Genzler Amplification Club

[John D Harris]

I have found that most players can’t hear their drivers being stressed until it’s too late.

I would say that most players who use more power than their cabinets are rated for, do not blow their drivers, so when you say "most players", don't you mean "most players who report to you that they blew their drivers".
Again, I'm not trying to encourage musicians to use more power than their cabinets are rated for - it is better to be safe.

 

[Michael Vee]

My band is 'old school' (we use floor wedges etc and no IE's) and we don't like running instruments through the monitors. With the Genzler cab everyone can hear my bass clearly and if I decide to venture around the stage I still have a good reference for myself. We don't play a ton of gigs with sound engineers but I've had a few in the past check out the cab and have been very impressed with the design, volume and clarity that this rig provides.

I like the way your band does things. Bravo to you and your band for being "old school" in this way. To me, "old school" is the way live performance should be.

Nowadays, due to overly aggressive sound techs and general laziness like nobody wanting to transport amps, there is way too much use of IEMs and ampless gigs. Ampless gigs don't sound like live music to me, it sounds like someone trying to recreate a studio session in a live venue. It sounds like sound guys striving for perfection when live music is not a perfect art form. Musicians need to create sound from their instruments, and for bass, that should mean an amp is part of the bass guitar sound. It shouldn't be separated from the instrument- it is part of the instrument. An upright bass has a body which is a sound box. A trumpet has a voice, a violin has a voice. When you put bass guitar directly into a sound system without an amp, it becomes just a signal - it's not a voice, not something that is heard and affects the air in a room directly, from the instrument and the sound source, and it's coming from another location than the musician is performing. We should want to be heard from where we are playing, and directly affect the ears of the listeners. We bass players should always be heard in the room from our amps- with the tonality that we choose. It may not be what the sound guy wants to hear, but they are paid to work with us, not to dictate to us what our bass playing should sound like.

I like my Genzler 110 combo. It naturally produces the sound of the bass I'm playing and so sounds very integrated to my ears- a true extension of my bass. I think it's artificial to separate the bass from the amp and run it direct only. The combination of the two IS the instrument.

JJK, when we have to work with sound engineers, I prefer the ones like you are describing- the ones that celebrate the sound of your instrument, including your amp, and appreciate good bass tone from the bass/amp instrument.

 

[agedhorse]

I would say that most players who use more power than their cabinets are rated for, do not blow their drivers, so when you say "most players", don't you mean "most players who report to you that they blew their drivers".
Again, I'm not trying to encourage musicians to use more power than their cabinets are rated for - it is better to be safe.

I’m just sharing what I see, and what comes in for recone work. In most cases, these players used more power than the drivers could safely handle at low frequencies… while incorrectly believing that they understood the concept of “headroom”.

 

[TheBass]

I have found that most players can’t hear their drivers being stressed until it’s too late.

Are there any indicators to watch out for ? I have already blown some speakers but was never concerned before it was too late already. Those were EV, Volt, Eminence ect. - not some chinese cheapo things. I didn't boost ultralows too.

 

[Holdsg]

Happy Page 800 Genzler squad.

 

[agedhorse]

Are there any indicators to watch out for ? I have already blown some speakers but was never concerned before it was too late already. Those were EV, Volt, Eminence ect. - not some chinese cheapo things. I didn't boost ultralows too.

Doesn't have to be cheap speaker. In fact many long time "favorite darling" drivers are susceptible, specifically EVM-15L/B and JBL D/K/E-130 and 140. The EVMs are quite hard to hear when they are in distress, and the mechanical power handling of the JBL's make them especially vulnerable. I reconed an awful lot of both when doing recone work.

 

[jjk2007]

Now that we're pretty sure the band has been finalized we've started pulling out some older material and busted this one out on the spot....haven't done an instrumental in quite a while! Recorded on the ole phone but all bass is pretty much all Genzler and maybe a (very tiny) splash of PA.

 

[edwinhurwitz]

I have found that most players can’t hear their drivers being stressed until it’s too late.

In one instance, the smell of the smoke billowing from the cabinet was the giveaway. I decided to run my QSC CX1202V bridged and even with that power, the FOH overwhelmed the stage sound and I had no idea. 2200 watts into 8 ohms at full bandwidth and low distortion. This particular FOH guy loves bass! Or at least, whenever he mixes me.

 

[brocco]

I like the way your band does things. Bravo to you and your band for being "old school" in this way. To me, "old school" is the way live performance should be.

Nowadays, due to overly aggressive sound techs and general laziness like nobody wanting to transport amps, there is way too much use of IEMs and ampless gigs. Ampless gigs don't sound like live music to me, it sounds like someone trying to recreate a studio session in a live venue. It sounds like sound guys striving for perfection when live music is not a perfect art form. Musicians need to create sound from their instruments, and for bass, that should mean an amp is part of the bass guitar sound. It shouldn't be separated from the instrument- it is part of the instrument. An upright bass has a body which is a sound box. A trumpet has a voice, a violin has a voice. When you put bass guitar directly into a sound system without an amp, it becomes just a signal - it's not a voice, not something that is heard and affects the air in a room directly, from the instrument and the sound source, and it's coming from another location than the musician is performing. We should want to be heard from where we are playing, and directly affect the ears of the listeners. We bass players should always be heard in the room from our amps- with the tonality that we choose. It may not be what the sound guy wants to hear, but they are paid to work with us, not to dictate to us what our bass playing should sound like.

I like my Genzler 110 combo. It naturally produces the sound of the bass I'm playing and so sounds very integrated to my ears- a true extension of my bass. I think it's artificial to separate the bass from the amp and run it direct only. The combination of the two IS the instrument.

JJK, when we have to work with sound engineers, I prefer the ones like you are describing- the ones that celebrate the sound of your instrument, including your amp, and appreciate good bass tone from the bass/amp instrument.

I agree 100%. I tried IEM in our sound check recently, NOPE. I use a Magellan 800/BA210-3 easy to transport and sounds superb. Fortunately, my group plays at volumes where we can talk to each other in a normal voice while playing and let our PA do the work, but never to the point of the crowd having to yell to each other.

 

[Parzival]

I like the way your band does things. Bravo to you and your band for being "old school" in this way. To me, "old school" is the way live performance should be.

Nowadays, due to overly aggressive sound techs and general laziness like nobody wanting to transport amps, there is way too much use of IEMs and ampless gigs. Ampless gigs don't sound like live music to me, it sounds like someone trying to recreate a studio session in a live venue. It sounds like sound guys striving for perfection when live music is not a perfect art form. Musicians need to create sound from their instruments, and for bass, that should mean an amp is part of the bass guitar sound. It shouldn't be separated from the instrument- it is part of the instrument. An upright bass has a body which is a sound box. A trumpet has a voice, a violin has a voice. When you put bass guitar directly into a sound system without an amp, it becomes just a signal - it's not a voice, not something that is heard and affects the air in a room directly, from the instrument and the sound source, and it's coming from another location than the musician is performing. We should want to be heard from where we are playing, and directly affect the ears of the listeners. We bass players should always be heard in the room from our amps- with the tonality that we choose. It may not be what the sound guy wants to hear, but they are paid to work with us, not to dictate to us what our bass playing should sound like.

I like my Genzler 110 combo. It naturally produces the sound of the bass I'm playing and so sounds very integrated to my ears- a true extension of my bass. I think it's artificial to separate the bass from the amp and run it direct only. The combination of the two IS the instrument.

JJK, when we have to work with sound engineers, I prefer the ones like you are describing- the ones that celebrate the sound of your instrument, including your amp, and appreciate good bass tone from the bass/amp instrument.

Agreed whole heartedly. Amps and cabs live with additional FOH is just the best.

Example from me this past weekend, and it’s Genzler related due to my Magellan800/BA2 210-3/BA2 115-3 rig.
We played two great sounding rooms Friday and Saturday.

Friday nights room was larger so we all had amps/cabs. It sounded so good. I had two people tell me that myself and the whole band had never sounded that good.

Saturday night the rhythm guitarist and I went ampless and just had monitors. Sounded good, but just not like the night before. There was just something missing. It just wasn’t as present and filling every space. No positive feedback that night.

 

[Holdsg]

thought I had lost or someone had stolen my bag with my Mag800 in it. I could not find it for the life of me.
checked my house and the house of my drummer (where most of my gear is now stored). no dice.
started looking at making an insurance claim.
went to my RV (last used a month ago) it was in there.
what a relief, and what a fool I am at times.
happy once again.

 

[Sid the Kid]

I (stupidly and impulsively) sold a bunch of my Genzler gear chasing tone. I liked but didn’t love the 2 410-3’s I had, and my 15-3 was a gig machine but the gigs dried up so I moved them. For whatever reason I missed my old tone and acquired a BA210-3 STR which is fantastic, much more balanced sounding cab than the 410-3’s in my experience. I couldn’t get the thought of my old 15-3 with this 210-3 out of my mind so I got it back from the music store! The 210-3 and 15-3 is such an amazing sounding combination and much bigger sounding than the stack looks. The icing on the cake is a new to me Shuttle 6.2 which is a simply amazing sounding amp. A Kinetix 800 and another 210-3 are on the horizon for me should I start gigging again, but for now I am over the moon with my tone!

 

[Jeff Genzler]

Welcome home! Thanks for giving us another go.

 

[Mister_GothFrak]

Uh.. I'm a future Genzler user.

Been researching for a while. Was planning on getting a pair of Magellan 800's until I saw the Kinetix came out. Now I'm unsure.

Gotta wait until I get more basses and money before I get more amp heads. Lol

 

[erhoth]

Took the Kinetix to a gig last Friday along with the NU Classic 115. I left the 210 at home. I have never received
so many compliments on the sound as I did that night. Of course I place a lot of that on the tube warmth provided
by the Kintetix but I am starting to think I prefer the 115 over the 210. I have always been a 210/115 minded player
since the GK800rb days long ago but am starting to wonder what 2 115's would do as opposed to the 210/115 set up?

 

[57pbass]

Tonight’s bass and amp.

 

[Djadja]

Getting ready for a celebration of a great songwriter - Bill Lanphar - this evening

 

[Jamvan]

Y’all are making me think I need the 210/15 tonight to completely cover my small private party in bass goodness!

 

[jjk2007]

Y’all are making me think I need the 210/15 tonight to completely cover my small private party in bass goodness!

You know what to do!

 

[John D Harris]

Tonight’s bass and amp. View attachment 6991029

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