Amps that growl

R

REB

Apr 6, 2007
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#1
I'm really missing my old Gallien-Kreuger 800RB that I sold years back. I'm considering getting another amp or combo and I'm wondering if there are any other amp brands that have that same GK growl that the 800RB is famous for. If you're not familiar with that sound it was more of a slight low-end punch growl than a distortion that's popular with metal these days.

Does anyone know have other amp brands and models that have a similar growl?
 
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#4
Maybe you should try an 800 watts Mesa head.

I’m a long term user of the GK 400 RB v2 but I’m using my Mesa Subway D350 all the time now and I have no regrets. Got rid of the GK rather quickly………..

My backup head is a Traynor SB200 which is a bit more rock voiced but I always come back to my D350 anyway.

And when I want more aggressiveness, I turn on the bright switch on the D350 and here we go!
 
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#7
GK changed the voicing a bit with each generation of amp. An RB series amp would still probably be about as close as you can get, however they were discontinued a while ago. AFAIK, current offerings are Fusion S and Legacy.


Mesa 400s tend to be growly. The Mesa TT800 is inspired by the 400 and/or 400+. Might be worth researching how growly the TT can get.
 
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#8
I just got a Legacy 500. Have only had one loud-ish rehearsal with it--first gig on Fri. To me, it's right in the ballpark. I never owned an 800RB but must have used them on backline a couple hundred times over the decades.
From the man himself:
"I want to talk about the Legacy 500 concept. From the beginning of this project I wanted to bring out a model that had similar specs to the 800RB. We haven't had an amp like the 800RB since it went out of production so this is what I was aiming for. The 800RB put 300W into 4 Ohms from one side and 100W into 8 Ohms from the other side. Total output power was 400W but it took a 4 Ohm cabinet and an 8 Ohm cabinet. Very few people used the 100W side so mostly it was used as a 300W amplifier. As it turns out 300W is a very good power level when you want to use the rails and that is where a lot of the GK growl comes from. When you have more power, the levels get really loud when you go into the rails so 300W is kind of a sweet spot. When the Legacy 500 is loaded to the same max as the 800RB you will get 450W which is a little more than the 800RB. The 300W rating into 4 Ohms is at 1% which when compared to other amplifiers whose ratings are based on 5% or even 10% it will seem more powerful than it's rating. This has been a common comment regarding GK amplifiers, that they seem much louder than the rating.
I am very interested in your comments regarding your new head, and I hope it delivers what you are looking for.
Regards,
RAG"
 
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#12
Big fan of my TT-800. I ran out of GAS once I started playing through this amp.
 

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#15
REB said:
I'm really missing my old Gallien-Kreuger 800RB that I sold years back. I'm considering getting another amp or combo and I'm wondering if there are any other amp brands that have that same GK growl that the 800RB is famous for. If you're not familiar with that sound it was more of a slight low-end punch growl than a distortion that's popular with metal these days.

Does anyone know have other amp brands and models that have a similar growl?
Click to expand...

Rumor is on the GK club thread.....

GK will "supposedly" be releasing soon a class D version of their old RB series of heads.

If it's the 800RB sound/tone that your ears are looking to hear, go with what originally worked for you, I think you've three choices:

Find a used 800RB head, (and all that goes along with buying used.)
Or...
Get a new GK Legacy head and see what you think, (is it close enough to what your looking for?)
Or...
Wait till the class D version of the 800RB is relised and see what you think.
 
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#16
If you use a pedalboard, and love the Gk sound, I’d recommend the Dicosimo 800rb Gk pedal, it really nails that tone. I’ve been very pleased with mine, and I’m a decades long Gk user, I believe Dominic will have a new batch available pretty soon. And if a pedal is not your thing, you can often find great deals on the old Gk 400rb’s, (which I actually prefer over the 800rb’s)
 
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#18
I had a GK 400RB years ago. Paired it with Hartke cabs, but I don't recall it having much growl unless you added a pedal in front of it. It was a dependable head but when you turned it on it always had a slight pop to it that would make the speakers jump.
 
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#19
Beware of attributing a characteristic to a particular mechanism, the whole “rail thing” is not necessary the reason because there are other bass amps that use the same power amp topology yet do not exhibit this characteristic.

There are voicing choices that are made throughout the GK preamps that are far more responsible imo.
 
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