Hartke Rig as PA Sub

[DRafalske]

Hey guys. I'm sure this has been covered and indeed I've found a little information through a search, but not everything I was hoping to find.
A band I was in recently split apart and me and the two guitarists are forming a project of our own. Our old singer owned the PA, but between the three of us we have the makings of a pretty decent system.
We have a mixer, power amps, mains, monitors, mics, basically everything except subs. We'll be playing small to medium venues, bars, clubs, etc.
The mixer is a Mackie CFX16MKII and has a dedicated subwoofer output. As a temporary solution, I'm thinking of running it straight into the effects return on my Hartke 3500 into a Hartke 410XL (this will be dedicated to sub duty; I'll be playing through a Genz Shuttle mini-stack).
I'm thinking it will sound good enough for short term, but if anyone has any advice or cautions I'd certainly love to hear them.

By the way, we'll be a 5-piece - 2x guitars, bass, drums, keys. Classic rock mainly. Keys will go straight into the PA, guitars and bass may or may not be mic'd (depending on the venue), and probably mic the kick and snare and maybe an overhead.
Thanks!

 

[projectMalamute]

You will destroy the speakers in that thing long before it is louder than a properly tuned, properly played kick drum.

Just get a cheap 18" speaker box. Wharfedale or Peavey both work fine for moving air on the cheap.

 

[GroovyBaby]

Hartke has a particular sound and that will still color things but I can't think of why that wouldn't work. We do something somewhat similar. I have two Carvin 15" bass cabs that we use as subs for the mains. However, we power them with a QSC GX5. The Carvins are 4ohms so they get something like 700 watts a side. I'm curious to hear what others think of your temporary solution. I say try it and see how it sounds!
...just saw they second post. Destroy sounds bad. I'm not real familiar with those Hartke cabs so I don't know what they will and won't take. I purchased the Carvin subs for about $100 a peice used which was a steal! Food for thought.

 

[T-Bird]

Hi.

This gets asked a lot and the answer is always the same, DON'T.

Regular bass cabs are pretty shy on volume and power handling below 100Hz, You can test that with Your amp and a test tone.

+1 for a dedicated BD "sub", the drummer in the last band I played in had an 18" Eminence Kilomax in about (IIRC) 200l enclosure. Kicked the proverbial butt with about 1KW behind it.

BUT,

With el-drums, it was only slightly louder than his 26" Tama BD acoustically though.

Of course You can try, the cab is yours to trash, but to what end?

Regards
Sam

 

[DRafalske]

OK Thanks for the input guys. Seemed like a viable temporary solution, but I definitely don't want to destroy the cab. I got it for a song, but I kind of like it nonetheless.
It all may be moot anyway, this band likely won't be playing out for a couple months. By then hopefully I can pick up a couple real subs.

 

[Hactar]

As previously said, bass cabs generally make bad subs.

I am not aware the extent of your budget, but you should be able to pick up a decent power amp and at least one Peavey, Carvin, or Mackie sub for quite cheap.