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Genz-Benz Streamliner Part 6
- Thread starter Kelly Lee
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You wouldnt but thats not the point of my post. Of course its not a problem at a gig, as i said in my first post.
Actually i was sitting with headphones on last night with music going through the aux in and i could hear it over some quiet passages.
This isnt something i plan on doing a lot but yes, it was slightly intrusive.
All i was asking if anyone else had a noisy fan/head and wondering why all of a sudden i can hear it.
Maybe Agedhorse can comment on this, but in all the years I've been using these class D/SMPS amps, I've noticed that they actually get hotter when idling. I notice this with my Markbass F500 and also the Acoustic Image heads I've had. Not sure why this is, or even if it is just a 'perception' versus reality in my case.
However, I had my F500 on all day the other day without really playing it, and by the end of the day, the fan (which I never notice at all.. whisper quiet) was spinning pretty hard and the unit was slightly warm to the touch (it stays ice cold when cranking on a gig all night at 4ohms).
I have not idled my Streamliner long enough to determine if this happens with that amp also.
Again, more of a musing than any sort of verified thing, but might be the cause of hearing the fan 'at home' after the unit has been on for a while.
Thanks Ken. Its really no big deal but it just surprised me that after a week or so of using it in the same place all of a sudden its a lot more audible. I guess this was the longest time I hadn't used it while switched on so ill give it another go tonight.
At least i know the fan is working
I do notice my SA450 gets quite warm at gigs. Its in a rack bag these days but that hasn't really made it worse. Its never cut out though and i dont tend to turn it off during breaks.
Changing the subject a bit, i put a set of Chromes on my P (again) last night and what a lovely difference. I'm really looking forward to the two gigs this weekend. New tone's ahead.
At least i know the fan is working
I do notice my SA450 gets quite warm at gigs. Its in a rack bag these days but that hasn't really made it worse. Its never cut out though and i dont tend to turn it off during breaks.
Changing the subject a bit, i put a set of Chromes on my P (again) last night and what a lovely difference. I'm really looking forward to the two gigs this weekend. New tone's ahead.
Thanks Ken. Its really no big deal but it just surprised me that after a week or so of using it in the same place all of a sudden its a lot more audible. I guess this was the longest time I hadn't used it while switched on so ill give it another go tonight.
At least i know the fan is working
I do notice my SA450 gets quite warm at gigs. Its in a rack bag these days but that hasn't really made it worse. Its never cut out though and i dont tend to turn it off during breaks.
Changing the subject a bit, i put a set of Chromes on my P (again) last night and what a lovely difference. I'm really looking forward to the two gigs this weekend. New tone's ahead.
The SA450 puts out a bit more heat since it is a class A/B power amp.... a bit different thing there.
I was still struggling a bit with the fatness and the slightly retiring mids yesterday, so I ran frequency plots via the DI Post output (DO NOT loop the input and speaker outputs without an isolation transformer, as that would melt your measuring gear or worse).
Interesting. The controls are pretty interactive, but I got close- bass at 9 o'clock, mids at 2 @ 600Hz, treble at 10, boost off, both input volumes at noon. That gave me + or - 2dB from 43Hz to a little past 19KHz.
That's almost where I'd been running it by ear. Seems I'm an instinctive flat response kind of guy...
Anyway, I PM'd agedhorse wondering if the heavy bass/treble boost was by design, and got a response within a couple of hours. G-B really is an AMAZING company. Apparently, the mid scoop is deliberate, and modelled after other all-tube heads. He also gave the sage advice about potential damage during testing, due to the Streamliner's bridged output.
All of this is pretty cool. In the past, I've always avoided running a lot of bass boost, but the SL900 has an unusual ability to go fat AND tight. Now that I've found my desired flat-response baseline, having all that extra bottom available is fun- I think it sounds better than any subharmonic synth!
Interesting. The controls are pretty interactive, but I got close- bass at 9 o'clock, mids at 2 @ 600Hz, treble at 10, boost off, both input volumes at noon. That gave me + or - 2dB from 43Hz to a little past 19KHz.
That's almost where I'd been running it by ear. Seems I'm an instinctive flat response kind of guy...
Anyway, I PM'd agedhorse wondering if the heavy bass/treble boost was by design, and got a response within a couple of hours. G-B really is an AMAZING company. Apparently, the mid scoop is deliberate, and modelled after other all-tube heads. He also gave the sage advice about potential damage during testing, due to the Streamliner's bridged output.
All of this is pretty cool. In the past, I've always avoided running a lot of bass boost, but the SL900 has an unusual ability to go fat AND tight. Now that I've found my desired flat-response baseline, having all that extra bottom available is fun- I think it sounds better than any subharmonic synth!
Cool! Yeah, there is a lot of 'all tube' voicing in this head. Interestingly, my 'starting EQ' with this amp and my AE410 is pretty close to what you found.
Bass.... around 11 o'clock
mids.... 600hz around 1 o'clock
treble.... depending on the room, between 10 and 11 o'clock
So, a bit more subtle EQ, but that profile gives me a reasonably balanced tone while still maintaining that 'all tube amp' vibe.
Of course, the gain settings also impact the tone... with the punch increasing as you push the ratio of gain to volume a bit.
I am leaning twds the Streamline 600 or the Gallien Krueger MBFusion...Can't decide, and no one has them in stock near me here in the 'quiet corner' of North East CT.
The nearest Genz Dealer in Norwich went out of business 2 months ago...hard times.
Is the streamliner woth the extra $$$? Compared to the MBFusion...
The nearest Genz Dealer in Norwich went out of business 2 months ago...hard times.
Is the streamliner woth the extra $$$? Compared to the MBFusion...
Two totally different heads. The GK Fusion sounds like the GK MB500 with a bit more complexity to the tone. Even though there are three tubes in the pre like the Streamliner, that head is voiced more like the typical hybrid... i.e., with a 'touch of tube tone'. It does not vibe what some would call a 'classic all tube tone'. Nice head... big low end, super aggressive upper treble. The MBFusion is actually closer to the Shuttle 9 tone than the Streamliner.... solid state tone with a 'touch of tube' to my ear.
The Streamliner is much more organic and relaxed, fat and warm, and it sounds especailly different up top, where the Fusion is gritty and supper sizzle, an the Streamliner is much more 'natural and tubey'.
Both are great, but both are REALLY different. Again, to my ear, the MBFusion and Shuttle 9 or Shuttle Max 9.2 compete more closely than the the MBFusion and the Streamliner.
Put another way, comparing to Mesa heads, the GKFusion is more like the M6, and the Streamliner is more like the MPulse600.
The Streamliner has the best treble control ive ever heard (ok, not that many).
I love the way it works like the tone knob on my P bass. I never really found much use for it on my other heads but on the SL it seems to make a nice difference and seems to warm the tone up rather than just making it less toppy.
I love the way it works like the tone knob on my P bass. I never really found much use for it on my other heads but on the SL it seems to make a nice difference and seems to warm the tone up rather than just making it less toppy.
Totally agree, and it is hard to put into words. It is just SO musical at every setting. Cutting does feel/sound like the impact of a passive tone control, and boosting does not add any hi fi sizzle or lower treble harshness.
I've heard a LOT of treble controls
, and this is pretty much the first one that I use as an integral part of voicing the amp to the bass and the room.Edit: The treble control on the Walkabout gets an honorable mention also.... somewhat similar.
Thank-you..You more or less answered this for me a couple of months ago..but I am torn...I do miss my Fender 300T tone, which I believe I could easily get in the Streamliner 600, I have been hooked with the mini-rig set-up. I do like GK heads and more of the bands I have been with, play more modern music, GK could do tha, But I am still a Motown tone freak...more Streamline tone. Does the SL 600 have the same voicings/tone as the SL 900 in your YouTube vids? just more watts....Figures I tried out for a band last night using my MarkBass LMIII through an Avatar 112 and I had the sound there....I know it is not going to please me 100% though as the MB LMIII I like in certain rooms, as last night. Figures...
The Streamliner's default voicing is about as far from Motown as you can get. Lots of extended treble, a hugely fat bottom, and very relaxed mids. Motown was built on the B15, which was tight in the lows, plenty of low-mids and mids, and a very tame treble response. You'll have to do a lot of EQ'ing to get that on the Streamliner. It's doable, but it's not where it starts at all.
hasbeen
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- Sep 23, 2004
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hmm...I think getting a Motown tone out of this head is pretty easy. These tone knobs are not afraid of being rolled all the way off or on. I need to get a campaign going encouraging people to really twist these things. It isn't like our Shuttle eq which is a click here and two clicks there.
I've never played the 600, but all who have say the tone is identical.
If you are using a P Bass with flats, the Streamliner is really something. I TOTALLY dig the LMII for that vibe also, since it has what many call a 'clean tube-like' voicing, but the Streamliner takes that to an entirely other level.
I agree with Eublet that the Streamliner sounds nothing like the old B15, but it can make your P sound a lot like Jamerson's if you want it to with the right technique and strings IMO and IME.
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