I read through this thread several months back, before I bought my mb200, new (though it was many pages shorter, then). Noticed the buzz and D.I. issues mentioned in the first few pages by Wes Whitmore and some others, but thought I would try it, anyway, especially since I was thinking about putting together a small, modular setup for lower-volume stuff.
Got it, tried it out at home, and used it solely as a practice amp until about a week ago. Thought it sounded fine overall -- a little more hissy than my Genz and Markbass heads, less flexible in the EQ (I wish the Hi-Mid did more, and was a little less scooped to start), and the "Contour" switch is way-too-extreme -- but I was able to dial in a sound I liked that was warm, quick, and did not lack bottom at all.
A week ago, I took it too a very (as in "too") loud jam I frequent, to see how it would do at more-than-bedroom levels. Backline was a huge, 4 Ohm Ampeg cab (forget the model, but it's the one Steve Bailey used with the iso-baric speaker setup), which, admittedly gave the little head a big advantage, but still, it pushed it with authority. During the setup-quasi-soundcheck I was able to keep up with a fairly heavy-handed drummer and pretty loud guitars with the gain at maybe 1:30. Don't know if it would have given much more, and don't know if it would have managed the same feat through my 2x12", but there was no audible distortion, no sign of strain, no lack of punch. All good.
Of course, this was for stage volume, not to carry the house. Then the soundman came and we plugged in the D.I. He came back and told me it was unusable -- too much hum through the P.A. There is (as has been mentioned) no ground lift switch for the D.I. I have used the D.I. in my Genz and Markbass heads at the same club, with no problems -- both were clean run with and without the ground lift.
This was bummer #1 and got me thinking.
Bummer #2 came last night. I visited a guy with some Bill Fitzmaurice Jack 10s I wanted to try out (one of the cabs I had in mind, actually, when thinking of a compact, MB200-driven rig, and I've read of others using them), plugged in two for a 4 Ohm load, and the thing started to power up and do its red-to-blue power button light fade-in, made its usual hiss that increased in volume, then a slight but audible pop and went back to red -- it tried to power up repeatedly, going through this same cycle every second or so. Of course, once I noticed it, I ran over to turn the thing off (it manged to do this 3 or 4 times in the 3 or 4 seconds it took me to realize what was going on and turn it off). Checked the hookup and tried different speakon cables, same situation. Tried just running one cab for an 8 Ohm load. Same situation. Tried it again through my 4 Ohm 2x12 (which I had along for comparison with the Jacks), and it was fine. I would have said it was the cabs (and, obviously, they are presenting something different to the head, electrically, than my 2x12" does to make it react differently), but we ran the Jacks in one, two, and four cab configurations off of his Crown Poweramp and then my Shuttlemax 12.0, using the same speakon cables we tried with the little GK without any incident.
I'm not ready to lay all the blame (yet) for the strange cab incident on the GK, but that bit of strangeness combined with the lack of D.I. joy (hum, not hiss) means I'll be contacting GK and seeking a replacement. The amp is fairly hissy, too, but I just figured that was its nature. Some people earlier in the thread had better luck with their replacement units than the originals, so...
I love that I can put this thing in my gig bag. It's not tonal Nirvana, but good tone is attainable. With enough cab, it will do good stage volume with good tone and feel at even a fairly (but not insanely) loud gig... but for that, I need to be able to use the D.I.
Sorry for the ramble. Will let everyone know how it turns out with GK.
Semi-giggable is true. Maybe, coffee house thing, or rehearsal.
