GK Goldline 500... should I do it?

runmikeyrun · #1 08-03-2011, 09:51 PM

I managed to find a very well priced ($299) GK Goldline 500 today. I played it and really liked it. I have been playing 20 years in a variety of styles, and am also an electronics guy, having a pretty solid knowledge of most things electronic. So I feel I am a good judge of tone. I know it's not the '71 SVT I want, but until I get out of nursing school i'm just scrapin by.

I am thinking about pulling the trigger because I can trade my QSC RMX 2450 for it straight up. I know that my QSC has 5x the power, but I don't have a REAL preamp/channel strip for it, just a tube MP with a rack eq. I can't afford to purchase any sort of preamp, and frankly because of that I cannot get a very good sound out of it. It's only a backup to my main head anyways. Plus it's 10 years old and i've had to repair broken solder joints twice on it now in the last 6 months.

I have read some reviews of the GK on here, and some said it was junk, a made in China base model GK made exclusively for GC. Some people apparently have reliability issues with them. That being said, I NEVER use my QSC to it's full potential anymore (used to drive an 8x10 and 2x15 with it, those are both gone, i'm down to a 4x12) and I like the idea of having a better sounding amp that's new as opposed to a 10 year old amp that is starting to have issues.

It probably won't see a lot of heavy duty action, maybe practices a couple times a month and 5 shows a year. I know there are probably better options, but since cash is super tight right now i'm thinking it's a good idea. Also, I am wondering if it will be loud enough. At the moment I only have one 8 ohm 4x12, which means i'll only be getting about 250w out of it. I can pump 500w into the cab from my QSC. Might be a moot point though because I am planning on having another 4x12 soon.

So, what do you guys think? Cork sniffing aside, that is... I know there are better options, i'm just wondering if it makes sense to do the trade.

dereksilloway · #2 08-04-2011, 04:23 AM

If you like the tone and arent really losing any money id say go for it

smgleitch · #3 08-04-2011, 04:46 AM

I have owned this amp, so I speak from my experience with it. For $299 there are far better options out there than this thing. Shop the classifieds here it is a great place to find great gear. I have bought and sold a Carvin BX500 for about the same money and many more.

As far as the GK goes. When it works it does sound great. Thought it was the greatest thing and got mine for about the same money. Then even at low volume it just cuts out. Couldn't really find any rhyme or reason to it. Wait a few minutes and sometimes it came back on sometimes it didn't. Frustrating at home practice, but the thought of it doing this in band practice or even worse, on stage was enough for me to return it to GC.

You might get a good one and if so great enjoy, but you might not. To me $299 is a lot of money and to spend that on something that might work, but probably will fail, just didn't make sense. To many other good options out there.

Oh and by the way, when I returned it to GC and told them about the problem with it they said this. "Yeah we thought it had a problem, a lot of these amps do." and then they just put it back out on the floor for sale.

runmikeyrun · #4 08-04-2011, 07:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by smgleitch

Oh and by the way, when I returned it to GC and told them about the problem with it they said this. "Yeah we thought it had a problem, a lot of these amps do." and then they just put it back out on the floor for sale.

Wow, that is so shady! Years ago I almost bought a Mesa Buster 200 from Sam Ash. When I went to demo it, the sales guy couldn't get it to power up. He said "yeah, we've sent this thing out 3 or 4 times for repairs since we took it on trade". As if they would still continue to try to sell it! I guess all these chains are the same.

I might try to trade them on another Windsor or something, I dunno. Or see if they'll give me the extended warranty on it. It's not going to see heavy use, but still I don't like the thought of it going out on me at a show.

On second thought, I'm going to go in and check out a Presonus studio channel... I can probably trade a couple other things for it, and just keep my preamp. I'm getting a bit freaked about all the reliability issues people seem to be having after doing some google searches on the GK. A shame, but oh well.