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Double Bass Gallien-Krueger MB200

#82
I let mine go because it lacked power. The little Clarus which has similar power on paper sounds like twice the amp. It's possible the fact that the B1's impedance drops below 4 ohms was an issue. The GK might be a good match for an efficient cabinet. I liked the tone.
 
#83
Agree, great tone. I think with matching it with an efficient cab is crucial, since it doesn't really have a lot of headroom. I know a few steel guitarists who love this amp..with their instrument it can get really loud, pushing the lower end up front isn't an issue there. One guy uses 2 of them in a stereo rig. I think the preamp is voiced very nicely for DB, though. Just a bit shy on headroom for playing with larger ensembles.
 
#84
MR PC said:
Agree, great tone. I think with matching it with an efficient cab is crucial, since it doesn't really have a lot of headroom. I know a few steel guitarists who love this amp..with their instrument it can get really loud, pushing the lower end up front isn't an issue there. One guy uses 2 of them in a stereo rig. I think the preamp is voiced very nicely for DB, though. Just a bit shy on headroom for playing with larger ensembles.
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Since the headroom of this Mighty Mite is an issue, it seems like the MB500 would be just the ticket, we're not the fact that EQ section is voiced differently. From those in the know, is that the issue with using the MB 200 vs the MB 500 for Double Bass? As I recall, when I did an is store comparison between the two amps, I really preferred the MB 200's tone stack for DB.

Ric
 
#86
Les Fret said:
Are more people having these headroom issues with this amp? Or is it enough power for most situations? I pair it with a 212 bergatino 900watt cab
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Hard to say, I played through a Walter Woods MI-100-8 for years, and found it fine for most Jazz and Casual gigs. The the Woods actually put out @140. Watts into a 4 ohm load. Jim's cabinets
are very efficent, and extremely well designed, which probably makes it's combination with a MB200 more compatible than a lot of other cabinets. Dave Holland used to regularly use a GKMBS/MBE to drive
a GK 410 cabinet. It wasn't all that loud, but the coverage the extension cabinet provided really expanded his onstage sound. The Acme Low B1 that Greg mention's above, is a really power hungry little cab,
due to the lows it trys to reproduce. The new Claris SL has a whole lot more power, and a much better EQ section, at a reasonable price. The added benefit is that it's a very small amp.

Ric

clarus_sl.png


Walter Woods M!-100-8.jpg
 
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#87
I gigged with an MB200 into an EA Wizzy 10 for quite a while, both double bass and electric. I think the MB200 has enough power to take the Wizzy 10 as far as I would dare to take it, but beyond that I couldn't say. It's been plenty loud for me running into an efficient 2x12" on a few electric bass gigs too.
 
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#88
Martin Beer said:
I gigged with an MB200 into an EA Wizzy 10 for quite a while, both double bass and electric. I think the MB200 has enough power to take the Wizzy 10 as far as I would dare to take it, but beyond that I couldn't say. It's been plenty loud for me running into an efficient 2x12" on a few electric bass gigs too.
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In some ways the GKMB200 Head (not to be confused with the 200MB combo) is a remarkable achievement. It's built in the United States, small, lightweight, relatively powerful given it's small footprint, and very inexpensive.
IME less that 500 watts into 4 ohms is below what I use these days. Just my take.

Ric
 
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#89
Martin Beer said:
It's been plenty loud for me running into an efficient 2x12" on a few electric bass gigs too.
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ok good to know. I will be using it for electric and double bass. With a 212 cab as I said before.

@Ric Vice : That Clarus SL looks really nice too. Will it sound good for electric as well? Or is better to get the two channel version? Anyone has experience with this amp?
I wonder about the European prices.
 
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#90
Les Fret said:
ok good to know. I will be using it for electric and double bass. With a 212 cab as I said before.
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YMMV depending on your cab and your situation though. The MB200 seems about in line with what I'd expect from a 200 watt amp, so if you need more than 200 watts there's always the MB500. I intended my MB200 to be a backup for the 100 watt valve amp I was using on electric bass, but then I kept bringing it out for gigs when I didn't want to carry the valve amp out to the car.
 
#91
Les Fret said:
ok good to know. I will be using it for electric and double bass. With a 212 cab as I said before.

@Ric Vice : That Clarus SL looks really nice too. Will it sound good for electric as well? Or is better to get the two channel version? Anyone has experience with this amp?
I wonder about the European prices.
Click to expand...

I really dig the Clarus SL, and IME/IMHO, it sounds great on electric.

Link Removed
 
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#93
Les Fret said:
so how did it compare to the MB200 for you?
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The SL has more volume, and the tone is more similar than different between the two. The AI is a bit smoother sounding, and the GK is a bit more airy. But again, they are relatively similar, tone-wise, with the EQ's set at noon. GK might be a little mid-scooped compared to the AI with tone controls at noon, but it's a slight difference. The have pretty different feature sets, of course, and the variable HPF on the AI is a notable difference.
 
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#95
Les Fret said:
Can someone tell me more about the quality of the effects of Clarus SL-R? is it worth the extra money? I see that there is only a rate control and level. Is the rate for the delay time? you can not adjust the feedback amount of the delay?
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My favorite Bass Chorus, was on the old Gallien Kreuger 200MB combos. Something about the way it left the lower partials alone. I've never found one that I liked as well. I tend to stray away from onboard effects in bass amps. Just my take however.

Ric
 
#96
I use my MB200 and my upright every Monday night in an 18 piece big band with a Fearless F112 and it doesn't break a sweat.

BTW, a while back a TBer posted this info on running the MB200 flat:

"I couldn't resist hooking my GK MB200 head up to an analyzer. The amp has the characteristic "scooped" voicing of GK heads, which I consider to be problematic for DB. On the other hand, I discovered that the MB200 can be dialed to within a dB of flat with the following settings:

Contour = Off
Treble = 10:00
Hi Mid = 2:00
Low Mid = 1:00
Bass = 10:00"
 
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#97
Les Fret said:
Can someone tell me more about the quality of the effects of Clarus SL-R? is it worth the extra money? I see that there is only a rate control and level. Is the rate for the delay time? you can not adjust the feedback amount of the delay?
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The SL we recently received for testing does not have the effects, but Invalid Link Removed, which does feature both reverb and delay, and I found them to be really nice, and far more useful than I had anticipated.
 
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#98
Thanks. Nice article and interesting magazine! Do happen to know what the approximate maximum delay time is? can't find that anywhere in the manual. Is it really short or a bit longer (say 700ms)?
My 'problem' with that delay is that you can't control the amount of the repeats. I really like delays and use them a lot but this delay might be less useful for me because it is fairly limited I guess.
 
#99
Les Fret said:
Thanks. Nice article and interesting magazine! Do happen to know what the approximate maximum delay time is? can't find that anywhere in the manual. Is it really short or a bit longer (say 700ms)?
My 'problem' with that delay is that you can't control the amount of the repeats. I really like delays and use them a lot but this delay might be less useful for me because it is fairly limited I guess.
Click to expand...

Thanks! I do not know the maximum delay time, but I will say that both of these effects (reverb and delay) seem to strive to offer well-chosen parameters that work well out of the gate, but don't offer a huge range of tweakable options.

If you are all about delays, and like to control a huge variety of parameters, the range of delays offered by the Invalid Link Removed are mind-boggling, and awesome.
 
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