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Genz Benz Streamliner, Part 10

#2
New to the club. Now I have to read what, 10,000 posts?

Yippee! Thing is awesome by the way.

Genz.JPG
 
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#5
"I've read through these threads and like what I saw. I almost fell down my basement steps carrying my 69 SVT the other day. Kind of funny but I'm just not a burly young man any more. I should have my amp on Tuesday. I have an array of cabs to try it out on. First will be an ampeg sealed 410 4 ohms. I have two of these but generally only use one at practice. A boogie 215 ported and a boogie 210 with a tweeter in it ported. When I'm feeling burly again, I can try it with my old ampeg sealed square back 810. I currently play in two different Led Zeppelin tribute bands. One out of NYC travels a lot. I hope I can use it on the road in some big rooms. I may be searching for some cabs soon."

IME, the Streamliner 600 and 900 both work really well with Mesa's PH215 and PH810...


- georgestrings
 
#6
I've been having a buzzing/humming issue with my Streamliner 900 for a while now, and finally decided to do something about it. I PM'd Andy from GB (agedhorse here on TB), and he replied to me within minutes with some very helpful advice. This isn't specific to the Streamliner, but you have to love GB's customer service. I didn't even go through "official" channels and Andy was on it. I absolutely adore that kind of backing. Not to mention that my Streamliner paired with my LDS 15/6 and my dual Darkstar G4 bass sounds absolutely amazing.
 
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#7
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Page one pics

LETS GET THIS OUT OF THE WAY FOLKS... IF YOU DONT LIKE TUBE TONE ALL THE TIME... JUST PLUG A PREAMP\PEDAL IN THE BACK & USE THIS AS A POWERAMP, ITS AWESOME ! Dont sell the amp! :p I use an EBS Microbass II at times & its so awesome to change it up. Great feature Genz! :bassist:
 
#8
Tunaman said:
LETS GET THIS OUT OF THE WAY FOLKS... IF YOU DONT LIKE TUBE TONE ALL THE TIME... JUST PLUG A PREAMP\PEDAL IN THE BACK & USE THIS AS A POWERAMP, ITS AWESOME ! Dont sell the amp! :p I use an EBS Microbass II at times & its so awesome to change it up. Great feature Genz! :bassist:
Click to expand...

I hear ya, but I've done a 180-degree flip-flop on this issue lately.

If you're using an external per on occasion for a different colour, then great. But if you're running an external per all the time, it defeats the purpose of having a micro...

My Streamliner is up on the classified's right now. Not because it isn't a great amp (it is!), but because with my current gear, I think a ShuttleMax would be a better fit.
 
#12
So last night I had my gain and preamp volume around noon, gain button on, and the master at around 1 and I was seeing the limit light come on fairly frequently. Not on every note, but every few seconds. I know this isn't anything to worry about but how much farther can I push the amp if it's hitting it's limit halfway?

Keep in mind I have a G&L L1505, which is a super hot bass, and I was playing with my Darkglass B7K engaged.
 
#13
willsellout said:
So last night I had my gain and preamp volume around noon, gain button on, and the master at around 1 and I was seeing the limit light come on fairly frequently. Not on every note, but every few seconds. I know this isn't anything to worry about but how much farther can I push the amp if it's hitting it's limit halfway?

Keep in mind I have a G&L L1505, which is a super hot bass, and I was playing with my Darkglass B7K engaged.
Click to expand...

That's not a problem. You can also turn the master volume down just a bit and that will pull you out of the 3DPM activation as well.
 
#15
No, it's an overall level thing. Just backing off by 1dB on the master volume is about all it is likely to take.

I wouldn't worry about it myself though.

willsellout said:
So I would turn the master down and put the preamp volume up a bit to compensate?
Click to expand...
 
#16
agedhorse said:
No, it's an overall level thing. Just backing off by 1dB on the master volume is about all it is likely to take.

I wouldn't worry about it myself though.
Click to expand...

OK thanks. I doubt I'd need any more volume, but how much farther could I push that volume before I ran into issues? I remember Ken Jung posting you could bring the master all the way the 3 O'clock and still sound musical. Or is it a game of messing with the gain, preamp volume, and master volume?

I'm playing this through your new NX2 212. Everything sounded fine last night, but how likely is the STL900 to damage the 212?


thanks!

Dan
 
#17
You have a few gain stages before your signal even gets to the Streamliner. I would set the Tube signal to your liking, and back off the Volume which is essentially an input to the preamp.

The Master volume has a nice audio taper and you can set that to taste.
 
#18
CElton said:
You have a few gain stages before your signal even gets to the Streamliner. I would set the Tube signal to your liking, and back off the Volume which is essentially an input to the preamp.

The Master volume has a nice audio taper and you can set that to taste.
Click to expand...

That's the thing. I'm setting the tube signal and preamp volume up to my liking and then bringing the master up to the volume I need and I'm hitting the limiter. So i'm wondering if I need to back the gain off a tad, bring the preamp volume up and then work with the master, or what.

If I'm being honest, I didn't think i'd be hitting the limiter at all with a 900 watt amp. My logic could be unsound and I may be getting wrapped around the axle about the watts. I don't know. What I do know is that it seems like I'm putting a lot into the cab. I've got the volume I need but the cab is rated at 600 watts and I want to make sure I'm not doing damage. It sounded fine last night, but it's a new cab I'm not familiar with.

As an aside, I had played with GK 800RB's for years in bands and never got the volume past noon. I'm having to push the Streamliner quite a bit harder to be heard.
 
#19
willsellout said:
That's the thing. I'm setting the tube signal and preamp volume up to my liking and then bringing the master up to the volume I need and I'm hitting the limiter. So i'm wondering if I need to back the gain off a tad, bring the preamp volume up and then work with the master, or what.

If I'm being honest, I didn't think i'd be hitting the limiter at all with a 900 watt amp. My logic could be unsound and I may be getting wrapped around the axle about the watts. I don't know. What I do know is that it seems like I'm putting a lot into the cab. I've got the volume I need but the cab is rated at 600 watts and I want to make sure I'm not doing damage. It sounded fine last night, but it's a new cab I'm not familiar with.

As an aside, I had played with GK 800RB's for years in bands and never got the volume past noon. I'm having to push the Streamliner quite a bit harder to be heard.
Click to expand...

Three things:

First, the position of the master volume knobs when comparing two amps means absolutely nothing. The GK stuff (especially the older stuff) using a very agressive linear volume pot, and will max out before noon in most cases (that is done so that the kids at Guitar Center go 'wow, it is really loud, and I only had the master at 10 o'clock:p). The Streamliner has a wonderful audiotaper pot that is 'non-linear' (i.e., adjusted to 'SOUND' linear through its entire taper, even though db is a log scale). So, the Streamliner won't start cranking until the volume is past noon, and quite a bit past that in many cases where you aren't pushing the pre.

Second, the light coming on is not a 'limiter or clip light' per se, like on many other heads. It is an indication that the power management/power tube emulation circuitry is kicking in. There is no issue with that clip light coming on a bit when you are cranking. Still a lot of clean headroom left.

Third, it takes a LOT more power to generate the big low end and smooth midrange of the Streamliner versus the low end attenuated and mid bumped voicing of the GK 800 and 400. This isn't a 'better or worse' thing (I gigged an RB400 and 800 for years back in the day... great amps), but it 'is what it is'. The ear hears midrange more efficiently than bass, and a head like the 800RB that has a strong dose of midrange, and a limited low end extension, is going to sound loud. In its extreme, that is why a 20watt guitar amp can cause your ears to bleed.
 
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#20
That helps, thanks. So maybe I need to take a look at the bass knob and fiddle with it during practice and try to find a happy medium.

I'll say it again, I really wish the manual for the Streamliner had more info in it. I'm lucky to know about TB, but for someone who doesn't, they could have a lot of frustration trying to "get" the amp without this kind of info. It's my one and only complaint. I always thought quite a few companies could learn from Eden and what they had put in their manuals. I never had any questions about the operation of any of the Eden stuff I owned.

I'm still curious to hear about the power handling of the NX2. I have no idea how much power is going to the speaker but my pants were flapping. And like I said, everything sounded fine. I'm not overly concerned, though.
 

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