Hartke Kickback 12

The most flexible bass amp I have ever had. No hernia! great sound, and is perfect at low or high volumes. No boom just a solid sound with loads of tonal flexibility. Only think that beats a 120 watt kickback is 2 120 watt kickbacks.

I'm not going to elaborate on my ax, this is about the amp. I have an Ampeg SVT-4 Pro head w/ 8-10 ' cab that I use when we have a 'one 'set or 'one 'night gig where the house rig and sound person is furnished. Generally I can control my house sound if cheated with this refrigerator ' .. For outdoors, I use my Peavey 300 Combo due to its wicked volume. For venues we mix ourselves, I use the Hartke Kickback 12. It puts a smile on my face when it ' s displayed along side the 2 Marshall stacks. I get some weird looks as you can only imagine. Once the show starts however, (and it never fails) someone (usually more) always comes to the front of the stage and points at the little Hartke then seem to go into discussion, only to reappear at break to complement the lil amp. I only need an amp for my stage sound. Mixing board gets the D.I. for the house. Easy in, easy out 'I love IT!

If you play a lot of different kinds of low-to-medium-volume gigs - coffehouse, theater pit, small clubs, weddings, etc., - this Hartke Kickback 12 is probably the only amp you'll need.

I also own an SWR LA8, which used to be my main coffehouse/acoustic setting amp, and an SWR Bassic Black with a 1x15 extension cab, which I use for big clubs or outdoor gigs.

If I had to pare down to one amp, I'd keep the Hartke because it's the most versatile.

If the majority of your jobs are high-volume, I'd recommend a bigger amp. This one will function as a stage monitor and has a direct line out for the mains, but it's neither designed nor intended to replace an SVT.

All in all, I wish I'd bought one of these a long time ago!

I've been playing the Hartke Kickback 12 for about three years now. Smallest bass amp I've ever used, and I've been playing for 40 years.

My current bass is a G&L, after wearing out my 1957 Ampeg (yes, Ampeg used to build guitars as well as amplifiers), and I use nylon/tapewound strings to get an extra-strong fundamental pitch -those who like a "high treble" sound will have to check it out for themselves.

Most of the time I'm playing in a medium-sized room, specifically a church sanctuary designed for 200. In this venue the Hartke does quite well standalone, which is good because the location suffers a lot of EM interference, primarily from power lines and automatic light dimmers, and the XLR to PA is not usable there, even with a direct box.

I've also used it outdoors and in shopping malls, where the XLR to PA makes it a GREAT stage monitor. As long as your main PA speakers output good bass, the Hartke is strong enough to compensate for monitor speakers that don't have a good low end.

For my style of play, the solid-state design creates a good, usable tone - I usually just tweak the bass-mid-treble and don't even bother with the "shape" circuitry. Since low tones are more omnidirectional than high tones, the "kickback" feature is actually more for the perfomer's benefit than the audience's. The unit's small size and relatively light weight make it a relative breeze to set up compared to the double-bottom-stack-plus-power-head I used to haul around.

However, its somewhat odd shape makes it difficult to pack well. If I were to go on the road full time with it, I'd want it in a hard-sided travel case.

The one thing I'd really want with my Harke would be a user's manual and a technical manusl (Ok, two things), which brings up another issue: due to the odd shape, it tends to roll around during transport. One of the control knobs recently broke off because of this. Turns out that even the volume control is a custom shape, the knob alone cannot be replaced, and a regular variable resistor trim pot can't be substitued for it.

Bottom line: If you don't have to travel too far or play too loud (or too dirty), it's a great little professional grade amplifier. P.S. I checked out the Hartke 10 just before I got the 12. If you want good low bass, get the 12.