6 unit rack, the other in a four unit rack) then my two unit cased Hartke gets thrown in the boot too as a spare in case the other head goes down. I really rate the HA3000 as a fine little amp but to get the most out of it you need cabs that will shift air very efficiently as the Hartke head WILL run out of puff and start clipping at rock pub gig volumes if you're running it into cabs that aren't themselves naturally quite efficient and loud. HTH Scoop EDIT: btw, the price you're being quoted is a nonsense you need to be paying a LOT less than that. Edited August 13, 2007 by Scoop Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lukeward2004 Posted August 13, 2007 Share Posted August 13, 2007 Hi Mate, I have used a Hartke 3500 for the last 3 years paired with a Hartke 410XL cab, and it has given me superb results so far - mine has the 12ax7m preamp valve installed and it gives me a nice warm sound, with the treble rolled back to about 3 and the low end up on about 6 or 7. Ive always had good comments on my sound when playing live with the rig, our very own Syed (The Funk) has first hand experience having heard it recently at the Clapham Grand in london. I have run several basses through this rig, a Warwick Streamer LX5, Streamer Stage One, Streamer Standard, Yamaha BBG5a, Ibanez Gary Willis Fretless, Fender Jazz bass and my Customer P Bass - all of which have given me a fantastic sound with a little bit of tweaking. £300 is way too much for the 3000 head, as it goes i would be willing to let my 3500 go for £200 + shipping costs, as I am finding the Bass POD XT has every sound I could possibly ever want to use. Im going to run that into an Aphex Aural exciter and then into a power amp, and hopefully use a tech nd410 cab for my next rig. Drop me a PM if you are interested mate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beerdragon Posted August 13, 2007 Author Share Posted August 13, 2007 [quote name='lukeward2004' post='44870' date='Aug 13 2007, 03:02 PM']Hi Mate, I have used a Hartke 3500 for the last 3 years paired with a Hartke 410XL cab, and it has given me superb results so far - mine has the 12ax7m preamp valve installed and it gives me a nice warm sound, with the treble rolled back to about 3 and the low end up on about 6 or 7. Ive always had good comments on my sound when playing live with the rig, our very own Syed (The Funk) has first hand experience having heard it recently at the Clapham Grand in london. I have run several basses through this rig, a Warwick Streamer LX5, Streamer Stage One, Streamer Standard, Yamaha BBG5a, Ibanez Gary Willis Fretless, Fender Jazz bass and my Customer P Bass - all of which have given me a fantastic sound with a little bit of tweaking. £300 is way too much for the 3000 head, as it goes i would be willing to let my 3500 go for £200 + shipping costs, as I am finding the Bass POD XT has every sound I could possibly ever want to use. Im going to run that into an Aphex Aural exciter and then into a power amp, and hopefully use a tech nd410 cab for my next rig. Drop me a PM if you are interested mate. Thanks for that, i'll have a think about that, does seem a good price. warm is not a word i would describe the HA3000 i was using, although i had only had about fifteen to play around with it. thanks again.[/quote] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
douggy Posted August 14, 2007 Share Posted August 14, 2007 i LOVE mine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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