Hartke VXL Bass Attack Pedal and Direct Box
Get the tone shaping tools and distinctive sound of Hartke, then send your signal straight to the mixing board with the Bass Attack Pedal and DI box.
Overall User Ratings (based on 58 ratings)
Submitted February 4, 2009 by Jantes7
"The bass players best friend!"
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I expect to be using this pedal for rest of my career (in some way or another) or until they come out with one that has a built-in tuner. I doubt I'll ever ware this thing out. When you take into account an IMP-2 Direct Box will run you $40.00 and this pedal will only run you $70.00 (rounding up that is). It's a no brainer! This pedal is the best I've ever used. It meets all my needs and if it were ever lost I wouldn't hesitate to buy another one immeadatly. I only wish I new how good this pedal was before I bought it, I would have bought it a lot sooner. I like everything about it, except for the fact that it doesn't have a built-in tuner. But, that's just me.
Sound
I'd say that this product is the best processor/direct box I've ever used. When I first started playing professionally, I used an old Fender Bassman amp. Then moved up to an Acoustic 360 with an 18" reflex and a folded horn. These amps especially the 360 were extremely heavy to drag around from gig to gig. With this Hartke I can get any sound I want and I doubt this thing ways a pound. I play a Fender Americian Jazz bass and an old Rickenbacker 4001 bass I love the fact that I don't need to use an amp at all anymore, I just plug the two bass guitars into an ABY box and the ABY box into the Hartke and the Hartke directly into the board.
Features
This thing has all the features you could want except for maybe a built-in tuner. Really!! It has a 9 volt power source and a battery source so you can supply the power either way. It has a ground lift, phantom power on/off, TRS out, XLR out and parallel outputs. The harmonics will blow you away!
Ease of Use
This thing is so easy to use, all you have to do is plug in and start adjusting the dials. It even comes with a bunch of settings previously used by others. Now, I own a Hartke Kickback HS1200 120 watt bass amp. that I've been using for the past few years and a lot of the features are the same, but you don't have to be a rocket scientist to operate this thing. Truly!
Quality
It appears to be built to last. I haven't had any problems at all with this thing. The pods are excellent quality, the input/outputs are tight and the stomp switches are solid. The case is well built and the pods are placed below the stomp switches so you can't do them any harm while in use.
Value
I'll tell you. This thing is worth its weight in gold. I'd have paid a lot more for this pedal (after I tried it, that is). It is extremey rare to find a product of this quality at such a low price. Thank you sooooo much Hartke!
Manufacturer Support
I have never had any problems with any of the Hartke equipment I own. That's why I didn't hesitate to buy the pedal.
The Wow Factor
Nobody actually sees this thing and I'm not that into how a product looks. I'm all about the sound. But, this pedal is very nice looking and wonderfully designed.
Musical Background:
Active Musician & Recording Engineer
Musical Style:
Contemporary Christian, Rock and Jazz
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Submitted June 23, 2007 by a customer from gmail.com
"Buy This Pedal."
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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.
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.
Features
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.
Ease of Use
Pretty standard amp style equalizer. Easy to work with, knew exactly where to go for the sound I needed.
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.
Manufacturer 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.
The Wow Factor
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.
Musical Background:
Active Musician/Jam with Friends
Musical Style:
Punk/Prog/Rock/Worship
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Submitted December 8, 2007 by a customer from yahoo.com
"Great pedal with a low price."
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!
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.
Features
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!
Ease of Use
Basically a no-brainer, but you do need to spend quality time dialing in your personal tone.
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.
Manufacturer Support
Never had to deal with this. :)
The Wow Factor
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?
Musical Background:
Active Musician
Musical Style:
Classic Rock...Blues...Hard Rock.
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Submitted January 23, 2006 by a customer from student.gvsu.edu
"Bassists looking for a way to keep your bass sound the same everywhere you go? Here it is."
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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.
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.
Features
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.
Manufacturer Support
Haven't had any problems yet.
The Wow Factor
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.
Musical Background:
Active Musician
Musical Style:
Rock
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Submitted September 15, 2007 by a customer from gmail.com
"Good tone. Questionable quality."
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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?
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).
Features
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.
Ease of Use
This thing is incredibly easy to use. You can get a great, usable tone without ever opening the manual.
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.
Manufacturer Support
Can't say. Never dealt with Hartke. I've heard bad stories, but I have no personal experience with them.
The Wow Factor
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.
Musical Background:
Hobbyist, Active Musician
Musical Style:
Metal, Rock, Blues, Jazz
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Submitted February 13, 2005 by a customer from wanadoo.fr
"Good tones."
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.
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.
Features
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.
Manufacturer 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.
The Wow Factor
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.
Musical Background:
Amateur musician in a band
Musical Style:
rock, blues, funk, jazz rock, afro cuban
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Submitted October 6, 2014 by John D in Dothan, AL
"Hartke Bass Attack Foot Switch"
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This is the second one of these I have bought. The first was for my upright and I loved it so much I had to get a second for my electric because i switch between the 2 all the time while on stage. The sound shaping is supurb and the quality of the construction is 1st rate. I highly recomend this to anyone wanting more control over their sound.
Musical Background:
Professional musician for over 30 years
Musical Style:
play all but Rap
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Submitted July 1, 2014 by WildBill G in Fort Collins, CO
"Glad I bought it!"
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The pedal gives my amp such variety in my sound! I love it! It matches perfectly with my Hartke 35 watt 10" aluminum driver. People think it's just a practice set up. Then they hear the Hartke when I hit the Bass Attack pedal. I mic it all with my 300 watt Randall and blow their ears away!
Musical Background:
I play guitar, bass, sing, and had my own band, Justus, until my coma. Now I'm learning all over again!
Musical Style:
Classic Rock, Heavy Metal, Blues and originals.
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Submitted August 10, 2005 by a customer from merrillrfrc
"Hartke rules"
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9 because it has no real usable distorsion but no compitition at 99 bucks either
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.
Features
versatle and clean
Quality
Solid and well designed
Manufacturer Support
no need
Musical Background:
producer,
Musical Style:
rock, blues
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Submitted May 18, 2015 by Vanja Kapetanovic in Miami, FL
"BEST BASS PEDAL EVER !!!!"
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Best bass pedal EVER ! I play for over 10 years now and never found anything so versatile in my life. You can get ANY tone out of this pedal, if you can't do it, it's not pedal, it's YOU. It should cost much more. Built as a tank and have so many features. I use it every day in my signal chain and will never stop using it.
Musical Background:
10 years as a bass player and producer
Musical Style:
Rock, pop, metal
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Submitted April 14, 2012 by John S in Newark, CA
"Awesome Pedal and D.I. for Bass"
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I read all the reviews before buying this pedal. You just cant get a better product for a passive bass imo. The various different sounds and big boost from the bass attack are a must have. Not to mention the exceptional service zzounds gave. I ordered this pedal on Sat. and it was at my door Tuesday morning, and that was with the free ground shipping. Couldn't be happier.
Musical Background:
jam at home 4 string passive bass
Musical Style:
rock, metal, punk
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Submitted May 13, 2010 by a customer from comcast.net
Hartke ATK Bass Attack Customer Review
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Sound
been using hartke basshead and cabinets since 1991,i'll never change.great sound and very dependable. when i saw this pedal i had to have it.its incredible.wish it came with an ac adapter.other than that i love it
Musical Background:
bass player cover band
Musical Style:
little of everything
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Submitted January 5, 2008 by a customer from juno.com
"Good value for the price"
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Addvantage over san amps is two foot switches let you set up two levels of output and punch up more when you need it.
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.
Features
Knobs are easy to use and fun to play with shape shift phase type harmonics make nice controls. Two very solid foot switches.
Ease of Use
Very easy just play with the knobs till you have the sound you want then lock it in.
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.
Manufacturer Support
Who knows. No problems so far.
The Wow Factor
With heavy black and crome it is pretty sexy, plus two red LEDS make it look cool.
Musical Background:
pro
Musical Style:
everything
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Submitted December 1, 2011 by a customer from juno.com
"Might be good, for sound."
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Hope to have it last, the case is all metal so the pastic parts break, the case is good it still works.
Sound
The sound is very clean, basicly two levels of boost.
Features
Two jump switches are good, Several knobs to control tone, nice control, but poor quality build on the knobs. The knob tops are glossy crome colored, BUT cheap, they are glued on and fall off easy. Oh yea the low impedence XLR output is GREAT for running a direct out to your PA system. Basicly a good direct box with many tone controls.
Ease of Use
Just look at it and turn the knobs then jump on the switches.
Manual adjustment are easy to make.
Quality
This is where I complain about two items: The cheap made battery door cover that broke and fell off, and the cheap knob covers that broke and fell off. I still use it after two years it works fine. I use duct tape to cover the battery from falling out
Value
I paid $49 for it on a web site special. So it was a very good value. Don't think I would buy it at $99.
Only a good value if you compare it to a Sansamp bass driver that cost much more ( I own one on those too).
Manufacturer Support
Who knows, you kidding, never used it.
The Wow Factor
Really good boost in preamp levels, and tone.
Musical Background:
pro musician
Musical Style:
Rock jazz modern
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Submitted January 3, 2012 by a customer from gmail.com
"Great Value for Price"
Sound
Pretty good one, we bought this one and did later wrote a review. The pedal is a great value for it's price.
Check http://www.erg-blog.com/hartke-bass-attack-review for our independent review where we have some sound examples posted on youtube.
We are happy with Hartke Bass Attack, so it will stay with us for a while.
Features
Seperate outputs, power options
Ease of Use
Need to play a bit, but pays off
Quality
Pretty strong
Value
Great value for the price.
Musical Background:
Bass, Keyboards
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Submitted May 4, 2012 by John s
"Hartke VXL Bass Attack Pedal and DI"
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Great Pedal especially for passive basses. Lots of Boost and so many different sounds you can dial in . Cant beat the price either.
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Submitted November 30, 2006 by a customer from yahoo.com
"Great product. I highly recommend it."
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Sound
This is a really terrific product. It changed my sound for the better.
Features
The shaping and brightness are really useful.
Manufacturer Support
I don't know. No problems so far.
Musical Background:
active musician
Musical Style:
rock
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Submitted November 4, 2011 by a customer from optonline.net
"great sound but missing obvious details"
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the designers should consult with end users. impossible to imagine that they did, given the obvious design shortcuts and shortcomings.
Sound
improves gain tremendously with no apparent distortion, and with a 3-band EQ.. better than any other available new.
Features
improvements would be: should be shipped with AC adapter. the dials are impossible to read, especially on stage in the dark-- since they're so shiny and the detent dots get lost. Drawing a line atop each dial with white fluorescent nail polish took care of that. Really too bad and very obvious the dials should be illuminated.
Ease of Use
if you set it and never touch it again, then it's fine. Otherwise this is not user friendly since you can;t see the dial settings.
Musical Style:
Rock
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Submitted June 2, 2007 by a customer from hotmail.com
"Great sound, great price, great deal!"
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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.
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.
Features
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.
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.
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.
Manufacturer 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.
The Wow Factor
Definitely the sexiest pedal on the market. Very tough-looking.
Musical Background:
Active Musician
Musical Style:
Funk and Rock
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Submitted August 17, 2014 by David S in Austin, TX
"The Jury's still out"
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I was going to wait longer before writing this, because the jury's still out on this pedal for me. But Zzounds requested a review now, so here goes:
The bad news:
First of all, I'm not a bass player. I happen to working the sound, though. I normally take the preamp output of the bass amp and bring it into the PA via an XLR cable. The PA has nice Cerwin Vegas, and I know what bass should sound like through them. It should be very good.
However, we have several bass players which play with us They have different axes and different amps. The end result is very different from player 1 to player 2 to player 3. And none of them are so good. The bass players are good, indeed, but their tone through the PA is marginal.
I bought this device as a way to hopefully come up with a consistent great bass sound for each player. The idea is that I'd put a Y-connector on each bass guitar's output, at the point of the bass amp input. This way each player could fuss with their amp all day, but I would get an independent sound, straight from the bass guitar (or from the pedal board, for those who have one) which I could feed into the PA. I know the idea should work. However ....
In real life, when I actually do the above strategy, I find that the pedal seems to make little difference to the sound that's coming out of the PA speakers. I can't figure out why. I'm still working on it. I haven't given up. Like I say, "The jury is still out."
The good news:
The good news is that I'm convinced this pedal is really good. Here's why. Although I'm not a bass player, I went to my local music store with the device, to compare to competitive devices. I brought a little Mackie board and headphones and the device, and they allowed me to use a Squier bass to play with the pedal, and compare it to competitive pedals.
By doing this I could really isolate the bass sound, and in my estimation, it sounded great through the headphones. (The competitor sounded good too, but was more expensive.) In fact it sounded so good that I accidentally blew out my headphone speakers. Arrghhh. !! Nevertheless, I could hear a definite difference with each and every knob on the device. Yay!
So, I see the "goal" here. This Hartke pedal has the possibility of creating really good, punchy bass. ("Punchy" is the elusive goal I've pushed for, for decades.) But in the real world, it apparently takes some more tweaking - and probably *not* just tweaking on this pedal, but on the bass guitar itself and maybe the PA board.
I'm still going to try to make it work. :)
Musical Background:
keys
Musical Style:
Christian Praise and Worship (light rock style)
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Submitted April 19, 2005 by a customer from frontiernet.net
"Stronger output, fix battery holder, otherwise outstanding!"
Verified Customer
zZounds has verified that this reviewer made a purchase from us.
Sound
The tone is great. Nice and versital. Good for studio and stage.
Features
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.
Manufacturer Support
N/A
The Wow Factor
It is way cool
Musical Background:
Professional
Musical Style:
Solo artist
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Submitted February 19, 2009 by a customer from aol.com
Hartke ATK Bass Attack Customer Review
I bought this because I play my bass through my keyboard amp.
however, recently I discovered that it can also give my electric guitar more crunch when distorted and my acoustic/electric guitars a very bright and crisp tone. I can't play without it any more.
Sound
you could get better sound if you had a lot of money to blow but this is as good as you can get on a budget.
Manufacturer Support
I haven't needed support, it works fine.
Musical Background:
Active Musiciam
Musical Style:
Classical, Death Metal, Rock, Progressive
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Submitted February 24, 2007
"Don't buy it. Spned more momey and get a good one!"
Verified Customer
zZounds has verified that this reviewer made a purchase from us.
Kept it 2 days
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
Quality
Well made.
Value
Joke over . . .
Manufacturer Support
Never called them, just sent it back.
The Wow Factor
if it worked . .
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Submitted January 13, 2006
"Kick ass Unit get one!!"
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.
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.
Features
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.
Manufacturer 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.
The Wow Factor
I have it......wouldn't call the unit sex but a great tool for both studio and live work.
Musical Background:
Semi-Active Muscian
Musical Style:
Rock, Reggae, Ska, Punk
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