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GK MB200 Hiss

#101
I hate to do this to you guys, but mine does not hiss through headphones. I was using it this way for hours last night, and... no hiss.
I'm only chiming in to offer more testimony that some of these are good. (Not that that excuses the ones that aren't.)
 
#103
I used to be a huge GK fan, but I have spent a lot of money over the years keeping things running and working correctly. I have drifted from them a little…partially because of my past experiences with the equipment and the return process, and also my sound tastes changed, and it seemed like a great time to make a fresh start.

Some of my experiences:

The first 200MB hissed out the DI like a box of snakes. My second MB200 was dead silent. RMA was relatively quick.

My first MB500(2) was a floor model from my local Guitar Center. I didn’t test it in the store beyond making sure it turned on. It had some weird EQ issues when I got home. Everything was very “ hot and lively”. It was like the bass knob and treble was on 11. It wasn’t like anything I had experienced before. It was an 01 or 02 release. I took it back to GC the next day. It sat as an open box unit for sale for a long while, then eventually disappeared. That was the last of the MB series heads I have ever seen in there. The combos started rolling out and the stocked those.

I got my second MB500(2) on trade, and it was replaced/upgraded with a hefty surcharge because it was out of warranty when it started failing, and the newest release (MB500 with the limiter and reworked EQ) had just hit the shelves. It has some real issues. The RA from Brian took months, but once I got that, the new unit came in quickly. The new one hisses just a little bit out of the speakers and gets louder with the volume knob, but the DI is dead quiet. That’s the unit in my Roland rack now.

I had a 400RBIII that had a faulty fan unit when I got it. It wouldn't come on when it needed to. 3rd song into practice, it went into thermal protection. $100 later, it was quickly fixed by a GK local tech. Later I read that it was an issue shared by lots of the 400III’s. I still have it. The DI only works right on pre-eq now. Not sure how that stuff fails just sitting in a case in the closet.

I had a 700RB 2x10 combo. Played it for 2 shows and the output dropped to almost nothing the next week when I turned it on. Local tech said it was the preamp board, and he called GK the first series had known reliability issues, so they redesigned it when they came out with the II series. Thicker PCBs and a little different voicing. I paid a ton to get that thing fixed in less than two weeks because I thought I had to have 2 combos on my larger outdoor shows. Sold it with a brand new cover a couple of months later.

My original GK 1001RB combo (the 540 watt model) smoked on me one day after pulling it out of a cold car. I upgraded it to a II series through GK for some $400 and a core charge. Used it for years and eventually traded the combo away for some ultralite stuff. That was a great amp.

That’s my story, anyhow...
Wes
 
#104
dougjwray said:
I hate to do this to you guys, but mine does not hiss through headphones. I was using it this way for hours last night, and... no hiss.
I'm only chiming in to offer more testimony that some of these are good. (Not that that excuses the ones that aren't.)
Click to expand...

I'm not sure what it is that you "hate to do" to me.

I'm not disputing that the great majority of these amps are, at minimum, satisfactory to the people that bought them. Since you say yours doesn't hiss at all through the speaker, it's not surprising that you don't find a hiss through headphones.
 
#106
Wes Whitmore said:
I used to be a huge GK fan, but I have spent a lot of money over the years keeping things running and working correctly. I have drifted from them a little…partially because of my past experiences with the equipment and the return process, and also my sound tastes changed, and it seemed like a great time to make a fresh start.
Click to expand...

I could have been/wanted to be a fan too. The specifics of my experience blew that up.

An Overtōn Flyweight 200 [DEL]should be[/DEL] is waiting for me when I get home. I'm hoping this will go better. It'll be a good comparison.
 
#107
drpepper said:
I could have been/wanted to be a fan too. The specifics of my experience blew that up.

An Overtōn Flyweight 200 [DEL]should be[/DEL] is waiting for me when I get home. I'm hoping this will go better. It'll be a good comparison.
Click to expand...

Please give feedback on the Overton Flyweight 200 on this or a new thread when you get a chance. Very curious about this head vs the MB200. Thanks.
 
#114
I'm not trying to keep anyone from commenting here, just asking for additions to the other thread, which will be more searchable for those looking for that sort of thing

carry on
 
#115
Hi guys,

What did you do in the end with the hissing problem? Did you fix it somehow?

I bought mine a month ago, the one I tried at the shop had the same issue. They gave me a sealed box unit then, but same hiss on both.
I have to say the noise is just like on the DrPepper video on youtube, and you can hear that only at home with no environmental noise. I never noticed that at rehearsals or live gigs.
I managed to get rid of it only by cutting some of the highs or closing the tweeter a little bit.

Anyway did you check if the hiss goes through the DI also?
I used mine on a gig, but no one complained about the GK DI signal.
 
#116
JohnPativens said:
Hi guys,

What did you do in the end with the hissing problem? Did you fix it somehow?

I bought mine a month ago, the one I tried at the shop had the same issue. They gave me a sealed box unit then, but same hiss on both.
I have to say the noise is just like on the DrPepper video on youtube, and you can hear that only at home with no environmental noise. I never noticed that at rehearsals or live gigs.
I managed to get rid of it only by cutting some of the highs or closing the tweeter a little bit.

Anyway did you check if the hiss goes through the DI also?
I used mine on a gig, but no one complained about the GK DI signal.
Click to expand...

To summarize this thread and posts in some others, there were multiple outcomes; (1) for some, nothing was done to fix the problem and the amp was returned, (2) for some, nothing was done to fix the problem but the amp was kept and the hiss accepted, (3) for some, the amp was exchanged for a satisfactory unit, and (4) a few people reported that they sent to GK for repair with a satisfactory result.

On the DI, I can't say for sure. That'd probably have to come from someone who was looking very closely for it, or used it for recording. I only used the DI for PA support on a bar gig or two, I wouldn't have been able to tell you if it was hissing through the PA or cabinet in a bar.
 
#117
I know, I read this thread way before buying my MB200, I knew this was a common problem.
I thought maybe someone got news from GK about this acknowledged issue in the meantime :)


drpepper said:
On the DI, I can't say for sure. That'd probably have to come from someone who was looking very closely for it, or used it for recording. I only used the DI for PA support on a bar gig or two, I wouldn't have been able to tell you if it was hissing through the PA or cabinet in a bar.
Click to expand...

Same for me, I couldn't tell either if it was hissing through the PA, but no one complained.. I guess that's ok.
What about the headphones/line out? Did you experience any hiss from there? Yet have to try that.
 
#118
JohnPativens said:
What about the headphones/line out? Did you experience any hiss from there? Yet have to try that.
Click to expand...

Ok, I was curious, so today I tried the headphones out on mine. There's the same hiss through the earphones.
I guess you'd get that through postDI also.

Anyway, I compared the mb200 to my old 700rbII and made some A/B noise tests through the same 112NeoII cab.
Actually, they share the same hiss but at different gain levels.
 
#119
JohnPativens said:
I know, I read this thread way before buying my MB200, I knew this was a common problem.
I thought maybe someone got news from GK about this acknowledged issue in the meantime :)
Click to expand...

JohnPativens said:
Ok, I was curious, so today I tried the headphones out on mine. There's the same hiss through the earphones.
I guess you'd get that through postDI also.
Click to expand...

It was present in my headphones too.

I don't know that you can say it's "common." From my experience and what others were posting, I believe that the hiss level can vary from unit to unit. Some people apparently have quiet units and some people with what would be higher hiss levels don't experience it that way because they don't have a tweeter or because their use of the amp just doesn't make it apparent. I'm not sure how we can really know how many fall into each group.
 

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