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New GK 800 Legacy!
- Thread starter johnson79
- Start date
Just from the video mind you, I couldn't agree more. I played an 800 and 400 for decades, and while this is a nice piece, to my ears sounds nothing like the RB series. The RB Boost was magic!!!
Since it's a new amp and I'm dialing it in from scratch, I decided to try out GK's recommendation for setting the gain - all the way up unless you get input clipping, then back off. I've always been more conservative with other GK's as this seemed a little backwards for somebody used to cranking power amps all the way and adjusting gain as needed to improve S/N ratio. ...but I tried it with my L800 on a low-volume trio gig last night. Gain fully open does add a richness to the tone, similar to opening the volume pot on a passive bass. I liked it! I never saw a clip light with my passive moollon with pretty hot pickups about 3/4's open. The only downside is that I needed to keep the master at around 9:00 with a 4 ohm 1X12 - a little tricky to navigate when small changes to a small dial make big changes to the overall output. I'm not complaining, I'll keep experimenting, but I thought I'd ask what others do with GK's "gain all the way up" recommendation.
The amp labels it “trim” rather than “gain.” I read trim to be an attenuation rather than boost or gain. So, is the “trim” dial a cut (trim) or a boost (gain)? If it’s cut/trim, then the GK recommendation to start wide open makes total sense.
Good point - probably their logic. As I said, it does work fine that way, given there was no clipping. That would not be the case with some other amp designs. I'll be interested to hear what kind of input does clip this amp with the trim all the way open.
My Stingray Special totally clips my Legacy 800 with the trim wide open. I had to back it off to about 2 o’clock. My P basses are fine with the trim around 4 o’clock,
New Legacy 500 ordered today. Should arrive next week.
Let us know how it performs. Seeing the ratings being posted on here left me feeling discouraged. I know I shouldn’t doubt GK but it’s just odd for a 500 head to have such low wattage when running at 8ohms.
Here's the scoop: 180 watts at 8 Ohm, 300 watts at 2 or 4 Ohm, 450 watts at 2.7 Ohm. Putting an 8 Ohm cab with a 4 Ohm cab will give you 2.7 Ohms. I ordered two 8 Ohm cabs which will arrive tomorrow. So I can use either 180 watts or 300 watts depending upon the need. I can always get another 8 Ohm cab later if I need it. I will probably be using 180 watts for most of my gigs.
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Sounds about right, the head is around 700 and the cab 500, it’s GK worth every penny!
I complained about the pricing too but just give it a few months for them to pop up on classifieds 
It's common for every new amp to quickly pop up in classifieds. We like to try all the latest new things here.
And then realize that the new things are often not any better than our old things.
