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Gallien Krueger Head with Non-GK Cabs????
- Thread starter jk3
- Start date
Yes, we have found the same. One of the most versatile lines out there. We even tried a cheap Chinese knock off cabinet and it still sounded great! LOL
Horny toad....love the two rack idea...one for the amp...one for the rest!!! was that on purpose or did you just have one rack then bought the other when you out grew the first? i suffer from a hurneated (cant spell it but i got it...hehehe) disk and my rack kills me...and its only got the GK 700RB II, tuner, and power conditioner...but its made out of 3/4 ply...i think i like the idea you got going on....id rather make two light trips than one back breaking one!!! man im so glad i started coming here!!!!
I fairly recently switched out my Mesa BigBlock 750 for a GK 1001-RB II and hooked it up to my Mesa Powerhouse 1000. It definitely impressed me. I expected it to sound good...but not THAT good.
Mike,
The two-rack setup was intentional. I like having two lightweight pieces as well. A rack made out of 3/4 ply sounds awful. I know it's expensive, but I highly recommend a lightweight molded plastic rack like my SKB. They're plenty strong and so much lighter than wood.
man it is awful....it weighs more thatn my Avatar 212!!! it was a piece a friend had laying around when i started my rack...i got the GK, tuner, and power conditioner at the same time and by that point i was risking me marriage
!!! ive been looking but was trying to decide on "how big is big enough" but with your idea i could go with two four spaces and have plenty of room...i intend to add a two space drawer and maby an multi effects of some sort to play with down the road and an eight space just seemed to big. thanx for posting your rack and saving my back!!!
Strange
I have the same rig and I think it's a great set up. Loud! The Ampeg cab kinda smoothens out the sound from the 1001RB.
Try setting the Boost & Woofer at 12 o'clock or higher and use the Volume the adjust the total volume...
I played my GK through through a lot of cabs (Trace Elliot, Hartke, Ashdown, Avatar etc.) and I still like my combination best... I like it even better than the SVT-810E... IMO
Did not try a GK cab yet. Hope to try a NEO412 some time, but I'm afraid it will give me serious GAS...
Strange
I have the same rig and I think it's a great set up. Loud! The Ampeg cab kinda smoothens out the sound from the 1001RB.
Try setting the Boost & Woofer at 12 o'clock or higher and use the Volume the adjust the total volume...
I played my GK through through a lot of cabs (Trace Elliot, Hartke, Ashdown, Avatar etc.) and I still like my combination best... I like it even better than the SVT-810E... IMO
Did not try a GK cab yet. Hope to try a NEO412 some time, but I'm afraid it will give me serious GAS...
I just remembered this thread and I was going to provide some of my findings after a band rehersal last night. Actually I was pleased with the sound last night, my initial assesment was after playing through the rig in my garage and I was dissapointed with how the sound sounded a bit choked - the amp has a lot of punch and so does the cab and I was also using a compressor so it seemed like the attack of the note was too fast and there was too much punch. My compressor seemed to make it worse.
It sounded good last night in a band situation though, I guess it was just the acoustics in my garage but it worked well and did sound very smooth, very deep, I want to try using my compressor next time. I guess I'm so used to the sound of my previous cab that anything else will take some getting used too, the tone of the amp and the cab had a scoop to it, it sounded nice, I still have to mess with the eq settings on the amp because I was mainly only adjusting my pickups but I'm sure that I'm gonna end up with something much better then my last cab.
So since I've bought the GK i was pretty disappointed on the sound of it, I figured it just wasn't for me.
I tried it out in a band setting today, uber loud drummer, guitarist with a full marshall stack and cranking his volume, I cut through both like butter while still providing a dark growl bottom. My volume was at about 12 and this thing just sounds better the harder you push it. I can't wait to get my avatar 212 and 410 and see how good this sounds!
I tried it out in a band setting today, uber loud drummer, guitarist with a full marshall stack and cranking his volume, I cut through both like butter while still providing a dark growl bottom. My volume was at about 12 and this thing just sounds better the harder you push it. I can't wait to get my avatar 212 and 410 and see how good this sounds!
i have an ampeg 610 classic and there is a local guy with a gk 1001kb head. what do you guys think. i have a horrible ampeg svt-350. i wish i had looked up what i was buying. slm electronics. it clips all the time. and just isnt as powerful as i want.
anyway the guy wants 300 bux for the head so i wanted everyone or anyone's opinion.
thanks all
Dario
anyway the guy wants 300 bux for the head so i wanted everyone or anyone's opinion.
thanks all
Dario
i cant see you being disappointed in it....i LOVE my 700 rbII...ive got enough head room to keep up with 2 200 watt 412s and a SUPER loud drummer. the thing i love about about GK is there dosent seam to be a sound you cant dial in. i started with a 1975 (ish) 400B and tryed everything from carvins to ampegs to poweramps with preamps with effects....SOOOO glad i came back to GKs!!! IMO for the price, IF its in good condition it should serve you well.
i run a gk1001rb-II into an older ampeg 8x10 with a musicman sub...loud as hell. gks are easily some of the best amps on the market, hands down.
A normal (non-GK RBH) cab has a crossover built in. Just use your GK woofer output into your cab, set your woofer hi-cut to OFF and adjust your horn at the cab.
If you want to run your GK in biamp mode you can easily mod your cab by bypassing or removing the crossover and putting in speakon jacks wired for GK (1+/1- for woofer, 2+/2- for horn). I did that with my SWR Goliath III cabs and gigged them that way for a couple of years. I just removed the cab crossover/jack plates and replaced them with plain plates that were pre-stamped for speakon jacks. I bought them from parts express. They are the same size as the SWR plates so it was clean. It was ok but honestly, the GK biamp feature is no big deal (mainly a gimmick). I put my cabs back to origional when I switched to tube heads.
Why wouldn't one be allowed to stack non-GK cabs with GK heads? I guess I violated this law with my SWR cabs for years! Oops.
GK puts out a bunch of misinformation to a) promote their heads and b) make you think you have to use their cabs to make their heads sound best. I own a GK 1001RBII. It's ok but frankly it's kind of sterile sounding. My ampeg svt and peavey vb-2 heads sound a lot better.
If you want to run your GK in biamp mode you can easily mod your cab by bypassing or removing the crossover and putting in speakon jacks wired for GK (1+/1- for woofer, 2+/2- for horn). I did that with my SWR Goliath III cabs and gigged them that way for a couple of years. I just removed the cab crossover/jack plates and replaced them with plain plates that were pre-stamped for speakon jacks. I bought them from parts express. They are the same size as the SWR plates so it was clean. It was ok but honestly, the GK biamp feature is no big deal (mainly a gimmick). I put my cabs back to origional when I switched to tube heads.
Why wouldn't one be allowed to stack non-GK cabs with GK heads? I guess I violated this law with my SWR cabs for years! Oops.
GK puts out a bunch of misinformation to a) promote their heads and b) make you think you have to use their cabs to make their heads sound best. I own a GK 1001RBII. It's ok but frankly it's kind of sterile sounding. My ampeg svt and peavey vb-2 heads sound a lot better.
I know there are several threads about gallien krueger heads combined with avatar cabs. I'm looking to get a 1001RB with an 8 ohm Avatar 410 neo and hope to add Avatar 212 neo down the road.
I am confused and need help. i've scanned many of the threads for the answers, and nothing is clear...
RE: Horn/Tweer & Bi-amp function:
For pairing GK heads, with non-GK cabs, does it mean that the tweeter on a non-GK cab is useless with a GK head????
RE: Stacking Mulitiple Cabs
also, i'm under the impression that you CANT stack mulitiple non-GK cabs with GK heads - is this true?
this is pretty much the reason why i've preferred big combos, i hate this technical stuff
To clarify: GK has never said you can't use non-GK cabs with their heads. There's a section of the manual dedicated to explaining that. So before you claim they're providing misinformation... read the manual. 
EDIT: An example from my 2001RB manual:
I should also mention that Bridge Mode is unique to the 2001RB, so that tidbit wouldn't be mentioned in the other manuals. Otherwise, you'll see similar info in the other manuals.
They do "promote" their horn bi-amping system, and that shouldn't be a surprise. If they don't explain why they did it, no one will know the difference without trying it themselves. It's a selling point of the amp, just like the contour control, Boost knob, etc.... they're the things that make GK different. Whether they are actually good is a subjective thing.
Although... TBH, the horn bi-amping is not a dramatic improvement over passive crossovers. I do find it to sound noticeably better than a passive crossover circuit, but I rarely use tweeters. Even then, if I had to choose, I'd go with GK's approach.
EDIT: An example from my 2001RB manual:
I should also mention that Bridge Mode is unique to the 2001RB, so that tidbit wouldn't be mentioned in the other manuals. Otherwise, you'll see similar info in the other manuals.
They do "promote" their horn bi-amping system, and that shouldn't be a surprise. If they don't explain why they did it, no one will know the difference without trying it themselves. It's a selling point of the amp, just like the contour control, Boost knob, etc.... they're the things that make GK different. Whether they are actually good is a subjective thing.
Although... TBH, the horn bi-amping is not a dramatic improvement over passive crossovers. I do find it to sound noticeably better than a passive crossover circuit, but I rarely use tweeters. Even then, if I had to choose, I'd go with GK's approach.
I never said they said that. I said "GK puts out a bunch of misinformation to a) promote their heads and b) make you think you have to use their cabs to make their heads sound best." - e.g. they say "When using other brand name cabinets a two-conductor Speakon cable will be needed but the Bi-amp feature will not work." - your exerpt from your manual. They hype their bi-amp/crossover and how unique it is and then say it won't work with non-GK cabs. Draw your own conclusion about what they're saying.
Anyways, other than the 800RB, newer GK heads sound crummy to unremarkable. I had to use a SansAmp and MXR M80 pedal to make my 1001RBII sound good. I wish it weren't so because I own it. It's a weird amp with too many features and flat doesn't sound good. The 800RB sounded good and GK has been milking and eroding that reputation since. I threw in the towel and got an Ampeg SVT all-tube head and a Peavey VB-2 head - they both sound a lot better. Within one minute I had a better tone (with each of them) than the best I could get with the GK in two years of messing with bi-amps, boosts, contours, two mids, pedals ... what a mess!
To be fair, other than gigging an old 800RB once (which sounded very good), all the above is based on my 700RBII and 1001RBII amps. I've not used the 2001RB.
Anyways, other than the 800RB, newer GK heads sound crummy to unremarkable. I had to use a SansAmp and MXR M80 pedal to make my 1001RBII sound good. I wish it weren't so because I own it. It's a weird amp with too many features and flat doesn't sound good. The 800RB sounded good and GK has been milking and eroding that reputation since. I threw in the towel and got an Ampeg SVT all-tube head and a Peavey VB-2 head - they both sound a lot better. Within one minute I had a better tone (with each of them) than the best I could get with the GK in two years of messing with bi-amps, boosts, contours, two mids, pedals ... what a mess!
To be fair, other than gigging an old 800RB once (which sounded very good), all the above is based on my 700RBII and 1001RBII amps. I've not used the 2001RB.
To clarify: GK has never said you can't use non-GK cabs with their heads. There's a section of the manual dedicated to explaining that. So before you claim they're providing misinformation... read the manual.
EDIT: An example from my 2001RB manual:
I should also mention that Bridge Mode is unique to the 2001RB, so that tidbit wouldn't be mentioned in the other manuals. Otherwise, you'll see similar info in the other manuals.
They do "promote" their horn bi-amping system, and that shouldn't be a surprise. If they don't explain why they did it, no one will know the difference without trying it themselves. It's a selling point of the amp, just like the contour control, Boost knob, etc.... they're the things that make GK different. Whether they are actually good is a subjective thing.
Although... TBH, the horn bi-amping is not a dramatic improvement over passive crossovers. I do find it to sound noticeably better than a passive crossover circuit, but I rarely use tweeters. Even then, if I had to choose, I'd go with GK's approach.
This is hardly misinformation. It's in fact just the opposite. You need their speakon to use their biamp feature with their cabinets. If you're using someone else's you need a different cable and the biamp won't work. That's not misinformation, it's just a way to educate the public on the correct use of their amps. They do hype their biamp feature, and rightly so. It is unique (biamping isn't, but their approach is), they think it sounds good... What's the problem?
In response to your A-B:
A) Why shouldn't they promote their heads? Not many business models work without promotion.
B) Every company that makes both amps and cabs wants you to think this. This is nothing unique to GK.
This is purely subjective, but I'd like to go on record as saying that my 2001RB and the 1001RB-II that I'm using this week sound fantastic.
+1 to silky's post. To add onto that, you can't use the horn bi-amp system on non-GK cabs without modification. I think this is the most important point you're missing, KPAX. Few manufacturers actively endorse the modification of their gear, much less, the gear of other manufacturers. DIY antics are not proof that GK "lied".
I seldom rail on the over-hyped and often bizarre approaches of other manufacturers to advertise their heads; it's the way the business goes. Everyone does it, but IMO, GK isn't as culpable as others for marketing hype, partly because they have a long history behind them.
And actually, I've noticed over the past few years that the horn bi-amping system is rarely mentioned in GK ads! You pretty much have to dig for that information...
I seldom rail on the over-hyped and often bizarre approaches of other manufacturers to advertise their heads; it's the way the business goes. Everyone does it, but IMO, GK isn't as culpable as others for marketing hype, partly because they have a long history behind them.
And actually, I've noticed over the past few years that the horn bi-amping system is rarely mentioned in GK ads! You pretty much have to dig for that information...
