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Selling amp, buying new/used ampeg or gk?

brenner182

brenner182

Apr 24, 2010
1,036
31
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Maryland
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#1
I'll keep his short, selling my peavey tour 700 looking at either gk 1001rb or a ampeg, but I don't know what to look for in ampeg.

I run a fender bassman 410 and a peavey 15 with a Warwick vette double buck and a epi third as back up

Biggest two things I am looking for is bi-amping and rackmount.

Help
 
#2
Not really answering your question, but my two cents about GK.

I've owned a 1001 GK head for a quite a while. It's the older version of the RB. Sounds WONDERFUL. When it works!

It's been in the shop three times including this very moment. One of those was a return to GK. The reliability sucks and I've heard this from lots of 1001 owners. I don't know about the RB version, but it would be worth checking on the quality of the RB.
 
#5
Personally, I think Ampeg and GK sound quite a bit different from one another so you should be able to give them a spin and determine which brand you like best. I'm not aware of an Ampeg that will do bi-amping, so if that is a primary factor for you, it might knock Ampeg out altogether. To me, Ampeg is warm, round and organic while GK is quick, clear, punchy and very loud with strong lows and a bit more mid-focus.

If you decide GK, you might want to give the Fusion 550 a try. It is typical GK tone with a bit of tube warmth added in, so you can kinda come close to copping Ampeg tones if you EQ properly. I love how you can push the preamp to creamy OD - with bi-amping, you can drive nice, clean highs to the tweeter at the same time. Although I never tried this, I imagine it would sound really good.
 
#9
brenner182 said:
i though the whole idea of bi-amping was to send lows one way and highs another. my 410's sometime sound like farts when i get on my low c'

That is what biamping is, but to do it effectively, you'd want one large sub, and one very small mid speaker and maybe a tweeter. Iow, an actual PA subwoofer for the lows, and a 1x8 mid driver. With 2 full range cabs, it just doesn't work out the same. If you're looking for those super low frequencies, it'll also take massive power to reproduce. Most "normal" bass rigs don't go that low, even biamped.
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#10
RickenBoogie said:
brenner182 said:
i though the whole idea of bi-amping was to send lows one way and highs another. my 410's sometime sound like farts when i get on my low c'

That is what biamping is, but to do it effectively, you'd want one large sub, and one very small mid speaker and maybe a tweeter. Iow, an actual PA subwoofer for the lows, and a 1x8 mid driver. With 2 full range cabs, it just doesn't work out the same. If you're looking for those super low frequencies, it'll also take massive power to reproduce. Most "normal" bass rigs don't go that low, even biamped.
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I disagree, if you send all the meaty lows to the fifteen and keep the 410 pushing all your mids and highs you should be able to cut out all the farting as well as get a little bit better articulation in your complex tones. Ive noticed the bi amping makes my passive basses sound more even across the fretboard as well as my low b ring clearer and stronger.

With that being said, I don't want to have to rely on this feature that is not available from every amp. So my current rig is a 410 and a 215.and both cabs have their own character and complement each other with my yorkville pushing out the same mono signal to both.

If yout want a biampable head, check out the svt 4pro. Also, if money is an issue, find a used Hartke 7000.
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#12
Well since nobody else is going to point this out, I will. The GK biamp feature only works with GK cabs and speaker cables, and you need to get a biamp capable cab.

This is right out of the 1001RBII manual:

Note: The 50W horn amplifier has a fixed frequency
output of 5kHz and up (high frequencies only). It
will not provide a useable signal to drive a seperate
speaker cabinet.

You might want to check out Carvin, they make several bass heads that are a true biamp, in that you can separately drive lows and highs to separate cabs and select the crossover freq.

Sorry to rain on your parade, but someone had to tell you before you made an expensive mistake.
 
#13
RickenBoogie said:
+1 to Ampeg & GK sounding completely different, and also, your 410 and 15 cabs are both "full range" bass cabs, so biamping is, (imo) a complete waste of time.
Click to expand...

+1 to pointless biamping too. If you check the specs on both cabs, you'll find the 410 is actually better tuned for lower freq than the 15. I have always felt that 15's tend to push more low mids than sub lows, therefore they are definitely not suited for sub work, unless you have the right driver loaded into a reflex cabinet, but that is more of a PA type setup as was mentioned earlier.

If I might make a suggestion, you might want to try some different cabs instead. Take your head to GC or any music store and try out some other cabs. You mentioned the 410 farts out when you dig in on the low C, you might try dialing out some the low sub bass and push the low mids up a bit. With the string detuned that low it's making a lot of that sub bass without the extra eq settings and the low mid bump will get you heard. Also, that head puts out 700W at 4ohms, the 410 is rated for 350W and I don't know what the 15 is rated, but if it's less than the 410 then you may be expecting too much from them.

New cabs FTW!!
 
#15
Hi all!
Yes I agree with Levis76 - the GK only biamps to GK cabs, and that's mainly for the tweeter applications.
That said, I've used GK for some time now, and I think it is the ultimate. The 1001rbII has more presence (and I don't mean presence as in 'high freq') in any mix that every amp Ive used live, studio, etc...

Definitely try the Gallien Krueger and Ampeg, but I think you'll settle on the GK - but it all depends on your style, your music, and what a bass should sound like to YOU.

All the best!
JOHN
 
#16
Happy to help.

FWIW, I stand by my advice to check out other cabs. Another head is going to have a different tone, maybe one that you like, but the speakers are farting because the cab is reaching its limit. Remember that the cabs have a significant impact on tone.
 
#17
For what it's worth, I have a 1001-RBII and run it through an Ampeg 6x10 cab. I tried a lot of different amps/cabs before I decided on this. I have plenty of power if I need it for bigger venues/outdoor settings and it provides enough versatility to get either warm/clean sounds or really punchy sounds if called for. It's a kind of "best of both worlds"

I am very pleased with it and have heard lots of nice things from others about how it sounds. I do DI out to FOH but keep stage vol somewhat healthy too because I am, after all, a bass player and that's what we do.
 

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