Mar 12, 2009 07:36 pm I've seen a lot of bashing of Hartke's aluminum cones by bass aficionados. I used to play in a band with a guy who used a Hartke 4x10" and it didn't sound particularly bad to me. A little bright, but not anything horrible. That's not a bad price for a bass practice amp either. 35 watts isn't much for a bass (you'd need at least 10 times that to perform with it), but if you're just practicing, it should be fine.
But if you're just using it at home for recording and playing by yourself, you might consider just running it direct into your recording computer. If you have a low-latency interface, you can jut run it direct into that, and then into a track in your recording software. Add a few VST effects like compression and whatever else suits your tastes, and run it either out of your computer monitors or headphones.
I've been doing just that since I've owned a bass, for about 3 or 4 years and it suits me fine. I don't really have any plans to ever own a bass amp. Its only a drag if you don't have a subwoofer or a set of speakers/monitors that are capable of reproducing a strong low-end.
Just an idea.