Gallien Krueger Legacy 800

[GreeneKing]

I gave the Legacy head a try at band practice last night. I used one of my 2, 8 ohm Accugroove Tri112L cabs that I find excellent, full horn and tweeter dialled in on the back of the cab too.

The guys can be pretty loud. It's always a mission not to get carried away in volume wars until drummer is drowned out and we get another letter of complaint to the Parish Council

I used my 2008 MIM Jazz with Dunlop flats. Passive VVT and more than a sum of its parts. My cheapie bass that I was going to sell when my Zoot arrives but I don't think I can do it..... It is the best Jazz I've owned in terms of tone and playability and that includes some high end instruments. Okay in some ways my Sandberg is better with it's Uni-Pre versatility but it's heavy and tone wise something quite different.

Bass in via a Broughton adjustable HPF to an EBS Microbass 3. I'm using the MB3 as much for the tuner and compressor as anything else at the moment although it's a powerful pre in it's own right.

The Legacy isn't my 1st Class D amp. I've had mixed outcomes with several and some haven't been up to the job frankly.

The gain 'trim' is supposed to be set at max unless it needs to be rolled off to prevent clipping. I had it at max initially and all the EQ set flat. 

These amps are known for their sparkle and I anticipated having to turn the treble down a bit, especially with the cab wound up to the max.

But no. Articulate and right in the mix at a silly low volume settings. The volume knob was set to about 8 o'clock or less and the bass just sounded solid in right in there without any boominess or clatter. 2 cabs would I suspect give a huge amount of projection.

The guys are a perennial practice band. We're mostly comfortable with that and we lack a singer. The lead guitarist does a very good impression but we'd really need a singer to carry it off. Our drummer gigs regularly and reckoned we were way better than a band he gigged with on the weekend, including the bassist which was a fillip for me

So, early days but I'm very pleased with the tone and it seems to suit both my playing and our music which varies from Rolling Stones and Thin Lizzy numbers and other 'classic' rock  and more modern (80's) numbers that we enjoy playing.

I noticed the amp clipping and the cab distorting after I'd wound up the low mids a little and get a bit carried away with 'A Town Called Malice". The truth is I didn't needs the low mids boosted anyway and adjusting the trim a little sorted it.

So very pleased.

Peter

Edited July 15, 2021 by GreeneKing