Should I keep this cabinet or bail....

Cabinets, especially bass cabinets, are not just plug and play. That cabinet was designed and tuned to respond to the particular drivers that it came with. Changing the drivers will change the sound - might work, might not work.

So, I'd try and find the exact same speaker to replace it with. If not, someone who knows more about cabinet tuning can recommend a driver that'll work well with that cab.

 

A 410 will go lower than a 215, generally. If you want deep lows, you know what to get. Personally I dislike 15s, only because they are hard to get "right" there are a few manufacturers who do them well, as well as some DIY stuff like greenboys.

 

The diameter of a spkr is not a guide to how "low" it will go. In fact, in order for a bass guitar to get louder, you need to CUT the lows from your amps eq. Much to learn if you wish to avoid blowing anymore spkrs. I suggest the faq's and stickies at the top of the amps forum.

 

Poppycock.

 

Yes.

 

I just dislike 15s .... A lot. Never heard a cab with 15s worth a dime.

 

OP,
I can't comment from experience on the build quality of Hartke cabs but I haven't read too many complaints so the cabs are probably fine. You'll want to contact Hartke for a replacement speaker for that cab to work the way it was designed.
I owned a 3500 amp and it's a monster. I had a history of blown 15"s as proof. When equing the 3500 don't use the smiley face eq as much as you might want to. Your best friends are the low-mids to give you punch and save your 15"s and your money. Go easy on your first two eq selections on that amp.
Another idea, which I can't help you on, is to model your cab for two replacement speakers that would work. You'd want to talk to some experts around here for help with this suggestion.

 

The geometrics of the cab and it's porting (or lack thereof) are a much bigger determinant of the sound than the construction materials.

 

If you haven't heard one, then there's no way they could exist.

 

Yes you have. Tons of classic, iconic recordings were made by bassists playing through 15s.

But back to the OP:

^^^ Definitely this.

 

If you liked the cabs sound before the speaker went bad, get it re-coned.

 

This could get me banned, LOL, however I did pretty good luck dropping Peavey black widow speakers and drivers into just any old cabinet as long as the impedance matched the original driver. No, it's not gonna sound like the driver that was in there, but I found it good enough for rock 'n roll and Bar bands!

 

Im gonna agree with Chef.

It makes sense to repair/recone the blown driver. That way, theres no surprises as to what the cab will sound like.

Randomly picking a driver off the shelf and putting it in your cab rarely yields good results.

 

Repair the Hartke 15 or replace it with same 15. Sell it when you're ready to upgrade. IMO, this is inevitable if you are or will be playing professionally because this is not a gig- grade rig. Assuming this is a vented cab with a single internal compartment, two different drivers in the box def won't work out. Two new drivers down the road in a box not designed for them almost certainly won't work out either.

 

Funny, but for a non-gig-grade rig, I sure see a goodly amount of them being gigged.

 

Until you decide what to do about the drivers in your cab, and depending upon where the tear in the cone is, apply cloth tape to both sides of the tear and play on... It should be a light and thin type of tape...

Long ago and far away in another rock n roll time, players used to take razor blades to their speaker cones to give them more distortion! I never tried that, and don't recommend it... But I've seen it, and thought it sounded like ass!

Many of those cones were simply repaired with thin cloth tape. As long as the tape holds, and is "air tight," you're good to go.

I agree with Chef - if you liked the cab's sound before the driver was torn, tape it, recone it, of replace the driver with an identical driver.