One of the cool things about transitioning from being just a bass player to running a bass publishing company is that you are now 'in' the industry. To give you an idea what it's like, think Austin Powers. I roll out of my shag covered circular orange and green water bed, pad across the shag rug and head down to my shaggy 'den' where I am offered champagne and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups by a literal Who's Who of the bass industry. Sure beats watching SNL reruns on my 25" Magnavox. One of those in regular attendance at my soirée's is Larry Hartke. Larry usually brings the Rolling Rock, so he's always invited.

There's more to Larry than meets the eye. Take away the shag hair, the shades, the silver jeans... no in fact, ah, put them all back on, please. Now! What I was trying to say is that Larry actually knows what he's doing. I caught a bit of the correspondence between Larry and our resident EE, Tom Lees, during the review process for the LH1000 and HyDrive 410, and let's just say, I stopped reading when they started talking Singularities and the Multiverse. However, I am sharp enough to spot a new product release, and there've been several at the House of HyDrive. We'll focus on their new 5210 and 5410 combos.

In a nutshell, these two new combos are the LH500 head mated with either a 2x10 or 4x10 array, in one enclosure. In case you've been in a cloud of illegal substances for the past year, HyDrive transducers fuse paper and aluminum, so you get the best of both designs: the warm tone of traditional paper cones and the clear, punchy attack of aluminum. Hartke's patented Hybrid Cone Technology produces a speaker that uses an outside paper cone to push warm lows and an inner aluminum cone that produces mids and highs that cut, without harshness. All this and it's 40% lighter than traditional speakers because of its cast aluminum frame and neodymium magnets. Great taste, less filling.

The combos use a 1" Titanium high-frequency compression driver, sealed enclosures, vinyl-clad 3/4" plywood construction, and lots of metal parts - because they deflect evil spirits that often emanate from keyboard players. The 5210 2x10 combo runs internally at 8 ohms, which reportedly stokes 350 watutzies from the head. The 5410 4x10 combo runs at 4 ohms, so here, the head gives up all of its 500 watts. No fret - you can run an 8-ohm extension cabinet with the 2x10 to squeeze out the big 5-0-0.

The 5210 will street at $749 and the 5410 will be $999. They are expected in August. hartkesystems.com