Hartke VXL Bass Attack Pedal and Direct Box

Pre-amp/direct box. Hartke shape circuitry. 3-band bass, treble and bright control.

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Hartke VXL Bass Attack Pedal and Direct Box reviews

Rate and Review This Product:

42 People rated this product : * * * * * * * * * * 8 out of 10

 

12 People wrote reviews

Read all Hartke VXL Bass Attack Pedal and Direct Box reviews...
* * * * * * * * * * 9 out of 10

"Great pedal with a low price."

Feature:
It's got most everything you need for playing with or without an amp. The two individual switches for "shape" and harmonics control is a big plus. I would, however, like to see pedals like this include a dang midrange control!!!! I've never understood why this feature was absent. A very important feature for bass players. C'mon...not everybody wants to sound like "Tool" all of the time!

Quality:
This is the only area that takes a hit for me when dealing with Hartke. Their cosmetic features (knobs, decals, plastic parts) always seem to be sub par with industry standards. Two of the chrome-like knob covers fell off after about a week of use. Also, one of the rubber feet strips fell off. These issues were easily fixed with some epoxy. Really no big deal as far as I'm concerned.

Value:
wow...I also have the luxury of owning a Sansamp DI bass pedal too. I've compared both pedals extensively. The verdict: The Hartke VXL is IDENTICAL to the Sansamp except the Hartke has the addition of the "shape" control (which is an outstanding value by itself) and the Hartke is less than HALF the price!!! You figure that one out by yourself.

Desirability:
It looks cool...big, beefy, slick black appearance with chrome-like knobs. Nothing amazing, but nothing to stress about either...geez, who in the crowd is gonna notice it on the floor anyway?

Sound:
The sound of this pedal is the best. The "shape" control alone is worth the money (yes, this is the same shape control found on Hartke "Kickback" amplifiers. Absolute sweetness!). This pedal allows you to dial in an endless array of tones. It took me some time to mess with....but I eventually found my balanced sweet spot. The harmonic distortion is nice...but like other pedals...it messes with my low-end frequencies a bit too much. This can be remedied a bit with the "mix" control. My only other gripe with any of these pedals is the issue of signal strength. Turning the pedal on and off can alter volume levels a bit too much...causing you to constantly go back to your amp master volume to tame things down a bit. There never seems to be a smooth compromise.

Ease of Use:
Basically a no-brainer, but you do need to spend quality time dialing in your personal tone.

Support:
Never had to deal with this. :)

Overall:
Gonna sell the Sansamp. This Hartke is all I need for a bass DI pedal. It would be nice to see a rack mount version with footswitch though!

Submitted: 12/8/2007

Style of Music: Classic Rock...Blues...Hard Rock.

4 of 4 people (100%) found this review helpful. Did you?

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* * * * * * * * * * 8 out of 10 zZounds has verified that this customer bought this product from us.

"Buy This Pedal."

Feature:
They should really have sold this with a power adapter; seeing as once it was on I found no reason for it to ever be off again.

Quality:
Solid construction all around, gold plated connectors are neat, but the battery compartment (cover, wires and all) falls off at the drop of a hat, leaving the battery and some internal circuitry exposed. I do not like the idea of my battery wire being torn (which I can forsee happening) so I am going to try and fix this. I do, however, love the two button operation. I hate pedals because I can never seem to stop them hard enough and always get the effect on half a second late. These buttons click on and off in a flash so the sound is never off.

Value:
For what you will pay for this here it is well worth the money. For as cheap as I paid here I would expect a lot less tone and a lot more wrong than just a battery compartment.

Desirability:
If only the input jacks were bigger I would dump my girlfriend and... never mind. Seriously though, this thing is hot. It's big and black and shiny with all kinds of jacks and knobs that you can tell just by looking at it that it is something amazing. Way bigger and better looking than any DI out there, yet refined enough to hang out comfortably with the other pedals. I don't know what else to say, big enough to command an awe inspiring presence on the stage, but small enough so as not to frighten little children or be an obstacle amongst your other pedal board goodies.

Sound:
Oh my the tone! To begin: I recently replaced the stock P pick up on my crumby squire P/J to a DiMarzio Split P, combine that with a sleek set of Rotosound 88's and I was pretty confident in the sound I could pull off. However as soon as this thing showed up, and after an entertaining hour and a half of turning all the various knobs up and down to test the extremes and finally settling in on the perfect sound thanks greatly to the shape circuitry I came to realize what I had been missing. The sound this little box churns out is amazing, like I said, my sound greatly improved with the upgrade from the stock pickups, but comparing my sound with the box on to my sound with the box off was seriously like the difference between my old pick ups and my new ones. I thought I had deep bass notes and crisp highs before, but with this it sounds like I have completely seperate amps individually tuned to my respective sounds. My low notes are even bassier and booming than before (without mudding up the highs) and my highs are even cripser and more trebly than before, again without killing the lows. This box also captures the nuances of both finger style and pick style better than I have ever heard before. I have not quite found a decent way to bring out a good slap sound, but I am confident that there is setting that will do the trick. Using this as a DI I can finally take control of my sound into my own hands instead of those of a sound guy who knows nothing about how to make a bass sound good. As a DI the tone does suffer some from having a flatline (i.e. un-eq'd sound) channel on the mixing board, but if I can convince my sound guy to let me back there I am sure I can fix that too. The reason for the nine is, as mentioned, my difficulting in finding an acceptable slap tone with this box, and the way the distortion unfortunately cops out at the lower frequencies (Great tube like sound on the highs though). All in all a VERY good item to own. I can almost assure you that running this box before and amp or mixing board will GREATLY improve your sound no matter how fine of a bass you have.

Ease of Use:
Pretty standard amp style equalizer. Easy to work with, knew exactly where to go for the sound I needed.

Support:
No rating because I have not needed any yet. The only thing I forsee going wrong is the battery and if that does go (which I hope to fix before it does)it should be an easy fix.

Overall:
Oh I suppose with more time and money I will seek to supplement this pedal, but I sincerely doubt I will ever get rid of it. Right now I am thinking that I could use a supplemental EQ pedal when running this as a DI, but that is about it. Aside from perhaps another EQ and the standard effects and toys this bad boy needs no add ons. Wear this out? Not likely, even if I get bored with the sound I get from it now this little box has plenty more that I have only scratched the surface of. This box comes close to my dreams for it as a DI, but surpasses my dreams for it as a pre amp. Like I have said as a DI it just needs a little more help, but as a pre amp/equalizer running into a power amp is knocks out everything else I have tried. If this were stolen, well someone would get hurt, and then I would buy a new one. Would be sad to be out the money because I am poor, but would spend it because I would NEED this pedal back.

Submitted: 6/23/2007

Style of Music: Punk/Prog/Rock/Worship

2 of 2 people (100%) found this review helpful. Did you?

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Read all Hartke VXL Bass Attack Pedal and Direct Box reviews...

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About This Product!
Description
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From Our Catalog
Hartke amps are known for having just about the best bass shaping technology around and now you can get all the tone and versatility of Hartke's Exclusive Shape Circuitry in the New Bass Attack professional bass pedal. Built into an all steel chassis with 2 stomp-proof switches and LED status indicators, the Bass Attack Pedal features Hartke's Variable Notch Shape Circuit with adjustable frequency, a 3-band EQ with bass tuned center frequencies, a variable harmonic control circuit that emulates the warmth of a tube driver, Mix and Output level controls, On/Off and Shape In/Out switching for switching sounds during a performance, Pre/Post direct out with a balanced gold-plated XLR output, and the Bass Attack will operate on either 9-volt battery, optional AC Adapter, or phantom power through the XLR. What took Hartke so long to design a bass pedal? Well, these things take time if you want to do it right!

The Hartke Bass Attack Pedal is a tone-shaping pre-amp that doubles as a direct box, featuring the famous Hartke Shape Circuitry. The two-button style stomp box has a three band EQ for adjustments of Bass, Treble, and Bright controls, plus a Harmonic control that emulates the warmth and drive of a tube so well that you'll never want to turn it off. The Hartke Bass Attack Pedal gives you the ability to finally get the sound you want, and everything in between.

Technical Info

* VX tone shaping pre-amp / direct box

* Famous Hartke shape circuitry

* 3-band bass, treble and bright control

* Harmonic control for tube drive emulation

* Gold plated XLR direct output with selectable pre / post, and parallel 1/4 in. in/out

* Rugged extruded aluminum stomp-box style construction
A tone-shaping preamp and a DI box in one sturdy pedal! With tube emulation, 3-band EQ, foot-switchable Hartke 'shape' mid-cutting EQ circuit, and more. XLR direct, plus line- and amp-level 1/4" outs.

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