Just ordered a GK Fusion 550

I went to Guitar Center today and they didn't have squat, and the 550 is what I was hoping to try out. It's been getting good reviews so I ordered one. I guess the worst that can happen is I return it. I'm definitely psyched to put the Pedulla through it though

http://www.gallien-krueger.com/spotlight_550.html#

Wicked/cool/awesome, Jeff!

I've owned a couple of GK products over the years, and I always liked it a lot. In fact, I used to work for a company called OddzOn products in Campbell, California, and we were literally located right next door to GK. Every day I saw tons of amps and cabinets leaving their shipping dock, and I would just drool.

this is a very nice head.

i've had conflicting results with gk, including my current head, but i need to accept that these have all been bottom of the line models ... currently mine is the discontinued backline 600. i know the sound from the higher end models is muy bueno.

gk has always served me well as far as durability and dependability. my backline has gone down flights of steps twice and still works fine. this head replaced a hartke 3500 (flat style) that was shorting and making icky sounds after 6 months.

i've been looking at mesa, ashdown and hughes/kettner ... seeking that more balanced tone and warmth, but i just feel like these are just too overpriced.

before i make another amp purchase, i'm definately gonna try this one out.

My Backline 600 has been reliable I just think it's time to step up to a better model. Someone was playing a Mesa M6 Carbine through a Mesa 4x10 and it sounded pretty good. I thought about a Markbass, from what I hear they're very transparent and will give you what your bass sounds like. GK, Genz Benz, Marshall, Peavey, Trace Elliot all have their trademark sounds and I guess Markbass you can make it what you want. I like the GK tone but this tube model will add warmth to the GK punchiness.

The BL600 is still on the website, did you hear it was discontinued? I'll be keeping mine as a backup.

Actually, I'm wrestling with what brand to go with, and GK is on the list. I was originally going to re-build my rig with Behringer, since I've had so much great luck with it, but it now looks that they're changing their product lines a bit, and eliminating some things that I had my eye on, mainly their speaker cabinets. And I want my next rig to be a matched set, meaning that I want the heads and cabinets to all be the same brand.

So I'm looking seriously at Carvin, Hartke, and GK. But I have no clue which way I'll go.

That 500 watt Carvin for $500 is a good buy, I've heard good things about it. The only thing I don't like about it is the lack of a pre/post EQ option on the XLR out. You have to move up to the BX600 to get that option. There's also a 600 watt Acoustic for under $500 that I hear is pretty good, although I haven't heard good things about the Acoustic cabinets.

Ever check out the Genz Benz Shuttle 6.0? that light weight head has been getting rave reviews, then of course there's the
GBE series that are killer.


Right now the BX600 has a lower sale price than the BX500, a good time to pull the trigger

https://www.carvinguitars.com/products/single.php?product=BX600

Yeah, that's pretty close to what I would do if I were to go with Carvin, Jeff. What I had in mind was to use the BX1200 for my low/clean channel, and either another BX1200 or the BX600 for my distortion channel. But then the 500 watt lightweight Carvin really caught my eye, except for the fact that it makes me nervous that it only weighs around 6 pounds. 6 pounds for a 500 watt head??? How the hell do they do that??? I mean, I'm sure it works fine, but there's my old school mentality at work again that tells me anything that isn't heavy isn't sturdy enough. And I know that this isn't true anymore, and that it's my own little hurdle to cross.

Billy Sheehan once said that he strives to make things easier by reducing the variables, and I could not agree more. When you run two signals into two amps that are doing two different things while wanking on a tremolo, there are already a number of variables happening, so I prefer my amplification to be as simple as possible. I am not a fan of big EQ's, and parametric EQ's give me a headache. So I must confess that this offering from Hartke has also really caught my eye:

http://s3.amazonaws.com/samsontech/related_docs/LH1000.jpg

All the reviews I heard on the Shuttle were good ones, some say it's brighrt and lacks low end but no complaints about it not being sturdy. Some drive 8x10 cabs with them, or those heavy Schroeders.

I've always set parametric EQ's in a V or U shape and gone with that.

Wow...I missed a lot here.

I couldn't agree more about hating graphic/parametric EQs. YICK. I can't stand them. When I play, I want to hear the sound of what I'm actually playing and what I'm playing on/with rather than what it sounds like put through these two EQ and compression settings. Why have all those settings when I'm only going to use one ever? I want to get amps that make that one sound and nothing else, because that's all I'm going to want.

I like big, simple tube amps and I'm really curious about what Electric, Hiwatt, Sunn, and Marshall make/have made.

There's also something about those ultra light heads that I don't get. Aren't amps supposed to be heavy? I want mine to be.

Bah...I think lows are a little overrated. I get my favorite bass sounds out of guitar amps. Of course, most people don't sound as bad as me.

Acoustic amps have always sounded good. Some of my favorite bass sounds have come from those things.

Out of what Carvin makes, the Mono Block bass head looks the coolest. I have heard them many times and every time, it sounded just as ballsy. Carvin cabs are great as well.

Those Mesa Carbine amps are really great for what type of amp they are, but they are still that type of amp...the modern, small type of amp that I can never get to sound quite right because there are so many options. It's my 400+ all over again, but 1/4 the weight and 1/4 the size. Except that amp sounds incredible through the cab it's meant to go with--the 4x10/1x15.

And I never use tweeters if they're in a cab. I prefer cabs without them, but Ampeg and Carvin cabs sound really good...with the tweeter rolled down.