Gallien-Krueger 250ML

This is from what I was told to be one of the original 250ML flat grill amps. I was told in the mid to late 80s they put a front grill that stuck out about 1 inch so it would protect the knobs from being broken off when you threw in the back of your car! The amp is 100 watts 50 watts per channel with stereo effects Echo and Chorus.

This amp flat out kicks ass!! Plug it into a 4x12 cabinet and watch the paint come off your walls! I really can't believe the sound that come's out of this small amp.

The only problem I had with this amp and a $100.00 bucks later was I had to have the speakers re edged. Be careful when buying one online look at a picture of the speakers with the front grill off! I had no idea my speakers were bad until I took of the grill. Think about it... the amp is over 20 years old, speakers are just 6ins. and the amp puts out 100 watts!

Never had to contact them

Like I said this amp flat out kicks ass! But I am selling it at this time on Ebay. If you are interested look under search then by seller than type in davidsd39. I did not write this review to sell my amp and what I said about the GK 250ML is true. I am only selling it because I bought a 50 watt 2x12 combo for the bigger speakers.

I don't know what year this amp is. I bought it off a guy on Ebay. It has two channels, effects loop, distortion, compression, stereo echo, stereo chorus & paramtric EQ. I pretty much play hard metal. I like tones like Zakk Wylde, Tool, etc... It's ok for this but I play through a Boss GT5 processor. The distortion is too weak for me. It's a practice amp, but you can gig w/ it. It sounds good through my Hughes & Kettner 4X12 too. I used to have a 250RL, which is the same thing but it's just a head. I had to sell it for food, but now that I'm so incredibly successful I decided to buy the 250ML.

For a very small, portable, solid state amp it kicks ass. Definitely an 80's tone but you can fix that w/ a good processor or pre-amp.

Only problem I had was the volume pot broke due to the knob getting smashed during transit. I took it apart and re-soldered it myself. Works fine now.

Never used them. My brother has the same amp and he can't get it repaired. His is a modified 250ML he bought off a former GK employee.

I've been playing for about 23 years now. I own a 79 Marshall Mark2 100w Super Lead, a Hughes & Kettner 4X12, a 2000 Gibson LP Standard Raw Power, A 1998 Gibson Exlporer w/a Zakk Wylde EMG kit, a 86 or 87 Charvel Model 3 and Kramer Voyager series Flying V.

Bought new for approx $600 in 1990. With 5 tube amps I usually do not gig with it but love the portability. Usere below have adequately commented on the somewhat dated tone and the lack of flexibilty of the on-off gain, delay, chorus and "compander"

I give the tone a 7 without the following "essential trick":
Get a Tech 21 Tri-AC, plug it into either the effects loop, effects return only(to bypass the preamp but keep the echo and chorus effects, or (best yet) into the stereo aux input on the back. The last option bypasses preamp, eq, and internal effects, giving you a lunchbox sized 50 watt x2 power amp monster you can carry in one hand with your 2 x 12 Marshall 1936 cab in the other. With the Tria- AC this will sound like a Fender twin, Marshall plexi, or Boogie!!!

Needless to say you should not go out and buy this entire rig- there are lots of alternatives nowadays. But price a Tri-AC AND TWO Tech 21 power engine 60s and you can see the beauty of this cool experiment.

Current GK owners- Keep this bastard! Add a TRI AC or other Sansamp> (Not a Digitech line 6, Boss Digital unit!!!!) For a bit of Analog heaven. For little gigs, My JCM 800s and original 1965 Fenders stay home. Yeeaaaah Baby!!!

Built well. No problems

E mails to GK x 3 were ignored. They do not sell it anymore so apparently do not G-A-S....

I am 47 played since age 8. Had a lot a gear, sold a lotta gear. Thought about E Bay for this one but now it is an indispensable part of the arsenal WITH the TRI AC.

I think this was made in either 89 or 90
This amp is very versatile and can create many differing sounds.
2 channels clean and overdrive, channel switching with footpedal. Effects loops and headphone jack as well as line out. Also Stereo.

ultra-quiet, closest thing to a tube amp that you can get without glass, cam push a 4/12 cabinet even it is about as big as your Archies lunch box.(heavier than a cinder block though)
I'm a headbanger, this amp works well for most of what I do. It is a not a dual rectifier though. Think practice amp.

I've had this thing since the last millenium, NEVER let me down. If you Tweak the pots it gets a lot meaner and a lot less reliable. This thing is built like a fortress. We had a hurricane here and I put this amp on the roof of my car to keep the car from blowing away....

this customer has never needed support.

If this amp were stolen it would mighty hard to replace since they don't make them anymore. This is a mighty little fucker for an amp about the size of shine box. as far as anything I wish it had, yea a twin brother.

Same as the other 250MLs listed here. They really screwed up by not making the gain more easily adjustable.

After buying it used in 1985 and letting it sit in my garage for years I tried to sell this amp on comission at my local music store. 6 months later I returned to the store to find it still there. Interestingly enough I found out that the store owner usually spent the hour after closing playing thru my little 250 ML and into a 4-12 cabinet. He said he just loved the amp. I grabbed a guitar and played thru it the way he had it set up and was blown away by the tone. Very warm and sweet with tons of sensitivity and sustain. Very playable. I always hated the head because it was solid state. Guess I'm a bigot. It must be twenty years old. 50 watts per channel the thing is loud and has a great stereo clean chourus sound as well as a overdriven Rush or even maybe Boston sound. Glad I didn't sell it. I only wanted 280 US dollars for it. I can't say I would use it for everything, after all I paid so much for all those vintage Marshalls, but definitely can be added to my arsonal. It sure does inspire me to create new tunes. Nothing like a new toy to inspire creativity. Small, powerful, reliable, ugly, stereo, just not cool like an old tube amp. A great amp for a nonsuperficial musician on a budget.

I know you can blow a speaker. This amp has been misused for 20 years and still sounds great. Time to stop using it for a jackstand.

Never tried to contact them.

I'm a tone freak. Being searching for the ultimate tone for 21 years. Right now my favorite toys are a 1973ish Big Muff and some old Fender Champs. A 64 strat, 76 Les Paul Deluxe goldtop, 1984 Custom shop Jackson Dinky. 4 early 70s Marshall half stacks.

Bought this amp and the GK 4x12 cabinet back in '88 new. Features on this 250ML will be much like the features on other 250MLs - check the other reviews or the GK site. The small footprint and stereo 2x6in speakers work great for practice, external 4x12 cab(s) allows it to kick with the best of the rest. Not a whole lot of features, but good in what it does with the basics.

The stereo reverb & chorus give it a cool tone, for a solid state amp. With 2 channels, 1 clean with compression, the 2nd with distortion, the sound goes from ultra clean to shred-dirty. Unfortunately, the effects & gain are on/off, not variable. Never a problem with noise. The clean channel stayed clean even at high leves. Also, the effect loop return volume is fixed at a low volume (perhaps 1/2 vol.) which doesn't work so well for live playing (unless when playing in a library).

For a small combo amp, it throws a punch and is built like a tank! I've owned it for 12+ years, had it in many a hostile environments across the country, indoors & out, drops, kicks, liquids, etc., and never missed a session! Reliability ROCKS a solid 10!!!

Never had to use them!

I've been playing 20 years, I currently play a custom Strat and an Ibanez RG450, Digitech GSP21 & Boss GT3 processors (via effects return, or using the clean channel w/compression ON). If it were stolen 10 years ago, I would have replaced it, although now... I can't as GK deals mainly with bass equipment and technology has improved in the solid state arena considerably. At the time I purchased this setup, I compared it to Marshall and Randall 100W 1/2 stacks the 250ML w/4x12 had both in versatility and price. It was a great '80s amp!

A (clean) and B (dirty) channels, echo (really a very slight reverb)and chorus are factory preset. Headphone jack. LoZ out, L/R speaker cab outputs, effects loop. The clean channel rivals the Roland JC series amps (I own a JC-55, used to have a 120, also) with the exception that you can't futz with the chorus. I find it's depth a little, well, deep. I'd give it a 10 if I could adjust the echo and chorus.

I have 3 mid-low end Jacksons that I use with it. I play it through a Marshall 1960A when gigging, and it sounds awesome through that bigger cab (it has only 2-6" Pyles). With the aid of the EQ in my RP-3, I can get a pretty darn big sound even without the Marshall cab. I find that the B/Distortion channel looses a good bit of high end from the A channel, it's hard to find that happy medium so I rely soley on my RP-3 until I can afford better effects/preamp equipment. I rarely use the B channel anymore. They made an attempt at a compressor/limiter type deal with it's built in "compander" on channel A. Useless is the only way to describe this 'feature'. You stroke a chord and it's like backing the volume pedal off halfway, then slowly pushing it back down. That's pretty irritating, so I don't use it at all. Also, I haven't found much use for the gain button for either channel. Perhaps my unit is defective thanks to the previous owner(s), but I have not been able to adjust the gain or effects with the internal trim pots as suggested by hints I've picked up on here and there.

Bought it used, dropped it 3 feet once, not a bit of trouble out of it. When I bought the amp, it was missing the handle, and one of the handle clasps was missing also. I opened it up, found the nut from the clasp screw wedged between a couple of resistors, and it seemed to work just fine. Before that, the B channel sounded really funky. I gotta give it a 10 here, it's a freaking tank. Would I use it on a gig without a backup? I DO!!!

Only a couple of calls for the replacement handle which they didn't carry anymore, and something else that I forget. They were always friendly, tried to be helpful but that was hard given that they quit making this amp some years ago. Only a 9 here because they weren't up on the old equipment.

I had been looking for one of these since I saw the first one back in 85. My guitar instructor at UT Martin had one and I thought it was just the coolest damn amp I'd ever seen! Well, now I have one and am glad I bought it. I'd buy another if it was ever stolen or lost, even if it exploded! Except for no echo/chorus control, I freaking love this little amp. I also have a Spider 2x10 and a JC-55, but I still prefer this amp for gigging (only when used with the Marshall cab, though). My only real gripe (reiterated here) is the fact that you cannot adjust the effects.

I traded in a big Marshall head for this thing when I went into semi-retirement back in the 80's. What the hell was I thinking.....oh yeah...it was marriage. Anyway, I got tired of lugging the half-stack around so I bought this one. It's got some cool tonal variety in a weird kind of way. I was into the Rush sound and also The Fixx (compressed and rotating). The 250ml works great for these styles. One of the cool things I used to do is connect it to another friend's 250ml through the in/out stereo jack and then rehearse together with headphones. It was wild to be able to do this. When you hook these up to a big 4X12 cabinet they really crank. No, really!

I used all types of guitars through it....the dirty channel rips and the clean channel is angelic when you put on the compressor. I opened the thing up and tweaked the micropots to get the sounds the way I like them.

I've had the 250ml for a lot of years, 10+ for sure and it just now developed a problem with the volume cutting out. Pushing the lowest eq pot in will re-store the volume. It's screwed so I'm taking it to the shop. I use this as a back up amp for live gigs (Mesa DC-5 is #1 amp for me).

I haven't tried GK's CS but will if no one local can fix the volume deal.

I don't remember what I paid for it but I was young and probably got screwed when I bought it. On the other hand, it's been a good friend and survived many falls off the 4X12 cab (user error). I think I'll keep it around for a while. I had a guy offer me a bunch of cash for the 250ml when I bought my DC-5 so I figure it must be worth something.

This amp is smaller than my lunch box;however, it really packs a punch. This amp has 2 small drivers, 2 channels and a chorus. A four band EQ,gain boost, an echo,and a lot of watts. I wish the 250ml had an ajustable gain I could get to outside the amp but unfortunatly you have to open it up to tweek it.It can be run through practically anything to build a fatter sound, 4x12, or just PA. It is very vercitle

I have all sorts of guitars I run through the GK. single coils, doubles, soapbar, and even accoustic and it does well with all. The sigle coil strats are a little tiny if you don't turn down the guitar itself but with a little fooling around, it can happen. The bass can get just a tad flabby sometimes,although I could use some new speakers in mine

The only problems I have encounterd with It was my fault. It fell with a cord in it and the input jack had to be replaced. The jack is in the board so I had it put in for me. The speaker surrounds are wooped andand need to be replaced, I haven't looked them up yet but the have to be replaced soon. basides that it sounds the same as it did ten yrs. ago when I bought it

Hopfuuly I can get speakers for it

I have been playing 20 years this year. Right now I have 2 strats,ESP MH 200, Jackson Kelly pro,Gibson SG, Dean V, Early 70's Gibson Exlporer, and an Ovation accoustic. Right now I have an old Legend Rock-n-Roll 50 I run the GK through. It is not a Blackface or a Triple Rectifier but it is somewhere in between

The main feature this amp has going for it (besides great sound) is it's incredibly small footprint: this thing is TINY. At the same time, it weights a ton. It's a 100 watt amp (50 watts into each of it's two speakers), and can really deliver a punch. Indeed, in college I used my 250ML to drive a quad 12" stack, and drove it hard and loud.

The amp has two channels: clean, with compression on/off and gain on/off. The second channel is heavy distortion, again with compression on/off and a gain boost (on/off).

Next are the equalizer controls (4 knobs), which have a high amount of shaping abilities.

Last are the echo and chorus effects on/off switches.

In the back is an effects send return loop.

This amp will make you sound like Alex Lifeson of Rush, circa Moving Pictures. The chorus is one of the best, a dreamy wonderful sound.

On the down side: you can't easily adjust the gain amount (other than the boost on/off switches) without opening up the unit and adjusting little pots inside. Amazingly, I never had a problem with this. I always found that they unit sounded great, and varying my playing style or rolling the volume knob on the guitar back a tad got me the tone I wanted. The 6 basic sounds (clean, clean compressed, clean gain, clean gain compressed, distorted, distorted compressed) were always more than enough.

The amp definitely has an early 80's sound to it. If that's the sound you like/want, this is one easy way to get it.

Very reliable. Never had a problem with it in the 12 years I've owned it.

The only dealing that I've had with GK is that I called them last week (12/15/1999) to ask them if they still make the 250ML. In all honesty, I know they didn't but I was secretly hoping they were going to say that they had a few stached away in back. To my dismay, the woman I talked to said that they are in the process of starting back up production on it, to commence in March 2000.

I've been playing since 1985, bought the amp in 1986 or '87. I don't know if I could live without this amp -- it's part of me. I've always used humbuckers through it -- I suspect that a Strat may sound a bit thin used with it. Current guitar is a '93 PRS standard, and the combination is great.