petetexas

Just had the chance to try two Passive Bass into the Hartke HD75 . A Tokai Thunderbird , with Humbuckers , and a Fender Jazz NO DISTORTION AT ALL ! Why don`t Hartke put a gain control at the input , to pad the input signal ...........I suppose its down to cost , but they have certainly lost a customer for any future purchases with me .

Just bought a Zoom B9.1ut from lurksalot , great guy to deal with , very fast delivery , great basschat moderator Pete

Have built myself a little signal pad - 250k log pot with treble bleed cap and resistor - plug bass into it , before going into amp and turn it up ( padding the signal ) now I get NO DISTORTION . Shows that the input of the amp is distorting . I sure wont buy any more Hartke amps , or any other , which do not have a gain control at the input My Stingray works perfectly with my Markbass LM800 , Warwick LM1000 , Warwick X-treme and my Ampeg PF500 - all of which have a gain control at the input . Pete

Udate................ After a number of emails to and fro with Hartke over the last few days ( what are the amp settings , what are your bass settings , have you tried with other basses , are the batteries new , try changing the leads etc )........they have come to the conclusion that I should get it to an authorised dealer workshop , to get it checked out . Pete

Correction to my above post , this amp will NOT do small gigs IMHO , unless you want the sound of Elvis Costellos Bass player at the start of PUMP IT UP ! To keep it clean ( using a 2 band eq Stingray ) you not only have to keep the bass control 12 oclock , but also the volume rolled back to 50%, or it distorts . Because you have the volume rolled off , you dont get enough output for a gig ( IMHO again ) I bought this amp for bedroom use, and with "tweeking" its ok . I have had a reply from Hartke , after sending them a second email , and they quote " we have not receied yor previous email" ? I have now sent another ( 3 in all ) we will see . Pete

Hi Phil T, Yes you are right , wound the bass on the Stingray back to mid position ( no boost or cut ) and its improved it a lot . I always have the bass full on and bring the treble in to get just enough bite , playing live with the Markbass and G&K Cabs Markbass set at 12 o`clock on eq. I can compensate now with the eq on the Hartke for bedroom practice . To anyone reading this , the HD75 is VERY VERY loud ! ! ! ! ! ! ! it could probably do small gigs ( 40 / 50 people ) Decided to keep it now , thanks again to all the input [u]Phil T[/u] and [u]Cuzzie[/u] Pete

Hi Cuzzie , Thanks for the suggestion , but I`m a bit confused ...........Bass +/- 15,,,Treble +/- 15,,,, Mid +/- 15 then there is the graphic freq all +/- 12 on HD75 Are you saying that i try and put Bass and Treb at +3 and the Mid at +10............................... ? What I have done is put the "smiley face" on the graphic eq , and that has helped ....made it smoother , but hit the strings hard -lower register - and it still distorts . I still believe its the input signal - miss match . It will be interesting to see what Hartke say,,,,,,,,,if they get back ! Pete

Hi Guys, Problem solved .....................I plug my Stingray into a Behringer Micro Mix and turn the signal level down ( mini 4 channel mixer ) , then into the amp . This stops the output from the Stingray , overloading the input on the HD75 . I`ll still await the reply from HARTKE to see what they say Pete

Hi guys , What I failed to tell you , is that this amp is bloody loud ( got for bedroom practice - did not realize how loud ) the volume is not even at 1 on dial . The volume pot seems to be on the edge of either on or off ( just under 1 on dial ) I have found that if I turn all the EQ sliders to -12 , it does not distort , and the volume control works much better - up to about 3 or 4 for a reasonable bedroom volume . Tried it through headphones , seems ok . I will take the combo to rehearsal tomorrow night , and try at volume to see if it distorts . Will let you guys know . Maybe I am expecting too much for a 75w efficient combo , to play at a quiet bedroom level ? I never get this problem with my LM800 and G&K cabs in the house - but then again the LM800 has a gain control at input . Pete

Cuzzie and Phil T , Can I ask you both if your Bass Guitar drives the input to distortonon the low E string ? If I put my Stingray into the HD75 , it distorts , even with the Volume rolled back about 30% , if I really hit the string . I have sent an email to Hartke asking their opinion . Pete Pete

Hi All , Has anyone got one of these ? Just got one and want to compare with others , before sending back . Pete