Gallien-Krueger Amps Deep Dive with Bob Gallien 

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Thank you for having Mr. Gallien in for an interview. It makes me appreciate my GK equipment even more.

Bob Gallien, national treasure.

A Graphic EQ is used to EQ a room not an instrument! - Bob Gallien ... Spoke like a true engineer! 😍😍😍😍 Bob's dropped some Gold in this interview, for sure!

He’s the only original owner left of all the big name bass amp companies of the last 40 years.... Hats off to you Sir! Never sold out to a bigger company, still hands on designing his own product that bears his name.

The best sound I've ever heard was from a GK 2000RB head. Big thank you for Mr. Gallien for his dedication and knowledge

This was quite possibly the most informative interview with anyone in the music business. Still have my 1984 400RB, still going strong.

This video is 2 years old and I've watched it at least 10 times.

Thanks Sweetwater!

This man is a genius! I’ve played through every bass amp you can think of but none of them can touch my 400rb/800rb. Perfection 40 years strong!

Thank you Mr Bob Gallien. Iv'e enjoyed my MB150S 111 now for many years, and I appreciate the hard engineiering work that's gone into developing my amp. Now that I've watched this video, I'll think of you, every time i'm on a stage with my bass "The Count".

Excellent interview! Well done for letting the man speak. Bob Gallien is just an amazing, inspiring guy.

Very rare interview. Thank you Sweetwater.

This was very informative. And to be honest, all that technical "stuff" makes me feel better about shelling out the money for the product. Hard to beat when the manufacturer goal is a lightweight amp that sounds great and is built to last.

Great interview with the man himself! Thanks for not chopping in into dozens of small pieces like other channels do. GK 4 life!

Great interview I love GK have been using them for the last 25 years exclusively

As a former professional audio technician I understand Bob Gallien's technical descriptions 100% and admire his drive to produce a fantastic sounding amp and speaker combination. As a bass player of 40+ years I spent my formative years searching for the 'perfect' bass, which I found in a Bartolini equipped 1989 Warwick Dolphin Pro 1, which I bought new. Then followed 25 years of trying to find an amplifier that could compliment its sound and ability and only ever managed about 80% success. You name it - I tried it - until I stumbled upon GK completely by chance and discovered that 'elusive' sound I was searching for. I now only use GK gear, including a Plex pre-amp for those occasional festival gigs where I am forced to use supplied backline. I find it interesting that Mr Gallien mentioned that their amplifiers are 'neutral' sounding. Yes, I agree with this, but I have also used several amplifiers throughout the years that could be considered 'pure' sounding, and to me they possessed no character whatsoever. There is something about GK amps that sets them apart, be it the EQ shelving, or the boost (growl) sound, I don't know. My second favourite amps are Orange, and they too have a distinctive sound (but are too damn heavy!) Curiously, during the recent mixdown of an album of songs I had played on, the engineer commented he couldn't get my bass to sit well in the mix. I sent him the technical EQ parameters of my RB700-II amplifier and he emailed me within the hour to tell me he was going to have to go through the entire album again to change all the bass EQ settings to match GK's. Mr Gallien's ream of hand-written calculations was obviously way ahead of its time!

"The port develops as you get further away from the cabinet" I've noticed this effect with my Neo IV 2 x 12. It feels like it gets louder and deeper the further away I stand. It's perfect. I get a nice presence midrange to clearly hear myself and the audience gets the feel. It's the best investment I've made in music equipment "Country is our weakest area" I'm playing a country gig this weekend after my stoner rock gig and I'm brining a GK to both.🤘

I could watch two hours of this. Fascinating.

Loved every drop of this interview

Fantastic interview. Thanks!

I am so grateful for GK !!!!

Great Interview! Bob is from my home town and a friend of the family. His products have always been " state of the art"!

I've been using GKs since they were called GMTs, almost 50 years ago, and I still use them! Something people often don't talk about, that was one of the big factors in my GK sound was the use of 4 band EQ. I can't get my sound from a bass-mid-treble set up. Low mid and high mid have different functions, and are a necessity for me to get the sound I'm after. Thanks, Bob! (He hates me- I still have the lifetime warranty cards on my original 300B- I have 5 of them now, including three of Zappa's- and my 200G- the first channel switching guitar amp! ;-) )

I've been playing bass for over 50 years and have found GK amps to be what suits my style best. I also have two Fender amps but for gigging, I only use the GK. Thank you for hosting Bob Gallien, awesome interview!

Great interview. Thanks!

Great interview! Still got my 800RB, bullet proof and still has that flavour & growl. Thanks 🙏

What a great story… and a cool guy 🤙🏽

What a great interview with a true legend! The attention to detail and engineering in all of GK's products is second to none! I own GK amps and cabinets and I've never had any issues. Thank you Sweetwater and Bob Gallien🤘🤘🤘

What a fantastic interview! I loved every minute of it. Amazing questions, and Bob is just a true wizard. My next bass amp will definitely be a GK!

GK is literally the only way I can buy a combo amp without feeling like I'm compromising for budget trash

A great story and a great interview. this brings back some good memories. Our company, Echo Precision played a small role in G&K’s early 1970's years. Bob Gallien and Rich Krueger were always great guys to work with.

Great interview! I worked for Bob over 20 years ago now. I find these stories as fascinating today as I did the first time I heard them. And there’s a lot more to tell!

Great interview! Enjoyed the conversation. I'm a recreational player and went to GK from Ampeg around 20 yrs. ago and never looked back.

I have a new Legacy 800 2x12 combo. The discussion about 'bedroom tone' vs 'gig tone' is really interesting. The amp sounded really good in the music shop in Guildford (you know who!) and also in my room at home. I mean, like really good. I did my first gig with it at the NED in London last Thursday and it sounded A-MAZING ! People who know nothing about music tech were telling me it sounded great. A couple of musos in the audience wanted to know all about it. I used it straight - ie not thru the PA - and I had enough usable tone to shake a room twice as big with no effort. Tone is really versatile too per Bob's interview - I used the drive for the rockers and switched it off for the funky stuff where I cranked up the mids. It's everything I wanted. Next job Bob - make it *even lighter*, I'm not as young as I was 🙂

Wow, incredibly smart guy. I’ve played GK for years, tried a few others and come back around to GK because nothing else sounds like them. Now I understand why 👌

The Legacy 800 is the best amplifier head I have ever used...

Great Amps !!

And Carlos said, “man this thing boogies!”

Other builders would do well to listen to this genius... Maybe they'd enjoy the longevity, and stellar reputation of G-k products. Thx for this Sweetwater!!

I've the early 90's lunch box guitar amp, sans effects. Fun to hear the history! Thanks. Cheers, Daniel

That was just what I needed Mr. Krueger and Mr. Gallagher. Great info. Perfect, actually. You've earned the respect of a Machinist in Schertz, Texas. I just ordered my Legacy 1200 from Sweetwater a few minutes ago. You guys are pretty cool. (Thanks so much for the lifetime of ingenuity and continuous improvement, Mr. Krueger and thanks Mr. Gallagher for being my gear guy)

Good work everybody!! Thanks to Bob Gallien for sharing your experiences, Mitch for freshness in interviewing👍🤙🤙💪😎

Awesome interview!

David Sims of the Jesus Lizard playing his maple neck/board J-bass through a snarling Rat pedal into his 800 RB, pushing 15" cabs, is the greatest rock/hard rock bass tone the universe has ever or will ever experience. His work on Mouthbreather, Monkey Trick, Nub, etc on the Goat LP is the evidence. Q.E.D.

While you had Bob Gallien there, it would have been fantastic to interview him on his guitar amplifier(s) accomplishments and then run a "through-the-years" Part Two video. Many of us (myself included) would definitively like to know if there will ever be another guitar amplifier produced.

Cool interview. Greatly enjoyed it.

I'm not a fan of overdrive or distortion on my bass, but that GK growl is irresistible, holy moly...

I love GK products. Great interview 👍. Now I love them even more

That amp is amazing, there’s only a few top amps/cabs out there right now and that new gk line is one of them

This guy is a genius.

As a new owner of a Fusion 800 bass head, this video really made me love the company and approach even more. This head is hands down the best thing I have ever played bass through. It is nice to hear it is made to last with top quality components and attention to design. Now I just have to figure out how to get the money to get me a matching GK 2x12. That might be a while. Cheers!

Great job from on of 70's fans. Will be sharing this with your early days neighbors who supported you through those design testing days in the garage.

Great info here from the MAN HIMSELF!!!

Excellent interview of GK gear! I love their bass amps! GK amps have been around a longtime for a good reason.

I have owned a GK 212G guitar amp for over 30 years. It's the loudest, cleanest amp I've owned. Band mates constantly request that I turn down the volume! 😊

I cannot believe that on their website they don't even have a profile or picture or nothing for Justin Chancellor of Tool and they are one of the biggest bands out there right now...

I've used a GK since 1987 ! they are fabulous ..currently a 400 head and an Alumabass 15'' speaker cab ..wonderftul

Great interview, I learned mass.

Great interview, love the detail. Thanks!

Love my GK 4x10 neo

My first experience with a GK amp was a tiny amp with 2 (if I remember correctly) 6'' speakers that just knocked my socks off back in 1991. I stumbled onto a guy setting up a studio, literally walked by the door as builders were carrying in sheetrock and studs, and I heard this super clean semi metal guitar sound coming out of the door. I went around front and saw the guy playing through the storefront glass but I couldn't see an amp lol. I knocked, he introduced himself, and I asked about the amp and he was like ''Oh, this is such an awesome amp. It just came out'' - I have no idea what model it was but I couldn't get over the fact that it sounded as big as a Fender Twin but was the size of a large shoe box. After that I saw a few here and there and different players (usually bass players) would have them when I started to mix live sound in the mid-late 1990s. It was never my thing because, being 100% honest, they're ugly af but I never once flinched in any situation when a player would bring one onto a stage or into a studio because they just work. There are certain pieces of gear, as a sound engineer, that give you concerns - in fact, just about every amp manufacturer on earth should concern you to some degree and you should ask questions such as ''Will this fail?'' and ''Will this pull too much power or be irregular?'' and ''Is this more present above 600hz or below?'', stuff like that is important when you're going on a 1.5hr+ journey with 200 to 20,000 people who REALLY don't want to stop because one of the amps fd up. Again, I never had a concern about GK stuff. Fender and Marshalls and other brands I've seen break down at really bad times and they had to be swapped out live, never a GK.

This was great, thanks.

great info!!

What ever happened to the little ML 250 guitar amps? They were great.

I'm not by instinct a G-K guy as a player, but I've definitely dug classic G-K tones on records, and am really impressed with their designs. I really enjoyed this video.

I've had my RB200 since the mid-80s, and it's easily my favorite amp. And around the same time, I got the SC-112 guitar combo amp -- apparently, hard to come by, but every player that uses it wants it. Thanks, Bob!

Great video!

GK is fantastic equipment.

I have an MB-500 and it's a great little amp. Lightweight and powerful with all the features you need.

Great insight! Thx for sharing. Love my GK but it recently died 😞

Had a backline 600 on the bench for repair, and after analyzing the schematic you see the tremendous thought into the EQs. Yep, they're IN SERIES..every gain stage. And they are simple TI TLO72 dual op amps throughout but have near infinite gain and low, low, noise. The problem was something stupid in the design. The effect loop jacks (bad) in series with preamp 1st gain stage(why not parallel?) . Anyhow This is a great insight to a technical genius. The new class D power amps are a game changer ,but the original bass preamp sound is amazing .

This was fantastic, well done Bob...😎🤙🏽🙏🏽

I've never played thru a Hartke head. But I LOVE Hartke speakers. And I've only played through the 4.5XL.That said, I wouldn't trade my GK 700RB for any other brand of head. This thing delivers some rich, clean, deep and smooth sounds. I'm "locked into" this GK head!!!

If that interview would've been 3 hours long, I would've been ok with that.

I had a 200G guitar combo in the late 70s. I believe this was the first channel switching guitar amp.

Count me among the Unaccomplished GK players. I can definitely hit some of my notes all the time and most of them some of the time.

Great interview thank you. Why did GK stop producing Aluminum cabinets?

Also Forest tearin up that J/P son!

800rb is a legend

So.... great interview, loved it. But the only question I have is, when is the GK 250ml coming back? Don't have to change anything, just reissue it. It is just fine.

Just got the Fusion 1200, 2x12 neo and 1x15 neo cab. Sounds great. Gotta figure out how to pay for it. lol. Want the fusion 1x12 combo now.

Wish they would have talked about the GK250ML

19:41 i cannot in the entirety of my existence sum all that story right like mitch did...

This was overdue. And sweetwater is a channel with not much pull. I'd like to see someone with a developed subscriber base interview Bob

Please, please, please!!! Bring back the 800RB.

Reissue those frickin 80's guitar amps (250ml, 2000cpl, 2100 sel)!!!!

I wish he would bring back the 2100 sel

He's a cool guy. I have the 800RB. It's awesome sauce

I want Bob Gallien to be my dad.

I have owned a lot of GK products over the many years of a working bass playing life... & I like the deliverable tone over Ampeg SVT even... I use a GK MBE 210 cab... (not that popular, to be fair!) still.... but my experience of a 10001RB let me down somewhat! It died on me at a gig...& my well trusted guitar tech/Luthier said it was built as cheaply as possible... stuff soldered directly on to the board. etc.. that doesn't reflect the massive rep that GK have in the market...

part two..............please.

I enjoy listening to this man. I would let him operate me without any problems

Why don't the new Gallien-Krueger amps incorporate Bi-Amping like the previous RB series did?

I wish I could get my little mb500 serviced some thing funny going on with it

Wait a minute... wasn't Walter Woods doing the lightweight and compact thing before Bob Gallien?

Please………can we get some individual cab demos. 212, 410 specifically? Longer demo, more finger playing, on a five string?

I LOVE learing the history of GK amplification. BUT I've just never been able to watch other players play bass with a pick. Something about it seems, like... polluted or spoiled. I mean, for me, it just doesn't look appealing. I'm definitely a purist in that sense. I believe in what Jaco said "the sound is in the fingers". And it makes sense to me. For some years I've tried to shake that kind of thinking off and open my mind to be able to accept "picking" on the bass. It just doesn't sit with me. "Picking" on the bass is almost offensive. Anyway, I have a 700RB with an XL-Series 4.5 module. And I agree with y'all. I mean, it still sounds GREAT in my room. But this rig really KICK playing live on stage (indoors or outdoors)!!!

My equipment after a career in everything from pop punk to metal and everything in between has been Hartke. My little 8-in warm up amp or practice amp can pull the same tones that my road gear can just not overall volume I love it. I love my road gear two 15s on the bottom four 10s on the top total four cabs. The amp is amazing everything from a soft tone with two preamps one tube and one solid state which can be blended to get any tone you want and it's extremely responsive with their cabinets and aluminum speakers or half and half just amazing shakes the building. That being said GK which I played with when I was very young definitely has its place and music history and a distinct tone just like ampeg does for bass players. I would like to have one in my arsenal but I'm not sure they sponsor. Anyway great video and thanks.

not sure why a picker😮 is the only demo?