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Anyone own the Hartke 3500 amp???

#2
I have had experiences. Bad experiences. Although I could live with the sound, little things on the amp just fell apart. Right after taking it out of the box, one of the metal rings that protects the fan broke. Had to remove the grill and take the piece out because it hit the fan, making noise. There were other issues as well but my favorite was that the handle broke twice. I yelled at CS at Hartke and they sent me the parts that were broken including a new strap for the handle but in 18 months, 2 of them broke. Thats at both ends. I gave the company a chance but the little issues were too much for my reliability quotient and I sold the amp ( cheaply) to a friend who reported that his technician ( Jess Oliver, no less) was disgusted at the build quality of the unit. Maybe the amp was doomed because while my buddy was touring with the amp, the roadies dropped it in a road case, 15 feet. Neither survived. But YMMV, I hope.
 
#3
jgsbass said:
I have had experiences. Bad experiences. Although I could live with the sound, little things on the amp just fell apart. Right after taking it out of the box, one of the metal rings that protects the fan broke. Had to remove the grill and take the piece out because it hit the fan, making noise. There were other issues as well but my favorite was that the handle broke twice. I yelled at CS at Hartke and they sent me the parts that were broken including a new strap for the handle but in 18 months, 2 of them broke. Thats at both ends. I gave the company a chance but the little issues were too much for my reliability quotient and I sold the amp ( cheaply) to a friend who reported that his technician ( Jess Oliver, no less) was disgusted at the build quality of the unit. Maybe the amp was doomed because while my buddy was touring with the amp, the roadies dropped it in a road case, 15 feet. Neither survived. But YMMV, I hope.
Click to expand...

what a scary story! your amp was doomed. my hartke 3500 is good amp!
 
#4
I had this amp as the combo with the 15" driver and 5" tweeter. Mostly built like a tank. I say mostly because I had the 2 instrument input jacks replaced with a more durable material called "metal.":hmm:

As for the features, it was great to blend the tube and ss pre-amp. The 10 band (I think) EQ let me tailor my sound exactly and the built in compressor was handy. As well, when I plugged in a 4X10 cab, this thing pumped.
 
#5
I gigged extensively with a hartke 3500 for about 8 years straight with no problems at all. It finally went 'up in smoke' during a gig, but only after pushing it hard for years! The preamp tube burnt out a few times, don't know why? So I had to replace it twice, no big deal. You can get tubes for $10-20 and pop them in and out yourself. In the end, I just used the Solid State side of the preamp anyways. All in all, I thought it was a GREAT amp. I beat that thing to hell, and it kept on ticking! I didn't even have it in a rack case, I just carried it around. Then I found Talkbass, and started GAS'n for the boutique equipment, and it's been all down hill from there! :D
 
#6
kissmybASS01 said:
I had this amp as the combo with the 15" driver and 5" tweeter. Mostly built like a tank. I say mostly because I had the 2 instrument input jacks replaced with a more durable material called "metal.":hmm:

As for the features, it was great to blend the tube and ss pre-amp. The 10 band (I think) EQ let me tailor my sound exactly and the built in compressor was handy. As well, when I plugged in a 4X10 cab, this thing pumped.
Click to expand...

I had one too, the rackmount version, and had the same problem with one of the input jacks. Other then that it was very dependable. Even when a chunk of plastic fell off the input jack, it still worked. I had the Hartke 410 cabinet with aluminum cone speakers. The rig sounded pretty good, way better then the Peavey rig I had before.

However, when I bought my Eden, it was history.
 
#8
I've owned one for about 15 years. Gigged with it for a long time and never had any reliability issues. When I bought it, I thought the thing absolutely killed, but that was a long time ago. Amps have gotten better over the years (just like everything else) and compared to the newer stuff out there, the 3500 sounds passable (good but not great), weighs a little to much and is a tad underpowered--not that it can't get loud enough for almost any reasonable situation.

For the price, its still not a bad deal.
 
#9
i used a 2500 with a 410. moved away from it a while ago. the head was good i kind of miss it. i liked the preamp blending with tube and solid state. and the graphic eq was nice to have. overall it was just a pretty good amp.

but that vx410 i didnt like at all. it was very thin sounding. and i thought it was kind of easy to push too hard. if you can go with other cabs i would.
 
#10
I played a 3500 through a 4.5xl bottom back in the early/mid '90's. I don't believe the jacks were plastic then.

As long as you ran the eq somewhat flat, and ran with mostly the tube pre, it sounded pretty good. I never had a problem with the head,,,,,, but the cab was a different story, and it took samson/hartke a long time to help me out. Their CS was the worst. Once my problem was squared away, I never had another problem. I really didn't care for the head with any other cab than the 4.5xl.

I never had a volume issue..... if I needed more, I just added another 410 bottom..... the wattage rating seemed honest enough. And that was playing with a 10pc band.

Ljazz
 
#12
ljazz said:
I don't believe the jacks were plastic then.

Ljazz
Click to expand...

The actual "sleeve" where the cables plug in were black coloured plastic. One of mine got to the pont of being so bad that a cable came pulled out really easily. This caused me to blow my 5" tweeter at a gig once. My cable pulled out halfway and that popping/buzzing sound it makes when you plug in a live cable to anything (amp/PA whatever) fried my tweeter. Made an interesting smell though :rollno:
 
#13
I have had my 3500 for almost 9 years. At one point this things was really pushed hard for a couple of years and never a single issue with it. When I way pushed I mean 4-6 hours a day almost every day. I decided I wanted an Ampeg SVT-3 Pro and after the third one in about a months time I gave up on them and am still using my Hartke. Customer service is great, although you can't call Loud Tech.'s owner and talk to him personally like Hartke, but after that many times with the Ampeg it's not about being good at replacements, it's about selling me something that isn't crap to begin with!!!
 
#14
I have the 2500 with the 4x10 VX. I think the amp sounds good especially for the price, but I am not a huge fan of the 4x10 VX though...I can get a good tone out of it but it takes a good amount of tweaking with the EQ and other settings to get there.

I think it might just be a bad cabinet for my Geddy Jazz (very bright to begin with and the 4x10 just makes it too much at times) I did however play through a 3500 using a Geddy at a local music store into an expensive Ampeg cabinet (not sure which one) and, WOW, it sounded awesome!
 
#15
I've got a mid-'90s 1155 combo that incorporates the 3500 head, which I bought used. Other than having to diagnose and replace a broken coupling capacitor that was hindering use of the tube pre channel, the thing has been solid for the last ten years. It's not my main gigging amp (the combo weighs 81 lbs.) but it sounds great and I use it about 50% of the time. Fits the bill when I need it. Also owned a model 7000. There are sample defects with most stuff.
 

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