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Hartke LH500 Problem
- Thread starter Wolfenstein666
- Start date
As of now, no. I have emailed both Larry and their Tech Support Department a little less than 24 hours ago. Before I start making phone calls I want to get out to my practice spot and try a few things suggested here. If those fail I'll call Larry personally. I don't want to bother him without at least doing my due diligence.
Same here. I have my first "head" an HA2500 that is probably over 20 years old and I have never had an issue with it- it still works. I also have an HA3500 that I bought used and it is bullet proof. I really hope that they take care of you promptly.
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I owned both the LH500 and the LH1000. From my experience I liked the sound out of the LH500 better, and I never experienced any kinds of issues with it at all.
I really hope you can get this resolved. I never thought of them as anything but well built machines.
I really hope you can get this resolved. I never thought of them as anything but well built machines.
As do I. I've really enjoyed playing on it thus far and was looking forward to getting a lot more years out of it. I'm happy with Hartke and I'd prefer not to switch.
Well fellas, I heard back from Larry via email. He told me to call Customer Support and New York to see what they had to say, and if I needed additional help to call him. I'll be able to make it to my practice spot this weekend and troubleshoot a bit, if nothing works I'll update the thread again and keep everyone posted.
Update: Made it out to practice this weekend and tried a few things. None worked. I tried looping the effects externally as stated here and it worked well for about an hour before it started cutting out again. I'm going to call Larry today or tomorrow and see what can be done. Thanks for the help guys. I'll post back after talking to Hartke and let you know either what they did for me or what the recommended.
UPDATE
Finally found some time to call Hartke CS. Wildly unhelpful. Wouldn't give me any troubleshooting advice, only gave me the nearest service provider in the area (Sweetwater). When asked for a ballpark cost for what HE thought was wrong with it he wouldn't give me anything under the pretense that he can't quote for other people. I understand that of course, but he wouldn't give me anything.
So, I emailed Larry again. We'll see what happens with that, but if nothing can be done I will probably not go with Hartke products anymore. I'll look into getting it serviced but if its going to cost anything substantial I can't justify putting the money into it, especially with what I've read here and on other posts around the Interwebs.
Finally found some time to call Hartke CS. Wildly unhelpful. Wouldn't give me any troubleshooting advice, only gave me the nearest service provider in the area (Sweetwater). When asked for a ballpark cost for what HE thought was wrong with it he wouldn't give me anything under the pretense that he can't quote for other people. I understand that of course, but he wouldn't give me anything.
So, I emailed Larry again. We'll see what happens with that, but if nothing can be done I will probably not go with Hartke products anymore. I'll look into getting it serviced but if its going to cost anything substantial I can't justify putting the money into it, especially with what I've read here and on other posts around the Interwebs.
OK - whatever... This sounds like cutting off your nose to spite your face, but it's your call.
What's 'substantial' ?
It's a $350 amp and IMO a great value at that price. $100 repair will sound like a lot at $350 replacement cost. Would you be happier spending $100 to repair a ToneHammer 500 because it's a smaller fraction of the replacement? (Like - half...)
One reason it's a $350 amp is that there are few user-serviceable components inside. It's all modular, with not many modules. Therefore each of them represents a significant fraction of the cost.
I agree the CS experience sucks, and I'm not defending or supporting that. OTOH - what's he supposed to say? He can't troubleshoot it over the phone, and if he could, any fix will involve a subassembly he can't sell you directly anyway - that's why they have authorized service centers.
None of this is unique to Hartke. Go read a few MarkBass service threads...
You make some good points; let me clarify.
As far as 'substantial' is concerned- I don't want to spend a 100 dollars to get a 350 dollar head fixed when I could invest that 100 dollars in a 500-600 head that would be a better quality head and offer more in terms of sound. I am in no way arguing that for 350 bucks that the Hartke isn't a good purchase; besides the current issue i'm having its been a great piece of equipment.
As far as the user friendly parts go- I plan on fixing this myself or; at some point down the line taking it to a tech. It's not as if its going to be 100 bucks to fix and I'm going to throw it off my roof and totally give up on it.
I asked the CS service dude if he had any trouble shooting tips. He said no, take it to get serviced. I brought up a few of the ideas mentioned in this thread and he acted as though they were all total wastes of time. He was less than no help and was almost condescending. I understand that he can't offer a price per se, but I'd imagine (after being in customer service myself) that it wouldn't be a breach of policy to tell me if it was ballpark going to be more than half the cost of the thing. IE- A mechanic telling me my transmission is shot; not worth replacing in the car.
As far as 'substantial' is concerned- I don't want to spend a 100 dollars to get a 350 dollar head fixed when I could invest that 100 dollars in a 500-600 head that would be a better quality head and offer more in terms of sound. I am in no way arguing that for 350 bucks that the Hartke isn't a good purchase; besides the current issue i'm having its been a great piece of equipment.
As far as the user friendly parts go- I plan on fixing this myself or; at some point down the line taking it to a tech. It's not as if its going to be 100 bucks to fix and I'm going to throw it off my roof and totally give up on it.
I asked the CS service dude if he had any trouble shooting tips. He said no, take it to get serviced. I brought up a few of the ideas mentioned in this thread and he acted as though they were all total wastes of time. He was less than no help and was almost condescending. I understand that he can't offer a price per se, but I'd imagine (after being in customer service myself) that it wouldn't be a breach of policy to tell me if it was ballpark going to be more than half the cost of the thing. IE- A mechanic telling me my transmission is shot; not worth replacing in the car.
I understand.
Have you looked inside? Did you see a lot of user-serviceable parts? Generic, over-the-counter DigiKey / Mouser discrete stuff? Service centers are module-replacement oriented - they're not going to do component-level diagnosis and repair - it's just not cost-effective.
AFAIK, there are no available schematics (I could be wrong, as someone referenced a block diagram a bit ago in another thread.) There are no aftermarket sources for modules and I seriously doubt Hartke will sell direct to the end-user.
So - figure $100 module and $75 for an hour of tech time for the incoming paperwork, open, module diagnosis, replacement, test-under-load, close, process invoice.
It sucks that it's out of warranty, but this is the way of the 21st Century, it seems. I hope it all works out like you want it to.
That sucks. Funny because I always heard that Hartke stuff was the equivalent of Huffy bicycles. Their old ad campaigns were a huge turn off to me with Larry Hartke's feathered, mullety, butt-rock hair stytle & the sunglasses. I went from SWR to Eden and never had a problem with any of those heads. And I used to run two Eden's at the same time. Maybe look at another brand? I'd have no confidence in Hartke even if you get your amp to work (or a new one). If two of them have been broke right out of the box, what's gonna happen to them when you've got a year under your belt playing through them?
Also, I don't believe the heads that Dave Ellefson and Frank Bello get are right out of the box.
I think I found a wiring diagram somewhere but I'd have to go hunting for it again. Someone suggested a tube change which is easy enough but given the symptoms I don't know if that'd fix it or not.
I guess long story short is I have to make the decision whether or not I want to dump 175 into a head that broke 18 months in or invest in a newer nicer head. I understand that Hartke stuff is priced the way it is for a reason, I guess I'm now paying for it. And this all sucks because its ultimately postponing the ultimate goal of buying the Rickenbacker.
I guess long story short is I have to make the decision whether or not I want to dump 175 into a head that broke 18 months in or invest in a newer nicer head. I understand that Hartke stuff is priced the way it is for a reason, I guess I'm now paying for it. And this all sucks because its ultimately postponing the ultimate goal of buying the Rickenbacker.
Does it really? Anyway you could send me the PDF?
Yeah, I bought it brand new. Still have the box and original manual, I'd have to dig it out of my basement.
I too have the LH500 and it has been a beast in very adverse Florida heat and humidity. I am interested to see how this turns out.
here's the link to the product page
Hartke — LH500
and here's the link to the manual from the hartke website
Invalid Link Removed
i did a search on the PDF for "warranty" - the term appears several times on the manual and one says what i quoted above. hope that helps!
Yeah, pretty clearly states its a 3 year extended warranty eh? I'm gonna get back in touch with Larry. You might have just saved me some money sir. If that's the case you'll be getting a lovely Christmas card later this year.
"sir"?
hope to hear that you were able to set up a repair under warranty - let us know how it goes.
