hartke ha3500

[teaser360]

what sort of price would i have to pay for a hartke ha3500 head? also are they any good?

[Jase]

They've gone up in price of late, a few months ago you could pick one up for about £260 or so, I think about £380-£400 now....shocking! It's not what Hartke is about really (for me anyway) affordable gear for skint musicians....not so affordable now....LH series have shot up too! Either way the HA3500 is a punchy little number, reliable with good tone shaping

[Alien]

They still change hands (occasionally) for under £200 on Ebay. At this price they're an absolute bargain - one of the best amps ever made IMO.

A

[teaser360]

[quote name='Alien' post='430401' date='Mar 10 2009, 12:52 PM']They still change hands (occasionally) for under £200 on Ebay. At this price they're an absolute bargain - one of the best amps ever made IMO.

A[/quote]
just picked one up of e-bay for £150, in mint condition, the chap demonstrated it for me aswell, what a beast, puts my Laney to shame, i will frighten the living daylights out of our guitarists now! lmao My lad will be pleased asell as he will aquire my old set up, not bad eh 10 year old with a 4x10, 1x15 and a 360w head in his bedroom, god help my neighbours

[Hoppo75]

[quote name='Alien' post='430401' date='Mar 10 2009, 12:52 PM']They still change hands (occasionally) for under £200 on Ebay. At this price they're an absolute bargain - one of the best amps ever made IMO.

A[/quote]

I've just received mine today.....OMG it's absolutely out of this world. I appreciate the Marmite taste that can be Hartke, but this amp is superb. Talk about tone shaping, what with the 10 band graphic, blendable valve and solid state, not to mention the contour control - it has totally blown me away. Oh...and now it is coupled with the 2x12 pro series cab, it looks fab....my life is now complete (that is until I stick the Mullard valve my Pops has just given me.



Go for it mate, no sound is out of reach with this head.

Edited March 10, 2009 by Hoppo75

[teaser360]

[quote name='Hoppo75' post='431004' date='Mar 10 2009, 09:01 PM']I've just received mine today.....OMG it's absolutely out of this world. I appreciate the Marmite taste that can be Hartke, but this amp is superb. Talk about tone shaping, what with the 10 band graphic, blendable valve and solid state, not to mention the contour control - it has totally blown me away. Oh...and now it is coupled with the 2x12 pro series cab, it looks fab....my life is now complete (that is until I stick the Mullard valve my Pops has just given me.



Go for it mate, no sound is out of reach with this head.[/quote]
funny that the chap put a mullard valve in it aswell, cant wait for saturday and blast the lads out at rehearsels lmao

[Jase]

[quote name='teaser360' post='430753' date='Mar 10 2009, 05:29 PM']My lad will be pleased asell as he will aquire my old set up, not bad eh 10 year old with a 4x10, 1x15 and a 360w head in his bedroom, god help my neighbours[/quote]

Tidy! I bet he's chuffed

[teaser360]

The lads well chuffed , only told him this moring, so hes going school with a big cheesey grin on his face.
Now! another silly question, as this is my first valve amp, are they easy to maintain? where do i get some spare valves? and are mullard the best!

[Alien]

[quote name='teaser360' post='431216' date='Mar 11 2009, 07:51 AM']..as this is my first valve amp, are they easy to maintain? where do i get some spare valves? and are mullard the best![/quote]

It's only the one valve in the preamp. You could probably thrash away at it forever without needing to replace it. Most people seem to rate Mullards as being the best sounding tubes, but to be honest I couldn't really hear much difference between the GT that was in mine originally and the Mullard I put in (didn't stop me leaving the Mullard in though )

A

[Leowasright]

All I can say is that when I bought mine for £260 in February, the band immediatly thought my bass sound was superior and more punchy.

[Clockworkwar]

They are apparently the most popular amps ever.

[josh3184]

[quote name='teaser360' post='430753' date='Mar 10 2009, 05:29 PM']not bad eh 10 year old with a 4x10, 1x15 and a 360w head in his bedroom,[/quote]
best dad in the world award goes to....

[teaser360]

ahh thanks for that! my heads swelling now!
where would i get a spare tube,

[Jase]

[quote name='teaser360' post='431746' date='Mar 11 2009, 06:10 PM']ahh thanks for that! my heads swelling now!
where would i get a spare tube,[/quote]

These people are very helpful.
[url="http://www.watfordvalves.com/"]Watford Valves[/url]

[peted]

[quote name='Hoppo75' post='431004' date='Mar 10 2009, 09:01 PM']I've just received mine today.....OMG it's absolutely out of this world. I appreciate the Marmite taste that can be Hartke, but this amp is superb. Talk about tone shaping, what with the 10 band graphic, blendable valve and solid state, not to mention the contour control - it has totally blown me away. Oh...and now it is coupled with the 2x12 pro series cab, it looks fab....my life is now complete (that is until I stick the Mullard valve my Pops has just given me.[/quote]

You have exactly the same amp and cab setup as me! I put a Groove Tubes Mullard re-issue into the amp years ago and it sounds great. If you find that the your setup starts to sound a little 'thin', add an Aphex Bass Xciter between your bass and the amp and you'll find tone nirvana

I don't use the graphic EQ, just a little bit of tweaking using the two contour controls. I find that the built-in compressor is absolutely useless. It sounds OK when the bass is played on its own, but you'll wonder why your bass sounds terrible in a band setting. I turned the compressor off and suddenly my bass found its place in the band mix again.

[Hoppo75]

[quote name='peted' post='432344' date='Mar 12 2009, 12:49 PM']I find that the built-in compressor is absolutely useless.[/quote]

Its a fab amp, and I do agree with you on the compressor thing - can't really hear anything different when it's on, although I haven't been in gig mode yet. The Amp is an excellent match to the 2x12 Pro cab, loads of bottom end and nice clarity on the uppers...I LOVE IT!!!

[Rich]

Ditto on the compressor. Next to useless. The rest of the amp makes up for it though.
+1 for Watford Valves.

[dr.funk]

£150 - what a bargin!

I bought mine with a rackcase a year or two back for £250 and it has served me very well. Solid beast and a very nice clean punchy tone. My sound had so much more weight behind it compared with my old SWR Bass 350.

I am hoping to sell mine at some point, can't believe they have dropped in value so much

[Alien]

[quote name='peted' post='432344' date='Mar 12 2009, 12:49 PM']I find that the built-in compressor is absolutely useless. It sounds OK when the bass is played on its own, but you'll wonder why your bass sounds terrible in a band setting. I turned the compressor off and suddenly my bass found its place in the band mix again.[/quote]


Am I alone in disagreeing with you here? On high settings it squashes the sound up way too much, but on 2-3 it just tames the peaks a bit. As for how it sits in the mix, I play in a 3-piece rock band and don't have any trouble.

A

[Jase]

[quote name='Alien' post='433077' date='Mar 13 2009, 12:09 AM']Am I alone in disagreeing with you here? On high settings it squashes the sound up way too much, but on 2-3 it just tames the peaks a bit. As for how it sits in the mix, I play in a 3-piece rock band and don't have any trouble.

A[/quote]

I agree there Alien, exactly!....squashes the tone, I don't use mine but I should imagine it would be useful for slapping, tapping or popping maybe.

[barneyg42]

[quote name='dr.funk' post='432637' date='Mar 12 2009, 06:22 PM']£150 - what a bargin!

I bought mine with a rackcase a year or two back for £250 and it has served me very well. Solid beast and a very nice clean punchy tone. My sound had so much more weight behind it compared with my old SWR Bass 350.

I am hoping to sell mine at some point, can't believe they have dropped in value so much [/quote]

And now it's mine and it's an awesome piece of kit.....cheers Chris!
Minimal fettling needed to the eq, boost the tube a bit more than the solid state and it really punches through. I have the graphic on (nice lights) and just gave a little bit in the mids and a bit on the bass contour and all I needed was 2 on the master to get through git,keys,drums and vocs.
It's amazing that Hartke made such a brilliant piece of kit and gave it the compressor from hell, still if I need to I'll get a pedal.

[Hoppo75]

[quote name='barneyg42' post='454324' date='Apr 4 2009, 08:18 PM']And now it's mine and it's an awesome piece of kit.....cheers Chris!
Minimal fettling needed to the eq, boost the tube a bit more than the solid state and it really punches through. I have the graphic on (nice lights) and just gave a little bit in the mids and a bit on the bass contour and all I needed was 2 on the master to get through git,keys,drums and vocs.
It's amazing that Hartke made such a brilliant piece of kit and gave it the compressor from hell, still if I need to I'll get a pedal.[/quote]

Well done mate. It's a wonderful bit of kit for the price. Gigged mine for the first time last Sat, and the amount of comments I got from the people in the room on how excellent the sound was, and on listening to the cam footage from the gig........how very right they were!!! (family and friends, most of which are super critical muso's, including 2 Uncles who are bassists).

One thing though, I did have the same impression on the compressor being useless when I was playing in the house, but it really does work. It's very subtle, and from song to song is easily missed, but I started playing the gig without it, and turned it up to 3 mid way through the set. It seemed to ever so slightly balance out the attack on the strings (without affecting the tone). Like I say, very very subtle, but I somehow found myself not concentrating on my finger pressure as much.

Great bit of kit.

Edited April 4, 2009 by Hoppo75

[peted]

Maybe it was just my hearing, or I've got a duff compression circuit in mine. I did used to run my HA3500 in a rack with a Samson rack compressor which I much preferred to the built-in (downsized from a 6U rack to 2U for my back's sake).

[neepheid]

I'd just like to add +1 to the chorus of approval for the Hartke HA3500. I picked one up which needed a little work around this time last year for £140. A resistor had burned out, probably due to a dodgy cap in the power rectification stage for the valve preamp. Replaced the nearby caps and the burned out resistor and it's been great ever since.

Was sharing it with some other bands at a gig on Friday and the bass player in one of other bands came to thank me for sharing it and complimented me on my rig, so I guess this is technically a +2 to the chorus of approval

[barneyg42]

[quote name='Hoppo75' post='454352' date='Apr 4 2009, 09:10 PM']Well done mate. It's a wonderful bit of kit for the price. Gigged mine for the first time last Sat, and the amount of comments I got from the people in the room on how excellent the sound was, and on listening to the cam footage from the gig........how very right they were!!! (family and friends, most of which are super critical muso's, including 2 Uncles who are bassists).

One thing though, I did have the same impression on the compressor being useless when I was playing in the house, but it really does work. It's very subtle, and from song to song is easily missed, but I started playing the gig without it, and turned it up to 3 mid way through the set. It seemed to ever so slightly balance out the attack on the strings (without affecting the tone). Like I say, very very subtle, but I somehow found myself not concentrating on my finger pressure as much.

Great bit of kit.[/quote]

Well I have to backtrack on this, we put a couple of songs in our set to try tonight at rehearsal that really needed me to use a pick and I found that by putting just a gnats on the compressor it really smoothed it out nicely without losing any bite and tone. I then left it in with my finger playing too and it wasn't half bad. When I tried it out at Dr Funks place when I bought it we turned it up and it really sucked the sound away but at gig/rehearsal volume it's a lot more subtle as long as it's not boosted too much. It really was just switched on and no more.
It has to be said that this head with my Status S1 5string is the best sound I've had for ages. The valve side of the pre-amp warms it up nicely but it still retains the punch and clarity of the Status.