Genz Benz amp - please advise.

[schmig]

Hi all,

I've been gigging out for a few years and am reasonably experienced, but have no experience with amps. Initially I used to play a nice sounding 15 inch Warwick combo, which I would borrow, eventually band leader encouraged me to buy the following from a local shop:

Genz Benz Shuttlemax 6.0
Peavey 410 TVX

I was using this combination for the last few years. At times, in even smallish gig, I would have the guitarist shouting at me "turn up!" when my amp had nowhere to go, that I could tell. I always put this down to a mismatch between the amp and cab.

So this week I was in a new rehearsal room which had a 300 watt Hartke head plugged into a Warwick 410. I noticed that if I put the volume knob to 2 on this it sounded like it would bring the house down. Yesterday was noodling on a similar setup in a music shop and NO WAY would it be wise to put to volume above, say, 4.

I can go to 10 on pretty much all knobs (save the preamp gain) on my own setup without bothering the neighbours. In fact my girlfriend used it to amplify her keyboard the other day but also found it a bit quiet.

Any ideas? I don't want to ask back at the shop..they will tell me to buy more stuff from them.

thanks!

[gjones]

Swap it on here for a Hartke.

[schmig]

Thanks, there's a nice sounding Hartke head with cab going for 500 euro down the road...so maybe I will..first i want to fill this gap in my understanding however.

[MoonBassAlpha]

Have you tried the Genz with different cab? It shouldn't sound too quiet.
Also, what is the impedence of the cabinet? Has it ever been rewired?, I'm thinking one pair of speakers may be out of phase with the other.

[schmig]

Impedance is 4ohms on cab, amp claims to do 600 @ 4...but really, on full volume, it's nowhere close to the 300 watt hartke with volume opened to 2..

[bobbytodd]

try it with another cab and check your leads ect

[Tankdave]

Yep, take the Shuttle into a shop to test drive some cabs

[KennysFord]

Sounds like something is amiss there. I can annoy the cr*p outa my neighbors with a GK MB200 with the gain at 10 oclock playing thru' a single 16ohm Ashdown 10" speaker. As the other guys have said, I would audition some other cabs.

[Gordon Thudmaster May]

Try some diferent cabs! Vanderklay or Bergantino cabs are both that 'match' GB perfectly!

[Prime_BASS]

Something may be amiss.

Don't get tied up in the knobs being at 2 or 4 or whatever, this isn't a good representation of overall volume/power.

Cabs perform differently in different situations, I would expect any 4x10 to be loud in a shop with a decent amount of juice going into, at the gig I'd expect to not be able to hear articulate the mids very well at all.

Edited April 8, 2012 by Prime_BASS

[Lozz196]

Something not right there. With my GK MB500 connected to a Peavey 410 TVX (think a 4 ohm one) it was very good indeed, and very loud - max volume at 9 o`clock.

[mike257]

I've got a Shuttle 6 (not the max version) which I think has the same power amp module and I've never had trouble getting volume out of it, definitely try woth a different cab/cable, and try a different head with your Peavey, there's something amiss somewhere!

[leftybassman392]

Yup, certainly sounds like there's an issue of some sort. My Streamliner 600/Vanderkley 112 is plenty loud enough to wake the neighbours with the master at 9 o'clock and flat eq - and that's running at 375w.

[Ghost_Bass]

EBS Neoline cabs also do a great match with GB. Punchy but tight and defined, very transparent.

[Gordon Thudmaster May]

No ones asked if your bass is passive/active! I use 2 basses, both Fender, but the Jazz is louder than the P/Bass, both passive! (I use gb shuttle 9.0 bergantino hd210) controls just past the 12 o'clock mark!
I would suggest trying a couple of different basses, plus check your leads!!

[AMPEG]

I too experienced this (having to whack up the master and pre amp volumes. I then discovered the battery powering the EQ on my active Overwater bass was defective and one of the speakers in my cab was a bit farty. Once I addressed this it was ok...you should also ensure the tube is sitting right in its mounting. That said these are not earth shattering heads wattage wise at 8 ohms unless you have the speaker footprint to push air..as I've discovered. If all else fails get another speaker plugged into the head and run it at 4 ohms (make sure you've got the headroom in watts tho)

[tonyclaret]

Sounds odd, I have my main volume set at about 2 and the gains on the preamps set at about 6. Plenty of volume. Try some different cabs, mine is paired with a 15" Berg and it's awesome.