"If your looking for a great sound shaping pedal, look no further!"

This reviewer purchased this item from Same Day Music.

Feature:
BEST FEATURES This product can be powered from a mixer or PA that has phantom power using the Hartke XLR D.I. You also have a parralel dry signal connection to connect effects pedals, and an additional switchable wet/dry 1/4" signal to connect as you choose so you can be pretty creative in how you connect this unit to your sound setup and all for under $70. WORST FEATURES Most of the shaping controls are rotary dial settings. There is no display other than a small plastic gray dial pointer on the edge of each button which is pretty hard to make out in low light. You're better off feeling for the pointer than relying on your eyes. Hartke could have done a better job in making these markers more visible which is the only reason I gave this pedal a 9 here.

Quality:
I agree with another reviewer. This unit is built like a tank! Nothing loose or cheap feeling on the unit. I don't expect to have any problems with it.

Value:
This unit is a tremendous value for anyone looking to contour their sound. Keep in mind, this is not an effects pedal (wah wah, fuzz, etc.) more of a sound shaping pedal that should definitely enhance the quality of your sound.

Desirability:
This is not a "slick" looking unit, but it certainly exudes quality.

Sound:
This pedal is exactly what I was looking for. I play a Fender Jazz bass through a Hartke 3500 amp, Peavy 2X10 for monitoring, and routed through PA to sub's and PA speakers. I have never been able to remove the unwanted string talk and string noise no matter how I set the 10 band equalizer,compression, or contour settings on my amp without sacrificing sound quality/presence. That's all behind me now with this pedal. Once I set my amp to the best settings I can achieve without sacrificing sound quality I can now turn to VXL to remove the unwanted noise OR to shape the sound to match the style of music I'm playing. The first day I was able to dial up a deep early Santana bass sound and then switch to a Funk-A-Fied Slap sound, all without touching a single setting on my amp head!

Ease of Use:
The layout is pretty clean, but it will take a little bit of time to get used to what does what. One think in particular is how the ON/OFF switch for the HARMONICS , MIX, and TREBLE is on the right of the unit although two of these three controls are on the left of the unit. ??? Same thing with the shape button. You get used to this shortcoming, but now the best layout. The remaining buttons are pretty self explanatory and easy to use.

Support:
I've dealt with the Hartke in the past regarding my amp head and they resolved my issue so I have no complaints here.

Overall:
Now that I have this unit to compliment by ZOOM effects pedal, I'm done shopping for bass pedals. I'm finally able to the get the sounds I was looking for from my Fender Jazz Bass!

"One Groovy little Preamp/DI"

This reviewer purchased this item from Same Day Music.

Feature:
My only beef is that these companies NEVER ship their products WITH the necessary AC power adapters... ah well... what ever.

Quality:
I would agree with the previous reviewers in that this thing is a solidly made piece of equipment. Very solid. No problems with workmanship or quality of material used that I can see.

Value:
This seems to be the least expensive DI preamp in it's "class" (and I would put it up against the sansamp or any other DI preamp made). Well worth the $$ for what you get!

Desirability:
It looks impressive. Clean design. Not too gaudy but definetly sexy.

Sound:
I've reasd reviewers stating that this pedal is very simmilar to the SansAmp Bass Driver DI. I would have to disagree. I've demoed the Sansamp for about an hour in a local shop and could only realy get ONE type of sound out of it... Period. I could definetly vary the amount of that ONE type of sound that was added to the dry mix but in general it was NOT a ver versitile preamp. The HARTKE Bass Attack on the other hand has a myriad of very different TYPES of sounds acheivable with it's various settings.... ALL of which I would say are very usable for just about anybody dpending on their specific muscal style needs... In my apinion the Hartke VLX DI is a superior product than the Sansamp in this catagory.

Ease of Use:
It's not exactly intuitively set up so it takes a while to get used to where the various settings are and what they do exaclty --but once you get the lay of the device it's prety straight forward.

Overall:
This DI/Preamp was exactly what I was looking for. Very versitile and useful sound shaping. I most definetly would miss it if lost or stolen and would replace it as soon as possible.

"Absolute Sweetness!"

This reviewer purchased this item from Same Day Music.

Feature:
Nice Features, all usable and wanted. Nothing here that is not needed or that will make you go... What does that thing do its straight forward sweetness with knobs to tweak not a bunch of buttons or pre-sets.

Quality:
This thing is a tank, all metal good sized.

Value:
Way worth the few pennies it costs.

Desirability:
It looks good, basic black and chrome, no frills just a strong made tone monster and thats all that really matters isin't it?

Sound:
The sound from this pedal is Sweet.. a couple turns of the knobs, following the manual suggestions, and instant full great tone that even the drummer notices an improvement. I started with a Bass POD XT and this thing blows it outr of the water for good usable tone thats easy to find. The best $ I ever spent on my tone shaping gear.

Ease of Use:
Very user friendly. turn the knobs and listen... BAM! instant tone.

Support:
have not needed support

Overall:
Abosolutely love it and will hunt down another if anything bad happens to it.

"A must have!....Can make an average bass sound over the top."

This reviewer purchased this item from Same Day Music.

Feature:
The only item missing is an AC adapter. As everyone has stated excellent quality preamp; has an ideal weight.

Quality:
How could the quality be improved?

Value:
Great value! I can run this through my amp adn then through the PA or straight from Hartke preamp to the PA board. The signal is boosted enough to give a nice rounded tone in all freqs.

Desirability:
Don't know how I survived without this.

Sound:
Great rounded tone. No muddled lower bass, the shape take care of that.

Ease of Use:
Just put all the adjustments at 12:00 and start tweaking from there.

Support:
No problems.

Overall:
Gave it a 9 because nothings perfect (its really a 10).

"Exactly what I needed."

This reviewer purchased this item from Same Day Music.

Feature:
Very good features on this pedal.

Quality:
Very sturdy steel case and seems like it would take a beating.

Value:
i got it for 100 plus free shipping here. All the local stores wanted 120-150 for it. this was definatly worth the money as well.

Sound:
This pedal gave me the exact sound i wanted. you can shape almost everything with it. Im extremely happy with the harmonics function. you can crank it up all the way for a nice tube overdrive sound.

Support:
Never had to contact Samson at all