Gallien-Krueger MB combos

[slazman]

Having parted with my previous set up to downsize and free up a bit of money, I have been looking around for a suitable second hand combo without anything coming up to date.

Whilst I have a month or so before I need something, I am looking at contingency plan B and having to buy new when the time comes (much as it pains me to do so but I guess someone has to!). The Gallien-Krueger MB combo - 115 & 210 would seem to meet my requirements in terms of power, size, weight, price point etc.. The size and weight are important as I have an impractical saloon car at the moment (and a dodgy back).

I was looking for some feedback on how they perform in small venues. Any thoughts out there? Guidance as usual would be appreciated.

Peter

Edited February 3, 2011 by slazman

[chris_b]

I have no knowledge of GK amps so I'd suggest you go over to Bass Direct and check out their stock.

[PVTele]

For much the same reasons, I'd be keen to hear people's responses to this one, too. My present combo's just getting too heavy, man. Blues, in pubs, small clubs - '70 RI P-Bass. The MB115 looks ideal - on paper at least...

[JTUK]

Not a fan of them and have occasion to use them when provided.
I think for a certain budget they will do a job but I can't go any further than that.

I liken them to a jizzed up PV amp....and a tad more modern

If you could stretch to around £600 the Markbass 102 Sh is far far better..and in a different league, IMO.
If your budget is below £500 then maybe this... but despite the bells on some, they have a basic sound so if you need anything demanding...then this isn't it.

Sorry... YMMV

[Old Horse Murphy]

I have a MB210 I use for rehearsals and think its great.

Very small, lightweight and very loud. Quite bassy sounding too.

If you're in the area you're more than welcome to come along and try it out.

Edited February 3, 2011 by Old Horse Murphy

[slazman]

[quote name='JTUK' post='1114011' date='Feb 3 2011, 03:39 PM']If you could stretch to around £600 the Markbass 102 Sh is far far better..and in a different league, IMO.[/quote]

Yes I know ... but £600 is in a different league for me at the moment.

[GRAHAM SG1]

I use an MB 210 with an MBE 115 extension cabinet and think it sounds pretty good, very loud with great projection and huge low end, I have lined the cabs which has improved the sound as it was a bit too boomy, some 40mm egg crate foam stuck to the back walls has done the trick .
For a lightweight reasonably priced set up its excellent.

[AttitudeCastle]

[quote name='Old Horse Murphy' post='1114032' date='Feb 3 2011, 03:55 PM']I have a MB210 I use for rehearsals and think its great.

Very small, lightweight and very loud. Quite bassy sounding too.

If you're in the area you're more than welcome to come along and try it out.[/quote]

How does it handle the Low B? I'm considering the MB210/MB115 as i don't think i can strech to the MB212 / a Neo 212 cab + RB head

[slazman]

[quote name='Old Horse Murphy' post='1114032' date='Feb 3 2011, 03:55 PM']If you're in the area you're more than welcome to come along and try it out.[/quote]

Thanks for the offer - I am down in Croydon on business occasionally .... I may take you up on this.

[slazman]

[quote name='headofire' post='1117503' date='Feb 6 2011, 11:44 AM']I'd be tempted to say you'd get a better sound from a second hand markbass/ampeg or older GK combo etc.[/quote]

I guess I agree with you, but cost and availability (in the right location) is an issue at the moment. I'm not in a great hurry though so I will keep on looking.

(Not sure about the Ampeg BA combos)

Thoughts on initial feedback are that I won't go in the MB combo direction, unless I have no other option.

Edited February 6, 2011 by slazman

[Pollinator95]

I haven´t tried one, but half the people at Talkbass.com seem to have one. You could start here : [url="http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=580379&highlight=mb210"]http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.p...highlight=mb210[/url]

[stef030]

[quote name='Pollinator95' post='1119067' date='Feb 7 2011, 04:36 PM']I haven´t tried one, but half the people at Talkbass.com seem to have one. You could start here : [url="http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=580379&highlight=mb210"]http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.p...highlight=mb210[/url][/quote]
have had my one for a while,more than impressed,
with a 2x10 or 1x12 ext cab more that loud enough for small pubs
built in chorus is quite warm and nice as well,
still have the ampeg as a backup if needed,but in reality that will go I think





cheers
stef

[Magnolia]

I have just bought a MB115, and love it. Rehearsing tonight and gig tomorrow will be the real test. Couldn't believe how light it was when I picked it up.

[randelj]

I need some feedback please!
I really want to buy a MB210 so i went to the store (Andreasson Musik in Gothenburg Sweden) and try one for quite a long time. the power it claims and the light weight are pretty good reasons to me to get one.
this is what happen:
I tried it with my 5 strings Spector Legend. it sounded pretty good, loud and with a crispy sound when the horn is active. when I try and amp I like to force it to the limit so I gradually was turning volume and master vol up.. when I was around 7 in vol the amp started distorting my low B. I thought at first that the amp itself is maybe too powerful for the speakers so I connected it to a GK 210MBE cabinet and later to a 410MBE and even with that it distorted my low B but just in the combo
then I played a beginners 4str Yamaha RBX and I couldn't force the amp to a higher vol because it distorted...
do you think the combo has a defect? so why GK is making and amp with a vol to 10 if you can't get to 10?

[Machines]

Are you sure it wasn't the preamp that was overloading ? Not sure if it has a light to tell you.

[chris_b]

[size=4][color=#222222][font=Arial]Machines is right, overloading the gain will cause the signal from the preamp to distort. On the other hand, I don't think there are many amps that do a "clean" tone at 10. [/font][/color][/size][color=#222222][font=Arial][size=1][/size][/font][/color]
[size=4][color=#222222][font=Arial] [/font][/color][/size][color=#222222][font=Arial][size=1][/size][/font][/color]
[size=4][color=#222222][font=Arial]I would never run an amp on 10. If I needed 10 then I'd get a bigger amp and run it on 5 or 6. If you believe the GK specs 10 is 350 watts which I wouldn't put through a single 210 cab, either. [/font][/color][/size][color=#222222][font=Arial][size=1][/size][/font][/color]
[size=4][color=#222222][font=Arial] [/font][/color][/size][color=#222222][font=Arial][size=1][/size][/font][/color]
[size=4][color=#222222][font=Arial]If you need 350 watts from this amp get the extension cab as well. [/font][/color][/size][color=#222222][font=Arial][size=1][/size][/font][/color]
[size=4][font=Arial] [/font][/size][font=Arial][size=2][/size][/font]

[randelj]

I had the limiter and contour on and no light on, and besides that, these combos have a feature that if they are being misused, they indicate it by turning the power light from blue to red and gets muted until the condition or fault is corrected..

I never run an amp to 10 either but can't play my low B at 7 (in case I suddenly need more power) it's kind of disappointing

later that day I tried an Ampeg (can't remember which one) it was a light one and gave me a clean 10!... but it was only 100W : (

thanx Chris and machines..

[Merton]

Volume control position has nothing to do with the clean power output, and to think it does is unfortunately incorrect. There are a lot of threads relating to this, probably best to start with the "Sticky" about Gain, Power and Volume: [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/3730-gain-power-and-volume-a-confusing-menage-a-trois/"]http://basschat.co.uk/topic/3730-gain-power-and-volume-a-confusing-menage-a-trois/[/url]

[Dr.Dave]

Just bought the MB210 -arrived from Soundslive an hour ago.

First impressions.............

It's bigger and heavier than I expected - though it's not big or heavy. lighter than my Ashdown cabs which are a similar size I think one or two reviewers have gone a bit overboard about these attributes though. I'd have liked side handles.

It doesn't seem over loud - again I think some of the reviews I read have been a bit OTT.

The mains lead had some sort of 2 pin wally plug on it - doubtless some eurozone nonsense.

The speaker out is speakon only - odd because the 'matching' cabs have jack too a far as I know.

A tuner out woud have been nice - instead I have some silly Aux in.

The controls are very like my 400RB amp - but not quite. I'll miss the mute switch. The sound I instantly recognised - it's safe ! The contour control is now a switch rather than a pot so I expect I'll leave it off and prat around EQ's to get 'my' sound. In the few mins I've played it a touch of boost on the trebe and bass , leaving the mids flat seemed to do it easily enough. On the RB I had everything flat and just swung on the contour. The boost seems to start kicking the dirt in a fair bit later - no bad thing. The active input seems pretty fierce - there was a only one input with a 10db pad on the RB but this active input seems to cut more signal than the old pad did. Not that it matters to me because I always use passive or no pad whichever bass I use. The horn really kicks the fizzy highs in - that was a pleasant few seconds of use and it'll never be turned on again! The limiter's a switch. Doubt I'll ever use it.

The 1 x 15 ext cab should be here soon but it's coming from Germany - none left in the UK. Not that the combo lacks bottom - quite bassy for a 2 x 10.

So - I wanted a smaller , lighter , same sounding version of my old rig (the 400RB and 2 Ashdown cabs , a 2 x 10 and a 1 x 15). I expect it's pretty much on the nose with doing that , certainly nothing to lead me to believe it's not up to the job.

[Dr.Dave]

Having gotten used to the combo and gigged with it a few times , I thought a few updated comments might be useful to someone.

Dr Blue are not a quiet band , and I'm finding the combo easily up to the job. At stage volume the sound is pretty bassy for a 2x10. One nice thing (and one of the reasons I wanted it) is the combo without the ext cab will do a far bigger percentage of Doc Blue gigs than my old system of dropping one of my 2 Ashdown cabs for smaller gigs. Then it was always the 2x10 that got left behind in favour of the 1x15 for depth. No problems here - plenty of volume with the gains and volume knobs running on about half way.

Someone mentioned they've put the DI xlr on the wrong way round and you can't get to the catch to release it with fingers. A key/screwdriver or small coin does the job easily but it shouldn't have to. Just sloppy design.

Also - be careful as the kettle socket seems very tight. 2 of my old kettle leads have to be rammed in and therefore it takes too much pressure to get them out again , rendering them uselfess. It's also flush with the back of the como - fine , but it means when you have a plug in it you can't back the combo right up against a wall or you'll distort your plug/cable and eventually it will fail - probably half way through the second set in the dark when you forgot to bring a spare like a right pin head. Think about such things - I do.

An early worry re. a 'clicky/bizzy' earthing problem which kept me awake all week on holiday worrying about having to send it all back turned out to be nothing more than a faulty (and newly bought) 3m mains lead which I took great pleasure in violently cutting into eight pieces with an axe (yes , really). Bloody ebay. You don't get anything for 3 quid these days - rotten little Chinese kids !!!

The light weight is a godsend - but when carrying with the top handle make sure you have the grill closest to your body. If you don't - your arm is too stretched away from your body and makes carrying more awkward as the strap handle is not central. If you get that wrong you'll enter your venue looking like one of these body building numptys that walk into the pub with a gym bag then strut around like they've a roll of carpet under each arm.

Personally - I'm not a fan of stacking corners - they seem brittle to me , slippy on hard floors and liable to self destruct - at some point I'll put 4 wide rubber feet on both cab and combo with maybe some of those old Trace Elliot type 'foot receivers' (for want of a better term) if I can find some , on the top of the ext cab.

I've been really nit picky here - it's great combo/cab for and I'm really pleased. The lot cost me £750 including having the covers made. I sold the last lot for £600 so £150 well spent and , at 50 , it might even last me out as a gigging rock(ish) player. I always said 55 was my cut off but doubtless I'll change my mind when I'm 54!

Edited March 11, 2012 by Dr.Dave

[Cosmo Valdemar]

Excellent review.