Is one of those shortcomings the lack of a midrange boost? I had an original Bass Attack and hated it because every sound I was able to get from it was some variety of scooped.
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Hartke Bass Attack 2!
- Thread starter jwilson67
- Start date
Yes, exactly. The Shape knob is/was essentially a fixed notch-filter (cut-only), which sounds amazing at what it does, don't get me wrong, but the pedal itself lacked a way to bring IN some mids. The amount of mid-cut the Shape knob introduced was solidly fixed and could be a bit too scooped sounding for some songs, music genres, personal tastes, etc. There was no way to adjust the amount of cutting/scooping it was doing. The other knobs (Bass, Treble & Brite) do not lend itself to doing that. A want/need for more mids in those scenarios would have to be brought in via amp tone controls or other EQ elsewhere in the signal chain.
The other issue I have seen discussed is that the overdrive didn't seem to really saturate (get gritty/dirty) until about the 3 o'clock position of its sweep. My issue with that, is that there was a LOT of gain added in the last bit of the sweep range too, so not only did the noticeable overdrive come in kind of full bore, it was also quite a bit louder than the clean side. Less than 3 o'clock settings on the Drive knob didn't introduce a volume jump though, but nor was the drive very saturated.
In any case, kudos to Hartke for obviously listening to constructive feedback on these things. The new pedal now lets you select the Amount of cut happening (rather than being fixed). It also now lets you Boost as well (for example low mids). I see a new selectable Contour switch, that the manual is not entirely clear on. I am assuming & hoping that this fixed-cut (original Bass Attack-style) is centered at about 800Hz? (not sure, manual doesn't say), in which case mids or low mids could then be boosted with the Shape knob. I'm eager to find out all these things and more about it.
Needless to say, it looks amazing on paper - I think this is going to be a winner!
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Yes indeed - the lack of separate volume controls for the different channels was a big drawback to the original Bass Attack. Other than than I LOVED that pedal. I moved on to a Zoom B3 but I am curious to read reports on the sound of the Bass Attack 2. After I sold my original BA I tried an MXR M80 and there was no comparison at all. The BA destroyed the MXR IMO.
Sounds like we're on the same page with similar impressions of a lot of the same gear. I have an MXR M80 collecting dust, like you say, it can't hold a candle to the BA. I'm pretty happy with my Zoom models, but I always seem to catch a hint of digital "ess" (hiss) surrounding my notes when playing solo in very quiet environments and its driving me to seek out more analog products. I bought an ISP Beta Bass, which I love due to much better control of the mids (dual parametric), but as you stated earlier, the Hartke Bass Attack just has some "magic" in it that I haven't heard elsewhere in other preamps. If the Bass Attack 2 lives up to what it appears to be in theory, I think I may have to consider hosting a big preamp clearance sale.
On another note - I know they have exponentially improved the flexibility of the Shape function. However, I sure hope they retained the Bass & Treble frequencies from the original Bass Attack. That Bass knob could bring in some SERIOUS fat, warm bass without being messy.
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I'm thinking exactly the same thing about selling stuff to get the Hartke. One thing I notice about the Zoom (and maybe just digital effects in general) is that while my tone sounds fantastic when I'm dialing it in by myself I have to tweak it A LOT when I put it into real world use. The notes just don't seem to "jump out" as much as I'd like. But then again the Zoom stuff is only $199.Sounds like we're on the same page with similar impressions of a lot of the same gear. I have an MXR M80 collecting dust, like you say, it can't hold a candle to the BA. I'm pretty happy with my Zoom models, but I always seem to catch a hint of digital "ess" (hiss) surrounding my notes when playing solo in very quiet environments and its driving me to seek out more analog products. I bought an ISP Beta Bass, which I love due to much better control of the mids (dual parametric), but as you stated earlier, the Hartke Bass Attack just has some "magic" in it that I haven't heard elsewhere in other preamps. If the Bass Attack 2 lives up to what it appears to be in theory, I think I may have to consider hosting a big preamp clearance sale.
On another note - I know they have exponentially improved the flexibility of the Shape function. However, I sure hope they retained the Bass, Treble frequencies from the original Bass Attack. That Bass knob could bring in some SERIOUS fat, warm bass without being messy.
Also - I swear I could hear some light compression (or evening out of the notes) in the original Bass Attack. I've heard others say this as well. Maybe it's just because it sounds so good.
+1
Agreed - all of it.
There may very well be some light compression going on - I never hear any squishing or "breathing" going on, but there definitely is a sense of smooth control when playing. I know Hartke sort of came out of the gate (remembering my old HA 3500 from back in the day) with compression. Almost all of their products to this day, the kickback series, the Hydrive combos, etc., all feature compression and/or limiter circuitry in them. My best <guess> is yes, probably so. It may be incorporated into the proprietary design of the BA circuit, though not publicly acknowledged.
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I was able to spend some extended time today with the Bass Attack 2. Thought I'd jot down a few thoughts/impressions to share about it.
Overall, it's a fantastic preamp, with great tones!
Build - It's a great looking pedal, very clean layout, rugged zinc die cast chassis & dare I say almost petite in size? About half the size of the original in fact. Perhaps looking at enlarged pics on the net gave me a false sense of the true size. Very portable, less real estate on a pedal board than the original. Fantastic build & layout.
The Contour Switch - Kind of a dissapointment here for me. Its definitely not quite at 800Hz as I was hoping. I may be wrong, but to me it sounds centered much lower like in the 300-400Hz range and seems to take away a lot of energy & punch out of the signal. I sure can't see a use for this personally. Maybe that's a critical EQ point for upright bassists? Not sure. But it's on a selectable switch, for whomever may desire cut in this area.
The Shape & Amount Knobs - Fantastic! I was able to get some great punchy, boosted tones with the 200Hz (fully counter clockwise) as well as some great scooped 800Hz tones (again, with control over how much scooping). All areas in between are well represented & controllable.
Overdrive - Perhaps the most surprising aspect of the BA2 is the drastic change of the overdrive. IMO, it sounds absolutely fantastic! Absolutely destroys the overdrive tone of the original. It saturates much earlier (noon) than the original drive did (about 3 o'clock). Admittedly, I couldn't tolerate the Overdrive tone on the original. It sounded, well - awful. Apologies to those who feel otherwise. For me, my gear, whatever reasons, it came across mostly as a flubby, garbled mess to be honest. This overdrive on the BA2 is completely revoiced. No two ways about it. It's pretty much like a very tight, defined, fuzz-type overdrive. Think Boss ODB-3 (ish), similar to Flea's tone on "Around The World", except not so hi-end fizzy and a little warmer. Could also easily cover Beastie Boys "Sabotage" with the amount of OD on hand. The Tone & Mix knob makes all this very adjustable. Great, smooth transition from barely-there, barely-saturated mildness on through into full-on OD territory. The voicing is very usable and very much improved!
It really is a fantastic sounding preamp pedal - it is hands down an improvement in the areas it was intended to address.
Does it sound good - Yes!! Very good!
Does it "exactly" nail the original's tone? Not exactly, IMO (see below).
If it matters, I could not quite nail the original's tone. For lack of better terms, I'll call it the "weight" and "heft" of each note as well as some upper end sheen & brilliance in the higher register (probably 8-10K) that seems to be slightly elusive in this version 2. The Shape of the original seems to have a slightly throatier voice and some sparkle at the same time when you engage it as well as a volume boost associated with it. Perhaps to compensate for & offset normal volume loss associated with heavier amounts of mid-scooping.
To me, the version 2 seems slightly more polished & polite than the original - not in a bad way though. It sounds very good & the new boost/cut flexibility along with the great new overdrive voice truly do make this a newer take on the original pedal voicing. So although close, I could not coax an exact original voicing match out of the BA2 as much as I've tried. Whether or not this even matters is strictly dependent upon the person's expectation of the pedal. Thought it worth mentioning for those who might be interested in that regard. Nonetheless, it is a fantastic preamp worth checking out!
A few pics for reference:
Overall, it's a fantastic preamp, with great tones!
Build - It's a great looking pedal, very clean layout, rugged zinc die cast chassis & dare I say almost petite in size? About half the size of the original in fact. Perhaps looking at enlarged pics on the net gave me a false sense of the true size. Very portable, less real estate on a pedal board than the original. Fantastic build & layout.
The Contour Switch - Kind of a dissapointment here for me. Its definitely not quite at 800Hz as I was hoping. I may be wrong, but to me it sounds centered much lower like in the 300-400Hz range and seems to take away a lot of energy & punch out of the signal. I sure can't see a use for this personally. Maybe that's a critical EQ point for upright bassists? Not sure. But it's on a selectable switch, for whomever may desire cut in this area.
The Shape & Amount Knobs - Fantastic! I was able to get some great punchy, boosted tones with the 200Hz (fully counter clockwise) as well as some great scooped 800Hz tones (again, with control over how much scooping). All areas in between are well represented & controllable.
Overdrive - Perhaps the most surprising aspect of the BA2 is the drastic change of the overdrive. IMO, it sounds absolutely fantastic! Absolutely destroys the overdrive tone of the original. It saturates much earlier (noon) than the original drive did (about 3 o'clock). Admittedly, I couldn't tolerate the Overdrive tone on the original. It sounded, well - awful. Apologies to those who feel otherwise. For me, my gear, whatever reasons, it came across mostly as a flubby, garbled mess to be honest. This overdrive on the BA2 is completely revoiced. No two ways about it. It's pretty much like a very tight, defined, fuzz-type overdrive. Think Boss ODB-3 (ish), similar to Flea's tone on "Around The World", except not so hi-end fizzy and a little warmer. Could also easily cover Beastie Boys "Sabotage" with the amount of OD on hand. The Tone & Mix knob makes all this very adjustable. Great, smooth transition from barely-there, barely-saturated mildness on through into full-on OD territory. The voicing is very usable and very much improved!
It really is a fantastic sounding preamp pedal - it is hands down an improvement in the areas it was intended to address.
Does it sound good - Yes!! Very good!
Does it "exactly" nail the original's tone? Not exactly, IMO (see below).
If it matters, I could not quite nail the original's tone. For lack of better terms, I'll call it the "weight" and "heft" of each note as well as some upper end sheen & brilliance in the higher register (probably 8-10K) that seems to be slightly elusive in this version 2. The Shape of the original seems to have a slightly throatier voice and some sparkle at the same time when you engage it as well as a volume boost associated with it. Perhaps to compensate for & offset normal volume loss associated with heavier amounts of mid-scooping.
To me, the version 2 seems slightly more polished & polite than the original - not in a bad way though. It sounds very good & the new boost/cut flexibility along with the great new overdrive voice truly do make this a newer take on the original pedal voicing. So although close, I could not coax an exact original voicing match out of the BA2 as much as I've tried. Whether or not this even matters is strictly dependent upon the person's expectation of the pedal. Thought it worth mentioning for those who might be interested in that regard. Nonetheless, it is a fantastic preamp worth checking out!
A few pics for reference:
Last edited:
I was able to spend some extended time today with the Bass Attack 2. Thought I'd jot down a few thoughts/impressions to share about it.
Overall, it's a fantastic preamp, with great tones!
Build - It's a great looking pedal, very clean layout, rugged zinc die cast chassis & dare I say almost petite in size? About half the size of the original in fact. Perhaps looking at enlarged pics on the net gave me a false sense of the true size. Very portable, less real estate on a pedal board than the original. Fantastic build & layout.
The Contour Switch - Kind of a dissapointment here for me. Its definitely not quite at 800Hz as I was hoping. I may be wrong, but to me it sounds centered much lower like in the 300-400Hz range and seems to take away a lot of energy & punch out of the signal. I sure can't see a use for this personally. Maybe that's a critical point for upright bassists? Not sure. But it's on a selectable switch, for whomever may desire cut in this area.
The Shape & Amount Knobs - Fantastic! I was able to get some great punchy, boosted tones with the 200Hz (fully counter clockwise) as well as some great scooped 800Hz tones (again, with control over how much scooping). All areas in between are well represented & controllable.
Overdrive - Perhaps the most surprising aspect of the BA2 is the drastic change of the overdrive - IMO, it sounds absolutely fantastic!. Absolutely destroys the overdrive tone of the original. It saturates much earlier (noon) than the original drive did (about 3 o'clock). Admittedly, I couldn't tolerate the Overdrive tone on the original. It sounded, well - awful. Apologies to those who feel otherwise. For me, my gear, whatever reasons, it came across as mostly a garbled mess to be honest. This overdrive on the BA2 is completely revoiced. No two ways about it. It's pretty much like a very tight, defined fuzz-type overdrive. Think Boss ODB-3 (ish), similar to Flea's tone on "Around The World", except not so hi-end fizzy and a little warmer. The Tone knob makes this very adjustable. The voicing is very usable and very much improved!
It really is a fantastic sounding preamp pedal - it is hands down an improvement in the areas it was intended to address.
Does it sound good - Yes!! Very good!
Does it "exactly" nail the original's tone? Not exactly, IMO (see below).
If it matters, I could not quite nail the original's tone. For lack of better terms, I'll call it the "weight" and "heft" of each note as well as some upper end sheen & brilliance in the higher register (probably 8-10K) that seems to be slightly elusive in this version 2. The Shape of the original seems to have slightly throatier voice and some sparkle at the same time when you engage it as well as a volume boost associated with it. Perhaps to compensate for & offset normal volume loss associated with heavier amounts of mid-scooping.
To me, the version 2 seems slightly more polished & polite than the original - not in a bad way though. It sounds very good & the new boost/cut flexibility along with the great new overdrive voice truly do make this a newer take on the original pedal voicing. So although close, I could not coax an exact match out of the BA2 as much as I've tried. Whether or not this even matters is strictly dependent upon the person's expectation of the pedal. Thought it worth mentioning for those who might be interested in that regard. Nonetheless, it is a fantastic preamp worth checking out!
A few pics for reference:
Great review, thanks so much! Can I confirm the Mix knob acts as a blend between OD and clean tone? Does the OD suck low end?
Also - does the Shape Function work as a sweepable mid control? I've read that fully counter-clockwise its 200hz, and the opposite being 800hz. Sounds like a sweeped/parametric mid?
Thanks for the kind words - to answer your question, yes, the Mix is a blend between OD and clean. No, I did not perceive any low end loss - in fact, it gets <slightly> thicker when you kick it on & the Tone knob really helps put it where you want it, tone-wise. It truly is an outstanding fuzz-type overdrive. Hartke did an outstanding job on this section of the new preamp - highly useable OD tone.
Yes - that is exactly how it works. The formerly 1-button Shape function of the original BA is now divided into 2 separate knobs (Frequency & Amount). The Frequency (Freq) knob is essentially a fixed-Q, (semi)-parametric sweep knob between 200Hz - 800Hz. Its purpose is to choose the frequency you want to boost or cut. Then you would want use the Amount knob to boost or cut the frequency you have chosen with the Frequency knob.
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Thanks!! Last question...do you think the drive circuit would sound good going straight to FOH PA? Any chance you can have a listen with headphones straight into an interface? I know Drive pedals straight to desk often sound terrible and fizzy.
Sorry for the late reply - extremely busy weekend (gig, Mother's Day, etc). In a nutshell yes, I do believe this will translate rather well FOH. It sounds really good straight into my interface & in the headphones out. The drive on the BA2 is warm & fuzzy rather than hi-end fizzy. A lot warmer than an ODB-3 type fuzz.
Tone is hard to describe so I made a couple very quick, crude, recorded tracks - generic enough to give a general idea I guess. The samples have no Shape filtering going on at all. Its just the OD section engaged in order give a fair representation of just its voice without added tone/gain from any midrange Shape enhancement, etc. Bass & Treble on the main Input section were at noon.
Heavy Fuzz OD (with loud drum track):
Medium OD (no drum track):
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Wow man, thanks so much for all this! Appreciate your time in recording the clips. Love a bit of RATM
. I'm quite surprised by the drive sound on it. Really nice.The one clip I've seen online and your two soundclips show the pedal doing medium to crazy drive...does it sound ok with minimal OD to just warm up my tone?
Wow man, thanks so much for all this! Appreciate your time in recording the clips. Love a bit of RATM
The one clip I've seen online and your two soundclips show the pedal doing medium to crazy drive...does it sound ok with minimal OD to just warm up my tone?
Thanks again for the kind words.
Yes, I pretty much skipped the very low gain settings because the gain/mix ratio knobs allow you to have very subtle blends. Subtle to the point that I figured it probably wouldn't be very detectable at all in a sample. People would think its just a clean track by mistake or something. So I went with more obvious blends.
The tone at the lowest OD setting sounds exactly like clean tone but just slightly warmer and thicker if the Drive knob is all the way down and the Mix knob is up over 50%. Huge range and control over the blend amounts. Quite literally the best clean to OD sweep I've ever encountered - it's that smooth. Obtaining minimal OD is not an issue at all. Piece of cake to the BA2.
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This post is a year old, but I just bought this pedal a month ago. Love it. Absolutely worth the money. Great sound, adds wonderful character to my Ibanez SR506.
The original version has been on my board for years. It’s an always on pedal.
I was thinking of getting an MXR-80 but stumbled across the Hartke. I'm liking the features on it.
I'm rebuilding my pedal board with higher quality stuff (mostly Joyo/Behringer/Danelector right now). I'm currently running into a Joyo Ultimate Drive --> Zoom MS60 --> Behringer DI box. I want to get a better DI for tone shaping and use the Zoom for modulation effects (plus tuner) and then upgrade the Joyo to some type of fuzz.
I'm rebuilding my pedal board with higher quality stuff (mostly Joyo/Behringer/Danelector right now). I'm currently running into a Joyo Ultimate Drive --> Zoom MS60 --> Behringer DI box. I want to get a better DI for tone shaping and use the Zoom for modulation effects (plus tuner) and then upgrade the Joyo to some type of fuzz.
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