Dudes, so you know how they say bring a back up amp?

knigel · #1 02-19-2010, 10:48 PM

Anyone know a good DI I can get hahahaha?

Yep, GK died mid set. Not the end of the world, but still, I just laughed. Some weird girl yelled at me "I like your GK!" (huh?) and two songs later, dead. She cursed it! That's some bad juju!

But dig this--(I can't swear, so add the f word where you think it's appropriate) Ted Leo was there, and he tweeted about my band, Broadcaster!

http://twitter.com/tedleo

"Southron New England, if you made the mistake of missing So Cow & Broadcaster tonight in Providence, DON'T MAKE THIS MISTAKE AGAIN!!"

I'm super pumped! Suddenly I have indie Cred!

doktorfeelgood · #2 02-20-2010, 12:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by knigel

Anyone know a good DI I can get hahahaha?

Yep, GK died mid set. Not the end of the world, but still, I just laughed. Some weird girl yelled at me "I like your GK!" (huh?) and two songs later, dead. She cursed it! That's some bad juju!

But dig this--(I can't swear, so add the f word where you think it's appropriate) Ted Leo was there, and he tweeted about my band, Broadcaster!

http://twitter.com/tedleo

"Southron New England, if you made the mistake of missing So Cow & Broadcaster tonight in Providence, DON'T MAKE THIS MISTAKE AGAIN!!"

I'm super pumped! Suddenly I have indie Cred!

You weren't playing at Lupo's were you? I had a soundman from Lupo's kill one of my my GK's one night after he ran a phantom power signal back into the DI on my GK... It was ugly....smoke and everything... Dipsh*# never offered to have it fixed , either. Congrats on the props... )-(

Joey3313 · #3 02-20-2010, 12:25 AM

T.Lo and the Pharmaskittles? Sweet!

walker rosewood · #4 02-20-2010, 02:53 PM

sansamp.

electracoyote · #5 02-20-2010, 02:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by walker rosewood

sansamp.

Or a Sadowsky. I just bought one. Makes my rig sound better and if the amp goes, I re-route to the board.

knigel · #6 02-20-2010, 03:20 PM

Hmmmmm, was thinking Sansamp, will check out Sadowsky for sure. Keep in mind I am a crappy bass player--will the Sadowsky hide my crappiness, or accentuate it?

Thanks for the good thoughts! I'm still super pumped. I've been a huge Ted Leo fan since Tyranny of Distance/Hearts of Oak days. I saw him five times at the bar, and I knew he was familiar, but I never thought, "Oh, Ted Leo is at the bar I am playing at, of course." Although, I did know he lives in RI now.

Quote:

Originally Posted by doktorfeelgood

You weren't playing at Lupo's were you? I had a soundman from Lupo's kill one of my my GK's one night after he ran a phantom power signal back into the DI on my GK... It was ugly....smoke and everything... Dipsh*# never offered to have it fixed , either. Congrats on the props... )-(

Whoa whoa whoa whoa, that's exactly what happened! That is the only thing that was different about the night! (It was AS220 BTW) The guy hooked up the cable to the DI on my 700RB (not II). It didn't work, but I had never used it before and assumed because it was a POS ebay deal that was just another thing wrong. Can someone explain what happened better? Is it just a fuse, or is this thing cooked? There was no smoke, it just shut off and wouldn't turn back on. I assumed it was a fuse, but GK helpfully didn't put access anywhere on the outside, and to be honest, I don't even know if there is even a fuse in there. It could be elves or a genie, I have no idea.

How embarrassing.

walker rosewood · #7 02-20-2010, 05:28 PM

googled your manual....
http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=...oTN9TjMpR5V_JQ

there is a protection circuit built in that shuts down the amp if trouble is occurring. The manual basically says if everything is connected right, and still no dice, then contact GK for advice. Chances are there is a fuse and there. Fuses are cheap. It couldn't hurt to replace it, if you can find it.

walker rosewood · #8 02-20-2010, 05:30 PM

btw, are you telling me that if any soundguy inadvertently sends phantom to the DI in my Ampeg, (or any other amp for that matter) it could fry it?

I usually complain that they want to use 'their DI' rather then the built in one, but if this is the case, I think I'll be changing my mind on that.

knigel · #9 02-20-2010, 05:41 PM

Yeah, I googled the manual too, and "contact GK" wasn't what I was hoping for (though, I have nothing against GK customer service ha ha, just hoped I could fix it myself quickly and simply).

I am also confused by the phantom power/on board DI situation. Anyone who can help please chime in!

xgator4u · #10 02-20-2010, 07:29 PM

Go to the GK web site, then log into the "community forum", ask those guys. I am sure B string or a dude named PB can help you out there. Plus GK techs and engineers frequent that site, not to mention Bob Gallien himself. Good luck.

doktorfeelgood · #11 02-21-2010, 12:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by walker rosewood

btw, are you telling me that if any soundguy inadvertently sends phantom to the DI in my Ampeg, (or any other amp for that matter) it could fry it?

I usually complain that they want to use 'their DI' rather then the built in one, but if this is the case, I think I'll be changing my mind on that.

I don't know about Ampegs, When I sent that amp to GK for repair, the tech told me on the phone that there was supposed to be a protection built into the GK's DI that would stop a phantom power signal from frying the DI. But he said mine was obviously bad or faulty from the factory.
I don't have that amp anymore but after it was fixed and I got it back from the factory, I used the built in DI many times w/out any problems. But I often thought the same as you that maybe the house DI would be safer in the long run, but you never know I guess. As an aside, the night my DI fried, the rest of the amp actually worked and we miked my cab up to finish the set. Go figure... It took a long time for the smell of burned electronic parts to go away in that amp...

)-(

walker rosewood · #12 02-21-2010, 01:16 PM

hmm, I would expect most modern products to have some sort of protection built in, as do dynamic mics. But now I want to know for sure.

knigel · #13 02-21-2010, 03:44 PM

See, on mine the DI never worked (okay, I never tried the DI, but this one is such a piece of garbage I just ASSUMED it was broken when I got it, just like the ground and all the little push buttons). Sound guy plugged it in, no sound. There were like 20 people in the room (including Ted Leo, did I mention that? He tweeted about it.), so I didn't even think I needed the house. Just static.

I left it plugged in, 2.5 songs into set--dead. Not the DI, the whole shebang wouldn't power up. I thought it got unplugged! Is there anything he could have done to fry it AFTER we started, something from the board? I used to know live sound, but those days are long gone.

bound'n'blocked · #14 02-21-2010, 09:26 PM

Try this to see if your amp works or not... I had a GK 600 go out on me during soundcheck once and didnt have a backup either....thank goodness for my Sansamp...

Anyway, on the effects loop if the 700 has one(I dont know), try plugging a short cable from the send back to the return. When mine died, I thought it was smoked too because the sound guy said he wasnt getting any signal, but the GK effect sends have a switching jack that sometimes gets stuck in the closed position. If you put a cable from the send to the return it fixes the problem. I have a Peavy guitar amp (Bandit 112) that has the same problem and I just always leave a patch cable plugged in.

As a side note, the night that the amp died, the sound guy for Exile was mixing for us, and I told him to just put some bass back in the monitors and I'd use the sansamp anyway. He said it was the best bass sound he'd ever had!!

EDIT: Sorry, disregard...i didnt read your whole post about it not powering up...I'm such a dumb@$$...

BnB

knigel · #15 02-21-2010, 10:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bound'n'blocked

EDIT: Sorry, disregard...i didnt read your whole post about it not powering up...I'm such a dumb@$$...

BnB

Ha ha ha, don't worry about it!

I think I see a sansamp paradriver in my future though, very soon...

walker rosewood · #16 02-21-2010, 10:56 PM

love or hate the sansamp, but either way at <$200 I would recommend having one as 'insurance' unless ya really like carrying extra bass amps around!

TFunkadelic · #17 02-22-2010, 04:37 PM

Delivering phantom power to a non-phantom power device shouldn't damage it. It's more likely you had a faulty cable/connection.

countrybass007 · #18 02-22-2010, 04:51 PM

Several times soundmen have refused to hook up to the DI on my SWR Silverado. Both of them said they had "bad experiences" using the built in DIs on SWR amps. Other times the soundmen have been thrilled that I had a built in DI. I just decided it depends on whose doing the sound, but your experience makes me wonder if this is why some of them were fearful.

not_jason · #19 02-22-2010, 05:01 PM

That sucks about your amp. I hope it's fixable.

However, getting props from Ted Leo is extremely cool. I have a lot of respect for that guy.

Jason P Bass · #20 02-23-2010, 08:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by knigel

"Southron New England, if you made the mistake of missing So Cow & Broadcaster tonight in Providence, DON'T MAKE THIS MISTAKE AGAIN!!"

I played a show with So Cow at the Velvet Lounge in DC. Those guys were great.

Sending phantom power into your DI should NOT cause any failures. The whole "phantom" part of "phantom power" is that device that don't NEED it are supposed to IGNORE it. Those that do need it get "magically" powered by the audio cable.

I use a Sansamp 3 channel programmable pedal, but any time a venue offers to let me use their DI, that's what we use.