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Oh, absolutely. I ran the boost around 11-12 o'clock. Every single note up and down the neck slammed like a jack hammer. Folks in the room actually had bassline-specific questions after our set, Ha!I bet that rig left a few bruises.
Hi! How do you compare the Legacy with the 700RB? Do you find a bit redundant having both of them? I have a 700rb II, I never played a legacy but looking at the features and demos it seems to me that you can achieve the same (or pretty similar) results with both, am I missing something? The overdrive circuit on the legacy is nice by the way!I’m familiar with it…
The Legacy 800 weighs less, has more power, is 2-ohm capable, and *can* sound very similar to the 700RB-II. It also has an aux in and headphone out, for silent practice.
I max the master on 800RB with mudbucker/Sidewinder basses and it absolutely enables a neck mudbucker to play clean and the hi boost and EQ in general works outstanding
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I've noticed an interesting thing about this with the Legacy amps that I've demoed. With the Legacy 800, I encountered the same observations as yours, i.e. not using it as an obvious or typical overdrive but a lower settings to achieve the character of the boost function on the older GK amps. However, a local shop to me had a used Legacy 1200 and when I was playing through that, I found the overdrive circuit to have a lot more usable range even when adjusting to higher drive and edge settings. It never really got buzzy or burley like I observed on the 800. Just added more grunt or grind to the overall tone. I'm assuming this could obvious due to the power ratings but I'd assume that the overdrive characteristic would be the same across all of the Legacy amps. Or this could have been a situational observation or maybe my unfamiliarity in setting these amps (user error).
I’ve had RB’s like the 400 and 700 RB-IIi. Is the backline the exact same amp but without the second biamp?
I believe the backline is a Chinese made equivalent of the 400rb, with no bi amp, and a drive channel. I haven't had a 400rb, but my backline amps are very similar to my 700rb-ii in tone.
I have had both a BL600 AND the 400RB-IV. I traded the BL600 in to get the 400RB-IV. I noted no difference in sound quality, besides the obvious lack of a drive channel. My 400RB-IV does not have bi-amp capability, and to my knowledge, I don't think any of them did. I believe that was an 800RB and up feature, and in the more modern amps, a 700RB and up feature. Either way, a BL600 and 400RB-IV are basically identical in my experience. I "upgraded" to the RB only because I liked the aesthetics more, already had a 700RB-II, and wanted to keep my knob settings etc. as close to identical as possible between amps.
This 100%. Backline series is essentially Chinese-made RB series. And if memory serves, QC for the Backlines was done in China and in the US, so they should be solid amps overall.
I didn't know these specifics, but agreed that the BL are great amps. There was a BL 600 in a practice space I used to have. It sounded every bit GK as any other GK amp I've used. I loved it.
Here's what I received from GK.
Hey Bass Brother,
Wow! What a sweet rig. I really loved the Fusion 550 when I was looking for a new amp a while back. I tried out all of GK's options as a local shop had a huge selection. I was smitten with the 550 but was really going after the compactness of the smaller MB amps but the 550's impressions stayed with me.
it is a heavyweight by today's standards but there is something about the big tone i get from that weighty case that makes me smile whenever i play through it. it's not the rig i typically use when i play out but it is the one i use at home the most. if we get a nice outdoor gig this summer, i'll bring this one to hear it stretch it's legs a bit.
