Gallien-Krueger 1001RB II Head

2006 model. This amp is very versatile. EQ wise only has a 4 band EQ but its flexible enough to dial in whatever tone you want with a fairly good bass. It gets a 7 because it has a single channel, and channel switching would be nice for solo moments or whatever floats your boat (more distorted tones or growl). The amp is powerful enough for most situations except for large stadium gigs where you would need 2 or 3 of these for 20 30 thousand people.

Amp is as clean as it gets even at high volumes, but if you work the gain enough you can get the characteristic GK growl and might even rock some distortion given the right bass and playing picking style. This amp will cover any genre. For anyone in a cover band I strongly suggest this amp (for studio gigs)

Well this amp is high maintenance. GK is far what it was back in the day. These small hihgpowered amps are very prone to malfunctioning. One flaw is that the amps fan should start automatically to avoid any issues and it doesnt. They heat up quickly, and then the fan starts. Some amps have loose wires which can cause issues later on. I suggest you take her to a tech guy every three months as they arent built like a tank like early gks. THESE ARE HIGH MAINTANENCE. More studio ambient, not road worthy.

Never dealtt with them.

I??ve been playing for almost three years now. I play ska, jazz, and rock. I use a pick and fingers sometimes. The amp covers these genres well and sounds sweet. I love the sound I get. This head just needs to be more road worthy so it can stand next to its price tag which isnt cheap by the way, not even if it were a tube amp. If it were lost or stolen Id just buy an old 800rb, these are way better. If they??d make these heads like the old GK theyd own more than half the market easy

My 1001RB II is a late 05/early 06 model.

The amp is incredibly versatile... I'm able to cut through the mix, which isn't always easy playing with two guitars that are always cranked. You can also get a sweet slap tone if your heart so desires. It's gotten the job done for me, I play in a band that ranges from hard rock/borderline metal to relaxed space rock.

The only feature that I wish was on this bass would be another channel with a footswitch. Not a big deal though.

I've used this head at every show I've played and every rehearsal for close to a year straight. Unless you're playing in an arena, this amp is powerful enough for you. If you do happen to be a big star, check out the 2001. Its a monster.

I'm running a Warwick Corvette $$, and a 1997 Warwick Fortress through this head... The combination of the warm Warwick growl and the GK growl is amazing. I really dig it.
There is now hum or noise from mine... A good idea of my settings is to refer to the owners manual, start at the Fusion setting and tweak it for a while.
Absolutley no distortion at high levels.

The only time I've ever had anything break down while using the 1001 was due to my wireless unit having a minor meltdown. This amp is a tank. A light one at that.

I've never had any repairs done, but I did send an email to them reguarding different models and what I was looking for. They responded the next morning with an extremley informative response.

I've been playing for close to ten years now. I've gone through Ampeg and SWR, GK has my sound... I run a Senheiser wireless, Korg rack tuner, and a BBE Sonic Maximizer with it, along with my warwicks.

If it was stolen or lost I would find the knucklehead that lost it... After that, I would go out, play every head I could find, and end up buying the 1001. Its my tone.

I love the tone, the power, the headroom, the weight... I don't hate anything about it.

As far as wishing it had something else... The second channel, and more lights. I like lights. Even if I don't know what they do.

This is a fairly new one...bought it used, in new condition. Has a lot of useful features, and a real basic uncluttered back panel. I like the tuner mute, and di out on the front. It has pretty much all you need to use, and nothing you don't need. Seems like it is well though out. The bi- amp feature is a complete mystery to me... why is it only usable on GK cabinets? Many bassists out here will be using some other brand of speaker cabinet. Therefore, a smart move would have been to make this usable on other manufacturers cabinets. Also, they say its' only usable on horns...not speakers---WHAT? WHY NOT? I can't use it as a backup bi-amp head for this reason. My Pearce kills it for bi-amping- two (300 watt) amps of equal usable power, and a real crossover. 1 point off here for this truly weird feature.

GK all the way, just a very solid good sounding, very tweakable amp. I'm just starting to take it out on gigs, and I dig it. It has less power through my Avatar neo 410 than my beloved Pearce B-2p in bridge mode, but it is a good meat and potatoes unit, with plenty of headroom. Very quiet operation, no weird tones...controls are very effective, and the eq works like all GK bass amps... very well.

Just too early to tell.

Heard some bad things.... but my dealings with them in the past for repair parts for my old 800 rb were quite positive.

The GK people have a great track record in building bass amps. They made the first really good sounding solid state bass amp head, in my opinion - the 400b, and many of those are still out there. It was a much better sounding amp than its' contemporaries, although the Ampeg V6-b was also a nice amp in its' time. I've been a professional bassist for 35+ years now. I had two 400 rb's, an 800 rb, and now own an MB-150e, and this 1001 MKII head. I dig this amp because it is lightweight, powerful enough for its' size, and it sounds great. I got a good deal on it used as well. Why else would you buy an amp anyway? I had an SWR Bass 350, and an Ampeg b2, and this is superior to 'em both in build quality, headroom, and tone- more power helps there. I have tried a lot of amps...I think this sounds better than the much hyped Ampegs of higher power that I've played through recently...much less coloration. The only thing I don't like about this amp - why make a bi-amp head where you can only use that feature with GK cabinets? In the real world, this is pretty much a worthless feature for almost all of us working bassists that have personal preferences when it comes to speaker cabinets. GK- are you listening? You should offer a mod kit to alter this so it can be used with other cabs, or to somehow add that 50 watts to the overall amp power. 1 point off here again for this mysterious feature. Nice amp otherwise, I'm keepin' it!

this amp can be set to play all styles, including old school fender growl. It is easy to set up, just run it flat on eq, turn woffer to 3 oclock, drive to 12oclock and vol from 10-3oclock.

Extremely quite, owned e'm all, this is the quitest on the market. I play finger style 50-60 rock and soul.

I have owned 5 G-Ks. 200rb. 400rb,700rb,and 2 1001rbs. The first addition 1001 quit working after 2 years. Took it to every repair shop in town but they could not fix. I'm pretty good with electronics so i figured it was a high open in the preamp board. I ordered a new one (100.00) and it was better than new.INstalled it my self. Its easy it is all plug in. That did not make me not want another, ther is no better sounding amp!

Sent me a replacement pre amp pronto. I was out of warrenty.

I've been playing keyboards 45 years, bass 10 years. I don't no of any other amp I like. I've had Edens (noisy) peavy, swr, trace .

Feature-rich amp that is very easy to use. The contour and presence voice shaping functions are very useful. The 4-band eq works great, and the boost function used in conjunction with the master volume can produce tube-like grind yet its a distinctive growl only found in GK amps. Tons of power with lots of clarity. The only thing I don't like is that the cooling fan is on the top of the amp, so you either have to have a open space above the amp when its racked, or have a rack component above it that is pretty shallow. I've been able to use a Korg tuner above the amp, which does slightly cover the fan vent, without any problems for over a year.

This amp doesn't have a bad tone in it - I don't know how GK does it, but it is voiced very well. Setting everything flat sounds great. I've got a lot of different basses, and they all sound great through this amp. My G&L L2000 sounds amazing through this amp, and passive instruments sound very natural with minimal eq tweaking. This amp really lets the tone of the bass itself shine - doesn't color the bass's tone. Being a solid state amp, its dead quiet. You can get a really clean, natural tone, or a nice 'n dirty grit using the boost control.

I've noticed some previous reviews score this amp low in the reliability category, but I can't understand why. They all seem bunched together around the same time period, so the only reason I can think of is that a batch of amps with a faulty part or something was produced for specific period of time. GK has a long history of being EXTREMELY reliable, and my two 1001RB-IIs and my 700RB-II have proven that to be true. I've dropped my gigging 1001RB-II twice, and one of the drops was out of the back of SUV on the pavement - that was over a yr. ago and its still pumping out great tone with no problems whatsoever. Given that its solid state, there are no tubes to worry about, so no maintenance is needed. I also know a number of other bassists with GK amps who have never had any problems, none, with there GK amps. One of those bassist has a 14 yr. old 800RB that he still uses and it has never been serviced in any way.

Great customer support! Gene is awesome - he actually called me one time when I sent an email from work with a general question. My work email has my phone number in my signature line, so Gene took upon himself to call me personally. I've only emailed them twice for general questions and the responses have been within a 24 hr. period.

I can't imagine swithing to another amp. This amps pumps out great tone, is light at 18lbs., and is worry-free. I've tried to switch to tube or hybrid amps in the past, all of which were nice amps (Ampeg, Eden, Yorkville, SWR, Nemesis, Tech21) but all of them were either sent back or sold after comparison to my GKs. The 1001RB-II is just a great all around amp.

700w at 4 ohms, 18 lbs. rack ears included, four band EQ plus countour, presence and boost controls, DI featuring pre/post selection, level and ground/lift, tuning mute button, speakon and 1/4 inch outs, bi-amp cabable if you have cabinets that will work with the system.
The features on the 1001RBII are very easy to use, very intuitive and work extremely well. All of the features on the GK (the DI, EQ, effects loop) are all on the front panel. I really like this design. It's very easy to quickly set up and tear down before and after a gig.
I also really like the small size and easy portablilty of the 1001RBII. I have the light weight carrying case for this and it's a breeze to carry around instead of a rack system.
It's a VERY LOUD 700w at 4 ohms! This GK is significantly louder than my previous amps (SWR, EA) that were rated at higher watt ratings.

I really like the clear, quick and powerful tone of the GK. Some call the GK tone too sterile, but I prefer to think of it as very precise. You get very clear pure tone out of it without any additional color. What goes in is what comes out only LOUDER! I also really like the fact that this amp is the most dead quiet amp when I'm not playing. No noise, no hiss, no fan noise, nothing! I actually have to stop and look down into the amp to see if the fan is on or not. In the last 20 years of playing I've tried just about every amp out there including some seriously $$ "boutique" gear. A few months ago my main "boutique" gigging amp developed a problem. While it was in the shop I tried out a GK1001RB-II as a back up. I was shocked by the power and tone of this amp. I liked it so much that I sold my other and bought this as my primary!
Fantastic low end, solid mid range punch and clear, glassy high end. Simple to use, reliable and affordable. It can produce just about any tone you'd like from grindy, driven rock to smooth articulate jazz to phat R&B. A little twist of the EQ goes a long way and really makes this a very versatile amp. Those that call it sterile and dry probably haven't worked the EQ a whole lot. A little boost to the lows gives you a really full fat sound that goes a long way.

No problems so far and I feel very good about GK customer service if it ever did develop an issue.

GK has a great web site and great customer support discussion forums. Many of the customer questions are answered by the senior members of the company themselves.
I personally haven't had to deal with them yet.

I'be been playing for twenty years and have owned gear from Aguilar, Acme, Carvin, SWR, Demeter, Euphonic Audio, etc. I know good tone when I hear it. If this were lost or stolen, I'd pick up another one in a minute. One of the best things about the GK is that it is so much bang for the buck! Great tone, great power and portability for about $600!

Just a note for those who are curious. The 4-conductor Speakon cable no longer ships with the head. Instead we ship it with the cabinets. Since you're not supposed to use it with any other cabinet than a GK, this made more sense.

The wrong version of the manual was reprinted on the last reprinting and several hundred of them got by me before I realized it.

If you purchase a Horn Bi-Amp compatible GK cabinet the 4-pin Speakon cable will be included.

GK

This amp was made in 2005. The features are solid. The eq is great just a little tweaking goes a long way. I like having the DI on the front panel along with the tuner out on the front panel. The great part about this head is that is bi-amp. At first I was using it all wrong and realized that the woofer and tweeter levels are the master volume. As far as power don't let the 700 watts fool you. I was always under the impression that 700 watts was not enough for my band but the clarity and bottom end this head delivers cuts through way better than my other rig. I play in a hard rock band that does roughly 70 shows a year and we put an album out every year. We practice 2x a week. It handles small clubs and large clubs easy with plenty of head room. I switched from my old rig Ampeg SVT Pro Pre-amp->Soundtech 2 channel 15 band EQ->Soundtech ST1200 Power Amp (500 Watts Per Channel)->Peavey 410 and Peavey 115 cab (black widow speakers). Had my van stolen with all my gear in it so I had to get a new rig. I now play my 1001RB II head into a 410RBH cab. I went lighter and easier and get more sound. The layout is very good. Everything I need during a show is right in the front and easy to access.

I currenty play a Washburn Hammerhead 5 String Active Pickups. Like I said I play in a hard rock band. The sound I get from this rig is perfect! I love it. The HMS (horn management system) is amazing. Basically it is bi-amp and 1 amp (700 watts) powers the woofers (4-10" speakers) and the 50 watt amp powers the horn. When connected to a GK speaker cab designed for this it keeps the highs clear and crisp and allows you to give all the bottom you want to your sound. The only noise comes from my bass..need to get that looked at...but as far as the amp very low noise. Let's face it you start pushing the highs real far you are going to get some noise. The sound is incredible lots of variety of sounds. Just look at the different players that use this product...you can get a jazzy smooth sound to a very scooped aggressive modern bass sound. I like a lot of clack when I play my music but I know that if I am doing a jazz gig this rig will fit right in...something my Ampeg couldn't do. I used to be one of those "got to have a tube preamp" players but now that I have this amp I think those days are long gone. The sound is much punchier and cleaner and I am in love! The nice thing is that this can handle my active pickups easy. I don't have to pad the input at all...couldn't say that for the Ampeg I had the input gain so low because it would distort at 9 o'clock and that is with the input pad on.

I have had this rig for only about 6 weeks. I have done some long rehearsals and about 8 shows with it. My only regret is that my van didn't get stolen before we recorded the last album so that this could could be the sound on the album. As far as reliability I haven't had it long enough to really tell...so time will tell.

If you know anything about GK you know that they are all about customer support! The guys there are amazing. Lucky for me I live in the town that the company is located in so I deal with these guys more than the average customer would....but let me say they are incredible when it comes to service! If you have a question or a problem they are right there to make it right. A true mark of a great company is how far do they stand behind their product and I can tell you that Bob Gallien still stands behind the first he made in his garage 30 years ago.

I have been really playing for 15 years..started when I was 12. Like I said I had an Ampeg and will never go back. This is the sound I have been looking for and in a solid state amp...who knew???!!If it were stolen...I shouldn't talk like that it's bad joojoo....hell yes I would buy the same rig. As soon as that insurance money came in I would be at the factory that morning. I love the sound and the bi-amp features but most of all I love the size and the weight! This thing doesnt' feel like a 700 watt amp it feels like an effect rack. Loading in and out of the vehicle so many times a week I love the reduction of strain this has given me. Like I said I got my last rig right before I found out GK moved to my town. I was bummed but never looked back. After my rig was stolen I was torn between GK and a David Eden rig. I was offered an endorsement from Eden but decided to go with the GK no endorsement. I just felt a lot more comfortable dealing with the people at GK than anywhere else. Service counts for a lot these days. Not to say the Eden people aren't great because they are its just GK was here and once I plugged in and played it was all over!

This amp was made I believe 2004 but I am not exactly sure because I bought this used with a Furman power conditioner and an SKB 6 rack roadcase. As far as features go, there aren't a whole lot of them, basically 4 band active eq, tuning mute, XLR direct out, effects loop, and voicing filters (contour, presence, 5 string bass button that seems to add a bit to the low end but I'm not too sure and the manual doesn't go very deep into it) but all the features are useful, there are no built-in compressors that do nothing. The one feature that this cabinet has that I absolutley love is the bi-amp, though it only works with select GK cabinets (which I don't mind because I have an RBH410 to match). The eq is fantastic, there is little else to say. I was looking at preamps before this arrived in the mail, but as soon as it arrived, I gave up searching because I didn't need one. Because it is active it just takes a slight tweaking of the knob to change it drastically, and because this happens, you can get a VERY wide range of sounds. I have yet to use the XLR out because this thing is almost excessive in power for me, I probably could have been fine with a 700RB-II. I have the volume on my amp turned between 8 and 9 o'clock and my bass turned a little less than halfway and I filled an auditoruim that seats 2500. It easily manages my styles which are mainly rock, jazz, funk, slap, or a combination of the four. The only thing that somewhat bothers me is that the effects loop is on the front, it should be on the back, so I don't have to wrap cables around the outside of the rackmount case and between racked items.

I run my Tune TWB43-PD through this amp and the amp through a GK RBH410 and it sounds incredible. It has active soapbars with an active 3 band eq, which I leave flat. I use only the amp's eq to change tone. The cavity in my bass wasn't shielded as properly as it could have been (it only has shielding paint, I'm going to put in copper shielding tape as well) so it hums, no matter what amp I plug into. But one thing I noticed, the first thing actually when I plugged into this amp, the noise is almost completely non-existant. I have played through a few SWRs, a few Fenders, one or two Peaveys, even numerous Ampegs, the hum was clearly noticeable if I turned the treble up on anything. On this amp, I can turn up the tweeter, the treble on the amp, and the treble on my bass, and the hum is hardly noticeable. Incredible. I am VERY picky when it comes to my tone. As I mentioned before, I was looking into preamps while this was in transit to my house, I cannot stand having overdriven tones in the least. This amp can achieve that without the help of costly preamps. Even at high volumes it stays as clean as ever.

I have used it without a backup. The thing seems like it's built like a brick. The person who owned it before me, who owned it for roughly a year and a half I believe, never used a backup. It's still holding up just fine. I played it for three hours straight and it was hardly even warm.

Haven't dealt with GK directly, but the person I bought my used cab from took it to GK, still under warranty, and there was a constant hum that they couldn't figure out the cause of, so they completely gutted the cab and replaced all the interior, THAT is what I call service.

I have been playing for five years, and though I don't really have much of a professional opinion, I would definatley buy another. I love everything about it, though like I said, I would have preferred that the effects loop was on the back. I tried out countless Ampegs, Fenders, SWRs, and Peaveys, because that's what my local stores had. I read many many reviews on the GK setup, always hearing that it is great for slap, which is my center of focus, so I bought it used, so in case I didn't like it then I wouldn't be angered about wasting money. Had I the opportunity to play one of these setups before purchasing, I would have bought it then and there.

Wow, I didn't believe it could happen to me. I ordered one from Musician's Friend and the first time I went to plug it in....Nothing! Couldn't get it to power up at all. It was also missing the Speakon cable you need to run it in bi-amp mode with a GK cabinet. It was a Scratch and Dent item at a good discount, but they do guarantee it to function perfectly. It looks like they may not test their scratch and dent products at all before they send them out. That's scary since I own several of them. But, you do have 45 days to send it back. I called immediately to send it back and they were very nice and tried to be as accommodating as possible. Since I'm chomping at the bit to experience that trademark GK tone and flexibility I ended up ordering a NEW 700RBII instead hoping it treats me much better. Hopefully I'm not heading down the wrong path.