Opinions: GK Heads Biamped into GK Cabs

[Ben Esparza]

I have a GK 1001RB that I play through an SWR Goliath Jr. III and/or an SWR Son of Bertha. I'm looking into lightening my load and getting 2 - GK Neo 112's to replace the SWR's.

1. How do these cabs sound and project stacked up against a 2x10 like the SWR G Jr. III? I'm sure 2 are better than one, especially for large rooms and outdoor gigs.

2. Being that it's made to be biamped using the 4-conductor Speakon cable with the 50 watt amp feeding the tweeter, how do you like the tone in biamped mode?

I have no problem with the tone of the woofer output going into the SWR's, but like the light weight and small size of the GK NEO's and their mated design for their amps.

Those of you that use the GK's into NEO 112's please enlighten me.

[BassMonstrum]

Well, I have the 1001rbII and the NEO212. You might as well get that instead of two NEO112 IMHO.

Kick-ass combination!

[mcm]

gk head into the bag end stack s15d and s15xd slays. easy portability and loud as hell.

[Ben Esparza]

Originally Posted by BassMonstrum

Well, I have the 1001rbII and the NEO212. You might as well get that instead of two NEO112 IMHO.

Kick-ass combination!

I guess you missed the part about lightening my load and portability. How does it sound biamped? Do you prefer full range or biamped?

[j.kernodle]

Hey Ben, I know you didn't ask about the neo 212, but I have that cab and it weighs next to nothing (under 50lbs). very portable and convenient. If you're going to play the majority of your gigs with both 112 cabinets its worth a look.

By the way, I use a mesa carbine m6 into my cab and I usually turn it to full range so that the tweeter is completely off. Having the 1001rb with the seperate power section for the tweeter may be the ticket, since it allows you to dial the high end back a little more than the attenuator on the back of the cab (only allows a -2db adjustment from what I can tell)

[jg919]

Hello Ben,
I use a GK 700rb II into a)GK Neo 2x10" for smaller gigs, or b)Ashdown 4x10" (The high-quality one) for bigger gigs.
I like the sound of the Ashdown in full range better! - GK heads are the greatest - but the tweeter/woofer dept, hmmmm.
I think the GK tweeters are much too crackly for my taste, as is with all GK cabs. The Ashdown is more weight, but better overall tone.
I would reccomend using an 800rb with 2 2x10" cabinets (of GK, Trace, Mesa, Ashdown, Ampeg). Here you can choose your crossover freq, and the load is light, or thereabouts.
I know the 800rb is only 300w + 100w, BUT - if you keep the boost on full, and attenuate your volume with the volume control, and mix tweeter/woofer to taste - it is just as powerful as you will need.

Cheers all!
John, NSW Australia.

[tombowlus]

First off, let me say that I am super impressed by GK heads, I am super impressed by GK cabs, and I love the combination of the two. It took me longer than I would like to admit to come into the GK fold, but I'm totally hooked, at this point. I've been fortunate enough to play a lot of great gear, and IME/IMHO, GK is consistently up there with the best of the market.

As to your two questions, two Neo112-II's should be louder than your Goliath, Jr. III, on its own, but not louder than the Goliath, Jr. III and the Son of Bertha, used in tandem. The Neo112-II is a great 1x12, but you are basically dealing with how much air each cab (or pair of cabs) can move. But for a lightweight, loud, toneful option, two Neo112-II's would be a very good option to consider. So would the Neo212-II. And, even though it does distribute power to the woofers unevenly, I have found a lot to love about the Neo212-II/Neo112-II stack.

As to your question about the GK biamp system, my previous experience with bi-amp systems had been with splitting the signal between a 1x15 and a 2x10 (this was long ago, mind you...), and I must say, I was underwhelmed. I'd heard a few other players try biamped rigs that involved sending the highs to one cab and the lows to another, and I was never all that impressed. The GK bi-amp system is a bit different, in that it is only driving the tweeter(s) with a different amp. The drivers get a (more or less) full-range signal to play with. The main reason for doing this is to allow you to push the drivers a bit (and introduce some harmonic content), while keeping the tweeter(s) nice and clear and clean. On a gig, this works really well, and it most definitely allows for a clear, non-fatiguing high end, even when you are getting a bit of grind out of the drivers. In all honestly, I kind of thought that it was a bit of a gimmick before I tried the GK bi-amp system live, but now, I am hooked on it!

That being said, if you don't push any dirt/grind/growl into your cabs, then you may not see the same benefits from using the GK bi-amp system. And of course, their cabs sound excellent when driven in full-range mode, as well.

Hope this helps, Tom.

[Doug Parent]

Right on Tom. I'm sure I'm late to the party but since I accidentally fell back into a GK1001RB-II NEO 212, NEO 112 rig very recently, I have to agree 10000%. The ability to turn the horn OFF and adjust upper midrange settings for an old school tone, or switch back to a sizzling hi-fi funk slap tone from hell is pretty cool. The SWR rig is going to be less efficient most likely, and I also concur with other's comments. Get the Neo 212 cabinet over two 112's. Easier to haul one cab and it's VERY efficient, as in loud and very deep and warm tonally. The GK tweeter (P-Audio) is identical to what Epifiani is using, and probably Bergantino as well. The GK bi-amp horn management system crosses-over the tweet at 5khz, this is higher than many other manufacturer cabinets and changes the tone of the tweet. More crackily? I can understand since GK's probably hitting their tweets with more juice at a higher frequency. I say go for it, GK is serious gear.

[mr bonez]

I play a backline 600 head through a goldline cab. The gold cones are nice and bright and it really cuts through during band practice, and my guitar players like to play LOUD. I've owned the head and cab for about two years, gigging often and never had any problems. The cab is pretty bulky though, but the wheels make it easy to haul...

[lbwdog]

G-K has two distinct methods for bi-amping. One is the system in the 800RB that allows you to choose the frequency (100Hz-1000Hz) where the split occurs, and the tweeter only "Horn Management System" (700RB, 1001RB, etc) which has a 5KHz fixed crossover point. My preference is the former, simply because I don't use a lot of super highs in my normal tone. Very little slapping/popping, and more old school classic bass sounds.

To utilize the variable system as on the 800RB, you ideally need a cabinet dedicated to low frequency reproduction, which is harder to find these days as most cabs are meant for full range. I had a 1x15 (no tweeter), custom cab that was very large, and loaded with a JBL K-140. This cab would handle almost anything you could throw at it at very high SPL. Ideal for the bottom half of a bi-amp rig. Now for the top cab, you need a good reproducer of mid to high frequencies. Let's say a 2x10 or 1x10 plus tweeter. Actually, a single or double 8" would be fine with a 15" woofer, but there are not that many in production. My method for choosing the crossover point was by ear. I would play while sweeping the crossover freq. up and down till I found the most satisfactory balance between the low and high cabs. I would then adjust the individual volumes to pinpoint my sound. This was ideal as I could keep my mids-highs clean, without straining the top cab with reproducing the low bass frequencies.

With the growing popularity of mid cone three-way cabs such as fEarful, Barefaced, Carvin LS 1503, etc., this method can be utilized quite effectively. With my Kappalite loaded LS 1503, I can flip it to bi-amp, and divide the frequency somewhere between 500Hz & 800Hz for optimum quality, therefore eliminating any weaknesses in the cab's built in crossover. That said, I mostly run full range anyway since I can achieve excellent results with any cab I own.

On the other hand, I personally don't have a need for the later G-K "HMS" version (I own a 700RB as well as 800RB). As stated, my tone doesn't require super highs.

Here's a little experiment 700RB/1001RB owners who are also using the G-K cabs can perform to demonstrate exactly what your tweeter is doing..........
Engage the bi-amp switch on the amp and cab. Now turn the "Woofer" master all the way down and the "Tweeter" up. Now play. Most likely you will hear nothing on the lower strings, and just a very weak signal plus string noise on the higher notes. This shows just how little actual information present above the fixed 5kHz crossover. While these sounds seem insignificant in this mode, they do contribute to "sparkle" and "sheen" when mixed with the fuller range signal. It's just a matter of preference as to the value it adds.

With the majority of today's cabs, which are designed for full-range operation, bi-amping is definitely not necessary, and will confuse most novices. In fact, most questions I see here are by folks who definitely don't need it but feel like they're missing out on something by not utilizing it (IMHO). Tom's description above nails it as far as benefits though.

Regardless if you utilize either of these bi-amp methods or run full-range into G-K or any other quality speaker, the G-K heads are great and have been serving me well for over twenty two years, and I am a big fan of Bob's design philosophy. Not to mention that he hasn't succumbed to gouging the price point of these pro-line products.

[Wadge]

I have tried the GK neo 1x12 and really liked it. It would be great for those coffee house gigs or small rooms where you don't need a lot of volume. The only reason I haven't (yet) purchased it is that I have a GK 2x10 cab (RBX) which does that job.

If I were to purchase however, I'd opt for the 2x10 neo cab - still not very heavy and it would cover a lot more situations.

[KJung]

I had the 700RB 112 combo for a while with the biamp tweeter system. Actually, pretty cool, and as described above, not the 'full biamp' system that most think of (like the 800RB), but rather just a way to separate the tweeter signal from the woofer signal when you are dialing in that GK grind (which sounds great with the drivers, and pretty nasty coming out of a horn tweeter).

Pretty slick. One of the things I like most about this system (with the 700 and 1001 and larger heads) is that they have two switches (the 4/5 string switch and the 'horn/papercone' switch... can't remember what that is called) that allow you to shift he lo pass and hi pass filtering up or down.

With the tweeter switch, you can have lots of sizzle, or cut off the frequencies above 8K or something like that to make the horn tweeter sound more like a soft dome type 'paper cone' tweeter. Nice. You can extend or bring in the deep low end with that 4/5 switch also.

Pretty darn nice. I can't say I'm very impressed with the quality of construction, noise levels and general reliability/quality of the stuff I've played recently, but the tone was very good.