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Hartke: Why Do Musicians Use It?

#321
Tom Winter said:
In the early 2000's I got an HA 3500. I had a moment of bliss when I ran it through an SWR 1x15. I was in a rock band, it sounded awesome, I had power. I really don't know why I traded that rig. My only problem is, I wish Hartke was made here.
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This reply is a little late, but I talked to Larry about Hartke being made "overseas," years ago.
He didn't want to move his manufacturing from US, but essentially forced to, to compete.
He said, he had delayed it for as long as he could and was the last manufacturer to make that move.
I think being a patriot, (most of our conversation was about politics, as we are on the same page-- ironic that I am writing this on election night), he felt a genuine guilt having to move his manufacturing offshore, and would enjoy seeing the product which bears his name, made in-country again.
So, let's all keep supportive of Larry, and maybe he an be the first to move his operations back here.
 
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#323
I stopped in Guitar Center in Manhattan several years ago to try out an Aguilar amp. They had what I was looking for, but almost everything else was Hartke. A salesman came up and asked if I needed any help. I just asked why they had so damn much Hartke stuff. He reached out to shake my hand and said, "Hello, I'm Larry Hartke."
I'm not 100% sure what that was all about. It seemed like they'd turned over the amp department for him to run as a store within a store. They had one of Jaco's 1980s Hartke 4x10s on display.
 
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#324
lalo_garcia-maynez said:
View attachment 4635190 View attachment 4635182 View attachment 4635181 View attachment 4635180 View attachment 4635179 View attachment 4635178 View attachment 4635177 I have used Hartke cabs for over 30 years too. I have had a lot of models . On my experience these are the best in order of preference:
Hartke 4200 pro (expensive and heavy but a great cabinet hard to find )
Hartke 2200 pro (2x12 great growl also hard to find )
Hartke 2100 pro (2x10 portable and hard to find !).
HL 410 hartke’s top of the line model as of 2022; sounds great and is light (the tweeter is not good so I changed it ; now it’s an amazing cabinet ; but it’s expensive!).
Hartke vx215 (I Have two of these ; I removed the hartke paper speakers and installed Electro voice pl 15b instead- now it’s a monster!!)
Hartke vx1508 (it has a 15 inch and two 8 inch speakers plus a tweeter ) I replaced the 15 inch with a hartke XL 115 aluminum driver and replaced the 8 inch speakers with the Ones I took out of the hartke 508 combo .
Hartke 2.5 XL- heavy but great!
Hartke 4.5 XL heavy but It rocks !
All these has been expensive to modify but I’m happy with all of it . Great stuff !
The best is probably the pro series but it was expensive and discontinued very quickly .
Here’s part of my collection (I have other top of the line brands of bass cabinets in my collection; Hartke is NOT inferior to anything! It’s just different but it’s great stuff!).
I have also used hartke cabinets and changed the drivers to expensive paper cone speakers ; that has been a great idea too… here you can see a lot of my experimentations:
All I can say is I like it !!!
I also have a couple of hartke 4200 with discontinued blue aluminum speakers from eminence . These handle more watts are lighter and allowed me to wire the cabinet to 8 ohms instead of 4 ohms. Great results too !
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Don't know where you live... but if you ever want to part with one of those 2100s, PM me.
 
#325
paulraphael said:
I stopped in Guitar Center in Manhattan several years ago to try out an Aguilar amp. They had what I was looking for, but almost everything else was Hartke. A salesman came up and asked if I needed any help. I just asked why they had so damn much Hartke stuff. He reached out to shake my hand and said, "Hello, I'm Larry Hartke."
I'm not 100% sure what that was all about. It seemed like they'd turned over the amp department for him to run as a store within a store. They had one of Jaco's 1980s Hartke 4x10s on display.
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Not sure if that was a GC...
Could it have been Manny's or Sam Ash? Sam Ash I think.
Maybe GC took over these stores when they went down for the count, not sure. But, the more I think, the more I'm going with Sam Ash.
And yes, he had a bass center, within the larger store. He put a phenomenal amount of work into that project.
Also, that was Jaco's 8X10 cab that Larry made custom for Jaco. I believe it was one of Larry's first cabs, but I might need to be corrected on that. Don't remember what amp they used to drive it. I don't think Larry was making amps at that point, again I stand to be corrected, if need be, but I think I'm pretty close informationally.
Larry's an exceptional guy... Count yourself very fortunate to have met him.
 
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#326
paulraphael said:
I stopped in Guitar Center in Manhattan several years ago to try out an Aguilar amp. They had what I was looking for, but almost everything else was Hartke. A salesman came up and asked if I needed any help. I just asked why they had so damn much Hartke stuff. He reached out to shake my hand and said, "Hello, I'm Larry Hartke."
I'm not 100% sure what that was all about. It seemed like they'd turned over the amp department for him to run as a store within a store. They had one of Jaco's 1980s Hartke 4x10s on display.
Click to expand...
The Sam Ash in Times Square had one of Jaco’s early Guild/Hartke 8X10 cabinets.
 
#328
Victor Wooten's rig.
IMG_20220517_194756781.jpg
 
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#334
winston said:
I love it how the TB hive mind consensus is like "mixing speaker sizes is bad and unprofessional" when Victor and other greats I've seen like Bill Laswell do it all the time!
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My main rig for years was a Hartke XL 210 and 115 with a GK RB400. I offer no apologies to the hive mind.

Wait....am I part of the hive mind? 🤔
 
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#336
steelbed45 said:
My main rig for years was a Hartke XL 210 and 115 with a GK RB400. I offer no apologies to the hive mind.

Wait....am I part of the hive mind? 🤔
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I have had the Hartke XL410 cab with GK RB400 head until I was out of work and had to sell the head. I still have have the 410 cab. I really miss the GK head. I now have the Mesa Boogie G800+ and Carvin BX1500 heads with the HyperDrive 210 and 112 cabs and I really love this combo but I lent my XL410 my brother inlaw for his rehearsals a few years before I got the HyperDrive cabs so I haven't been able to do a side by side comparison.

At one time I had the Hartke HA3500 head with the XL410 and XL115, the was one great sounding combo just too heavy to move around as I got older.
 
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#337
During the 90's, my rig was a Hartke Mosfet Model 3500 head with a sealed 410 by a small company called Sonic loaded with Eminence drivers, and a Carvin vented 115 that was a perfect dimensional match to the 410.
They sounded great together, but the real motor was that Hartke Mosfet head.
It was loud and clear.

A friend of mine was at the time recording and touring with a band based in NYC called Riot.
He didn't even own a stage amp. The only amp he owned was a little 10 or 15 watt combo for home practice.
After coming to one of my gigs, he asked if he could borrow or rent my rig for a couple of local gigs.
He told me that it was the best sounding amp he had ever played through, bar none.
 
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#339
Artman said:
During the 90's, my rig was a Hartke Mosfet Model 3500 head with a sealed 410 by a small company called Sonic loaded with Eminence drivers, and a Carvin vented 115 that was a perfect dimensional match to the 410.
They sounded great together, but the real motor was that Hartke Mosfet head.
It was loud and clear.
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The 90's was when I was a big Hartke user and my cabs were the 4.5 and 2.5 XL versions. As for Hartke heads I had a 3500 and 1400. However, I mostly used my SWR SM-400S with the 4.5XL or when using both cabs, and the 1400 with just the 2.5XL. The 3500 didn't see quite as much action, but was a fine head and very versatile.

My Hartke gear performed beautifully for thousands of hours over the time I owned it. While the Hartke XL cabs were heavy, the Mesa PH cabs that eventually replaced them weren't any lighter.
 
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