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GK Neo Speaker Problems

Crazyeelboy

Crazyeelboy

Feb 20, 2006
1,429
119
Moscow, Russia
www.fwnb.net
#1
Has anyone else experienced problems with GK Neo speakers? I have the Neo 1001/212 combo and have blown both speakers twice now. I have been careful to avoid clipping and have never even cranked it up to close to the full volume.

I can't think of any reason why this baby has blown - anybody else have these problems?
 
#4
Yes- GK NEO 112 - the Eminence driver started to "fart". It had never been under any kind of pressure, abuse or loud volume. Call to GK was a waste of time and no suggestions other than buying a replacement driver at full retail.

It now has a B&C and sounds great.
 
#5
Vic Winters said:
What were your settings like?
Click to expand...

I changed my settings to go up to 11 because I wanted to get full performance out of my amp. Just kidding. The settings were just about what the owner's manual suggested for slap bass. As for volume, I had the Volume at about 10:30 or 11:00, the Boost at about 11:30 and the Woofer at about 2:00. I don't think its the settings and I didn't see the clip light going off.

The only variables I can think of could be that I was using an active electronics Fender Precision Deluxe (with the added jazz pup) and I used an EH MicroSynth with the low end octave effect for one song. That said, though, the first time I replaced the speakers (third time I used the amp), I used a vintage Rick and no effects in a much smaller venue.

I love the rig and the sound, but I'm getting nervous about relying on it for gigs. Any thoughts?
 
#6
The GK Neo 12 cabinets I've tried sound very good and put out a lot of sound. I think they compare with anything out there in their price range. Those 2x12's should be able to stand up to some fairly loud volumes, like any good 2x12 cabinet. They will fail if you really push the bottom end into them at high volumes, just like everything else in that price range.

I certainly haven't heard from any playing musicians that they find the GK Neos unreliable. They all seem very pleased with them.

However, you may have got a bad speaker. Those things do happen and sometimes they get damaged in shipping.

Did you buy your amp new and is it still under warranty? If it was bought used, who knows what the previous owner tried to get it to do.

That's a very nice sounding amp and should do as well as any good 2x12 combo out there.
 
#8
Crazyeelboy said:
They do sound great and I love the rig.

This is the second time the speakers have blown in the middle of a gig (when else would it happen?). I wasn't pushing the rig hard either time, so maybe I just had double bad luck with two bad speaker sets.
Click to expand...

That is really strange. I hope you can get it sorted out. Is it still under warranty?
 
#11
I worked directly with GK for the first repair (and they were great), but I'm going through the dealer for this one.

I'm really wracking my brain trying to figure out what could be causing this - two times like this makes me think that I am doing something wrong, but the volume and the equipment (bass and effects) were different so I can't single out the variable.
 
#12
You said you have active electronics. Are you running the eq on your bass all the way up or fairly close to the center detent? If you have your bass on your bass cranked all the way up you might be eating up a lot of headroom. Also do you have the 4/5 string button in or out? That also eats up a lot of headroom for frequencies that the speaker doesn't really produce efficiently.
 
#15
Thanks everyone for the comments.

I initially suspected the bass synth might be the problem, but now I'm not sure.

I wasn't using the bass synth the first time the speakers fried (I literally had smoke coming out of the amp). I was also pretty careful not to use it for anything lower than an open A (only a step down from a low B in a 5 string set up). I have also scoured the web for anyone complaining about a synth causing speaker damage and found nothing authoritative (not to say that there isn't such information out there - if anyone knows of it, please let me know).
 
#16
Daniel Elliott said:
You said you have active electronics. Are you running the eq on your bass all the way up or fairly close to the center detent? If you have your bass on your bass cranked all the way up you might be eating up a lot of headroom. Also do you have the 4/5 string button in or out? That also eats up a lot of headroom for frequencies that the speaker doesn't really produce efficiently.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the comments. I had also suspected the active electronics might be a problem (and I still kind of suspect this), but there are a few factors that don't add up. The first time the speakers cooked, I was using a 1974 Rick, which has passive electronics. I was running the bass settings on the active bass not quite cranked, but up between 50% and 75%. The odd part, though is that I have played on those settings for many gigs without any problem until one day...

As for the 4/5 string voicing button, I had it on 4 string when the speakers went out (I wasn't using the synth). Which setting burns up the headroom - the 4 or 5?

Anyway, thanks everyone for your comments. I guess I won't know for sure what the problem is, but I think I'll avoid the synth for gigs and will keep the active bass settings closer to the middle.
 
#19
You may want to check the speaker cable as well as the connection to the jack or connector at the amp. A bad connection can cause the speaker to blow. It could even be a bad solder joint inside the amp at the output jack. I do not know how it works but have had speakers go under similar situations and found a bad speaker cable in the chain.
 

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