I look forward to reading your review Antek, if it sounds like my GK set up you will be delighted 
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Got my GK MB Fusion today!!!!
- Thread starter 77jazz
- Start date
Nice rigs! Have you tried the Fusion through your Hartke 410 yet? One of my favorite rigs growing up was an 800RB through a 410xl.
PS, you need to adorn your amps with some Spongebob swag!
I bought a MB Fusion back in October and used it for a few months...it was the last micro head I was gonna try out before I decided to go back to a Walter Woods (which I have done now - got a Ultra last month on ebay). I had been on about a 2 year search for the best micro, but nothing came close to the WW Ultra. If my original WW hadn't been stolen, I never would have even played games with any of the new micros. So, I sold the MB Fusion on ebay and it quit on the new owner - first the blue light went out, then he says it sounded all distorted - I now have the amp back and I'm going to get it fixed under warranty and RELIST IT ON EBAY.
I also had a MB 500 that crapped out - had it fixed - sold it. Here's the funny thing - way back in 1984 or 1985, I bought a GK 800RB and IT crapped out after a few weeks. We all know about the problems with the first few batches of the MB 500s and I guess the problems have all been worked out, but it seems to me that if these amps were made here like they used to be, they would have less trouble with QC or bad parts or whatever. I even had one of those MBE 150 W GK heads that were out before the new MB series - and IT had a problem with one of the switches and had to be serviced. I think I'm done buying GK products.
I also had a MB 500 that crapped out - had it fixed - sold it. Here's the funny thing - way back in 1984 or 1985, I bought a GK 800RB and IT crapped out after a few weeks. We all know about the problems with the first few batches of the MB 500s and I guess the problems have all been worked out, but it seems to me that if these amps were made here like they used to be, they would have less trouble with QC or bad parts or whatever. I even had one of those MBE 150 W GK heads that were out before the new MB series - and IT had a problem with one of the switches and had to be serviced. I think I'm done buying GK products.
Given your experiences, and your preference for WW amps anyway, I can understand that.
Hey, if GK describes the problem they fixed in the MB Fusion to you, would you share it here? I'm curious what caused the failure.
You bet! I already subscribed for easy access to the thread. I'm taking the MB in tomorrow a.m. and I figure it's at least a week.....I just remembered - when I had the MB500 "fixed" they had to send it to GK and I think it ended up taking something like 6 weeks total...jeeeeze. I hope this is a faster turnaround.
Got my GK MB Fusion and 410MBE 8 ohm cab today. It's the time for very subjective and first impression review. I need to point out to the fact I'm not an experienced bassist, and I only could test this one rig with one bass guitar, compared to my experiences to HA3500 amp with very old ferrite-speaker based 410 Hartke cab.
I will be able to do some A/B tests only on Saturday next week the earliest, since my rig has been left at the rehearsal room and I'm not back there before next weekend. I will certainly verify my impressions as the time passes by.
First unpacking the cab. Lightweight as promised (50 lb), unluckily only with a carrying strap at the top. I'd be happy with handles at sides, so a bandmate could help me carrying the cab. Anyway, I could easily bring it upstairs to the room where I practice myself.
Unpacking the amp. First impression: solid, rugged piece of gear. Feeling somewhat heavy for such a small box, but it is only an impression (the weight is 1.9 kg). I've connected the amp with the cab by a separately bought speakon cable. First small confusion: the box contained a jack cable too, but I correctly guessed it belonged to the included footswitch. The foot-switch is a small aluminium box, simple but rugged; I like it very much. So, foot-switch connected too. Great thing about the MB Fusion is very clear marking of all vital points on the case. You do not need to look at the rear panel of the amp to find right sockets/switches -- the descriptions at the rear of the top panel guide you when you look at the amp from the top.
I inserted the power cord. One con quickly spotted: I think that the IEC power socket here has loose machine tolerance. It happened twice the amp turned itself off due to poor contact of the IEC socket/power plug. I have to investigate it more closely though to make sure.
Pots were behaving very well. You need exactly as much force as expected to turn them and they stay in position during the transport (I was using the original styrofoam to carry the amp to the rehearsal room later). Of course, noiseless.
The switches used for e.g. Presence, Deep, Limiter etc., located at the top panel were as perfect as the pots. You need exactly the expected amount of force to switch them, they stay in their position and seem to be completely flawless.
The amp as powered on looks very sexy. Pushing the Power button makes a small ring of LED go continuously from red to blue as the amp starts and the preamp tubes heat up. This is a very fast process taking only several seconds. As expected, all of this is totally silent with respect to the speakers. Whenever a special function is activated (-14 dB pad, Tuner Mute, manual switching to Channel B), tiny push buttons go red and it just looks fantastic!
If I would like to say something negative: I miss small dots around pot knobs. Yes, you can visually tell the o'clock position of a knob, but I'd prefer dots with digits. Minor thing anyway at cost of attractive visual design. One can get used to that.
Now, I will describe my aural impressions. I must say now that I know my Sandberg 4 tonal capabilities very well. I've played with the Hartke gear described above for couple of weeks (using presets of its owner and his setting of internal compressor). So I know the wonderful snarl of E-F-G played on the E string, I know growl of power-chords F (strings A and D) and B (strings E and A). I know how my songs SHOULD sound when I play them. I say this because...
...my very first impression with the GK gear could be described as "disappointing".
My bass guitar has active preamp and MM-style pickup. I play d'Addario Half Rounds. I always set tone knobs on the Sandberg in neutral positions, only tweaking the tone slightly when really needed. I mostly play with the pick, and only in slow, bluesy songs based on walking I play fingerstyle. With my bass at neutral EQ settings and these settings of MB Fusion:
Treble, Hi-Mid, Lo-Mid, Bass at noon, Contour off, Presence off, Deep off, Gain A at 9 o'clock, Master A at 10 o'clock, the amp/cab were playing mostly mids and highs. The horn in the 410MBE when on was producing highs of my bass with hi fidelity. So, noise of fingers moving up the frets, pick noise, basically everything I would not like to hear. I guess this kind of fidelity would be perfect in slap, but it is not my kettle of fish. So, I have turned the horn off as soon as possible and here the matters improved.
The tube-based EQ works as GK promises. Even slight movement of a knob significantly affects the tone, and the EQ knobs interact with one another. I could easily make a dry tone by rolling off the low mids (11 o'clock) or make it fuller by only turning to 1 o'clock. Similarly, slight turning of hi-mid affected the punch dramatically. I could roll off the highs easily when needed. But my problem was I could never get meaty lows. Either not bassy enough or yes, lows but of unpleasant type. Nothing like sweet blues bass. Yes, the lows could be deep but not the kind I would expect, no roundness.
The Channel B gives you quite plenty of growl when you turn gain B more than 12 o'clock. Quite pleasant overtones with power-chords at middle strings, tragedy at low strings.
I tried Presence -- this makes mids present, but I had had enough of mids without Presence. I had tried Deep -- a lot of bass but again not the lows I like. Contour does very little and I would say it only spoils the tone. With 500 Hz setting you can get somewhat darker tone, but overall Contour was a mistake so I switched it off.
Of course, my bad impression could be caused by the room's tonal quality or perhaps this was just how this 410MBE cab is or I cannot EQ at all.
Great thing however is -- and please read it carefully -- that the Channel A/Channel B switching worked instantly! There was no slightest delay. If I needed to go from, for example, louder clean to quieter growl -- I needed that -- I just pushed the foot-switch and got immediate channel change, as I would expect from a guitar effect. So at least in MB Fusion the report of small delay on channel switching I read on non-Fusion MBs proved false. MB Fusion does not have this problem at all!
So I took the gear to the rehearsal room for 3 hour practice with my band. We are a guitar rock band and we play LOUD because of our energetic drummer, double-kick lover. There, the 410MBE stood on a pedestal, good 10 feet from me and the vocalist and more from the guitarist and the drummer.
This MB Fusion thing with 410MBE (8 ohm!) is loud as hell and that's very good! With 8 ohm, maximum rated power is 350 W. I had Channel A with Gain at 9 o'clock and Master at 3 o'clock. Gain B was at 3 o'clock, and Master B was at 9 o'clock. I had the horn off at the cab until last 2 songs. During the rehearsal, I was continually tweaking the amp settings, very delicately until I found quite satisfactory EQ. The bass and treble ended up almost at noon, the mids slightly tweaked (I do not remember which way each, but it was 11:30 for one of them and 12:30 for the other). Presence on or off (it almost did not matter), Contour off, Limiter off. I have also found that in the band's mix, the horn even helped for greater clarity.
This little devil has tons and tons of presence. Our band is single-electric-guitar, so I need to replace the rhythm guitar, too. When we practiced new songs and I dropped a note, the room instantly became "empty", even if the guitarist plays full rich tone and not quietly So, the MB Fusion/410MBE with almost standard EQ settings allowed my electric bass occupy the right tonal space, and I liked this very much. (With Hartke and the settings of its owner, my tonal space was far closer to the guitar).
With slow songs and dominating walking bass (Channel A, clean setting), I had to tweak the bass knob on my guitar to quickly add the missing (rounder) lows.
Playing chords on Channel B and middle/upper strings was fun, very good response from my new gear. Chords on low strings were terribly bad... I have to think what to do with that.
As for me, it was still something missing. I feel I lost that snarl on low strings. On the other hand, the chords on A/D were fantastic, as if I played bass "electric guitar". The E string was significantly louder than other strings, I have no idea why.
The Hartke gear did the work tonally better for my ears. Perhaps this could be the internal compressor, which GK does not have.
The band however praised the tone from the new gear. They described the tone as "fat". At the same time they LOL'led at the size of the amp
Don't be baffled by my first impressions. This gear is very new to me. Next week I will A/B the Hartke rig with the GK rig, then I will do cross-checking with the Hartke cab/GK cab, MB Fusion/Hartke cab, and two basses, the second one being my Epiphone Viola Bass.
Ah, before I forget. The thing has tubes inside. Cranking up the Gain B near to the limit causes audible noise. Not only the AC mains noise (the guitar has a humbucker), but some white noise, and that is strange. And the fan, strange thing. I am not sure if it went off during the rehearsal at all. However, when I was playing around with EQ and similar stuff at home and the amp was even not that loud, suddenly the fan went off and it was not quiet. So no, at least in my amp the fan if it needs to spin is not quiet. Hartke's is audible but not that much. Strange, strange
I will be able to do some A/B tests only on Saturday next week the earliest, since my rig has been left at the rehearsal room and I'm not back there before next weekend. I will certainly verify my impressions as the time passes by.
First unpacking the cab. Lightweight as promised (50 lb), unluckily only with a carrying strap at the top. I'd be happy with handles at sides, so a bandmate could help me carrying the cab. Anyway, I could easily bring it upstairs to the room where I practice myself.
Unpacking the amp. First impression: solid, rugged piece of gear. Feeling somewhat heavy for such a small box, but it is only an impression (the weight is 1.9 kg). I've connected the amp with the cab by a separately bought speakon cable. First small confusion: the box contained a jack cable too, but I correctly guessed it belonged to the included footswitch. The foot-switch is a small aluminium box, simple but rugged; I like it very much. So, foot-switch connected too. Great thing about the MB Fusion is very clear marking of all vital points on the case. You do not need to look at the rear panel of the amp to find right sockets/switches -- the descriptions at the rear of the top panel guide you when you look at the amp from the top.
I inserted the power cord. One con quickly spotted: I think that the IEC power socket here has loose machine tolerance. It happened twice the amp turned itself off due to poor contact of the IEC socket/power plug. I have to investigate it more closely though to make sure.
Pots were behaving very well. You need exactly as much force as expected to turn them and they stay in position during the transport (I was using the original styrofoam to carry the amp to the rehearsal room later). Of course, noiseless.
The switches used for e.g. Presence, Deep, Limiter etc., located at the top panel were as perfect as the pots. You need exactly the expected amount of force to switch them, they stay in their position and seem to be completely flawless.
The amp as powered on looks very sexy. Pushing the Power button makes a small ring of LED go continuously from red to blue as the amp starts and the preamp tubes heat up. This is a very fast process taking only several seconds. As expected, all of this is totally silent with respect to the speakers. Whenever a special function is activated (-14 dB pad, Tuner Mute, manual switching to Channel B), tiny push buttons go red and it just looks fantastic!
If I would like to say something negative: I miss small dots around pot knobs. Yes, you can visually tell the o'clock position of a knob, but I'd prefer dots with digits. Minor thing anyway at cost of attractive visual design. One can get used to that.
Now, I will describe my aural impressions. I must say now that I know my Sandberg 4 tonal capabilities very well. I've played with the Hartke gear described above for couple of weeks (using presets of its owner and his setting of internal compressor). So I know the wonderful snarl of E-F-G played on the E string, I know growl of power-chords F (strings A and D) and B (strings E and A). I know how my songs SHOULD sound when I play them. I say this because...
...my very first impression with the GK gear could be described as "disappointing".
My bass guitar has active preamp and MM-style pickup. I play d'Addario Half Rounds. I always set tone knobs on the Sandberg in neutral positions, only tweaking the tone slightly when really needed. I mostly play with the pick, and only in slow, bluesy songs based on walking I play fingerstyle. With my bass at neutral EQ settings and these settings of MB Fusion:
Treble, Hi-Mid, Lo-Mid, Bass at noon, Contour off, Presence off, Deep off, Gain A at 9 o'clock, Master A at 10 o'clock, the amp/cab were playing mostly mids and highs. The horn in the 410MBE when on was producing highs of my bass with hi fidelity. So, noise of fingers moving up the frets, pick noise, basically everything I would not like to hear. I guess this kind of fidelity would be perfect in slap, but it is not my kettle of fish. So, I have turned the horn off as soon as possible and here the matters improved.
The tube-based EQ works as GK promises. Even slight movement of a knob significantly affects the tone, and the EQ knobs interact with one another. I could easily make a dry tone by rolling off the low mids (11 o'clock) or make it fuller by only turning to 1 o'clock. Similarly, slight turning of hi-mid affected the punch dramatically. I could roll off the highs easily when needed. But my problem was I could never get meaty lows. Either not bassy enough or yes, lows but of unpleasant type. Nothing like sweet blues bass. Yes, the lows could be deep but not the kind I would expect, no roundness.
The Channel B gives you quite plenty of growl when you turn gain B more than 12 o'clock. Quite pleasant overtones with power-chords at middle strings, tragedy at low strings.
I tried Presence -- this makes mids present, but I had had enough of mids without Presence. I had tried Deep -- a lot of bass but again not the lows I like. Contour does very little and I would say it only spoils the tone. With 500 Hz setting you can get somewhat darker tone, but overall Contour was a mistake so I switched it off.
Of course, my bad impression could be caused by the room's tonal quality or perhaps this was just how this 410MBE cab is or I cannot EQ at all.
Great thing however is -- and please read it carefully -- that the Channel A/Channel B switching worked instantly! There was no slightest delay. If I needed to go from, for example, louder clean to quieter growl -- I needed that -- I just pushed the foot-switch and got immediate channel change, as I would expect from a guitar effect. So at least in MB Fusion the report of small delay on channel switching I read on non-Fusion MBs proved false. MB Fusion does not have this problem at all!
So I took the gear to the rehearsal room for 3 hour practice with my band. We are a guitar rock band and we play LOUD because of our energetic drummer, double-kick lover. There, the 410MBE stood on a pedestal, good 10 feet from me and the vocalist and more from the guitarist and the drummer.
This MB Fusion thing with 410MBE (8 ohm!) is loud as hell and that's very good! With 8 ohm, maximum rated power is 350 W. I had Channel A with Gain at 9 o'clock and Master at 3 o'clock. Gain B was at 3 o'clock, and Master B was at 9 o'clock. I had the horn off at the cab until last 2 songs. During the rehearsal, I was continually tweaking the amp settings, very delicately until I found quite satisfactory EQ. The bass and treble ended up almost at noon, the mids slightly tweaked (I do not remember which way each, but it was 11:30 for one of them and 12:30 for the other). Presence on or off (it almost did not matter), Contour off, Limiter off. I have also found that in the band's mix, the horn even helped for greater clarity.
This little devil has tons and tons of presence. Our band is single-electric-guitar, so I need to replace the rhythm guitar, too. When we practiced new songs and I dropped a note, the room instantly became "empty", even if the guitarist plays full rich tone and not quietly
So, the MB Fusion/410MBE with almost standard EQ settings allowed my electric bass occupy the right tonal space, and I liked this very much. (With Hartke and the settings of its owner, my tonal space was far closer to the guitar).With slow songs and dominating walking bass (Channel A, clean setting), I had to tweak the bass knob on my guitar to quickly add the missing (rounder) lows.
Playing chords on Channel B and middle/upper strings was fun, very good response from my new gear. Chords on low strings were terribly bad... I have to think what to do with that.
As for me, it was still something missing. I feel I lost that snarl on low strings. On the other hand, the chords on A/D were fantastic, as if I played bass "electric guitar". The E string was significantly louder than other strings, I have no idea why.
The Hartke gear did the work tonally better for my ears. Perhaps this could be the internal compressor, which GK does not have.
The band however praised the tone from the new gear. They described the tone as "fat". At the same time they LOL'led at the size of the amp
Don't be baffled by my first impressions. This gear is very new to me. Next week I will A/B the Hartke rig with the GK rig, then I will do cross-checking with the Hartke cab/GK cab, MB Fusion/Hartke cab, and two basses, the second one being my Epiphone Viola Bass.
Ah, before I forget. The thing has tubes inside. Cranking up the Gain B near to the limit causes audible noise. Not only the AC mains noise (the guitar has a humbucker), but some white noise, and that is strange. And the fan, strange thing. I am not sure if it went off during the rehearsal at all. However, when I was playing around with EQ and similar stuff at home and the amp was even not that loud, suddenly the fan went off and it was not quiet. So no, at least in my amp the fan if it needs to spin is not quiet. Hartke's is audible but not that much. Strange, strange
I suspect it will take a while to dial in your tones, it took me a while with constant tweaking but I now have my amps sweet spot by keeping the bass low and the low mids up, works a treat for me .
Happy tweaking Antek
Happy tweaking Antek
Thank you Graham!
Yes, I think several things are needed:
1. Speakers to settle
2. Careful tweaking
3. I will try a compressor
4. In case the amp/cab would still not meet my tonal needs, I could expand the rig with a second -- TRIED -- cabinet.
But I really want to give it time and get used to the new rig. The A/B tests could be interesting, too.
One of things that are unpleasant is that except some world areas it is virtually impossible to try gear before purchase...
Yes, I think several things are needed:
1. Speakers to settle
2. Careful tweaking
3. I will try a compressor
4. In case the amp/cab would still not meet my tonal needs, I could expand the rig with a second -- TRIED -- cabinet.
But I really want to give it time and get used to the new rig. The A/B tests could be interesting, too.
One of things that are unpleasant is that except some world areas it is virtually impossible to try gear before purchase...
Shame on me guys. I'm gonna crawl under the table and bark to pay back the negative words I wrote about the G-K sound. Treat them as non existent.
The post of Graham made me understand I must have been doing Sum Tin Wong (do you know these Chinese words? ).
So I drove 40 miles this evening to bring my gear back from the rehearsal room and give it a heavy try. Back in my practice room, I put the cabinet up a dedicated table, its back close to the wall, listening position 10 feet from the cab -- by the book -- and I tried almost everything.
And yes, I dialed in my tone. The tone I indeed prefer is rich in hi-mids and this gives my electric bass that growl and snarl on low strings that I love. The Presence switch can add in that, but the picking sound is too clearly audible for me, so no, no Presence. The horn in the cab on. Without, you're getting "vintage tone", but my band plays modern.
Now, if I need a little bit more of lows for the bluesy thing, I can dial the bass knob on my instrument slightly. I could do it by a delicate turn on the amp's knob, and the Deep switch does this, too, it is just simpler for me to do it from the bass guitar.
The great thing with the tube pre-amp is that it is very dynamic. I could set a sweet point at Channel A where a strong hit on the strings was making the thing going into a slight crunch. Ideal for my power-chords!
Now, the thing I still dislike:
When I was playing slow, deep stuff (Gain A at 10:00, Master A at 9:00), the fan started spinning. And it was pretty loud, high frequency noise, quite audible and annoying despite the loudspeakers played really loud. When I switched to fast rocking material, the fan stopped completely. I can tell you, in a rock band this kind of noise would be completely unheard. For a soloist, that level of noise could be really a problem, for the bassist him/herself.
Regarding the cabinet: It is brand new and so far it is somewhat "hard" on deep lows. I think it will settle over time. OTOH, I do not have any P-Bass, so I cannot tell what the cabinet's response to a "typical" bass would be. My bass is very special and it gives me tone *I* like. So I don't mind.
To summarize - a great amp and I am a fool to complain after very short playing!
(Enough to say I got almost The Stranglers' tone without playing the P-bass ;-) )
------
Daniel - I need to load the battery for my camera
You're asking if the MBE410 feels rugged. I think so. I have already banged it couple of times slightly passing narrow door, no scar. Only 50 lbs, yet is feels heavy and solid to me.
The post of Graham made me understand I must have been doing Sum Tin Wong (do you know these Chinese words?
).So I drove 40 miles this evening to bring my gear back from the rehearsal room and give it a heavy try. Back in my practice room, I put the cabinet up a dedicated table, its back close to the wall, listening position 10 feet from the cab -- by the book -- and I tried almost everything.
And yes, I dialed in my tone. The tone I indeed prefer is rich in hi-mids and this gives my electric bass that growl and snarl on low strings that I love. The Presence switch can add in that, but the picking sound is too clearly audible for me, so no, no Presence. The horn in the cab on. Without, you're getting "vintage tone", but my band plays modern.
Now, if I need a little bit more of lows for the bluesy thing, I can dial the bass knob on my instrument slightly. I could do it by a delicate turn on the amp's knob, and the Deep switch does this, too, it is just simpler for me to do it from the bass guitar.
The great thing with the tube pre-amp is that it is very dynamic. I could set a sweet point at Channel A where a strong hit on the strings was making the thing going into a slight crunch. Ideal for my power-chords!
Now, the thing I still dislike:
When I was playing slow, deep stuff (Gain A at 10:00, Master A at 9:00), the fan started spinning. And it was pretty loud, high frequency noise, quite audible and annoying despite the loudspeakers played really loud. When I switched to fast rocking material, the fan stopped completely. I can tell you, in a rock band this kind of noise would be completely unheard. For a soloist, that level of noise could be really a problem, for the bassist him/herself.
Regarding the cabinet: It is brand new and so far it is somewhat "hard" on deep lows. I think it will settle over time. OTOH, I do not have any P-Bass, so I cannot tell what the cabinet's response to a "typical" bass would be. My bass is very special and it gives me tone *I* like. So I don't mind.
To summarize - a great amp and I am a fool to complain after very short playing!
(Enough to say I got almost The Stranglers' tone without playing the P-bass ;-) )
------
Daniel - I need to load the battery for my camera
You're asking if the MBE410 feels rugged. I think so. I have already banged it couple of times slightly passing narrow door, no scar. Only 50 lbs, yet is feels heavy and solid to me.
Dude- great posts! Glad that it is working for ya! Gk makes some great gear. Pretty interested in that 410 now...
"No pics - it didn't happen" ;-)
Sorry for the quality -- my camera and I cannot agree to anything
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
My gear and my late Dad
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
Less distortion in the grille picture
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
The camera chose focusing on the Speakon cable
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
Nice Tolex and logo, the amp still fuzzy
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
The minimalism I like so much
-----
All the best, mate!
Sorry for the quality -- my camera and I cannot agree to anything
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
My gear and my late Dad
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
Less distortion in the grille picture
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
The camera chose focusing on the Speakon cable
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
Nice Tolex and logo, the amp still fuzzy
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
The minimalism I like so much
-----
All the best, mate!
Hey Antek,
My experience is that GK makes better quality gear than Hartke, and it sounds much better IMHO. I worked at Sam Ash for a few years, and there was constantly "duds" coming from Hartke. That is, they either didn't work right out of the box, or or stopped working shortly thereafter. The Hartke cabs were constantly being returned for speakers that came unglued and/or rattled. Granted, some Hartke gear sounded pretty good, but overall it's poorly made.
The GK stuff was never my tone, but then one day I heard a customer playing in the bass room and the tone was great and caught my attention. Lo and behold--it was a GK amp! So I came to realize that when the GK is properly EQ'd the tone is pretty decent.
While my favorite tone overall is still the Aguilar tone, my old AG500 just didn't sing like my DB750. The tubes play a big role...as I also recalled the Ampeg SVT-3 Pro I had was WAY more to my liking than the SWR SM-500 I traded it for (huge mistake). The different stages of tube gain add more warmth than that single preamp tube. With all the lightweight amps out there, the AG500 was too close in size and weight to my DB750, and I was waiting for the right new micro hybrid amp to hit the market. When the MB Fusion was announced, I was stoked, but the 2.5 years it took to become available really sucked. Meanwhile I looked into Markbass, and almost went that route, and I waited and hoped Aguilar would come out with something like the MB Fusion before GK. But, I acquired my new MB Fusion before Aguilar released their new micro amp (Tone Hammer 500). Considering the big difference in tone with the AG500 and DB750, I'm convinced the preamp tubes do it. (Now Aguilar will argue that their solid state amps have a "tubey" warmth, and they do, but the DB750 has a way more organic tone. The AG500 was really way too sterile sounding.). So now comparing features of the MB Fusion and the new Aguilar Tone Hammer 500, I think the GK takes the edge with the tubes, limiter (the protection circuit Aguilar uses really sucks--the amp can shut off mid-performance), and all the other controls.
Since I got the amp, I've only used it on a few gigs. My first gig at a jazz club/restaurant it sounded killer. However, dialing in a tone was more challenging when I played with the symphony recently. My feeling is that the room and setting plays a big role in how any amp sounds, and you make need to completely re-adjust in every venue. To be expected, but this really confirmed it.
Overall, the MB Fusion has tons of great features and a killer tone that can really be tweaked to suit your taste. Great amp!
My experience is that GK makes better quality gear than Hartke, and it sounds much better IMHO. I worked at Sam Ash for a few years, and there was constantly "duds" coming from Hartke. That is, they either didn't work right out of the box, or or stopped working shortly thereafter. The Hartke cabs were constantly being returned for speakers that came unglued and/or rattled. Granted, some Hartke gear sounded pretty good, but overall it's poorly made.
The GK stuff was never my tone, but then one day I heard a customer playing in the bass room and the tone was great and caught my attention. Lo and behold--it was a GK amp! So I came to realize that when the GK is properly EQ'd the tone is pretty decent.
While my favorite tone overall is still the Aguilar tone, my old AG500 just didn't sing like my DB750. The tubes play a big role...as I also recalled the Ampeg SVT-3 Pro I had was WAY more to my liking than the SWR SM-500 I traded it for (huge mistake). The different stages of tube gain add more warmth than that single preamp tube. With all the lightweight amps out there, the AG500 was too close in size and weight to my DB750, and I was waiting for the right new micro hybrid amp to hit the market. When the MB Fusion was announced, I was stoked, but the 2.5 years it took to become available really sucked. Meanwhile I looked into Markbass, and almost went that route, and I waited and hoped Aguilar would come out with something like the MB Fusion before GK. But, I acquired my new MB Fusion before Aguilar released their new micro amp (Tone Hammer 500). Considering the big difference in tone with the AG500 and DB750, I'm convinced the preamp tubes do it. (Now Aguilar will argue that their solid state amps have a "tubey" warmth, and they do, but the DB750 has a way more organic tone. The AG500 was really way too sterile sounding.). So now comparing features of the MB Fusion and the new Aguilar Tone Hammer 500, I think the GK takes the edge with the tubes, limiter (the protection circuit Aguilar uses really sucks--the amp can shut off mid-performance), and all the other controls.
Since I got the amp, I've only used it on a few gigs. My first gig at a jazz club/restaurant it sounded killer. However, dialing in a tone was more challenging when I played with the symphony recently. My feeling is that the room and setting plays a big role in how any amp sounds, and you make need to completely re-adjust in every venue. To be expected, but this really confirmed it.
Overall, the MB Fusion has tons of great features and a killer tone that can really be tweaked to suit your taste. Great amp!
Hi, Dave!
It is really good to listen to someone as experienced as you are.
To be very honest, I'd just looked up the EQ setting of the Hartke's owner and noticed he pushed his hi-mids really up. Then I've found out I was actually looking for the hi-mid punch for my style, not the lows. Indeed, pushing the lows up makes endless bass sustain in the MB Fusion Now I can hear the edge of the GK and its tubes.
Still, I think using a tube stage for Contour seems a waste for me. Do you think a single tube stage could have been used for a compressor by G-K instead? (I don't know; it is a question).
Dave, tell me please: Do you think that if I use a compressor pedal now it would mean wasting the tube dynamics? Again, I don't know, I'm so inexperienced...
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Daniel: I play with the tweeter on. This gives fuller, modern tone. The horn off gives sort of 1970's tone, some will like it.
It is really good to listen to someone as experienced as you are.
To be very honest, I'd just looked up the EQ setting of the Hartke's owner and noticed he pushed his hi-mids really up. Then I've found out I was actually looking for the hi-mid punch for my style, not the lows. Indeed, pushing the lows up makes endless bass sustain in the MB Fusion
Now I can hear the edge of the GK and its tubes.Still, I think using a tube stage for Contour seems a waste for me. Do you think a single tube stage could have been used for a compressor by G-K instead? (I don't know; it is a question).
Dave, tell me please: Do you think that if I use a compressor pedal now it would mean wasting the tube dynamics? Again, I don't know, I'm so inexperienced...
----
Daniel: I play with the tweeter on. This gives fuller, modern tone. The horn off gives sort of 1970's tone, some will like it.
AntekStalich said:
I don't think an onboard compressor would really be great. I don't generally use many effects these days, but I used to. I found the optical compressors to really have my favorite tone, transparent without too much "squash". I really like the EHX Black Finger (used to have one), but it's big, noisy, and not very sturdy. The Demeter Compulator is what I'm using now, but it can clip with an active high-output bass. It still sounds good, just wouldn't use it with an 18v onboard preamp--it distorts your tone big time! There are many others out there, and using one will not kill your tube tone. Compressors are great for slap, recording (although it's probably just as easy to compress a recorded bass track with digital editing software), and for taming peaky effects like envelope filters. However, they can also take away the nuances you can get with your fingertips if not used with discretion. I always run mine into the front of the amp, not the loop.
If the amp was all tube, with a tube power section, the compressor would reduce some of the tube dynamics, but could still be used effectively if not overdone.
As for the contour, don't know the answer. I don't cut much mids, as I love mids in my tone. I'm sure GK has made good use of the tubes, moreso than Hartke, Markbass, GenzBenz, or SWR. (I can sort of recall a Hartke amp still working after we took out the preamp tube--like no difference at all!). I feel that the GK MB Fusion is currently the only micro amp on the market that utilizes the gain structure of the tubes in so many stages. The others only have one in the front end of the preamp input. In that regard, the MB Fusion is desgned more like the other two amps I've had and really liked--the Aguilar DB750 (still have it) and the Ampeg SVT3-Pro. Tonally a little different, especially when EQing, but along the same lines in a much smaller package.
Chef
In Memoriam
I wouldn't go so far as to say the GK makes better use of tubes than the GB Streamliner, but to judge for yourself, go look at the schematics of both.
Chef
In Memoriam
