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denver starkey « got it in a stack has been my main amp now for 20+ years. »
Published on 01/12/22 at 08:33
Best value:
Excellent
Audience:
Anyone
in 2002 I bought this head in a combo stack unit. The head is housed in a speaker enclosure with two 10" speakers , and there is a secondary speaker cab with a 15" speaker in it. but dont' fear i'm reviewing jsut the head not the speakers.
Of all the amps i've used this one is the most versitle in tone reproduction i've worked with. even being a head ina combo it's still rack mountable if you slide it out of it's cabinet (you just won't have to external housing on it.
Pros:
good tone shaping features (contour, presence, db cutter , and a booste knob)
lot's of power for the wattage
4 knob EQ-ing (treble, High mid, low mids, bass)
Durable (i've had it for 20 years now and ti's still going).
Easy to dial a clean sound or a gritty overdriven sound , with out using tubes.
Cons:
odd labeling , there's 2 "volume" knobs but really what tha knobs are "volume" = Gain , and "Master"
= volume. Maybe it's just me but this knob labeling scheme has always bugged me with GK.
after 20 years i'm getting crackling and buzzing caused by the tuning mute button and the db cutter
button but well what can i expect after 20 years , with no service done on the amp. I should probably take it into a shop to get looked at eventually but .. you know how money is these days.
that all said there's not really much I can say bad about this amp. They don't make them any more but that's because they were replaced by other RB series amps. but if you got your eye on an RB series head, this is one way to snag one for less money than grabbing the newest at the price they cost.
Of all the amps i've used this one is the most versitle in tone reproduction i've worked with. even being a head ina combo it's still rack mountable if you slide it out of it's cabinet (you just won't have to external housing on it.
Pros:
good tone shaping features (contour, presence, db cutter , and a booste knob)
lot's of power for the wattage
4 knob EQ-ing (treble, High mid, low mids, bass)
Durable (i've had it for 20 years now and ti's still going).
Easy to dial a clean sound or a gritty overdriven sound , with out using tubes.
Cons:
odd labeling , there's 2 "volume" knobs but really what tha knobs are "volume" = Gain , and "Master"
= volume. Maybe it's just me but this knob labeling scheme has always bugged me with GK.
after 20 years i'm getting crackling and buzzing caused by the tuning mute button and the db cutter
button but well what can i expect after 20 years , with no service done on the amp. I should probably take it into a shop to get looked at eventually but .. you know how money is these days.
that all said there's not really much I can say bad about this amp. They don't make them any more but that's because they were replaced by other RB series amps. but if you got your eye on an RB series head, this is one way to snag one for less money than grabbing the newest at the price they cost.