Choice between Fender stack and Hartke stack

I'd buy neither...unless you like one of them

Let your ears be the judge, not others' opinions..I bought my favorite amp on a whim, and didn't really plan to get that type of amp....but I'm so glad I did...

 

Fender

 

If you get a Fender, make sure you get a Bassman 300 Pro. Best amp Fender makes right now.

 

Out of those two, Fender. If we knew your price range/size of rig/location we might be able to suggest something different. In this scenario though, the Fender will be the nicer of the two stacks by far.

 

If ya had to choose one of the 2 I'd definitely go with the Fender. While there might be a lot of people who'd swear by Hartke, I owned 2 Hartke heads, and a 4X10 and never got anything out of any of them except farty sounds at any reasonable volume. Hartke speakers are also the only speakers I've ever blown (at a studio), and when I got all apologetic about it the studio guy told me it happens with them all the time.

My .02.

 

Also, Mike Dirnt has been using Fender (rebadged Sunns) for a few years now, and even if you're not a huge fan of Green Day, you gotta admit that his tone on the last album was pretty bitchin'.

 

I like my Harke 4x10. Granted, I'm not using a Hartke head, and the only other amp that I've owned was a Peavey TNT150. But I still like the sound that I get.

Also, I'm not on the heavy playing schedule that a lot of you are. I play out maybe 2 or 3 times a month, so the reliability of my Hartke has never come into question.

Small towns are like that. Only have live bands on weekends.

 

There are literally NO other music stores in your area...even if you travel an hour or so? I find that really weird that there are 2 stores in your area and they ONLY carry ONE product line and have no other gear...even used. I mean, I don't know where you live, but I've seen a lot of stores in just about every state in the USA and they all have at least 2 different kinds of amps and cabs...even the really small stores. The smallest store around my place was actually owned by a snowplow dealer...the guitars and stuff were in the back of the snowplow shop...and he had Aria Pro, Yamaha and Crate and some used stuff too. I guess if you wanted to say..."choose between Fender and Hartke, those are what I like" I'd choose Fender. An Ampeg or Mesa would be sweeter, though! I think if you kept looking around you can get a wider selection to choose from, though. Pawn Shop, dude!

 

i'd go with fender, although jack bruce does use hartke, i like that new fender amp...i heard green day in concert a while back, and mike dirnt sure got a nice bright tone with the fender stack!
but you really should try to hear them yourself...thats the best judge.

 

A Fender 400 pro 2x10 combo with an extension cab would give you a lot of options.

http://www.fender.com/products/search.php?partno=2245500010

 

fender all the way, i agree mike dirnts tone is great on american idiot and live. I have played through a hartke stack before a few years back, it was someone elses in another band and I used it and it sounded very thin. Obviously that was just his configuration etc.

FENDER

 

I have used both and I would definitely go with the Fender, especially the pro series.

 

I've only ever used one Fender amp, and a couple of Hartke amps - Seeing as I have a very limited price range... And the tone on that Fender amp blew me away, so I bought it straight away a little under a year ago... It was brilliant for that period when I wasn't in any bands... For solo tone, it's perfect. Gives me that Stuart Zender vibe I was after, and that bassy thump I'm always looking for. However, when I started getting into metal... And playing bands... Well, the Fender had to go. I found with mine that it couldn't cut through at all without boosting the high mids all the way, and that gave it the worst sound I've ever heard - it was completely the wrong tone to what I was looking for, far too nasal.

Then a couple of weeks ago, I bought a Hartke half stack - 3500 head and transporter 4x10 cab. The Hartke amp cost twice as much as the Fender, but I'd be willing to pay 5 or 6 times that much for the improvement in tone I got! It took a bit of getting used to... And initially I preferred the tone of the Fender... The Fender is more of a solo-ish amp. but when I tried the Hartke in a 3rd wave ska band jam (Think Reel Big Fish sort of stuff) MAN was that tone amazing! After about 10 minutes of playing with the graphic EQ, compression and preamps (Never used any of those controls before) I found that tone I've been looking for! Agressive enough for metal with the compression on low and the low mids boosted... But then punchy and round enough for ska with the compression up and the bass and high mids boosted a little.

But don't take my word for it - I've never played any of the high quality Fender stuff.

 

If you HAVE to choose only between the two, I'd go Fender.

 

Is time an issue? Don't you have time to use the net? If money is no object, there are many others I would recomend first, Ampeg and Aggie just for starts. There are others, but those 2 are not on the top of my list.
If it's a time thing, looks like the Fenders have it.

 

Well then, my first choice would be a Fender Bassman 300 T(all tube head...rebranded Sunn). My second choice would be a Bassman Pro 1200 (Rebranded Sunn 1200). The Fender Pro 800 is also supposed to be nice. As far as Fender cabs, stick with the Pro series, and you'll do fine.

 

That's a shame. Looks like the Fender won the vote. Good luck to you.