A couple of weeks ago I noticed a click in the sound coming out of my little Hartke Kickback 10 amp. Rattling the cabinet didn't solve the problem this time. I hit the web to find a replacement speaker.

Hartke doesn't sell those trademark aluminum cones, at least not without thick strings attached. You can actually buy a replacement driver - provided you ship the defective speaker back to the factory first. Something about controlling where the speakers show up - god forbid they should hit the street for sale in some unauthorized cabinet.

Forget that.

I hit Atomic earlier tonight and picked up a new Ampeg driver for fifty bucks. It's four ohms - the original speaker is eight, but there's an external 8-ohm jack on the back of the amp... an external cab would bring the total load down to four ohms, so the amp should be fine with the new driver. I just need to remember not to ever plug in my non-existent external cab.

The amp's never sounded better. Time to find some unauthorized configuration for that cooked Hartke cone.

Posted by Chuck Dolan at August 23, 2004 09:55 PM