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BGRA: GK 400RB-III
| Manufacturer |
GK |
Model |
400RB-III |
| Reviewer |
Robert Stuart |
Email |
n |
| Experience |
14 |
Item owned |
1-2 years |
| Review Date |
2001-12-10 |
Price paid |
420 |
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Dimensions | two standard rack spaces. |
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Weight | Pretty Light (15 lbs.) |
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Power | 240 Watts @ 4 ohms, 150 (?) @ 8 ohms |
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Summary: I really love this amp, but I might have to part with it.
I do funk, reggae, gothy, folky music. I play a '72 Jazzbass and a
Warwick fretless w/ emgs through this. I've got two Hartke XL cabs - one
w/ a 15 and one w/ two tens. I had picked up the cabs used because I got a
great deal ($250 per), and the two configurations that work well are:
400RB-III + 2-10's for coffee house gigs or small house jams.
400RB-III + 1-15 for smallish gigs, say a restaurant, or loud band
practice.
But this set up is pretty underpowered and inappropriate for certain kinds
of playing (esp. w/ the fretless). For example, I did an art event in a
huge warehouse and no PA. I had to rent something. (I rented a GK800 and
didn't like the relative lack of clarity and control.) I really like to
have enough extra power to pump out a good strong tone around the
fundamental... This seems to soak up a lot of the power, though.
Anyhow, I love the sound of this amp. I liked it a lot better than the
SWR's: the tone controls have a much stronger effect, and they truly do
seem to be really well chosen - it's hard to get a bad sound. I also get
a lot of good comments on my sound.
This amp is GREAT for recording. I played my fretless through it first
using the DI on 'pre-eq', thinking that's what'd be "right", but then
I switched to post-eq. My tone controls weren't set to any crazy setting,
but the difference in the sound was amazing. It made the fretless sound
beautiful - full of tone. Even if I get another amp, I think I'll keep
this one just as a great DI box.
So part of my sound problem is that I don't have an all-in-one cabinet
with a passive crossover and a horn. The other part is that in say, 60% of
the places I play, I'm hearing the amp distort - I've got it up all the
way. Granted, I could/should turn it down, but now I'm looking at options
like:
1) Get a Carvin DCM-1000 power amp and used crossover and use the GK as a
preamp. (Additional cost of $500)
2) Get a really good and sensitive cabinet like the Eden 4-10, which will
fix up my sound and make the amp sound twice as loud. ($1000 + way too
heavy.)
3) Trade-in for another (possibly biamping) head like a GK-800 or SWR-400
that I saw. ($5 - 600, but then I've got a whole new sound and power
config I'm tied to.)
4) Trade-in for a GK1001. (Very expensive, plus then you get the
hoaky-marketing-ploy-biamp that's on those amps...)
It looks like I'm going w/ option #1 - it's the most flexible, and I'd
still have the head's own power amp as a backup.
The amp's controls and patches are hugely flexible: two different ways to
get a line-out, for example. Being able to switch post/pre-eq on the DI.
I've used it as a monitor amp in a pinch. The dumb thing is that all the
patches are on the front. I don't get it - if you rack mount it, you've
got a mess of cables running around to the back of the rack.
The construction is really solid - I've never had problems with it,
although I've accidentally banged it around here and there. A while back
I scored a GK800 carry bag, and this fits in there great.
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| construction |
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| clarity |
| (100%) |
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| versatility |
| (100%) |
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| volume |
| (85%) |
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| value |
| (90%) |
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| overall |
| (95%) |
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