Hartke A25 Combo

For an amp in this price range the features are excellent. The 4 band eq is effective and the inclusion of the limiter is a plus when pushing this amp a little harder. Having a DI out is the reason I bought this amp over the more powerful Nemesis N10, that and its more compact size. I personally am a fan of hartke's aluminum speakers and this 8" is no exception. The extra brightness offered by aluminum removes the need for a tweeter which helps keep the size of the amp down. The tiltback cab is very useful although I normally use the amp in the normal position for better bass response. The RCA inputs on the front will undobtedly come in useful.

So far I have only tried the amp out with my 57RI fender P and I was impressed with the sound. It didn't sound quite as good as the A35 with the 10" speaker but I was looking for the smallest possible size and price. I was warned by the sales person not to push this amp to hard but this weekend I was playing with a large group and this amp kept up very will indeed. With volume knob halfway and the limiter on 4 it was able to punch over a small drum kit, electric guitar and around 7 other acoustic instruments. Although this amp stands no chance against even a moderately loud drummer it is great for coffee shop gigs and small jams. Plus is if you need something extra theres always the option of DI'ing the thing into the PA.

3 year warrantee but that does not cover speaker damage resulting from misuse...

I have been playing for a good few years now (8 or so) and have played though a large selection of different amps. However I have never really been able to justify the purchase of a large rig. My main amp is a Hartke kickback 12 which handles most of the gigs I do and I am lucky enough to have friends with amps I can borrow when more power is required. All I'm saying here is don't judge me as a bedroom player just because I don't own a huge rig!

I bought this amp to leave at my girlfriends place so I can practice when I'm there. I was looking for the smallest amp possible but with a quality tone and the power to use in small gig on jam situations. I originally did not want a Hartke purely because I already owned one and wanted to try another brand (although my kickback has severed me very well for a number of years). However this ended up being the best option for the money. The amp is great for home practice with plenty of tone shaping/quality and the RCA inputs for I-pod/laptop/metronome etc. In a small jam or gig situation it might struggle but the inclusion of the DI can let a PA do some of the work leaving the amp as a stage monitor.

I love that this amp is small but has a quality tone allowing me to appreciate the sound of my 57RI P. However, I hate the fact that I am so paranoid about overcooking it and blowing the expensive to replace speaker.

If you are going to gig regularly or need this amp to beat a full drum kit there are better options out there but if size matters this is a great little practice amp with some 'over and above' features that make it useful in other situations.

I got this as a practice amp for home use. I play mainly funk and slap style. It has a 3 band EQ with a bright control, and a limiter. I like the fact that it has a limiter, it's a good feature that you don't normally get on small practice amps. The power is just perfect for home use, I don't need, or want a 412 cab in my living room, I also don't see the point in spending ridiculous amounts of money on something that's only going to be for practice.

I am using a Jackson Concert 5 string with a PJ pickup config. It's a good few years old now I think, but the problem is, the circuit board (in the bass) has something wrong with it, and it hums and buzzes like crazy through my amp (or any amp), but I can live with that for the time being. I pluged my guitar, (which also has active pickups) into the amp, to check the noise level (because my bass is screwed) and it's dead quiet, doesn't make hardly any noise. The sound I am getting is very good, I'm very pleased with it. It doesn't handle the low B amazingly well, but it does handle it. I played through a few Ashdown amps which were a lot more powerful, and a lot more expensive, but I actually much prefer the tone I am getting through this little amp. For the price, I give it a 10. I think it deserves it.

I can't answer that yet, since I haven't had the amp for long.

Not dealt with them, hopefully I will have no need.

I am only a beginner on bass, but I've been playing guitar for a few years before I got into bass. If it were stolen, I think I'd deffinetly buy another one. The thing I love about it the most, is it's appearence, it looks small and cute, and fits right between the racks on my shelf, and doesn't look out of place. It's unbelievably heavy for an amp of its size. Like I said before, it sounds way better than the Ashdown stuff I tried, but I suppose it's all subjective at the end of the day. The only things I don't like about it, are the fact that the screws holding the grille in, are not in line with each other, but althought that's not much of an issue, how hard is it to get them in line? Little things like that are typical of something made in China (I say that in the nicest possible way). Anyway, great value for money, I'm sure everybody who buys this amp will agree with me. Have a nice day.

I noticed that no one has reviewed this amp yet so I thought I'd put in a review in case somebody wonders if a tiny amp with 25 watts and an 8" speaker is any good. The short answer is Yes!

Kind of weird but I have never in my life owned an actual bass combo amp...I almost have on several occasions, but always wound up with a head and cabinet.

I decided about two years ago I wanted a very small combo for practice at home, working on material with friends, etc.

The problem is every time I started looking, "feature creep" would take hold, and I'd wind up thinking I needed more power, bigger speakers, more controls, and next thing I knew I was looking at $600 combos that weighed 65 pounds.

I've actually got three different amp rigs (very large, medium, and an old vintage rig thing) so I realized that I needed a big amp like I needed a hole in my head.

So I went looking for simple and cheap, and stumbled across the Hartke A series line.

This is a relatively new model, it just came out this year I believe.

Years ago I almost bought a Hartke kickback 10, but wound up buying a larger amp (Ampeg B2-R) and cabinet instead (Ampeg SVT-806 HE). At that time the Hartke was about $350, so I passed, and bought the Ampeg rig.

Later on Hartke came out with their "B Series" of low cost amps, which I thought were really lame looking, no wedge cabinets (although there are some B series now with that design), so I never bothered looking at Hartke again.

Overall this is a really cool little amp for the price I paid ($152), I wish they had gear like this when I was staring out.

Unlike the B series, it actually looks nice, just as nice in fact as the Kickback series, but it costs a lot less.

In fact the fit and finish on this thing is very good, nice knobs, nice carpet covering, thick handle, chrome corners, the thing looks a lot more expensive than it is.

The wedge cabinet is a big plus pretty much a requirement for a small amp like this. Square amps just don't project like the wedge ones do, and it's a bitch to twiddle the knobs while standing up.

It's got a pretty clean sound, but by messing with the tone controls, and limiter you can get a pretty decent growl out of it. It would be good for low volume rock or jazz styles, but let's face it, 25 watts and an 8 inch speaker is not gonna get over a drum kit.

Features:

One channel with a gain control, active controls for bass, mids, highs, and a prescence control, a one knob limiter (complete with blue indicator light that blinks if your attack engages the limiter), headphone jack (which thoughtfully disconnects the internal speaker). Around back there is an XLR balanced out, and an effects loop. The speaker is hooked up to the power section with a cable in the back, so you could power a different cabinet with the amp.

There is a circular port around back, and the speaker is the Hartke signature aluminum cone job, some people hate these things, some people love them. I'm not a big fan of the Hartke sound for a main rig, but for a little combo like this the aluminum cone makes a lot of sense.

Oh yeah, CD input (rca jacks) on the front, this is cool because you can put in some tunes for practice or use it in a pinch as a keyboard amp. I'm actually going to use it for my theremin, since it's a line level device.

At this price and size, you can't wish for too much more, a threshold and compression controls on the limiter would be cool, but not essential.

One other thing though, the handle on top is very small and very tight, I can barely get my hand in there and my hands are small...if you got a beefy paw you'll never get your fingers under there. Then again it's only 25 pounds so you could probably just hold it in the palm of your hand.

Within it's intended intent there is plenty of power, in fact I used it for a casual gig the day after I bought it, along with a keyboard guy playing through two JBL Eon10G2's. So he had 350 watts at his disposal, but I was s

I'm mainly using it with a passive Fender Jazz (Geddy Lee sig series), it sound really good. I played an active bass through it and it sounded pretty good too.

I play hard rock and progressive rock, a little jazz, this thing would be good for about any style of music, as long as you don't need the volume.

With only 25 watts and an 8" speaker, not much low end, you pretty much have to peg the bass to get lows out of it but it still sounds good.

Once nice thing is you can set up the tone you like, then set the limiter to keep the amp from farting out.

At over about 40% up, the limiter gets pretty obtrusive (abusing it can be kinda fun) but below that it keeps the sound in check and the amp from overdriving itself. I think having the limiter was a great idea.

It's very clean sounding, a little hi-fi, but not too much. Not very noisy at all unless you turn it up all the way.

This is the part that makes me go hmmmmmmm. Out of the box all of the controls made scratchy noises, not a good sign. The EQ and limiter stopped doing this, but the main volume pot still does sometimes.

Maybe a little corrosion got in on the old boat from China?

I got a kick out of the back panel, a HUGE "Designed and engineered by Harkte in the USA" on the right side, and a discrete "Made in China" in the middle, in type that was about 1/4 the size of the "USA" type.

I think the Hartke kickbaks were made in Korea so there you go...you can't expect a $150 amp to be made in the good ole USA.

I'll see how it holds up, I don't expect to subject the amp to hard use, I think it'll be more reliable than those Behringer bass amps (half of which seem to go bad), but if it dies five years from now, hey it only cost $150.

Still scratchy pots out of the box sucks, I have a mixing console that does this some but it was made in 1986....

I don't know, I have not dealt with them.

I hope that Hartke support is not by Samson, because Samson has the WORST tech support of anybody I've ever seen.

I've been playing since Gerald Ford was president, remember him?

Man I wish they had gear like this back then, my first bass amp was a used Kustom 100, which was five times the size, not as loud and I paid $185 used for it. Think about it, a better sounding amp, 1/5 the size and for less money, NEW some 25+ years later.

I'll see how it holds up, if lost or stolen I'd get another one, as I haven't seen anything on the market this small and cool, most cheap amps like this look the part, this one is pretty nice.

Come to think of it, it's so small it would be conceivable to loose thing, it could get covered up by shoes in your closet or something

I was gonna get a Tech 21 wedge combo (Landmark 60) but I already have an RBI so I have that sound covered, also the Tech 21 amp was nearly $400 and I don't think it had the CD in or headphone jack.

A friend of mine had a Fender 25 watt combo (with a 10" speaker), I think this Hartke is louder and sounds better...he sold the Fender because he wasn't happy with the sound. The Fender was $120 more in cost too, and made in Mexico, so it's not like the extra money was paying an American to build it.

I love the small tiny size, it's just the cutest little amp, sort of like the Mazda Miata of bass amps (that's a good thing IMHO).

If this is your only amp you'd want to upgrade but for the beginner, or as a 2nd or third amp it's great.