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Hartke bass amp reviews7/10/2023 ![]() ![]() It should be noted that I’m not an over-the-top aggressive player, but I do occasionally dig in when the music requires it. The combo delivered notes with immediacy, but the sound would occasionally get squashed when I’d accent notes or play at higher volumes. Yes, the HD500 was pleasing in both the features and performance departments, but my impressions of the tone were a touch mixed. The rig was fairly unflappable even at extreme volumes, and I never felt like it was being pushed too hard throughout the four-hour set. ![]() Regardless of the support from the house PA, the combo held its own while seated between a pair of 50-watt guitar amps and a heavy-hitting drummer. That said, the Shape’s 20 dB filter took out just a bit too much for my taste. When engaged, the Shape section was useful in removing the strong midrange of the EUB, as it immediately alleviated any honk and clacking sounds with a turn of the frequency knob. ![]() The HD500’s EQ was voiced to accommodate my tastes, whether I was dialing back the bass knob to temper the beefy upright or slightly boosting the mid control to bring out the sonic details of my P. Hartke’s latest produced big low end, slightly scooped upper mids, and clean highs. With both a Fender Elite Precision (with a P/J setup) and an NS Design NXT electric upright with me that night, I started with the HD500’s controls set flat and turned off the shape section. Soundcheck allowed me to experiment with the combo’s features prior to the show. Fortunately, the weight and design of the HD500 made it easy to transport as I navigated the densely populated sidewalks and the stairs leading up to the third-floor club. A busy night in the city resulted in a typical lack of parking options, so I had to schlep the rig about a quarter-mile to the venue. My time with the HD500 began with it going straight from the delivery truck to the trunk of my car, and then to a country/rock show in downtown Nashville. When headphones are connected, the speaker output is disabled and the HD500 is transformed into a silent practice amp. And next to the DI is a handy headphones jack. There are 1/4" unbalanced send and return jacks to use with outboard effects processors. The aux input allows connecting a media player for play-along capability. Hartke included other quite practical components in the HD500’s feature set. It moves clockwise for the higher frequencies and counterclockwise for the lower ones. This notch filter allows a player to cut 20 dB from a chosen frequency. ![]() It consists of a pushbutton switch to activate the feature and a control knob to customize the effect of the Shape curve. The proprietary Shape section is seated to the left of the bass, mid, and treble controls. Furthering the contemporary speaker design is the use of neodymium magnets, which are intended to deliver significant weight reduction without sacrificing performance.Ī 500-watt, class-D amplifier pushes the drivers and offers streamlined tone shaping on its control panel. As a result, they were able to combine the warmth of traditional paper cones with the attack and clarity of aluminum. Bruce’s use of both the company’s aluminum- and paper-speaker cabinets onstage was what led Hartke to consider fusing the two materials into one driver. Interestingly, it was the aforementioned Cream bassist who inspired Hartke’s HyDrive speaker technology. The HD500 houses a pair of 10" HyDrive speakers. It’s a stout combo that pairs a 500-watt amp with proprietary speakers and tips the scales a tick under 35 pounds. Of late, Hartke’s designs have evolved to mesh their signature sound with more portable packages. Weekend warriors all the way to low-end legends such as Jack Bruce and Victor Wooten have relied on the company’s wares to deliver tonal flexibility and robust power. The company’s amplification-renowned for its integration of aluminum into speaker design-has been pleasing the ears of many players and listeners for over 30 years. You don’t have to be a bass geek to know about Hartke’s reputation. ![]()
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