This Hartke fullstack - is it worth to buy?

[Dreig]

Hi guys,

This is my first post here after a long time lurking. A little background first, I have been a bass player since 2011, then had a two year break after selling all my gear due to dire financial situation. Then I bounced back into it because I just could not live without playing anymore, and I spent all my savings on a Fender Player Series Precision. Now I am saving up for a big amp.

Now, I never used stacks, only combo amps, so I know jack squat about heads and speakerboxes, but every serious player out there told me to ditch combos for those. Then I checked the prices and had to drag my wallet from beneath the bed where it hid in terrror. So I started browsing for used ones.

TL;DR I found this Hartke fullstack with an asking price of 450 € (about $500) and I would like to ask if it is even worth considering.

The stack is made of:
Hartke HA3500 head
Hartke VX410 speakerbox + Hartke VX115 speakerbox

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

Here is the link to the posting, untranslated:
Fender Precision Bass Blacktop - Trenčín - Bazoš.sk

Thanks ahead for any input.

Cheers

 

[two fingers]

Welcome to TalkBass!!!!!

And welcome back to bass in general.

This is a great time to play bass. Equipment technology has made HUGE leaps in the last decade or so. You don't have to go big to go loud. There are lightweight and smaller options out there, even used. No need to get a huge "stack".

Then there is the issue of mixing driver sizes (which means different size speakers, as in that stack). Oddly enough, it's generally not a great idea. There are all kinds of physics reasons for this. Short version is this. That 15' speaker in the bottom cab is going to receive the same amount of wattage as the top cab. Just because a speaker is larger, that doesn't mean it can handle "more power". So you will likely blow that 15 trying to get it to keep up with the 410, which will move a lot more air.

Plus, those weren't Hartke's best cabs ever to begin with. Sort of "entry level". They aren't amazing.

Try this, if you want to. Tell us (roughly) where you are. Part of a state/country (like "southeast Wisconsin", or "central Brazil") will do. Tell us what kinds of music you are into and your volume needs. Lastly, give us a rough idea of your budget. We'll point you in the right direction. Some of us have become threat level ninja at scouring Craigslist ads. We'll help you spend your money wisely.

Short version. Give us more info to help us help you. I think you can do better with your money.

 

[charlie monroe]

He is near Bratislava, Slovakia, @two fingers.

Just across the border from my ancestral home of Zlin.

Your pricing and availability knowledge probably don’t apply here.

 

[rodl2005]

What @two fingers is saying is pretty right tho, wherever you are based.

That rig will do the job, get you pretty loud and it'll weigh a good deal.

These days there are amazingly good sounding amps and cabs that weigh a heap less, take up a heap less room.
Whether you'll get one for the same price is another matter.

Good luck

 

[two fingers]

He is near Bratislava, Slovakia, @two fingers.

Just across the border from my ancestral home of Zlin.

Your pricing and availability knowledge probably don’t apply here.

Oh yeah. I'll have to yield to the locals.

Good luck with your hunt @Dreig !!!

 

[Dreig]

Thanks for all the replies so far guys.

As for music genre, I wish to play Melodic Hardcore (like Avail, essentially). But the icon for my sound is Matt Freeman of Rancid fame.

The worst problem with getting used big gear in these parts is that there are two kinds of bassists here:

1. Those who buy whatever first amp they find that is cheap, loud and sounds at least barely passable
2. Guys who eat out of dumpsters for a year (probably) and then drop way over 3000 eur on their gear, and then a couple of years later they set their mind on a new top-end amp.

This results in the used gear market here being much either cheap Kustoms/Hartkes/Behringers or expensive, not very used Ampegs/Markbasses/Aguilars. It is better in Czech Republic, but that would mean a lot of travelling in order to check them out, and also the bunghole pain of exchanging EUR to CZK.

Speaking of Ampegs, I thought of buying a PF-500, but I keep hearing about these issues when they would shut down or something and have to be restarted when you turn them up and play for an extended time, and I do need to turn up because so far I was confronted with possibly half-deaf guitarists, and drummers who hit the drums like a dwarf hits a rock with his pickaxe in the mines deep underground.

Another new pieces of gear I was thinking about were Kustom DE1200HD, Warwick LWA-500, and this pre-built Laney Halfstack: Invalid Link Removed

As for other used gear, I was thinking of getting an Orange Terror Bass (the mk.1) - these go for 400€ used tops, or maybe a Laney Nexus SLS, but there are none out there at the moment.

Also my budget is somehwere a bit over 400 eur for each piece (head + speaker) will probably buy 'em separately

 

[oldrocker]

The HA3500 is a good amp, I have played through them.

I can't speak for the cabs but while not the latest technology IMO you can not go wrong with the HA3500. I could be a good option for not too many Euros.