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GK amp heads smoking?

Hi guys, short and to the point, seems in the last couple years the Guitar Center in my town has had 3 GK heads go to smoke.

I love how they sound, and always see good reviews, what's the word?
 
Don't know... I've used GK exclusively for about 12 years and have owned:
400rbII
700rb
1001rb (primary head for ~10 years)
1001rbII (still here)
MB500 (still here)
MB200 (just acquired)

Never had one (or even seen one) go up in smoke...
 
I guess I don't give up that easy. For 20+ years G-K was one of the least seen for major repairs in the shop I worked (partime ,25 hrs a week).

I have auditioned other brands in a store that fried. One was not the amps fault, someone used an instrument cable for the speaker out, I caught it before the salesperson burned more stock.
 
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I use a Gallien Krueger for back up and for gigs when I want to travel light. I trust it completely.

The reality is a back up has to be as trustworthy as possible to be good product choice. The back up has to be more reliable than the main. I trust my Gallien Krueger to that degree.

Mine is well burned in. I bought it used, and already gigged routinely. That means it flew past infant failures. For the most part, once mass produced solid state gear gets past infancy, it is rock solid for many many hours of use.
 
This thread is scaring me to death. I was in the market for an original RB800 but not so sure now....

You would better luck looking for an 800RB (never was an RB800), they remained changed very little until production ended just recently. There is a switching IC that is obsolete and has been for some time in the early horizontal power switch 800RB, they also did away with the second jack for the 100 watt amp output as people would hook up two 8 ohm cabs and fry the 100 watt (user error).
 
Letting out some smoke? Sure. Stopping working altogether? Also understandable. Lighting itself on fire in a well air conditioned environment with good air circulation.... I've never heard of that before tbh. Equipment failures happen, this one just freaked me out more than most