This is one situation where I'd recommend you use your ears, not your eyes (and incidentally not you pad).
Just to be sure nothing is malfunctioning, does it flash on every note, or just a bunch over the course of playing?
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GK 1001 RB II
- Thread starter hellhammer
- Start date
This is one situation where I'd recommend you use your ears, not your eyes (and incidentally not you pad).
Just to be sure nothing is malfunctioning, does it flash on every note, or just a bunch over the course of playing?
I wouldn't sweat it. How you liking it otherwise? I'm just about to fire mine up for a rehearsal.
I wouldn't sweat it. How you liking it otherwise? I'm just about to fire mine up for a rehearsal.
Thank you.
I'm very pleased with the sound I get out of it, I'm still getting a hang on all the possibilities but I'm getting there. Before I bought this one I played on Harte's HA2500 + VX15 combo, and the difference is clear.
I'm thinking of selling the hartke, and buy a cab. What would you recomend?
I've watched some videos that tell you how the amp power should be between 1x to 2x the speaker power@resistance. And with that logic all the GK cabinets ''don't work'', but from reading the upper posts, that's BS.
Anyway FIRE THAT BABY UP!!!
I never used the biamp, absolutely no need. Bastid gets as bright as it gets without it.
- Aug 3, 2007
- 1,678
- 2,146
- Disclosures
- Current: Blackstar, DR strings, Nady. Previous endorsements with: GK, Rotosound, Ernie Ball, Cleartone, EMG, Dean, Dava Picks, Rebel Straps, Dickies
The GK heads are a little unique in their labeling of knobs. The volume knob is gain. The Woofer knob, is the master volume. Clipping the gain stage is easily remedied with reducing the input volume with the volume knob, and/or using the 14db pad. The GK heads don't overdrive like say, an Ampeg does, so you won't be missing anything at the input stage. The boost knob is where you will notice the growl start to come in, but with a 1001, it's really hard to "hit the rails" at tolerable volumes because it's really powerful.
In order to get the most input signal into the amp as possible, adjust the volume and pad button so that the clip light just starts to flash, then back it off a small amount. Then, you will be sending the right amount of clean signal to the amp. Doesnt matter if the volume is at 1 or 10, a flashing light indicates plenty of input volume. Anything over that is clipping the input signal, which may or may not be beneficial, but as I said, GK amps don't overdrive like other amps do.
Not running a GK bi-amp cab is perfectly fine. Only the tweeter knob becomes inactive, so the head isn't utilizing the separate 50 watt amp for the tweeter. Many cabs have internal crossovers and some sort of tweeter control anyway.
Though not using an 1001RB,
Running the 700RBii into an 810E as well.
With 4 Heritage speaks in the top two chambers.
It rips!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh, got a SVP CL coming, think that'll complete my package.
I don't think that's accurate. If my understanding is correct, the clip light on the RBs is an input clip light, not preamp. The only thing on the amp that will effect the clip light is the pad.
Volume is indeed the preamp gain, and similarly can be turned up so that it just clips when hit hard (audibly, no visable cue) and then backed off a hair.
GK amps may not distort in exactly the same way that a tube amp will, but "hitting the rails" is definitely a property of driving the power section too hard. It's why the 700RB gets there noticeably sooner than the more powerful 1001RB even though they share a preamp.
I find that the boost, while adding its own type of grit, encourages the amp to get into growl territory sooner, but the harmonics it imparts shouldn't be mistaken for the sound of the poweramp being pushed to it's limits. In that sense these RBs do share some things in common with tube amps.
Again, all of this is to the best of my understanding and experience. Happy to be corrected if I got any of that wrong.
Last edited:
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- Aug 3, 2007
- 1,678
- 2,146
- Disclosures
- Current: Blackstar, DR strings, Nady. Previous endorsements with: GK, Rotosound, Ernie Ball, Cleartone, EMG, Dean, Dava Picks, Rebel Straps, Dickies
You can split hairs, but you're saying the same thing. Input clip, preamp gain, preamp volume. The word pre identifies being before, in this case, before the power amp. The led is a level indicator signaling that once the wave starts to get clipped top and bottom, a visual indicator let's you know what's happening.
Page 6 of the manual. Btw, I'm not arguing, just clarifying.
My point was just that the volume knob should have no effect on the clip light. The clip light's wired before volume. If your bass isn't going to clip the input, you could crank the volume knob to max and it still won't light.
It's just not an indicator as to where the preamp clips. You have to use your ears for that.
We're all GK fans, I just wanted to to make sure new users don't get confused, since this thread came back to life from a clipping led question.
Back to the manual, there's a reason why in the manual it tells you to use the pad, and not adjust the volume knob if you get input clipping.
This line is the kicker:
"Volume: Sets the pre-amp gain after the input stage"
Input is a different stage than the preamp, it may seem like splitting hairs, but they're separate.
