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Settings for GK 1001RB-II(?)

#21
obsidianbass said:
I'm very interested in this thread since I have a 1001 rb-ii as well. I'm running a Darkglass b3K into a VT bass deluxe and into the GK instrument input (not effects loop). My typical settings are preamp volume around 10:00, pad off, voicing filters off, EQ flat (noon), boost at 1:00-2:00 and I use the woofer to adjust volume. My problem is I'm worried about blowing speakers, since I can't seem to turn the woofer past 10:00 without drowning everything out (2 loud thrash guitarist and drums) plus my tone gets muffled and indistinct. I'm using an Avatar b410 Neo. Oh, and my pedals are pretty close to unity gain.

I should mention that I've never seen my clip light go off. So, if I understand what some of you are saying, in order to get a sweet tone from this head I should try to raise the level on the VT bass so that my signal is really hot - close to clipping, use the volume on the GK to control overall volume (like the manual says) and try to keep my boost around 3:00 and woofer around noon? :hmm:

Then again, since I'm using those pedals to dirty up my signal, maybe I want the amp super clean. If anyone can shed some light on this for me, I'd appreciate it!

Man, this amp is perplexing. Thanks for any advice.
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I'd suggest ditching the sansamp. I just did a rehearsal with a b3k into a 1001RBII, and it was fantastic. I'd suggest cutting highs and lows until you have a really excessively punchy, midrangey tone, then bring the highs and lows up just enough to fill it out and add some bite (use the presence control for the high boost, that thing sounds killer).

The 1001 isn't the kind of amp that needs a sansamp in front of it.
 
#22
pickles said:
I'd suggest ditching the sansamp. I just did a rehearsal with a b3k into a 1001RBII, and it was fantastic. I'd suggest cutting highs and lows until you have a really excessively punchy, midrangey tone, then bring the highs and lows up just enough to fill it out and add some bite (use the presence control for the high boost, that thing sounds killer).

The 1001 isn't the kind of amp that needs a sansamp in front of it.
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I think you may be right. I want to like the sansamp so much but I tried the B3K directly in as well and the guys I play with said it was my best tone ever. Any thoughts on preamp volume / boost / woofer levels? Should I be controlling the volume of the cab with the volume or the woofer? Does it really matter?

BTW, sorry to hijack the thread, but I figured these questions were in line with the OP.
 
#23
obsidianbass said:
I think you may be right. I want to like the sansamp so much but I tried the B3K directly in as well and the guys I play with said it was my best tone ever. Any thoughts on preamp volume / boost / woofer levels? Should I be controlling the volume of the cab with the volume or the woofer? Does it really matter?
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I'm fairly new to the head but I'd say run the pre gain pretty hot, noonish, set the boost so it grinds then back off a little, then set the overall volume with the woofer. I don't hear radically different sounds from gain staging changes on this head so far, but again, others have a lot more experience with it than I do.

I was also using a maxon cp9pro+ with mine. That might help with gain issues just by being a bit more consistent.
 
#27
dougjwray said:
And just to make matters even more complicated, don't all the RB manuals state something to the effect that you get the cleanest sound by running the master all the way up? Thus implying that you can get distortion by lowering it? So: all three knobs can bring you distortion? I've loved GKs for nearly 30 years, have 3 of them (an OLD 400RB, a 1001RBII, and a new MB200), and I still don't exactly understand how they work. (Except for the straightforward MB200.) :)
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I don't own a GK head but I may be getting an MB500 in the near future. I've noticed that the manual tells you to put the Master volume at 3 o'clock and leave it there for maximum headroom.

However, if you notice some of the videos on Youtube where GK's own employees are demoing the amp at NAMM or something, even they don't follow this advice.

Also, if the user is supposed to leave the Master knob at 3 o'clock, why even give us a knob? It would make more sense to simply hardwire that control, which is what I suspect happens on the GK heads and combos that don't have a Master knob.

Another issue is that most people who use effects pedals don't want any distortion introduced to their signal after their effects, especially those like chorus, delay, reverb, etc... So having a growly GK tone will just add distortion at a point where you don't want it.
 
#28
Obsidianbass:
your pretty spot on. If it were *ME* what i would do (and this is just a starting point only, not in stone) is to place the EQ in the true flat setting. Per the scope my amp shop did, the true flat settings (within 1db anyhow) is as follows:

Contour: off
Presence: off
Treble: -2 (from noon, count the nothches, this will apply to all settings)
High Mid: +1
lo mid: -1
Bass: -3
Boost: noon
woofer control: OFF...
Next, place Input volume around 10 or 11. keep input pad off. plug bass in and set things as you would normally play it. Play your biggest string as hard as you would normally play it. Next increase your gain from said pedal (i use my compressor) Im sure you can use your sansamp. As you increase gain you will see the clip light start flashing. When it starts flashing, back off the gain on your pedal until it stops. Then, turn up the woofer knob and use as volume. IME, for me what happened was things became very clear and refined, mids popped out, and when i turn the boost knob there is a incredibly noticable difference between even noon and say 2 oclock. You definatley know something is different it is very audible. Then feel free to adjust eq to your liking. You can PM me if you need some more guidance. I kinda suck at explaining it, but can do good with talking or showing :/
 
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#29
Thanks ThunderNugget! My big rig is at our rehearsal spot (drummer's studio), so I'll give that a try tonight. I wonder if the B3K alone has enough gain on tap to cause the clip to come on. BTW, I'm playing an American Deluxe Jazz V, but even with the volume maxed, I've never seen the clip light actually light before. I'm psyched to try this out! I'll be sure to report back what happens!
 
#30
obsidianbass said:
Thanks ThunderNugget! My big rig is at our rehearsal spot (drummer's studio), so I'll give that a try tonight. I wonder if the B3K alone has enough gain on tap to cause the clip to come on. BTW, I'm playing an American Deluxe Jazz V, but even with the volume maxed, I've never seen the clip light actually light before. I'm psyched to try this out! I'll be sure to report back what happens!
Click to expand...

PM replied too:)
 
#31
ThunderNugget said:
Obsidianbass:
your pretty spot on. If it were *ME* what i would do (and this is just a starting point only, not in stone) is to place the EQ in the true flat setting. Per the scope my amp shop did, the true flat settings (within 1db anyhow) is as follows:

Contour: off
Presence: off
Treble: -2 (from noon, count the nothches, this will apply to all settings)
High Mid: +1
lo mid: -1
Bass: -3
Boost: noon
woofer control: OFF...
Next, place Input volume around 10 or 11. keep input pad off. plug bass in and set things as you would normally play it. Play your biggest string as hard as you would normally play it. Next increase your gain from said pedal (i use my compressor) Im sure you can use your sansamp. As you increase gain you will see the clip light start flashing. When it starts flashing, back off the gain on your pedal until it stops. Then, turn up the woofer knob and use as volume. :/
Click to expand...

fdeck tested a GK BL600 (which has the same EQ section) some time ago, and he published his flat settings. They were exactly the same, as I recall. So that really is flat for this amp. Cool to have indepenent confirmation.

I used to want to like a sansamp too. When I finally figured out how to get some dirt out of this amp, I didn't want it so much anymore. (That and the giant midscoop it gives you.)

Anyway, Obsidianbass follow those instructions, and you will discover a totally different sound from this amp. You may discover you want to use something other than a sansamp type device to boost your input level so that it does not color the sound so much. Your muffled and indistinct issue at loud volumes may be occurring due to scooping too much mids.
 
#32
Well, I took the advice generously given in this thread and played a show tonight with nothing but the B3K into the GK 1001...it absolutely killed! I got to play with my rig for about 30 minutes prior to the gig and I set the gain on the pedal so that the clip light was just coming on, then backed off a touch. What I got was what ThunderNugget said: Clear, musical tone that crunched when the boost was set past 12:00. My other settings were: Input pad off, Volume - 10:00, 4 string switch on, Voice filters off, Treble - 10:00, Hi Mids - 12:00, Low mids - 11:00, Bass - 10:30, Boost - 1:00, Woofer - 10:30 or so for this gig.

The closest I can think to describe my sound before with this head was decent, but cool / sterile and muffled / lacking balls at loud volumes (I never scooped mids though, and the VT deluxe always had them cranked a bit as well). Now it sounds thicker yet more defined, kind of like a cranked tube amp without the "squishyness" or fuzzyness that can come from driving tubes hard. I'm really psyched with what I was able to get out of it.

I'm not sure I'm going to have a need for the VT bass anymore since the Darkglass alone into the GK was PERFECT. Thanks again all who suggested ideas - I'm going to keep playing and tweaking now that I think I have a better understanding of what this amp can do!
 
#35
Thanks this was interesting. I'm using a Warden compressor to make gain in the front end from effects loop and woofer as output volume. I could never get my signal hot enough to push the pre light on and thought it was weird. The amp needs a ton of input signal to push it. Once you do that and roll back just a little the amp wakes up.
 
#36
To add to this, even pushing the front end I can't get the clip led to flash. Nada. Doesn't seem normal to me. The signal breaks up but no led, except when powering down I get one flash.

WayneDupuis said:
Thanks this was interesting. I'm using a Warden compressor to make gain in the front end from effects loop and woofer as output volume. I could never get my signal hot enough to push the pre light on and thought it was weird. The amp needs a ton of input signal to push it. Once you do that and roll back just a little the amp wakes up.
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#37
The clip light on the 1001rb is ahead of the volume control and only monitors the initial signal coming into the head. If the bass is clipping the input, use the pad. Volume only controls the amount of signal sent to subsequent stages of the amp and does nothing to pad or amplify the incoming signal. AFAIK

You can use outboard gear to bring the signal up to trigger the clip light but I don't know why you'd do that with this amp. Doesn't sound so good to my ears like that.
 
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#38
Yes I agree with you but this was a test to see if I could drive the input enough to get the led into clipping. The amp clips but no led.
I can live with it but want to know is this normal for these heads?
The clip light is there for a reason no?
ihixulu said:
The clip light on the 1001rb is ahead of the volume control and only monitors the initial signal coming into the head. If the bass is clipping the input, use the pad. Volume only controls the amount of signal sent to subsequent stages of the amp and does nothing to pad or amplify the incoming signal. AFAIK

You can use outboard gear to bring the signal up to trigger the clip light but I don't know why you'd do that with this amp. Doesn't sound so good to my ears like that.
Click to expand...
 
#39
The clip light is there to let you know if the first input stage is being overdriven. That's it. The only way to deal with that is the pad button. It tells you nothing about the gain staging of the rest of the amp.

Yes, it's normal. I've read about the occasional Spector bass that requires the pad, but by and large I don't come across situations where the clip led lights in typical use. There is a lot of headroom in the input stage it seems.
 
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#40
ihixulu is spot on. Check the block diagram, page 12 in the attached manual. Clip light is directly after the input plug. G-K preamps are not fond of clipping.

Other amps, such as Ampeg, have the clip light later in the chain, hence most folks run it hot enough to make the clip light flicker for some extra tonal pleasure.

Apples and oranges kind of comparison.
 

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