My friends please do me a favor while I'm "missing" and don't tell anybody that I'm back.  Let's just keep that between us and also under no circumstances is my landlord to find out.  That could be real trouble!  If he calls you don't answer the phone.  I've been on a mission and I have some thrilling news for all my bass playing friends.  I promise you'll be the first to know and you can find out exactly what I'm up to right here on the Hartke MySpace.

In the meantime...

New rule: Playing bass is fun!

Playing bass or any instrument is fun!  Fun is the primary reason you play an instrument.  Fun is the number one message coming through to me (and I hope to you) as we talk about bass playing and equipment. Whether you're playing with your friends in the garage or you're lucky enough to be a professional musician making your living by playing...fun is why and how you got here.  Fun is also what makes it almost impossible for you to quit.  Playing an instrument gets in your blood and that's that!

I saw a equipment ad in Bass Player Magazine recently with the headline"Bass is Serious Business" and there was this guy standing there looking just as serious as he possibly could.  I laughed at how completely ridiculous this was because we all know that bass playing is fun.

Carrying a weapon, going to war, or fighting an illness now that's serious business!

At Hartke I assure you we are having fun.  Our ads and our MySpace pages are dedicated to having fun playing bass.

It's been a little over a year since my cell phone number started appearing in international publications and on the Hartke MySpace and you started calling and messaging in.  Everyday since then I've been talking and messaging with bass players from all over the world.  I wanted to take a moment now to tell you about our year on the phone and Internet together.

Now because it would take me a little over a year to tell you everything...I thought I would try to answer some of the questions that you've asked me most.

Have you picked any players as Hartke greatest unsigned bass players yet?

Yes, I have and you will see, hear and read about them very soon on this MySpace.  This is just the begining though and I will be picking more players and bands as we go along.  I've really just begun the mammoth task of listening to the music you've sent me.  There are over 4000 individual artists and bands that have sent  me their CD's, MySpaces and websites and music continues to come in daily.  If you multiply this by several songs for each artist you begin to see the large commitment of time involved in listening to everybody.  I've listened to many different styles of music and some really great bands already.  You guys are really passionate about your music and now so I'm I.  I said I would listen to everything you sent in and I will.  It's just going to take me a little longer than I expected.  I'm not even a quarter of the way through the piles of music.  So if you haven't heard from me yet stand by, I'm far from done and I probably haven't even gotten to yours yet!

One surprising thing to me was the high quality of music that I received.  I had honestly thought that eight out of ten things I received would be so-so and it would be easy to weed out the not so good stuff.  Boy was I ever wrong, eight out of ten things I received are great and it's not an easy task for me to present the next greatest bass players at all.  The good news is that there are many very talented artists out there that you never get to hear and I hope to present as many of them as I can to you.  Like me you will be surprised by the originality of the players around the world.

By the way, I see no end  to this  and you can continue to send me your music.  There is no deadline.  I would be a fool not to want to continue to listen and learn from you.  What an education this past year has been for me.  I can't wait to hear what you send me next, keep it coming!

Why did you put your cell number in the ads?

 I realized that there was no better way to find out what I wanted to know about bass players than talking directly to them one on one and not just bass players here in America either but bass players from everywhere in the world.  I decided that I would make an attempt to be more in touch with bass players around the world than anyone ever before.

So I thought well, yeah...but how I'm I going to do this...I don't have everybody's number.

Then it came to me...I'll give them mine!

With the cell phone in my pocket, my cell number in the bass magazines, the very international Hartke MySpace and yes a truly huge investment of my time I was able to accomplish my goal.

I decide to set everything else in life aside and commit myself to the single priority of talking with whoever wanted to talk whenever they wanted to talk.  Normal life and my regular duties at Hartke would just have to take place around this cell phone experiment.  I wanted to see what this kind of total commitment would net and it has been life changing in both small and large ways.

As a equipment manufacturer the players are the people that I need to be in touch with.  Sitting around reading the bass magazines isn't going to do it.  The magazines are way after the fact.  If you're in my business and you're waiting for the magazines or your competetors to define your direction you will be dead in the water. 

In this business like most others, there are the leaders, the reporters, and inevitably the imitators!  You have to keep moving.

From day one we have always made it a mission to stay ahead of the pack and we have introduced many of the innovations that you now see in everybodys products, we are the most imitated company in the business.

How many calls do I get?

    7,180     total calls (first 12 months)
   31,743     total minutes on the phone
       530     total hours on the phone
         13     40-hour weeks on the phone
                 (that's if you weren't absent at all and took no lunches)

Did you really build your first cabinet for Jaco?

Yes and we still have that first 8X10 cabinet built back in 1984.  No one has plugged into it since Jaco passed away and that is how it will stay.

I was designing and building aluminum coned speakers for the esoteric Hi-Fi stereo audiophile market at the time I met Jaco.

When Jaco said can you make me a cabinet with aluminum cone speakers we said yes and designed some 10" drivers suitable for bass guitar.  Since we weren't making cabinets at that time we just loaded them into an old Ampeg SVT cabinet we had sitting around.  The first Hartke cabinet is really an Ampeg SVT loaded with eight of our aluminum cone drivers.

Like everybody else in the sixties and seventies I played my bass through Ampegs and Acoustics.  I remember I had this Ampeg 2x15 cabinet that just rumbled with bass.  Even then I remember I was always trying to get it to sound cleaner and less muddy.  I had trouble hearing the notes and that did not help my playing.  I had no idea at the time that I would later help solve that problem for myself and a few other people around the circle.

You can read the whole story and see the original Hartke / Jaco cabinet at the below link.
http://www.jacopastorius.com/features/writings/hartke.asp

What new products do you have coming out?

The answer to that is a lot and very soon you will see new Hartke products that will once again set the standards.  We have some new amplifiers, speakers and combos the likes of which you have never seen.

I'll have to stop there before I get in trouble again but you can get a sneak preview and follow the action as it develops on this MySpace page.

A great big Thank You to all my new friends who have contacted me over this past year and I hope to hear from you soon.

I promise to keep this fun!

Larry Hartke