Gallien-Krueger Goldline 810GLX 8x10 Cabinet

Just to let you know that if you have a chance to try one of the new Gold Line series cabinet on store, give it a shot. It's a brand new world, really!

I paid a visite to my local Guitar Center, to get price on a 700RB-II head and I had the oportunity to try out this cabinet with it. Due to it's 800W power handling, I would recommand a 1001 RB-II instead of a 700RB-11. I tried it with a mexican fender Delux Jazz Bass.

It claims 800W, is it RMS or Peak, I don't know. When not mentionned, I assume Peak.

Sealed 8x10 cabinet with Aluminum (gold) Neo 10" drivers.
No tweeter, no electronic ...YEAH!...that rocks...
Tilt-back handle
Wheels and rear mounted slide rails.
Good looking monster and way cheaper than many other 810 cabinets on the market.

I give it a 10, because they understood the need of old school bass player like me. A box with musical full renge drivers.

The new GK Gold Line series cabinets is not light wight. Even though they use very light drivers, the cabinets are large and heavy. This one is 145 lbs, a mare 20 lbs less than an SVT. It's still quit heavy to cary arround. But hey, there is no magic, good and deep sounding bass cabinets are this way. A weasel will never sound like a mastodon.

In a few words, deep and sparkling. Big cling clang. Very exciting.

Ok, this is mounted with Aluminium neodinium drivers, which is very bright for a 10" cone. Even though the spec mention that it goes up to 5K, my own experience tells me this goes beyong 7K.

By dialing the presence knob on the GK amp, we can hear the difference very clearly and that knob cranks frequencies above 10K. The same thing has absolute no effect on my SVT810.

Even though there is no tweeter, the sound is very clear but not to bright. It provides the brightness of a 8" drivers. This is the absolute brightest tweeterless cabinet I've ever heard.

Since the drivers are full range, for a bright sound it's also very linear and you get the benefit of not having any nasty x-over on the way to swallow your tone. x-overs are for high end medium power equipement, not for guitar of bass equipement. Good X-Over are also VERY expensive, another reason why they don't belong on this kind of equipment.

Those little drivers are also going low and they provide awesome mids.

Since the cabinet is sealed, and the drivers are going unusually low and high, the sound of this cabinet is really unique, because it gives the punch of a sealed cabinet, the lows of a vented cabinet and the crisp (but not to bright) of 8" drivers.

The result is a very musical, full, rich still relax and edgy sound.

Due to the relatively low efficiency, I don't know how loud it could go, but this kind of factor can be better evaluated by live experience than technical spec. I let someone else comment this.

All I can say is that I tried this cabinet in an environment where other speaker cabinets sounds rether muddy, due to the restricted space. This cabinet sounded more open, and more hign end than any other 810 I've tried, yet very solid bottom and rich mids.

Due to its dept and spark, I believe it would be paticularly good for modern metal. If I had such a cabinet, I would do everything with it anyway because of its modern tone.

The sound is very consistent and I much rather have highs comming out of a full range driver than a tweeter.

I believe the 210 and 410 version would be excellent for Jazz and fusion by turning down the highs on the amp. If it weren't for it's 105 lbs, I would have tried the 410 and probably gone out with it.

If such kind of drivers is durable and can tolerate abuse, it will revolution the world of bass playing. Only time will tell...

Meanwhile, the low price of this line of product will surely attract many players. So we will eventually know for sure. If it's still on the market 3 years from now, that will be a good sign.

It's possible to get a brand new 100RB-II for about $600 and I assume it would be possible to get a Goldline 810GLX for $600 as well. If you do the math, you can get away with a full stack for $1200. That's quite a good deal. Especially considering the quality of the wound you get out of this.