Hartke HA4000 Head

Purchased this amp in late 1999 I believe. Played rock & country with it. About any jack you need is on the rear of this unit. This amp has been used for live gigs, small to large & there has always been plenty of power. I have never had it turned over half way, even at the larger outdoor shows.

I use Fender jazz basses, & play it thru an Ampeg 4X10 over a 15" cab. Has a great sound & is punchy. Never distorted!!!

MAJOR DISAPOINTMENT!!! After 2 years, had to replace a capacitor...ok it happens! But on 4th year, I began experiencing it cutting out at shows. Do not believe it to be a heating issue, since at start up it would not come fully on.....the sound would barely be audible. If you would tap on the front of the unit, it would then kick in!! Sometimes it would go the full night, or you may have to tap it again. I am in a 3 piece band, & can not afford the cutting out! Finally 3 weeks ago at a show, it cut out 7 times in the 1st set of our show, it is now for sale as is!!

Very "POOR" in this category. Called them & explained the problem. They said it sounded like a 'ghost' problem...whatever they mean by that. They also said they never heard of the problem, when clearly after reading up on it now, there seems to have been a problem with this amp. They would do nothing for me.
Tried having this cutout problem fixed once, thinking it was perhaps a cold solder joint. But that did nothing but cost me!!

Been playng for 23 years. I own ampeg, peavy, & now just added a swr as my main amp.
Will never buy another hartke. Like the sound, but not reliable & poor customer support!

400 watts into 4 ohms, 220 watts into 8 ohm. For most stages I use it with an 8 ohm Hartke 115XL cabinet. I tilt the cabinet up on a stand for stage monitoring and the 6 pc band gets enough bass for comfort. For larger stages I throw an extra 210XL cabinet dropping the load to 4 ohms for more power. XLR DI Out is nice but depending on the room I get the "who is that buzzing buzz" so I now use the Hartke pedal w/ direct out.

Nice variance of tones. The D bass is nice to give a little more rumble depending on the room. (I'll cut the D bass if the PA system is bass heavy enough.)

Sorry. I've had this amp for about 6 years now and have made several visits to the Hartke shop. The overheating issue is a biggie. The amp shuts down unexpectedly mid-set if it doesn't get plenty of air and is pushedfor too long. Unfortunaltely both of those situations are prevalent in the real world. Hopefully they learned from this design flaw and my next Hartke purchase will be less frustrating....

Very happy with their cooperation. Nice guys. Reasonable turnaround on a majority of cases. I live within driving distance so I've dealt with them directly, not with an authorized service center.

This amp would be best moved to a rehearsal studio situation. I would not buy it again for a live situation - it has been discontinued.

I have now owned this amp for about three years, and have played dozens of gigs with it. I have played bass guitar in a number of rock bands here in the Miami, Florida area, and have played with "First Strike" for the last six years. The Hartke HA 4000 has a great sound and is very versatile. I play mostly clubs, with occasional outdoor festivals. Lack of power has never been a problem for me, and I rarely play with the amp volume set at more than #6.

I play out mostly with an Ibanez Soundgear bass, and record with a Rickenbacker bass. Clarity, lows, punch, etc. are all excellent.

Here we have a problem! As some other users on this site have noted, my Hartke is prone to lose audio at the worst possible time, usually while I am on stage in the middle of a song in the middle of a gig. Of course, when it is in the shop for repairs it works fine. The amp is now on it's way back to Sampson for repairs. It has been in the shop several times without the problem being fixed. I've been told by Sampson that it appears to be an overheating issue. As good as this amp sounds, it's reliability has been a big issue for me.

The local service shop that I was referred to by Sampson has not been able to find and fix the problem. I have taken it to them three times thus far. However, Sampson has suggested that I return the amp to them for service. Hopefully, this will take care of the problem. If not, I give up.

Love the sound, hate the lack of reliability and inability to get it fixed after several attempts.

400w Solid-State bass head; single input(active or passive), 5 bands of equalisation with two parametric mid systems; variable frequency notch filter. multiple effect loops and balanced outputs.

playing with dean 5-string (EMGs) and custom 4-string (Basslines 1/4pound Js) into behringer 2x10 and 1x15 cabs; playing a mixture of gospel, pop, rock and metal. Equalisation is absolutely superb, amp is a bit clean and dry but use of fx (usually behringer v-amp pro or MXR DI+) fixes that. only disappointment is lack of valves really but then it's not the end of the world.

this amp has been a bit of an ass. when it's working it's fine. but it has a problem of intermittent cutout and powerup signal loss. this is REALLY annoying but i think it's this specific unit that's the problem.

if it worked fine and it had more versatility for the styles of music i play in terms of being able to get that gritty tone, i'd replace it if it was stolen, not sure at the moment though.

you can tweak the sound on this amp in soooo many different ways, its a little overwhelming. but i guess if you know what you are doing its great.
i liked all the various outputs on the back like the sub output deffinately came in handy. as well as the line out which i would say is fine for a live setting but not so hot in the studio.

my only real complaint is the lack of power. I had thought that 400 watts would be all i needed. as it turned out 400 hartke watts wasn't really cutting it. then again i play in a few bands and it was fine for my country gig, but not the rock or punk rock gig.

like i said you can tweak and get an incredibly wide varitey of sounds, but i thought it lacked in power.

never had a probelem, and i deffinately abused this thing.

when ever i had questions it took them anywhere from 4 days to a month and a half to get back to me. but i guess once they did they were very helpful.

pros- it can take a beating, its has good sound controls, great output options, inexpenssive.

cons- its an incredibly weak 400 watts.

I bought this amp around the year of 2000. At the time I was playing bass in a top forty covers band. I also use it at home for recording and jam sessions.
It is a one channel amp with good tonal possibilities and expression control. It's a good punchy amp with very tight parameters.
It works well when coupled to a mix console utilizing the pre or post balanced out connections.

I have a Fender Jazz and a Yamaha 5 string fretless which has active pickups. All are stock components. It's a quiet amp and it has a convienent standby (mute) switch which is very handy.
I really like the variations of tone adjustment. I basically have found my one sound though, and that it is where stays.
I prefer the volume at its 3:00 position and that's where that has stayed too. Guess I'm pretty simple minded.
I run this into a Hartke 4-10 cab and I also have a 15" Eminence I plug in too. It sounds great. The 4-10 cab actually delivers more bottom end than the 15". Both together though is thunderous.
I do use a Zoom compression / gate pedal for a bit more control of signal. The gate is great for noise control. That would be a good feature to have had incorporated in the amp.

Well, I am on the second one now. The first unit I bought, though it was from a music store, it was one that they had on display. It worked well but several times it would go into a shutdown. It was on a gig when it decided to never come back on and stay on.
I ended up plugging into a Peavey 50 watt tube and into my 4-10 Hartke cab. Funny thing. That amp sounded as good with only 50 watts. Maybe the tube power.
The store was good about replacing the amp though, and this one was right from the box. It has been a reliable amp since.

Haven't dealt directly with Hartke.

I've been an amature player, in my opinion, but I have been involved in doing it for about 30 years. Drums were my first love and guitar and bass fell in beyond that. I made friends with a guy who played drums, and being it seems everyone wants to be a guitar player, I went onto the bass. I also enjoy guitar too.
I used to play through a 60's model of Fender Bassman. The hartke is definately a much better sounding amp. They make use of so much tonal control now days.
I feel this is a good product to pass onto others.

New 4 year's ago. Lots of Eq, fair 400 Watt/4ohm. power amp section

I'm playing a B.C. Rick Bernardo 4 string with dual activ "soapbar" pickup's. I use 2 start 90's Trace 1048 8 ohm cabs, and it works ok, I can get allmost any tone. It's wellsuited for any style, remember it's no Ampeg.

No problemo, runs straight like an arrow. I have been running it at "120%" lots of hours, no smoke or blowups.

Never tryed

I have been playing the bass for 20 year's. This amp covers my need for now, small club gigs, soft rock. It's overall a ok amp for the money, as long as you use 4 ohm cabs or combined 4 ohm. The weak spot on this baby is without a doubt the power section, at very high volumes you will deplete the power supply fast and the sound will get thin and without punch, also it doesn't do it with 8 ohm cabs. If it got stolen, hmm, it would give me a reason to buy an Ampeg :o)

Year: 2002
Music styles: Classic/blues rock. Very versatile thanks to 4-band EQ w/sweepable low/high mid controls. Single-channel. I wish it had an unbalanced instrument level direct out to feed another bass amp (it has two balanced XLR outs to feed a live/recording board). I'm using it for gigging, rehearsal, and recording. It's solid state, 400W RMS @ 4 ohms, 200W RMS @ 8 ohms. Big bang-for-buck, wattage-wise, with great patching and EQ capability.

I play an original (pre-EB) Music Man StingRay bass w/no mods. The amp is versatile enough for many styles. It's very clean with low noise. The parametric EQ allows for a wide tonal palette.

Haven't had it long enough to determine reliabilty; hence I'm currently carrying a backup (my old Ampeg B-25B, see below). I've heard of reliability issues with earlier Hartke amps, but a very positive review in a bass mag cited very good build quality after taking it apart for inspection.

N/A; only had it for a couple weeks. One year warranty.

I've played bass and guitar off and on for 25+ years. My main bass amp the last few years has been a nice old Ampeg B-25B, but at 50 watts (even tube watts) it's not strong enough for my new gig with a a blues/rock band. I already had a few nice bass cabs so I decided to look for bang-for-buck. The 4000 focuses on decent power, EQ versatility, and patchability (you can get in and out of this thing at every gain stage, it seems). Doesn't even have an onboard compressor, which is fine, as I have a couple outboard units to choose from, and the amp gives me plenty of options as to how to use them. I did a shotgun email for quotes, and Music 123.com gave me the best price-- $450 shipped.