Gallien Krueger MBE 212 Paragon speaker replacement ??

[ialma]

Hey there,
I own a MBE212 speaker, light cabinet with a great sound.
Anyway a speaker now distorts and I wanted to replace it.
Sadly the replacement speaker is not available.
http://secure.netsolhost.com/272252....tegory_Code=S8

and this leaves me with a cabinet I cannot use and GK that cannot help.

Any suggestion is more than welcome, I'd appriciate a suggestion for another brand speaker with same specs.
Thanks everyone

[bebop1]

I would suggest you look at the premium line of SICA speakers. Made in Italy and similar to the Markbass speakers. Huge cone excursion which works well to move a great deal of low end out of a small cab. They are neo and quite light. High power handling, too. I love them. I think Jensen distributes them so they are not difficult to obtain.

http://www.sicaspeakers.com/pl12b3s.html is the 350watt 12". There is also a premium lite (neo) 250 watt 12" driver, but i have not heard that one.

[rag]

Originally Posted by ialma

Hey there,
I own a MBE212 speaker, light cabinet with a great sound.
Anyway a speaker now distorts and I wanted to replace it.
Sadly the replacement speaker is not available.
http://secure.netsolhost.com/272252....tegory_Code=S8

and this leaves me with a cabinet I cannot use and GK that cannot help.

Any suggestion is more than welcome, I'd appriciate a suggestion for another brand speaker with same specs.
Thanks everyone

Of course we still supply speakers for this cabinet. We still make it!
Bob

[B-string]

Call or email:
Parts
lailany@gallien.com
or (209) 234-7300 extension 120. 9am to 4pm PST USA

I don't know if RAG has the plant closed this week for the holidays though?

[ialma]

Hello Bob and B-String.
thanks a lot for your answers.
Customer service kindly answered me with this mail which brings to another interesting question.


Francesco, are you located within the U.S.? If so, the speaker can be ordered directly from our factory. What is the original purchase date of the cabinet? The warranty period is 1 year from the date of purchase.
If you are located outside of the U.S. the distributor in your country will be able to assist you to source the speaker and determine the warranty status.
Thanks,


MY ANSWER :

Hey there,
thanks for your answer.
I am located in Italy, and local distributor told me there is no warranty on speakers.
Can you explain me why please ? I thought the replacement warranty is valid all over the world.
It seems so unreal that a USA GK customer has different and better rights than an Italian one.
Regards

[AstroSonic]

Is your cab older than 1 year? If so, the warranty question (US vs Italy warranty) is moot. If less than 1 year, you may be covered. In any case you need to evaluate why the driver blew. If you have not really pushed the cab, then it may have just been a marginally defective driver. OTOH, if you have been pushing the cab (lots of bass boost or just lots of power), you may want to consider 1) replacing both drivers now, 2) adding a second cab or 3) cutting the low bass just a bit.

Good luck!

[ialma]

I wish it was moot.
Looks like if you purchase a GK cabinet in Italy you have no chance to have your speaker replaced under warranty. That's what the importer wrote me today.

Originally Posted by AstroSonic

Is your cab older than 1 year? If so, the warranty question (US vs Italy warranty) is moot.

The cabinet has not been pushed, has just been regularly used with a MB500 head with a medium volume, I never had a problem until this distortion kicked in. You can perceive it only with low volumes.

Originally Posted by AstroSonic

In any case you need to evaluate why the driver blew. If you have not really pushed the cab, then it may have just been a marginally defective driver. OTOH, if you have been pushing the cab (lots of bass boost or just lots of power), you may want to consider 1) replacing both drivers now, 2) adding a second cab or 3) cutting the low bass just a bit.

Good luck!

[BassmanPaul]

I believe that GK build their own drivers so perhaps they can re-cone your failed driver at less cost than purchasing a new one.

The problem with speaker cabinets is that one man's pushed is another's medium volume. You may well have to bite the bullet on this one. I sincerely hope you get things resolved.

[will33]

Originally Posted by ialma

I wish it was moot.
Looks like if you purchase a GK cabinet in Italy you have no chance to have your speaker replaced under warranty. That's what the importer wrote me today.



The cabinet has not been pushed, has just been regularly used with a MB500 head with a medium volume, I never had a problem until this distortion kicked in. You can perceive it only with low volumes.

I'd start by making sure the speaker is actually blown.

Blown speakers usually either fall silent, or make worse noise as the volume goes up. If you can only hear it at low volume, it coukd be some other loose hardware or something.

Search the "battery test" here and do that. Does one speaker look like it's moving more or less than the other while you play? Any scraping voice coil sounds? What sort of noise? Check all your cables? Battery in active bass? Any effects pedals?


I'm saying make sure a speaker is actually the problem first. If it actually is, GK can get you another one. Also need to sort out this discrepancy between manufacturer, importer, dealer, etc.

[ialma]

The speaker has a slight distortion at low volumes.

[ialma]

Update :

The speaker has been repaired locally by a pro.

Two questions still remain open :

1) why every importer can write his own law when it comes to warranty.

2) why a driver (180€) should cost me almost half the price I paid for the whole cabinet (400€)

It would have been more convenient to me to buy a second MBE212 cabinet through Thomann (www.thomann.de) for 240€ NEW and sell the working speaker.

Either ways GK lost a customer.

[B-string]

Originally Posted by ialma

Update :

The speaker has been repaired locally by a pro.

Two questions still remain open :

1) why every importer can write his own law when it comes to warranty.

2) why a driver (180€) should cost me almost half the price I paid for the whole cabinet (400€)

It would have been more convenient to me to buy a second MBE212 cabinet through Thomann (www.thomann.de) for 240€ NEW and sell the working speaker.

Either ways GK lost a customer.

It sucks that it works out this way. Keep in mind G-K is not a huge corporation. It is a single building in California, USA owned by a single person that started the company back in the late 1960's out of his garage. The distributor agreement outside the US is maybe not the best. I don't know if a better deal could be made considering the small scope of the business. G-K is one of the biggest small companies I know of.

[BassmanPaul]

Originally Posted by ialma

The speaker has been repaired locally by a pro.

I hope the pro used a proper kit from GK. If he used generic parts who knows how the TS parameters changed.

[xroads]

You are mixing up 2 things:
- warranty
- availability of a replacement speaker

As to warranty, you have never written how old your MBE212 was when the speaker blew. If > 1 year, you are out of warranty, no matter where you live. If your speaker was < 1 year, you should have contacted the shop where you bought it. If it is a GK dealer, it also handles warranty cases. Have you done that>

As to availability of the speaker: it might be more difficult to source parts from an overseas manufacturer. That is indeed sometimes a pain in the rear, but with some patient research, solutions can be found (acc. to my experience).

All in all, I don't understand what you are upset about, I would be happy if you could clarify. I have no relationship to GK, I simply think your statements are somewhat incoherent.

[AstroSonic]

Presumably the cost reflects not only the driver, but the 'labor' (often includes a 1 hour minimum). The labor cost is what likely played a role in pushing the total cost so high.

You should check to see if the driver is an exact replacement. If it was simply selected on the basis of frame size, impedance and rated power you may be disappointed in the tone and/or soon replacing another driver. If the TS parameters are not closely similar to the original, the ported cab will be misaligned. As a result, the new driver could easily be overdriven (over-excursion). OTOH, you could just end up with peaked or weak bass, or with luck, tolerable sound.

Replacing a driver is about the same level of difficulty and expertise as putting on a new set of strings. Next time consider having the exact driver sent directly to you and installing it yourself. If the cab is out of warranty, there really is no reason to pay somebody for driver replacement.

Sorry to hear things ended this way. Hopefully, you have an exact replacement and the cab is performing as designed.

[B-string]

One thing G-K should consider changing with the export agreement is the ability to ship spare parts. Right now the international agreement does not allow them to sell replacement parts directly to international customers. At least the end user would have the option of paying VAT or import duties on their own and not relying on the local distributor to actually make a spares order?

[BassmanPaul]

+1 Mr B. Spare parts SHOULD be freely available to any customer of any company. We see the opposite of this thread when we talk about repairs to Mark Bass products. Made in Italy, hard to get here.

There is also the matter of folk using spare parts to create their own versions of a product. That said if an owner can supply a valid serial number he/she should be able to source what is needed to make a repair. Let's be honest anything that is built anywhere in the world can be reverse engineered in the far east if they so desire. I remember, fondly, the days when the owners manual contained the schematic. it made the life of a tech that little bit simpler.

[B-string]

Agreed, now they may not even honor a request for a schematic. If they finally do, they supply an incorrect one (case MarkBass).

[BassmanPaul]

Originally Posted by B-string

Agreed, now they may not even honor a request for a schematic. If they finally do, they supply an incorrect one (case MarkBass).

I have the service manual for the LMII on my machine here. Came across it one day1