Hartke Kickback 12

Ive always been a believer that bass amps dont need much. Volume, EQ and thats it. The Shape button on this amp however, is the icing on the cake. The tone range is amazing. The built in DI is brilliant aswell.

As stated above, its a great amp in sound range. Volume tho, I cant get it past 5 without it flapping and making distorting. This is with a bass with a pre-amp in it though, so all is forgiven.

The plug that the speaker cable goes into isnt that well secured. With the thunderous bass this thing chucks out, ive had the speaker disconnect once while rehearsing. Other than that, its a work horse.

The only downfall is the speaker cable. Apart from that minor setback, the amp is truely amazing. Its thunderous for a little thing, and still very versatile for almost any tone. Its so damn easy to transport and use on stage with its kickback feature. Im delighted with it.

Purchased USED for $225 US
You all know the "specs" on this Lil' Guy
The manufacturer states that it's a 120 watts @ 8 Ohms in all of their literiture,but on their "SPECS" sheet on the AMP Section it states that it's 120 watts @ 4 Ohms, So I contacted the Manufacturer via phone and spoke to one of their Techs and was told that the amp is rated at 120 watts @ 4 Ohms not 8. I then said that I was considering getting a Hartke 210 Transporter cabinet to run in parallel with the 12" speaker inside the combo and was then told that the 12" in the combo was a 6 Ohm speaker and if I ran the 210 Transporter which is an 8 Ohms cabinet that the Ohm Load would drop below 4 ohms [3.43 to be exact] and that would danage the amp. So the Combo is really putting out about 80 watts due to the 6 Ohms speaker inside. A little MISS LEADING, but not a problem. I thought that with the size of the Combo and the 210 cab,this setup would be really great with 1 12" and 2 10's with a 120 watts in small clubs where the guitar players are using 30 to 40 watt amps, but you'd have to change the internal speaker to an 8 Ohms speaker to do this.

I've been using the Combo alone at small clubs and bars with out any problems. I use quite a few different basses with it. A '92 Gibson Les Paul Special, 2 Warwick Thumb Bolt-On's,a Bleached Blonde and a GC 37th Anniversary Edition, a '89 Rickenbacker 4003, a '76 Fender P with a DiMazio p/u and a '65 Epiphone EB232 Rivoli and IMHO they all sound good. Remember, the guitar players are using 30 to 40 watt amps. We play mostly Blues Based material and this Lil" Guy works just fine. I run the TONE controls in the Dented position with the Volume any where from 10 o'clock to 12 o'clock and use the Shape Circuit and the tone controls on the basses to taylor the sound, especially with Warwicks active controls.

So far I've had no problems with it and it has been very reliable. Compact size, fairly light weight, and decent volume wise for SMALL CLUBS i've been playing at.

Hartke was very helpful and straight forward when I contacted them about the wattage/speaker ohms questions. A decent product expecially for a USED unit.

I/ve been playing for 39 years on and off and have owned a lot of gear over those years and this Combo really suits my needs as far a small places go. I also use a Gallien-Krueger 1001RB II coupled with an Ampeg PortaBass 212H cabinet for larger places.
I would purchase another Combo if this one were stolen.
I see that Beherringer has a similar style Combo, but I've never heard one "LIVE" to form an opinion. IMHO the Hartke KickBack 12 is a great practice and small club/coffe house combo and a very good value

The Kickback 12 has all the features I've ever needed in a bass combo. The XLR out has been a godsend on many occasions. Back in '98, it was one of the first kickbackers. This feature is used often, especially in monitor role.

I've always been pleased with the sound as have most players who've borrowed it. I use a MIM p bass. Sounds good with active pups, too. I'm not a slapper.

I'm primarily a guitarist but have taken this amp to gigs about 15-20 times since purchased. Both my sons have used it onstage dozens of times, one of them using it early on to amplify his tenor sax! I never got a chance to hear it with a sax, he sez it was "ok". Other bassists I've played with have also used it.

Bottom line, Its now seven years old, abused on occasion and has always worked flawlessly.

don't know

Mine has the speaker w/aluminum cone. I've heard stories about them blowing out. Not this one. Got it at Sam Ash. I've heard that Ash owns Hartke (SAMson)? I guess they wanted to use "SON OF SAM" but that title was already taken (sorry, little humor).

We've used this amp in churches, halls, clubs and its always met the challenge. The XLR out (to the board, PA) has saved my hide several times in larger venues. I've listened from out on the floor to other players using this Hartke an it sounded great.

I'm surprise at the lower ratings for this amp. I'd buy it again

I would say that it has a "limited versatility" for the music that I play. I play church music in different styles. a little bit of funk, rock, disco, blues, r&b, jewish music, pop, country, jazz, etc..

it has a single channel. all the features are useful to me. i wish it has compressor and eq. i also hope that they would design a 2x10 kickback model. the lineout bypass the pre-amp, i hope it was not designed that way so that my sound in the pa will reproduce the amp's sound.

i use this amp in the church. it doesn't have enough power for our application specially beside the drumset.

i'm using a sammick valley arts customized 5string bass and a washburn xb-126. it is kinda alright for the music stated above. it can sound middy. i'm just not satisfied when i tweak it for slapping. i maybe am looking for a 2x10/4x10 sound or a graphic eq. it cannot handle high volume. but its a good practice amp.

i think it is dependable. never brought a backup cause i don't have one. if i have another amp(a halfstack maybe), this one would be my backup because its portable. i had a problem with its input though. twice already. i dont think its input is that durable.

never dealt with the company(im outside us)

i have been playing for 11yrs. i own other instruments & sound equipments as well.
if stolen or lost i'd buy a hartke ha2500 & 210tp.
i love using it when practicing alone. sounds above "fairly good" to me. love the aluminum cone. i hate the direct out 'cause it bypass the preamp.
over the combos i've tried/used (marshall solid state, carlsbro, fender, behringer, peavey, trace elliot commando and other crappy amps) i'd choose this one because of its features, sound, and size.
i rewish it had the features i wished above. a very good practice amp.

Bought this amp a couple of years ago because I was tired of hauling a big cab and head to smaller venues. This amp is just that. An Amp. If you want color, add pedals. If you want more volume (this amp is rated at 120 W), use the balanced out into a PA and use the amp as a monitor. It works in smaller clubs just fine. While it does have basic EQ, its best feature is a shape feature which allows you to fatten or sharpen the tone. For its size, this is the best sounding amp I've ever played and its size is a plus-42 lbs.

I use this with a MIM Fender Jazz V, a Fender MIM P-bass with a basslines Q-pounder, a Fender MIM fretless std jazz, and an OLP MM3. The amp is transparent unless pushed to high volumes at 8 or above, but if that is happening, my band is playing too loud. After all, its primary use is as a stage monitor. The only bass that creates a high hiss is the Fender fretless jazz if I kick up the tone and the bridge pickup. I usually play Country or blues, so it's not really a problem.

One reason I'm writing this review is because of all the negative comments about Hartke products. This amp gets used 6-8 times a month and over the last two years I've had zero problems. I suspect that those who have had issues with this product have pushed the amp to its limit. I use it for what it is intended to be-a monitor amp and a light-weight amp for small clubs. I don't push it to 10. I keep it around 6 or 7 and have never had a problem. The amp does get warm, but as long as you don't sit on it and block the top mounted vent, it has no problems. I use it on gigs without a backup amp, but I always carry a Tech 21 bass SANS AMP in case of amp failure and, if truth be told, I like it as a pre-amp.

I've never dealt with Hartke, although I've dealt with its parent company (SAMSON)and have always received prompt responses to my E-mails.

Neither this amp, my Hartke HA 3500, or my Hartke 4.5xl have ever needed service, so I don't know if Hartke is good at that or not.

Look. Let's be honest. If you had the money, you'd buy Ampeg Aguilar, or Eden. If you don't, you select among Hartke, Gallien-Krueger, and SWR. At that price point, warranties don't matter. If this amp craps out, I'd go to Guitar Center and buy a comparable amp at the comparable price point.

I've been playing on and off for 35 years. I own tons of bass equipment and a lot of guitar stuff. Lately I've been picking up the mandolin and banjo to add versatility to our shows, but I'm primarily a bass player.

This little amp has everything I need it to have, which is basically an amplified signal. I can control the rest with my bass and pedals through the mains. If something happened to it the only thing I would do to replace it is compare prices with an SWR Workingman of comparable wattage.

- Made in 2003
- 120 Watts
- Solid state
- Frequency response: -3 dB at 50 Hz and 5 kHz
- Controls: volume, shape on/off (provides a 20 dB cut at a frequency), shape frequency (90 Hz - 1 kHz), bass (+/- 15 dB @ 100 Hz), mid (+/- 15 dB @ 300 Hz), treble (+/-15 dB @ 5 kHz). From my experience the EQ isn't as powerful as described.
- Single input; direct output and headphones output. Head can be disconnected from speaker, and both can be used individually (though they still comprise one inseparable unit).
- Can be kicked back 45 degrees to use as a stage monitor

I use this amp with an Ibanez BTB405QM. The amp itself isn't especially versatile, but the Ibanez is. Usually when I EQ my system to change between my many playing styles I adjust both my Ibanez and my Hartke, but with more emphasis on the Ibanez. The shape control is excellent for eliminating nasal sounds, but other than that, the tone controls are not especially impressive.

The amp is rated between 50 Hz and 5 kHz. When I'm playing between that range, which I do most of the time, the tone is pleasant but not great. When I go below 50 Hz, though (such as when I play the low B string, at 30 Hz), the amp has a way of dying on me. When I play the open low B, I can definitely hear the rumble of the string, but I hear the overtone more clearly than I hear the 30 Hz tone itself. That is definitely a problem; the amp just doesn't do my B string justice. Even the E string doesn't sound very clear through this amp. This is a problem with the amp, not the instrument, because through other amp systems such as the Fender Bassman head and cabinet, the 35" scale length instrument sounds very clean. The 5 kHz upper limit of frequency response is decent. Something higher would be even better for picking or slapping, but it gets the job done.

The only time I perform with this amp is when I play in my huge jazz band. The amp actually isn't powerful enough for the sheer size of the band, in my opinion, but I can turn this thing up with little distortion. With both my Ibanez and my Hartke at 75% power, distortion is basically nonexistant. The only problem is that the clarity of the tone tends to decrease the higher I turn it up, but that's to be expected, I suppose.

This is the only amp I have, and I've had no problems with reliability. I've banged it up a bit, and as far as I know, it's solid.

I never needed to contact customer support so far. Warranty is limited, but I can't remember how long it lasts.

If this amp were stolen, I'd chip in a little more money and get a more powerful, better sounding head and cabinet. The Fender Bassman 410 seems especially attractive. If I had to stick to the same price range, though, I'd still shop around for a while because I'm sure I could find something better than this.

I would say that the Kickback 12 is only a decent amp for performance, but despite all the bad things I've just said, I believe it's pretty good if you use it as a practice amp and especially as a stage monitor. Basses probably sound much better through this than through generic stage monitors.

I regret to say that I may have jumped on this amp because I was rushed when I went amp shopping. Had I had more time, I would have tried more stuff out.

Others have described it: solid state 120W bass amplifier with a single channel and a built in 12 inch aluminium speaker. Direct out is available and it is possible to disconnect the internal speaker if you want to use an external speaker instead. No compressor or distortion but a "shape" filter is built in in addition to the normal bass-mid-treble tone controls.

The sice is compact but it is HEAVY for it's size.

I play mostly hard rock and metal music using a five string Warwick Steamer bass with passive electronics. Most of the experience with the Hartke is from the rehersals with a normal drummer and a rather loud guitar player.

It's quite easy to the the sound I want as long as I don't want distorsion and if I keep it on low volumes. The main problem with the sound is that it can't really keep the good sound at higher sound levels, it goes into distorsion (not the good kind) when pushed and the loooow notes on the fifth string send the speaker cone into wobbling helplessly.

For lower volumes and even for jazz guitar practice it's just fine but as I said, it can't really keep up with the volume I need. I'll try connecting an external speaker and see if that can help.

No problems so far. :-)

No experience

In a less loud crowd and with a four string bass it would be perfect.

Assumed to be manufactured in 2002, purchased 2/2003.

First, I should mention that although I've played keyboards for 25 years and been in bands on and off for the last 15+, I have only played electric bass since 11/2002. I'm a beginner in this category, but maybe this review will speak well to a beginner or first-time amp buyer.

I play primarily rock/light-rock and some hybrid country music. I also play some jazz. It is certainly versatile enough to handle these styles. There is a headphone jack which mutes the speaker and works well. The "shape" effect is very nice. The EQ helps tweak the tone nicely as well. Before this purchase, I was playing my bass through my keyboard amp (Peavey KB-100), which "others" said was going to be fine, but I disagree. My keyboard amp rattled and I wasn't really pleased with the tone, so I decided to go for a "real" bass amp. What a difference! It's obvious that bass amps exist for a reason. I don't feel that a keyboard amp is a long-term viable substitute for a bass amp.

I play a 2002 Fender (Mexican) Jazz bass (passive) through it. The kickback has a direct-out jack (which does not mute the speaker).
As far as a practice amp, it's fantastic. The kick-back style is great. I like my amp pointing upwards at me. This is more than enough volume for practicing. The quality of tone is very good at high volumes, although I have to adjust the EQ at the higher volumes.
I played this amp last night at a gig at a small bar. I chose this amp for its feature set, but also because 120w could be enough to play a gig without the p.a. During sound check, volume at 3 o'clock was indeed quite adequate volume, and the amp did not appear to struggle. However, I did elect to run through the p.a. board with the direct out. I figured why run the amp at 3 o'clock when I could just go through the board. I could then run the amp at 12 o'clock as a monitor for me on stage. So, does it have enough power for the small gigs? Yes, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say if you're looking for a rig where you won't have to go through the p.a., you probably should go to a head/cabinet combo. I have this feeling there's just no substitute for a 300w head with a 4x10 cabinet. The amp at 3 o'clock sounded great and filled the room, but I'm just not a fan of driving equipment that hard unless I really need to. 12 O'clock is going to do the trick for un-amplified drums, mic'd vocals and a loud guitar amp. No sweat. Once your band is pumped on a p.a., you're at 3 o'clock.... and maybe wishing you had gone with the head/cabinet instead.

The only distortion I find is the rattling of my windows at high volumes. I don't think this amp offers a lot of variety in sound. It seems pretty straight forward, but I can get a real nice, clean sound out of it. I think it's designed just to get a great bass tone out of it, and it does a real nice job of that. It has a bass port out the back, which I suspect is responsible for the great low frequency output. The amp looks small, but there is NO problem getting the low notes out of it (4 string bass). At higher volumes, I have to adjust the EQ so that the frequencies balance out. I feel that's a bit of a disadvantage, but maybe just a reality of bass amps.

I believe I can depend on it. Solidly built. I would use it without a backup.

Not required.

4 months of playing experience, so keep that in mind. I don't own any other bass gear, but lots of keyboard stuff. I would buy this amp again, because it is powerful and small. I don't hate anything about it. Overall, this is an excellent purchase. If you need to be your own self-sufficient bass amp (without p.a.) in a rock band in a high-volume bar gig situation, you may want to go the head+cabinet route. However, you will be able to get by with this even when high volumes are required for bar gigs. Of course, the advantages of this amp are that it is self-contained, small, and light. All said and done, I'm glad I don't have a head and cabinet to drag around. For any gig under the volume levels of a high volume, small to mid-sized bar gig, you wouldn't need anything more. You'll conquer a "big band" with no sweat. And it has good sound quality at low volumes.

I bought this sight unseen and heard. I did loads of research on the internet, this site, and from other people that I know. I bought the Kickback 12 (as opposed to the 10) just because I thought it would have a better chance of nailing those lower notes. I opted out of the kickback 15 to save $80(?) and lose some weight. I went with the Kickback style as opposed to the traditional because I love angling the speaker at me. It saves me the expense of a keyboard stand. I also considered some of the Fender bassman combos, but elected to save some money. I seldom buy "top of the line", and I never buy bottom-of-the line. I think Hartke is delivering a high-value mid-grade amp. I looked at several head/cabinet combos by Hartke, but I decided to save money and weight. With the direct out on the Kickback, I can go through the board if I have to, but there's enough power to do what I need.

This is a solid state amp with one channel and no effects loop or extra speaker jack. It has a balanced output and a headphone jack right on the front, obviously this amp is not designed for loud stage use. It sounds fine to me with any kind of music, rock, blues, country, etc. I've used this amp on stage with a rock band cranked up loud. It did the job but you could tell it was near its limit, distorting a bit and you could see the aluminum speaker just boppin' back and forth. It should be sent to the P.A. for loud applications, then its just fine.

I use a Carvin bass with passive single coil pickups. My freinds who've giged with this amp use Fenders. It makes about any sound from that old fashioned dull thump to modern slap noises. The EQ is very effective. I've never heard it hum. It will distort when cranked up but for rock music it still sounded alright. This amp also sounds good and clear at very low volumes when playing with unamplified acoustics.

So far so good. Its gigged without backup a lot. It does get hot when pushed to distort, and seeing the speaker move like that makes me nervous. It shouldn't be abused. Send it to the P.A.

never dealt with them

I've been playing guitar for over 20 years. The bass is secondary to me. I have a little Carvin bass amp, a midsized Traynor and an old Ampeg flip-top. What I like about the Hartke Kick-Back is nothing beats it for loud-clear-and little. I'd get another one if this was stolen

1999-2000
yes-classic rock, rock, blues
1-yep-yep
nothin more really, maybe some reverb or grunge
practices and gigs-at gigs, it needs to be plugged strait into the sound system b/c if it's micced, it burns out quick

old washburn bass
fairly well
the noise level isn't really too bad, actually pretty good
real flat to real low
after about "7" it starts to groan
n/a

fairly-no
no, but towards the end of a gig one night the sound started to get real nasty (after 2 hours strait of playing it at "5"