Hartke Systems
| Private | |
| Industry | Musical instruments |
| Founded | 1984 |
| Founder | Larry Hartke |
| Headquarters | Bloomfield, New Jersey, United States of America |
Area served | Global |
| Products | Bass amplifiers |
| Parent | Samson Technologies |
| Website | Hartke Systems |
Hartke Systems is a brand of electronics best known for their bass guitar amplifiers and speaker cabinets. Hartke is distributed in the U.S. under the Samson family of companies They also produce amplifiers and speakers for electric guitar, keyboard, acoustic guitar, as well as effects pedals, strings, and other accessories.
History
Larry Hartke learned the craft of spinning aluminum cones by hand in dies, and assembling speakers, from experience he gained working for A. Stewart Hegeman, renowned audio designer previously of Harman Kardon. He applied that technology to stereo speakers and then to speakers for bass guitar. He started in Bloomfield, New Jersey, in a shop in the basement of the home he grew up in.
The first Hartke bass cabinet was built for bass legend Jaco Pastorius in 1984. It was based on a gutted Ampeg SVT 8x10" loudspeaker cabinet. Hartke had contacted Jaco through business partner Ron Lorman, who was a sound man for a number of big name bands, including Frank Zappa and Miles Davis, and who received producer credits on Miles' "Decoy" album. More importantly, Jaco Pastorius was at the time an endorser of Guild Guitars and reputedly he told Guild's executives about the new, novel product. Soon Guild had established a distribution deal with Hartke Systems and was selling and advertising various loudspeaker cabinets under the Guild/Hartke brand. The cabinet that was built for Jaco in 1984 is now on display at the Hartke 34th Street Bass Lounge at Sam Ash's Manhattan location on 34th Street between 8th and 9th Avenues.
Range of amplifiers and speakers
Hartke makes a wide range of amplifier and speaker models for instrument amplification, and they are distributed worldwide. Hartke's speaker products utilize both paper and aluminum cone speakers as well as a hybrid combination of aluminum and paper speakers known as "HyDrive". Today Hartke is one of the largest producers of bass amplification.