Hartke HD75 -- not just for bass...

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Part 1 (we're limited to 10,000 characters here... so Part 2 will follow)

I found a used Ibanez SR375E 5-string bass for $300 at a pawn shop. It needed some love, new strings and a trussrod tweak. Then of course I needed a new amp. LOL.

I'm mainly a guitar player that dabbles and dribbles in bass. I wanted to find a bass amp that could handle the low B 5th string on my 5-string. I did a lot of research for small bass combos. Some of the manufacturers these days have some feather weight bass combos that sound really great on paper, and they feel really good while lifting. My old fart 60 year old disabled body loves light.

I funneled my choices down to three or four brands. I also set a budget of $300.00. I was willing to go more if the amp did more or sounded to my ears with more, but that was my bottom line. 300 bucks. I found that 4 manufacturers did stuff for poor disabled boys like me...

Peavey - MAX series combos
Ampeg - their new Rocket Bass series combos (my last bass amp was an Ampeg BA-112v2)
Hartke's HD series of combos
Fender - Rumble series.

If you're a "I gotta know where it was made" kind of person, all of the above are made in China except for the Fenders, they are made in Indonesia. So... "only USA for me" snobs... you can stop reading now... haha.

For the rest of us...

First, I don't ever send any money Peavey's way. I think they make "decent" stuff but I refuse to open my wallet for them after a couple severely bad experiences with their gear. In or around 1981-ish I bought a brand new Peavey Classic 50 watt 2x12" combo. I hadn't had it 6 months and had already had it back in for warranty repairs FOUR TIMES. One of the tube socket blew out, then one of the 12's blew... then a second tube socket blew... then of course the second 12" blew. That was enough Peavey for me for a boycott of about 28 years and wouldn't touch their stuff with a 15 foot pole. Then, around 2007-ish I was giving guitar lessons out of my home and I needed a simple amp of some kind for my students to plug in to. I found a brand new Peavey Solo (tiny little bugger)... brought it home and it lasted all of 2 weeks before the instrument jack went bad. So regardless pof how great the Peavey MAX bass combo series is, I did compare specs, watch YouTubes, and download picture to stare at, but I'll never buy another Peavey anything off the shelf.

One semi-positive word about a Peavey I do own. I found a 1980-something Peavey Bandit 65 on the Facebook Marketplace for $100. That's about anything any Peavey is worth IMHO. Its a bit heavy, but it's loud as hell and doesn't have that very typical old Peavey scratchy pot syndrome. It works great as a boat anchor (just kidding) or an amp I might take to the biker blues bar that I don't care if beer and such get spilled all over it. 'Nuff said about Peaveys...

First off, on all the amps I tried, I set the EQ at 12-o'clock. On the Hartke w/ the 7-band graphic EQ, I set all the faders to flat/0. I also just had the volume turned up just a little so it made sound, maybe at 10-o'clock on everybody. I wanted to hear clean and I wanted to experience headroom before any break up.

I found a local music store that had all the other three amps in stock, and a variety of each brand's models. They also had a five 5-string on the wall, and I had the bass room all to myself. At another store I tried the Fender Rumble 40, and it did not cut the mustard with the low B/5th string. Later, I determined it sounded like a fart. I got to try The Rumble 100 (1x12" and 100 watts), and the Rumble 200 (1x15 and 200 watts). My ears were not impressed with anything that rumbled. Both did "so-so" with the low B, but back in behind the rumble I could hear distortion just slightly, and my ears were trying to hear clean. There was just something lacking in the Fender's sound. Plus they were the most expensive of the amps I demo-ed. (In the 15" comparison)

Next I couldn't wait to try the Ampeg Rocket Bass series, and this store had all of them. I tried them in order, 10", 12", 15"... then went back and forth between them all. They did "ok" with the 5th string, of course the 15" was the best with the low B. Until I really riffed on the low B string, and all of the Ampegs distorted and not in a good way. I was super disappointed because from my last great Ampeg experience (a BA-112v2) I would have just went in and bought another Ampeg sight unseen, sound unheard.

There is MUCH to be said about going to the store and test driving your gear. I can't emphasize that enough. It saves a lot of time, makes sure you get exactly what you want the first time, and you don't have the PITA of returning to an Internet retailer within 30 days something you don't bond with... I generally don't buy sight unseen, sound unheard off the Internet just by looking at pictures and watching YouTube videos. I do all that before I show up at the store and generally I will know more about each model than the typical pimple faced sales kid.

'Nuff said about test drives...

OK, so the Fenders and the Ampegs farted out... what next... ???

(please go to "Part 2")
 
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Part 2 + pics

When I walked into the bass room there was a guy plkaying a 5-string through a Hartke HD508 (500 watts, 4 x 8" hydrive speakers) (for thise not in the know, Hartke makes their own speakers, and these hydrives are 1/2 paper and 1/2 sluminum cones. I looked at the amp, and I saw all those teeny weent 8" speakers and I raised my eyebrows. I could wait to get to the other Hartke combos they had in stock. I plugged in to the HD508 first and I simply couldn't believe my ears. It was clear as a bell and had harmonics my ears love to hear (and some folks can't hear I think).

Next they had the Hartke HD50, (50 watts, 1x10")... wow... it handled the 5th string low B like a champ. I really couldn't believe how great a 10" speaker could sound, And the price was right, $229.99. Then I tried the Hartke HD150 (150 watts, 1x15" speaker). It too handled #5 really good, and had a lot of power. More power than I really needed to use at church. Plus it was heavy heavy heavy. It has handles on the SIDES instead of one on top, and my old fart disabled bosy screamed NOOOOOOOO"... LOL.

Next I went thru all of the brand amp by amp... Fenders, then the Ampegs, then the Hartke HD50 and HD150 again. That was when I heard the distortion coming out of the Ampegs (even the 15" distorted... yucky). When I made it back to the Hartkes and plugged into that small HD50 it seemed to suck in my sound and thrust it back in my face like a Bronk feather weight boxer, saying "C'MONNNNN... IS THAT ALL YA' GOT ???"... LOL.

The only deciding feature for me -- now that i was in hot lust for a Hartke -- was that the smaller HD50 didn't have the 7-band graphic EQ of it's bigger brothers the HD75 (there was a spot where one had been sitting but had been sold) and the larger HD150. I sat on the practice stool thinking it over. It gave me time to go turn off all the compeition. I had all of these amps on at the same time... Noticing there was a spot in between the HD50 and the HD150 that had just enough room for the HD75, gave me the idea. The HD150 was too big for me to lug around, and the HD50 didn't have the 7-band graphic EQ. Not having tried a regular 6-string electric guitar, I had the idea that even though I was buyiong this for a dedicated bass amp, I might like it as a nice warm jazz combo, too.

Well, I did the typical a$$hole thing, test drove the amps at the store, then went on line and bought the HD75 from zZounds. I will go back to that store and buy something later, zZounds had an offer I could refuse. They had the HD75 in stock, and offered free 2-day shipping. But the clincher of all clinchers (for me the disabled guy who struggles to live on $841/mo SSI diosability) was that they had a pay-as-you-play plan. It works like this...

You put the item in your shopping cart, from there you can choose to break the payments into 6 monthly payments. You make the first $50 payment (1/6th of the total cost of the amp) plus a small setup fee. The fee on this one was just $14. As soon as you pay, they ship the amp to you, no credit check, no social security number, no other questions asked. So for roughly $64 they shipped the amp to me and I got it 2 days later, free shiopping.

With that kind of deal, I am sure to be buying a lot more gear from zZounds. Here is the place where I bought this amp:

They don't offer the same plan for every item. Some manufacturers don't want their stuff sold that way. Fender, for instance doesn't do it on their USA models, but they do on some of their Player (MIM) models and their Squire series. I might like to pick up a Fender Player Plus Nashville Telecaster... split into 6 payments of $188.33...

Or possibly a Squier Classic Vibe '60s Jazzmaster for 6 payments of $76.66...


There is no interest, no credit check, and when I first put the Hartke amp in my shopping cart I was still skeptical they were going to let me buy an item this way. I was skeptical mostly the whole way until the amp arrived 2 days later. It was love at first thump.

But I saved the best for last. I have a really super nice Epiphone Les Paul Modern Figured in the cafe latte fade finish. It is beautiful and very fucntional. It has push/pulls on 3 of the 4 knobs. The 2 vols have push/pull for coil split on each pickup, and the tone has a push/pull for out-od-phase. Not to mention a treble bleed curcuit so when you turn the volumes down, you don't lose highs.

Anyways... I thought with the grpahic EQ I could use this as a guitar amp too, if it was muddy like most bass amps I've ever plugged a guitar in to, I maybe could adjust it with the 7-band. I didn't need to... Like I just said, about every bass amp I've ever plugged in to was "tuned for bass" and created instant mud with an electric guitar. NOT THE HARTKE HD75 !!! I think it might have a lot to do with the hydrive 1/2 paper, 1/2 aluminum cones. But this Les Paul sparkled like a freshly cleaned floor. AND... when I turned the tone controls down, it had that "hey Jim, is this a bass guitar" reproduction tumbling out of the front of the combo.

I can easily use this combo for both guitar and bass, and my 5-string. I think I'll be putting that ols Peavey Bandut 65 up for sale. It's too damned heavy to ship, it would cost more to ship it than the amp is worth, but I'll probably put it on FB Marketplace for "local pickup only"... The Hartke HD75 weighs 48 pounds, and I think that old Peavey is about the same, maybe a couple pounds if any lighter.

Its not for the tube amp guys. It isn't your typical solid state amp trying to pretend to sound like a tube amp. Plus, I love solid state amps, just seems to not be anything cleaner. And a good solid state clean is a foundation I can build on with pedals. I really didn't like the Fenders or the Ampegs much at all. When I heard the crystal clean Hartkes with the 5th/low B string across the whole product line, that got my attention. The the incredible disabled guy friendly deal zZounds has for online purchases solidified the purchase and where I was going to get it from.

I thought I'd share this "review" with you folks because you might be in the same or similar boat as me shopping for an easy to tote around combo amp. Here's some pictures...

Hartke HD75 front view
(picture credit, Sweetwater Sound)
$299.99 (48lbs)(China) - Hartke HD75 (75 Watts, 1x12'') - 01.jpg


Hartke HD75 control panel view
$299.99 (48lbs)(China) - Hartke HD75 (75 Watts, 1x12'') - 02.jpg


Hartke HD75 rear panel
$299.99 (48lbs)(China) - Hartke HD75 (75 Watts, 1x12'') - 03.jpg
 
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Part 3 (couple more pics)...
Here's my 2021 Epiphone Les Paul MOdern Figured... cafe latte fade finish
I put the correct black poker chip under the 3-way toggle on mine, and swapped out the funky looking whiote top hats for black speed knobs on mine, this is a nice picture of this model as it comes from the factory from a random web photo... it is even more gorgeous in person
front.jpg


Features:
- Ebony fretboard
- Grover locking tuners
- Push/pull coil split on the 2 volumes
- Push/pull out of phase on the neck tone
- Treble bleed circuit (to keep your highs sparkling when turning your volume down)
- CTS pots (I'm pretty sure all of the "Inspired by Gibson" Epiphones have CTS pots...)
- Epiphone ProBucker pickups
- Graphtec nut
- Weight relieved body (so it'll be a bit lighter)
- Gently flamed top
- Contoured heel joint
- Asymmetrical modern neck profile (Ernie Ball guitars have this... fat under the bass strings, thinner under the higher strings, a really neck feel)

$699.00 MAP (no case)


Here's one of the Hartke hydrive speakers... 1/2 paper cone, 1/2 aluminum cone
HyDrive-Cone_HD-PKG_Press.jpg




Jam Handy
 
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