gigrac 1000 for bass ?

[medblues]

I looked at a lot of bass amp heads. I could not resist the combination of price, power, size, stereo, 7-channel EQ, THD of 0.15 % and versatility. I am thinking about using it for simple bass playing and clean jazz guitar sounds. Is anybody else doing this ? If so, any suggestions about tweaking it optimally ?

 

[The Golden Boy]

A PA head?

Why not?

It's probably overkill, you're not going to get the voicing of a "voiced" amp, it's probably got more horsepower than you'll ever need, but if'n it works for you...

 

[re-animator]

i had a friend plug their bass and pod through my gigrac1000. IIRC the headroom wasn't that great, but these were through PA speakers, not bass speakers.

 

[rockabilly69]

Of all the powered PA's I've used, and I've used alot as a solo musician, the gig racks (300, 600, and 1000), had the worst sounding preamps. I returned all within a few days. I scratched my head over this as I thought soundcraft generally made good sounding equipment. I went with a Allen and Heath powered head, and let me tell you, they have great sounding pre-s!!!

 

[medblues]

Thanks for the replies !

What did you not like about the gigrac preamp rockabilly69, just so that I would listen for it when I get it and see if it can be compensated ?

 

[walterw]

if you can go direct into the power section with a different preamp it might be OK, but i'd look elsewhere.

 

[medblues]

again, what is it that people don't like about the Gigrac 1000 preamp ? I haven't received it yet so I don't have any way of finding out for myself.

 

[rockabilly69]

they are the most STERILE preamps I've ever plugged into on any powered or unpowered mixers I've used. I thought my voice was
going through a change that I couldn't live with!!! Soon as I plugged
into the Allen and Heath I knew it was the pres in those gigrigs. The
suggestion of bypassing the internal pre and using an outboard pre
sounds good to me, but then things are going toget expensive.

Also the effects in the gig rig have very limited programability.

 

[medblues]

Thanks for the reply rockabilly69. I already have a Damage Control Womanizer preamp/pedal (2 x 12AX7) , I will try and see if I can liven up and compensate using that ( I was already thinking about using it to plug in guitars). It had worked well with other solid state amps. If not, it goes back.

 

[rockabilly69]

did ya ever get that Gigrac? how did that work out with your womanizer pre?

 

[medblues]

I got it, there were finger prints all over it and the box was open plus the fan noise was too much so I returned it without much experimentation with it. They are sending me a really brand new one this time. I read the manual and found out that you can probably enter the power amp stage through a "submix input" so I will try your suggestion when I get the new unit. The cooling fan noise might still end up being a deal breaker for me though depending on how loud the new unit is (is there any way out of that with a 500 W amp ?). Thanks for checking on me.

 

[medblues]

I got the second one, I can go into the power amp through the submix input and use my Womanizer Pre, I like that better than the native pre. I am not very picky though because I am not a real bass player: I play an Allen Woody for fun at home and I just use a single Eminence Basslite S2010 I installed in a guitar cab. I think with a little experimentation I can get a nice basic jazzy bass sound out of this setup while having the versatility of having up to 1000 Watts, eight inputs and two channels for the future and I paid $400 for it. Th effects are OK, on the cheezy side but may be dialed down to an understated acceptable setting I hope.