GK bass amp users, chime in please...

I previously owned a 1001RB-ll but ended up selling it for basically one reason. I loved the tone out of this amp at high volumes, outdoor shows. Man, did it growl and purr so fine. At club levels, it didn't trip my trigger, it was a completely different animal for me and sounded, blah.

That brings me to my point and question.. Could a 700RB-ll with it's lower headroom give me that groovy tone I liked at volumes more suited to smaller indoor clubs?

I don't really think you'd see much difference. How far up did you run your boost ? I've been running mine up a lot further than I had in the past lately. ...haven't settled in on the setting yet but wide open is too much, noon might not be quite enough for what I'm looking for these days.

On my first go 'round with one of these I ran the Boot between 9 & noon for a super clean bottom.

My Schroeder has a looser bottom than my old Bag End setup and a bit of grit down there has some appeal.

I recall everything was set flat through my 8 ohm Peavey TX 410 bottom. Input, master, EQ the whole works set around high noon. Through a single 12" cab boost and contour set flat with master at 9 oclock tops inside a small room.

320 watts vs 460 watts @ 8 ohms probably would not make much difference tonally at club volumes your saying, eh?

I recall everything was set flat through my 8 ohm Peavey TX 410 bottom. Input, master, EQ the whole works set around high noon. Through a single 12" cab boost and contour set flat with master at 9 oclock tops inside a small room.

320 watts vs 460 watts @ 8 ohms probably would not make much difference tonally at club volumes your saying, eh?

Boost and Contour set flat - would be all the way down to the left to my way of thinking . That would be the Off position for those two controls.

Truly - I don't think either of those amp's is working real hard at club volume for most of us. Particularly at 8 ohms. On my first go 'round I ran 8 ohms by putting 2 4 ohm cab's in series - I'm running 1 4 ohm cab now.

IIRC - Brother Tim once pointed out that it takes 10 x the power to get 2x the db's ... so 50 % more isn't a huge deal I'm thinking ... 'of course Brother Tim is a new convert to the 'Church of Big Iron Bass Amps' - I'm predicting a a couple of 'metal head' tat's next! Maybe a nice big snake? nobody said what kind of mood swing after all...

I think the Boost control is the key to what you experienced. Truth is that our ear's and the sound in our head's is all very subjective. I opted for the larger power amp thinking that the farther away from the edge I run my rig, the less often it will break. If I want a little extra warmth/hair/grit in there, the Boost will do some of that - if it isn't enough - then there's always the stomp box approach. I've never run one of those but I've been thinking about snagging a sans amp BDDI or Fulltone Bass Drive as an experiment. The Fulltone is a better sounding pedal than I would have expected. One of the local TB chapter has one and uses it in front of an SVT and Bergantino 6x10 to get a little on it when playing quietly. The guy plays a WAL. He's serious about his gear... kind of got me thinking ... (I'm pretty sure his bass cost more than my rig, #1 and #2 basses ... while cost isn't everything - well, jeeze - its's a WAL...)

I've played through a lot of solid state stuff over the years and for my money the 1001 RB II is the best bet out there for me. I like what that amp brings to the party tonally, reliability wise GK has been great for me, and with that much power on tap - I can't see outgrowing it.

The other amp I spent time with was The Crackertones rehersal rig based on an SVT III Pro. That was a fine sounding amp. About the same oomph as the WT-400 from what I could tell. Quite warm in the low's. Nice - not loud enough but nice.

I finally made the decision to go back to the GK at a Talkbass get-together. I was frustrated with the Eden. Too many freakin' knob's for stage life. Nice sounding pre and the QSC power could level small building. Too many damned knob's. I need it simpler on stage. Recording - fine - I've got time. Live - It's got to be simple to get a sound dialed in. I had already bought my Schroeder and had that on stage and TB buddy Scottice brought out his GK for me to try. About 5 notes and I'm like - yeah - that's gonna work for me.

You might try hitting up the local TB contingent and seeing if someone has a 700 - my experience on TB has been that if I offer a sit in for a song situation / open mic invitation / help to organize a GTG - I'll get to play with enough gear to help me in the process... TB has it's nut cases for sure (heck - I might be leadin' the charge there :oops: ) but the GTG thing has been great. Anyway - you probably need to play through one of those and see if it will do it for you.

I've been using and 800rb for years, and I've never gotten it to the point where I had any power amp distortion. it may be useful to smack the input a bit harder. maybe a boost or OD pedal.

I picked up a 700rb-ll last week from rmcaudio. At last nights gig played through my Ampeg SVT 1x15 cab, it really shined. It has plenty enough headroom yet I was able to get a slight breakup in my tone setting the boost at 2 oclock, low bass eq'd to 9:00, all other eq's set flat, input volume up near noon and the master turned way down. It is a Lightweight rig to me at about 25 lbs in a shallow rack case. My P bass with flats sounds scrumpciously old school through this rig and yet cuts through two guitars. Never thought I would say this but hey, I am back in love with GK!