Feature:
Knobs are easy to use and fun to play with shape shift phase type harmonics make nice controls. Two very solid foot switches.

Quality:
I have kicked this around the stage for about a year and it's fairly tough. Ground lift is on the side.

Value:
I also own a San amp Bass driver which adds more "beef" than this but this is nice at far less than half the price so it is a very good value.

Desirability:
With heavy black and crome it is pretty sexy, plus two red LEDS make it look cool.

Sound:
Key element it is clean, there is no added noise unless you want to dial it in. So the sound is very good quality. You know the main problem with cheap bass effects is they add to much noise to play Jazz or other clean sounds, this one doesn't.

Ease of Use:
Very easy just play with the knobs till you have the sound you want then lock it in.

Support:
Who knows. No problems so far.

Overall:
Addvantage over san amps is two foot switches let you set up two levels of output and punch up more when you need it.

• User: a customer from juno.com
• Submitted: 1/5/2008
• Style of Music: everything
• Location: Philiadelphia, PA

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!

• User: a customer from yahoo.com
• Submitted: 12/8/2007
• Style of Music: Classic Rock...Blues...Hard Rock.
• Location: Cleveland Ohio USA

Feature:
The "Shape" feature is by for the most valuable part of this pedal. The bass, treble and bright knobs don't do anything great or drastic to affect your tone.

Quality:
This is where things get kind of shaky.... Read several reviews on this item before actually testing one and eventually purchasing it. Bass Player Magazine reviewed it and made glowing commentary about it's tone-shaping abilities, but said that the knobs fell off of the face during the review period. According to Hartke, this was rectified on following production models. However, the problem that I had is that after roughly 30 minutes of playing through this pedal, I adjusted a knob slightly to tweak my tone and there was a very loud POP! that bottomed out my speaker cabinet and there was suddenly no sound at all. I messed with the knobs... Nothing... I unplugged, and re-plugged the pedal... Nothing. I checked my bass, it played fine through my SWR LA 10, so that wasn't it. Checked my cables, they were fine. I plugged my bass POD xt back into the power amp and all was well. The Hartke pedal had simply gone out. Disgusted I unplugged it and repackaged it for return. On a whim, I tried it out the next day and it worked again... Strange. I'm just glad that the store I bought it at has a 3 year coverage plan for this item. I feel I may be needing it. I won't gig without a back up for this thing. Fortunately at under $100 it won't be difficult to have 1 back up, if not 2.

Value:
I would say this pedal is a great value provided that it continues to function properly. It sounds great for the money spent on it.

Desirability:
This pedal doesn't really inspire impulse purchases. It's looks utilitarian, not flashy. If Hartke wanted to improve the product I'd say they could use metal casing instead of heavy plastic, metal knobs instead of plastic, and silk-screen the control panel instead of applying a sticker that looks like it came off of a toy.

Sound:
Can achieve a good tone easily. I had several good workable tones within the first 30 minutes of having it out of the box. Could go super crisp, solid-state, to ultra warm tube type sound with or without some grit. It did wonders for the sound of the stock electronics on my Ibanez BTB and it's Ibanez brand pickups and preamp (Ibanez recently upgraded both to Bartolini MK-1).

Ease of Use:
This thing is incredibly easy to use. You can get a great, usable tone without ever opening the manual.

Support:
Can't say. Never dealt with Hartke. I've heard bad stories, but I have no personal experience with them.

Overall:
I expect that, provided it continues to function well, I will be pleased with this pedal long term. I am already much more happy with my tone than I was while using a bass POD xt for a pre-amp. Having achieved a great tone almost immediately, I can only hope that the quality of this units Chinese manufacture does not cause problems. If it does, I'll gladly get it replaced under the store's protection plan. Even without that, I would buy another if necessary. For $64 how can you go wrong?

• User: a customer from gmail.com
• Submitted: 9/15/2007
• Style of Music: Metal, Rock, Blues, Jazz
• Location: Nashville, Tennessee, USA

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.

• User: a customer from gmail.com
• Submitted: 6/23/2007
• Style of Music: Punk/Prog/Rock/Worship
• Location: Kansas

Feature:
After reading the manual and understanding what the knobs did, I could really shape the tone perfectly. The only thing this pedal is missing in terms of features is a gain or distortion knob.

Quality:
This thing is built like a tank. Extremely sturdy, would not even thing of using a backup. I have not had this item for very long, but I do not see it crapping out on me any time soon.

Value:
There are other DI Boxes and Preamps that are priced from 200 to 2,000 dollars. If you are an expert, or a professional bass player, you may want to spend more money and get a higher quality pedal. However, this pedal will definitely serve its purpose whether used by a beginner, intermediate, or professional bass player. In my opinion this is just as good as the Sansamp, and 130 dollars cheaper. Great value.

Desirability:
Definitely the sexiest pedal on the market. Very tough-looking.

Sound:
This really adds a boost to your sound. I'm not even sure how to describe it; it just makes it sound fuller, punchier, and much louder as well. There are also many presets shown in the manual that can really make your bass sound amazing. This is a must have if you do not have a very high-quality bass or amplifier.

Ease of Use:
You plug put in a batter or plug in an AC adapter, plug your cable in and turn some knobs. It is very easy to use, especially if you look at the manual.

Support:
I don't know about support, because I have no needed to use it. The product itself is very reliable, so I have never needed to contact Hartke.

Overall:
This pedal is a great value, makes your lower-quality equipment sound amazing, is extremely sturdy and on top of it all is fairly inexpensive. If you are looking for a pedal that will give a boost to your sound and add a punch, this is the perfect pedal for you.

• User: a customer from hotmail.com
• Submitted: 6/2/2007
• Style of Music: Funk and Rock
• Location: Phoenix, Arizona

Quality:
Well made.

Value:
Joke over . . .

Desirability:
if it worked . .

Sound:
Bought it, used it and sent it back. I suppose if you only pay some 60 bucks for an effect, you are only entitled to get 60 bucks worth, but I doubt it was even worth that. I'm goona spend more and get something that works.

Ease of Use:
Crap

Support:
Never called them, just sent it back.

Overall:
Kept it 2 days

• Submitted: 2/24/2007

Feature:
The shaping and brightness are really useful.

Sound:
This is a really terrific product. It changed my sound for the better.

Support:
I don't know. No problems so far.

• User: a customer from yahoo.com
• Submitted: 11/30/2006
• Style of Music: rock
• Location: ohio

Feature:
I bought it with the POP display, which also gave me the power supply (which is nice). I love shape knobs, they make my life so much easier (especially since my first larger amp was a Hartke, I had used the shape before). The emulated tube overdrive sound is great, very warm and the best thing is that it can be turned on and off, giveing you multiple sounds.

Quality:
Rugged, all metal case with metal knobs. It's light enough to be portable and not weight you down, but heavey enough that you know it was made well.

Value:
Buy it with the POP display, get the power supply, and save yourself $25 bucks. It takes about a minute to get it off the display and it is a lost cheaper. Definately saved me money over buying a Sans Amp Bass Driver and it probably sounds just as good.

Desirability:
This is a thing of beauty. Straight black with chrome colored knobs. The pedal itself won't get you any action, but how you sound through it might. On stage, it would be invisible.

Sound:
This thing is really cool when you get to know it a little better. I have had it for a week, and the sound I get are great. Have not had an output problem, but my bass has a really hot signal. Was going to get SansAmp modeler, happy with what I bought. Plugged it into a mixer, ran it on Phantom Power, and the gain on the channel was at about 9:00, didn't have to move the fader at all and it didn't matter where the EQ was at, the thing sounded great.

Support:
Haven't had any problems yet.

Overall:
I don't think I would buy the Sans Amp Bass Driver now, I don't need it. It this thing got lost or stolen or broke (the latter is not likely to happen) I would replace it because I play enough venues where I plug right into the house system that it is worth my while.

• User: a customer from student.gvsu.edu
• Submitted: 1/23/2006
• Style of Music: Rock
• Location: Sterling Heights, MI

Feature:
Hartke's Shape circuit..that's all I need to say, however the "tube" emulation is nice if you have a passive bass and you want a little more growl. Don't use this as a distortion pedal you'll just be disappointed. The Multiple way to power the unit is very nice and the fact that it's a DI is great too. I use it alot for live situation when the stage and the board are on different powersupplies and the DI from my amp is giving a hum.

Quality:
The unit feels VERY sturdy, I have to agree with one of the other reviews that the only weakness I found is the battery holder. While mine isn't falling out and does hold the battery in it just feels a little fragile, I just hope mine doesn't break....

Value:
for $100 you can't go wrong, compared to other similar units on the market it seriously has Bang For the Buck.

Desirability:
I have it......wouldn't call the unit sex but a great tool for both studio and live work.

Sound:
The sound on this is great....I bought it because I used to own a Kickback 12 and loved the Shape feature. When I saw that they took the same circuit and put it in a pedal I had to have it. I use an Ashdown rig now which is great by it self but this pedal just gives me more options.

Support:
I haven't used Hartke's support for this product as yet BUT I have a Hartke 4X10 cabinet that I got off the net and when I got it some of the plastic corners were damaged. The site I bought it from told me I would have to return it, I live in the Caribbean so that wasn't an option for me. I e-mail hartke and they sent out 4 new corners for me for free..To me it doesn't get any better than that.

Overall:
I'm very happy with this unit and the only time I found I didn't really need it was when I was using a Mesa 400+ Tube head....I cna't afford anything like that anytime soon so I guess I'll be using this for some time again.

• Submitted: 1/13/2006
• Style of Music: Rock, Reggae, Ska, Punk
• Location: Trinidad, West Indies

Feature:
versatle and clean

Quality:
Solid and well designed

Sound:
Great clean and versitale bass tone shaper DI pedal. This will solve any bass recording issues of direct only or amp only. The active boost is a real plus for ricks or any other low ouput basses. Multi purpose use as a pre-amp or DI or both.

Support:
no need

Overall:
9 because it has no real usable distorsion but no compitition at 99 bucks either

• User: a customer from merrillrfrc
• Submitted: 8/10/2005
• Style of Music: rock, blues
• Location: ny

Feature:
Set up well, on and off of partial aspects of the unit is a nice touch. This way it isn't all or nothing. You can have a few different "settings" to work with.

Quality:
This is tough rating. The body and sounds or tone controls are first rate. My problem is in just two simple things. The battery holder does not fit well in the unit. The batter easily falls out. This is a pain. Secondly, the output is not strong enough. It should be seriously stronger.

Value:
Yes, it's worth the price. Tape the battery in place though.

Desirability:
It is way cool

Sound:
The tone is great. Nice and versital. Good for studio and stage.

Support:
N/A

• User: a customer from frontiernet.net
• Submitted: 4/19/2005
• Style of Music: Solo artist
• Location: Tennessee

Feature:
The product is loaded with features. It has four uses : - DI box - pre amplifier (bass, treble, mid ("shape"), volume) - distorsion effect - tone selctor (2 footswitches) It can be powered with a 9V battery, a 8.4V NiCD cell, an external 9V supply (I tried it with a 9 VDC 100 mA general purpose supply), and even with phantom power coming via the DI output. Someone in another review spoke of a "swiss knife" and I agree. This unit can find its place in many situations. The unit comes with no accessory but needs none.

Quality:
The product seems sturdy enough. Too bad mine had a broken potentiometer which went through quality control unnoticed (The potentiometer could only have broke when at factory). Inside it is neat and clean, good old through hole components. With its low price, it would be easy to keep a backup on the road.

Value:
It seems that you need to pay at least twice as much to get approwimatively the same thing from other brands.

Desirability:
This product does have "sex appeal". It is nealty finished, solid, heavy. But for a musician, once the power is switched on, the only thing that counts is the sound, and it has good sound.

Sound:
The sound is the big feature of this pedal. The tones are numerous, good, punchy, noiseless. I was not satisfied with the sound of my combo and now I plug my bass into the pedal, then the pedal output directly to the power amplifier of my combo and I get far better tones than with the original preamplifier.

Support:
My experience with support was not a good one. The user manual is under expectation and Hartke could'nt provide useful supplementary information through several email exchanges.

Overall:
This product does not fulfill all my needs but I could'nt think of any other product fulfilling so much for 100 euros. The capability to make fast switches between different tones could be improved. If it was lost or stolen I would by the same again. The tones are really goods.

• User: a customer from wanadoo.fr
• Submitted: 2/13/2005
• Style of Music: rock, blues, funk, jazz rock, afro cuban
• Location: France