Hartke vs. Ashdown

I have an Avatar 210 and a Mag 300. I have never played anything by Hartke, but the Ashdown is a great amp. Good tone, useful features, and quite a bit of power for it’s price. I based my decision on the reviews here as well and I’m glad I listened. You can use the dealer locater on their site to see if there is a dealer near you. I couldn’t find one near me though.

Matt

 

I've tried both of these.


The Ashdown kills the Hartke, hands down. Both with features and sound and it costs less! I own the MAG 300 Head and run it through the MAG 410 cab. I'm only pushing about 180 watts (as i wasnt aware the ohms didnt match) its still super loud and sounds great. I will hopefully soon get the MAG 210 and MAG 115 to bring out the full 300 watts and start blowing things off the wall. Ashdown all the way.

The Hartke isn't a bad amp though, its just that the Ashdown is an incredible amount of bang for the buck.

 

No you misread, I dont have a fretless Tbird, I have GAS for a fretless Tbird. Whats in my signature is my gas list, sadly, look in my profile for my gear list.

 

ashdown kills hartke!

i have the MAG300 as well and its way better than any Hartke in a similar price range. you cant beat 300watts for that price

 

I cant comment on the Hartke, but the Ashdown can produce exactly the tone you describe. Deep with punch in the chest clarity.

I'm using a MAG300-115 combo, playing similar music, using finger style.

 

Sorry but feature wise the Hartke spanks the Ashdown. It's an incredibly flexible amp, I'd have to admit I have regrets about the Hartke Transporter cab I have though, I may be picking up a second head very soon and I doubt the aluminium cones will suit it. Stick a new valve in the pre and you'll get warmth if you so desire. The EQ is reasonably good, the fan is a bit loud for quiet sessions but not too bad. It's a reasonable head for a reasonable price, that'd be my verdict, I plan on keeping my HA3500 as a backup for the forseeable future.

 

Well, my two cents worth...I had the Hartke 5500. I LOVED that head. Tube preamp...mosfet power amp and all the tone blending/shaping you could wish for. Unfortunatly two seperate 810 Hartke bottoms were delivered damageg and I got fed up sold, the head and got Ampeg. I am right now selling all Ampeg gear...horrible quality control, and will be going back to Hartke.

 

My $0.02 on this.

I use an Ashdown MAG-300R with a MAG-210T cab.
Some time ago, I wanted to try something different, and a Hartke rig came into my basement : HA5500 head + 410XL cab.

There are probably Hartke oficionados here and I fully respect them, but the Hartke didn't seduce me at all. Whatever I did, there always was too much treble. And the Hartke rig didn't appear to be louder than my Ashdown rig, though supposed to have twice the watts.

I believe the Hartke will be your thing if you're after some kind of modern / slap / treble tone. But if you want some balls in the lows and mids, then the Ashdown will probably fit you better.

Just my opinion, of course.

 

cool..thanks for the input

 

Specplyrz,

Don't know what tone you're after, but if you're selling your Ampeg stuff for reliability reasons, then I believe you should consider Ashdown. They sound close to Ampeg solid state amps (ya know, that kind of vintage vibe). Also I wish to share that this small ridiculous MAG-210T cab handles my low B pretty damn well (Music Man SUB 5 & StingRay 5).

The only thing is that if you like some kind of crispy highs, then there are better amps for that (not very clear highs on my rig).

Hope this helps,
JL

 

Exactly the reason I bought an ABM500-RC Evo-II! Ashdown is a great company, too. I had an issue, which I had to deal with them on a direct basis. I'm in Hawaii, they are in Jolly Old England, and they took care of me like real pros! Took awhile, due to them being half-way around the planet from me, but problem was solved, and I'm happy!

 

Play the Yorkville through a non-Ampeg cab, and I promise it won't be boomy!!!