Voltage Conversion on a GK MB212

[MrNightside]

Howdy guys, I am the proud owner of an American Gallien-Krueger MB212 combo amp. The unfortunate side of this however is that I'm currently operating out of Australia and the amp is set up for 110v operation and Australia uses 240v. What I wanted to ask is does anybody know if a technician would be able to convert the amp to run on 240v without any major (and costly) modifications or without replacing the entire transformer.

My problem is that nobody locally can give me a straight answer and any local technician would charge upwards of $100 just to have a look at the amp, which I can not afford to pay if all they're going to tell me is that converting it will be unreasonable costly.

One technician who did give me an actual response said this:

Hi John,
Thanks for your enquiry.
My experience is that these US amps do not have the windings to allow 240V conversion.

But I also got in contact with GK themselves who said this:

The voltage can be adjusted internally. It should take a technician about five minutes to do this. You can contact our distributor in your country for a referral. Their contact information is on our website. Note- The warranty is only valid in the country where the item was purchased.

So I'm in a bit of a pickle where I'm not quite sure what I can do or who I should listen to and I don't exactly have $100 to gamble on this so I thought I'd come to TB as the tie breaker. Is anybody familiar with the transformer in this unit and know whether or not it would allow for voltage conversion to operate on 240v without any expensive modifications being necessary?

[T-Bird]

Hi.

If You have an international version, not an US one, I'd do what GK rep told You to do, even though US manufacturers are the absolute worst when it comes down to using multi-tap transformers.

Regards
Sam

[MrNightside]

Originally Posted by T-Bird

Hi.

If You have an international version, not an US one, I'd do what GK rep told You to do, even though US manufacturers are the absolute worst when it comes down to using multi-tap transformers.

Regards
Sam

What's the difference? It's one purchased in the good old US of A so I assume that would make it an American amp?

I'd like to follow the advice of the GK rep but as somebody pointed out to me if he's suggesting anything to do with modifying an amp will take 5 minutes he's probably from sales and doesn't exactly know this stuff all that well which does make me doubt if he's right.

[T-Bird]

Hi.

Originally Posted by MrNightside

What's the difference? It's one purchased in the good old US of A so I assume that would make it an American amp?

The difference is the transformer, most likely.

Regards
Sam

[anotherlin]

Originally Posted by MrNightside

But I also got in contact with GK themselves who said this:

The voltage can be adjusted internally. It should take a technician about five minutes to do this. You can contact our distributor in your country for a referral. Their contact information is on our website. Note- The warranty is only valid in the country where the item was purchased.

I take that as a yes.

On my RB-700II, it's just a matter of rewirings the primary cables to the transformer. For a technician with the schematic or service manual, that's very easy to do.

Have you tried to contact your local GK distributor ? They are supposed to handle repairs, so they can give you the definitive answer and do the work for you.

[Blade3dge]

Originally Posted by anotherlin

I take that as a yes.

On my RB-700II, it's just a matter of rewirings the primary cables to the transformer. For a technician with the schematic or service manual, that's very easy to do.

Have you tried to contact your local GK distributor ? They are supposed to handle repairs, so they can give you the definitive answer and do the work for you.

Here is the source of my frustration. The distribute couldn't answer my question and neither could multiple local technicians, but I have been referred to the authorized service center by the distributor but given my luck (and the fact that there is probably only one of these amps in my entire state other than mine) I am actually half expecting them to give me the same "we don't actually know but for $100 we can tell you".

I guess that's what you get here in Australia, there's just not enough people around who know their stuff well enough and not enough a range of gear around for them to learn through experience. It's a shame but hopefully I'm closing in on an answer

[Ibanez Bassist]

I didn't know you re posted this I answered you in the other forum, sorry..

[anotherlin]

Originally Posted by Blade3dge

I guess that's what you get here in Australia, there's just not enough people around who know their stuff well enough and not enough a range of gear around for them to learn through experience. It's a shame but hopefully I'm closing in on an answer

Why do you guys have decided to live at the far end of the World ?

What you can do is unplug your amp, take a screwdriver and open the lid. There shouldn't be high voltage inside, no tubes, yet don't touch anything. Just look around the cables of the power supply transformer. If you see markings like 110V, 120V, 220V, and 240V on the boards, that means a rewiring is possible.

Do you have any friends with knowledge in electronics, should be easy for them ?