Gallien Krueger (GK) MB200 - How much noise is normal?

[Jazz_Funkster]

Hello,

I purchased a GK MB200 amp head + GK Neo 115 cabinet a month or so ago and I've come to notice that there's a fairly significant amount of white noise coming from the cab when the amp is on. It doesn't seem to make any difference whether my Bass is plugged in and the gain knob only affects it at really high output. I.e. turning the gain up does increase the noise floor but turning the gain all the way down does not get rid of it by anyways, it's pretty loud even when volume is all the way down.

There's also a high pitched squeal noise that seems to rise and fall over time very slowly. It also drops in pitch with higher gain settings and goes back up in pitch when I turn the gain down. You can clearly hear the pitch move from the woofer to the tweeter in my cabinet. The white noise is also much more noticeable when the tweeter is at a normal level compared to the woofer.

While jamming it's not really noticeable and I also noticed that the white noise and high pitched sound are not coming through when I record DI from the GK MB200 head. You can only hear them through the cabinet. I noticed it happened with two separate Neo 115 cabs though.

The main problem here is I prefer to mic up my cab and record the cabs tone then the DI tone I get, but close mic-ing the cab captures a bunch of that white noise.

So essentially I'm wondering if other MB200 if this noise floor and the strange rising and falling high pitch is a normal one for the MB200? The rising pitch doesn't seem like it's enough to mess up a recording whereas the white noise to me is unusable in a close mic situation.

 

[msb]

My MB200 is quiet .

 

[blmeier7]

My MB200 is very quiet, no white noise at all unless I crank the volume up to 2-3 o’clock, and it’s still not too bad.

 

[Troglodyte1911]

Electrical interference? Have you tried a different receptacle or location such as another room? Any dimmer switches in use?

 

[Jazz_Funkster]

No dimmer switches in use. I have it on a simple power bar. I' ll try moving it around to other outlets i suppose. Could white noise ever be introduced by the cab?

 

[agedhorse]

Could white noise ever be introduced by the cab?

Not that I have ever seen or could imagine a reason for.

 

[Jazz_Funkster]

Electrical interference? Have you tried a different receptacle or location such as another room? Any dimmer switches in use?

So as I said no dimmer switches and I just tried it on several outlets throughout the house and the same white noise/rising and falling pitch is present everywhere. I guess I'll talk to my local music store and see if I can try out a different MB200 to compare the noise levels. Otherwise it's not terrible if I resign myself to keeping the tweeter volume off or at least a few dB down from flat on the Neo 115.

 

[Troglodyte1911]

Is the noise present if you plug in headphones? If under warranty, I’d open a case with them.

 

[StereoPlayer]

I have two currently and had as many as 4 of of them. From what I read some have a hiss and some don’t. Not much help I know. I love those little buggers!
My current ones are somewhat quiet.

 

[dougjwray]

Mine is quiet. I seem to remember that some of the ones manufactured right after GK moved their manufacturing from China back to the U.S. had problems with noise. Mine was made in China just before the move back.

 

[Al Kraft]

Mine is relatively quiet (although I don't use it much these days), but as others have mentioned it seems to be a hit or miss kind of deal. I would look for LED light bulbs/fixtures or cell phones near the amp or your bass...these are two sources of noise I see most often these days in many environments.

One last thought is that these same noise sources can easily be picked up by your bass or anything else in your signal chain prior to the amp. Once again light fixtures and bulbs (especially the LED and compact fluorescent deals) as well as power supplies for pedals (and the effect pedals themselves) can introduce noises like what you describe.

 

[blmeier7]

Mine is quiet. I seem to remember that some of the ones manufactured right after GK moved their manufacturing from China back to the U.S. had problems with noise. Mine was made in China just before the move back.

Good point. As I was reading back through this thread I also remember there being some issues depending on this early manufacturing change. I’m sure there are some threads on here discussing this in more detail - probably 2013-2014 time frame.

 

[Jazz_Funkster]

I tested it with headphone outs and there' s a similar amount of white noise even at 0 gain setting. The noise doesnt change until the gain knob is at about 12 o clock abd then you csn hear the hiss increase as well as the amps hum. The high pitched squealing noise is also hearable in headphones but extremely quiet. Thanks for the input so far folks I' ll be asking my music store if i can try a different MB200 since im still under warranty.

 

[Doug Parent]

I tested it with headphone outs and there' s a similar amount of white noise even at 0 gain setting. The noise doesnt change until the gain knob is at about 12 o clock abd then you csn hear the hiss increase as well as the amps hum. The high pitched squealing noise is also hearable in headphones but extremely quiet. Thanks for the input so far folks I' ll be asking my music store if i can try a different MB200 since im still under warranty.

I had several MB800's that exhibited the same phenomena. The issue was related to a faulty component. Once replaced the problem was solved. I've had several MB200's and none produced the noise you described. I suspect your MB200 needs service under warranty. If you contact Jason at GK service he will send you an RA number and they will cover the shipping both ways. Good luck.

 

[drpepper]

I tested it with headphone outs and there' s a similar amount of white noise even at 0 gain setting. The noise doesnt change until the gain knob is at about 12 o clock abd then you csn hear the hiss increase as well as the amps hum. The high pitched squealing noise is also hearable in headphones but extremely quiet. Thanks for the input so far folks I' ll be asking my music store if i can try a different MB200 since im still under warranty.

This brings back some memories...

Mine is dead quiet, it's user error of some kind, it's the ground lift, it's interference where you're using it, it's a Chinese vs USA assembled issue, don't disconnect a cabinet while it's on (I had made a video), some are noisy others aren't but Brian at GK has dealt with this and can take care of it (he could not and said he had never heard this problem :\ ), just contact GK, their customer service is stellar (it was completely unremarkable in my case...I felt deflection and dismissal).

It was a frustrating situation and in the end, in this case, posting worked out to be particularly unhelpful. I went through the return process and tried two units and got the same result. I wanted it to work out, but it didn't so I moved on.

 

[Marty Forrer]

My MB200 is dead quiet into my GK Neo 1x12.

 

[StereoPlayer]

Still loving my two MB-200’s

 

[Bassquest]

Bring it back.

 

[Jazz_Funkster]

I went to the store and tried out a GK MB200 head they had in the store and it showed the same noise issues. At the end of the day, it doesn't render my amp unusable. I can record through the DI out without any noise issue and since I simply don't engage the tweeter on my cab the hiss isn't all that much of a bother on recordings once the bass is in a mix with other instruments. It's pretty disappointing for sure since some other amp heads in the store showed much less noise problems, however none of them give me the tight controlled tone I feel I get from the GK MB line of heads. Guess I'm just stuck compromising until I decide I want to up my budget for a new head someday.

 

[Marty Forrer]

My MB200 is dead quiet, zero noise. It's from around 2010.