No New Owners?

Been lurking here since the beginning of this forum and I don't see that many members. Perhaps no one really knows about this site yet or these amps aren't catching on yet. They are in stock in most places on line now so maybe the activity here will increase. I hope so I'd like to hear more input. Anyway I really am digging my Grandmeister!

New owner here!  Just got mine 2 days ago.  Loving it so far.  I have the TM12 cabinet along with the FSM-432 foot controller.  Plenty loud with the band.  Just trying to dial in my patches from my previous rig which was a Carvin V3M with 2x12 cabinet.  I will be trying to leverage the red box out for all live shows to keep a consistent sound.  I used to do this with my previous rig using a Palmer PDI 09, but I lost it.  Glad the red box is build in!    

Really digging the diverse tones on all 4 channels.  I can get just about anything I can imagine.  I'm not a metal player, but dig the higher gain sounds for my leads.

The effects are as good as I hoped.  Can't tweak them like I could using my Boss GT-10, but they are very usable.  I only use reverb, delay, and once and a while some chorus.  I'm also using the build in noise gate.  Seems to work well enough.

Build quality seems great for the everything (head, foots controller, cabinet).  As I've read, the top of the head gets very hot.  I'm sure this is by design, so I'm not gonna worry about it.  Will keep it in the shade for outside gigs though.

I have my first show with this on Memorial Day for a 4 hour race outside.  Hope it doesn't let me down.

Ron

Hi Ron. Welcome aboard, I hope the gig goes well. This little monster amplifier is a pretty good swiss army knife of sorts. Your right about the effects, not as tweakable as my other gear, but efficient enough. The 4 channels are all useable to any extent I really need. I'm just learning how to find the different sweet spots using the gain,volumes,and the attenuator on the back. This unit really has all the features other manufactures lack and should have included in their development of their amps. The portability is just perfect. Good LucK!

Let us know how the gig goes Ron! I won't be playing live for at least a couple of months since our band is brand new.

Welcome to the forum!

I'm in the process of moving my hollowbody guitars and once my Heritage H575 moves, a new Grandmeister owner I'll be.

Hello everyone. New forum member and new GM 36 owner here. I've learned a lot from the members here - specifically the volume control with expression pedal issue - and can't thank you all enough. Love the amp but have some questions. Will post in a separate thread. Hope you all don't mind newbies. :-)

Hello Gentleman. Just got my GM a couple of days ago. Haven't played around with it enough yet to know if it's a keeper or not. So far I like what I've heard. I'm not a midi guy, but it seems as if most of you are. I assume that the factory pre-sets were all done in the 36 watt mode? I don't particularly understand why H&K did that. It's kind of a pain in the ass whenever you have to reach behind the thing every time you change pre-sets and push the the 1,5, or 18 watt button to keep the volume down. Any thoughts on this?

Hi X!

With a midi cable, a connector and the app you can change all the presets inside the app and transfer all to the amp...just with one button.

Without the app you have to change the power attenuation for every preset and have to save it manually.

Kaipirinha wrote:Hi X!

With a midi cable, a connector and the app you can change all the presets inside the app and transfer all to the amp...just with one button.

Without the app you have to change the power attenuation for every preset and have to save it manually.

Thanks for the info! Still don't understand why H&K set it up that way, but looks easy enough to change.

In building my own presets, I have saved two series: banks 1-10 are in 18 watts, 11-20 are 36 watts. I'll set up a series with 1 or 5 watts, too.

New guy here!  Just signed in, bought my amp and foot controller about a month ago.  Absolutely love it!  I'm probably going to sell my Marshall JVM as I'm not playing it anymore     I'm running a TC Electronic G-Major (V1) thru the FX loop with fantastic results.  Speaker cab is a Marshall 1936 2x12, but I swapped out the OEM Celestions with 2 different speakers from WGS (wgs4.com) - don't remember which ones, but can find out if anyone is interested.  Entire rig sounds fantastic!  And even though I'm completely happy with my amp, I'm going to start swapping tubes to see if I can get even better results.  I'm going to start another discussion thread regarding tube swapping.  Finally, LOVE the iPad app for the amp!  I'm using a Line6 Midi Mobilizer II to make the connection.  Looking forward to sharing info about this killer amp!

Hey SweetPete. If it's not too much hassle, can you post the WGS speakers you are using? Like others, I have found this amp to be very sensitive to speaker. It hasn't sounded bad with any of mine, but it really shines with Vin 30s. I usually am not a fan of Vin 30s, and haven't been using the Mesa Thiele 1x12 with a Vin 30. The GM LOVES this cab.

I built a ribbon mahogany 1x12 to the Thiele specs plus a convertible back and installed a WGS HP Reaper. It sounds really good...but not quite as a good as the Vin 30 Thiele.

Hey Egads, I just remembered that I put in WGS's most recommended 2x12 combo, the ET65 and the Veteran 30.

That combo is a great reason to run a 2x12 (or larger) cab! They cover the range.

I've gotten way from 2x12s, since we are always trying to keep the stage volume down AND we mic the cabs (or now, use the Red Box!). I think I need tto build a 2x12 (or 1x12+1x10?) cab next!

A big welcome to the forum SweetPete!

Thanks HywStar!

Hello all, great to have found this place.

I've had my GM for 5 weeks and am loving it so far. Switched to a real amp from an Eleven rack after returning to playing after a very long break.

I've been running it exclusively through the direct out into a powered speaker with good results, but have just had the TM212 cabinet delivered so will be trying that out for the first time at rehearsal tonight. Am looking forward to hearing the power soak in action as it's disabled when you use the direct out.

I like the built in effects, however having joined a band for the first time in 20 years I'm looking into building a pedalboard that will give me more options with dedicated delay, reverb etc - although it's great to also have the option of the inbuilt effects on presets too. Should give me all the options I need without getting too complicated.

I'm using the FSM III and like it's simplicity - MIDI is all a bit of a mystery to me.

Would love to try the App, but don't have an ipad!

Initially I found the amp incredibly trebley, although not so much now. Again will be interesting to see how the TM212 changes that .

Cheers

David

Hey Davus. Welcome aboard! Let us know what you think of the TM212. Personally, I think the GM pairs up really well with Vintage 30s. I'm sure it's a killer cab for the amp.

Don't let midi get intimidate you (it can smell fear, so never let on). It's just a way for devices (the pedalboard, amp, and iPad, among others) to communicate. H&K did such a good job on the integration with the three parts, that all you need to know is which cable goes where, and you are good to go.

You don't need the iPad, but if you have one, it's pretty awesome!

I'm interested in how you like the TM212 as well as Egads. I have another thread under the main forum, just about the TM212. Having the head on top of a vertical TM212 would look nice and function well IMHO.

I still have not hooked up all four speakers in my 4x12 (Greenbacks & V30's) to hear what it sounds like. I'm currently just playing through the V30s.

Hi guys, thank you for the warm welcome.

So I tried the TM212 last night in a vertical configuration and it certainly looked the part. It was also so much louder than I was expecting!

The sound was a lot more trebley than I was expecting. Unfortunately I was late to rehearsal and the rest of the band were keen to crack on so I didn't have the time to spend tweaking every preset so as a short term fix I dialed out some of the highs using my Maxon EQ pedal which did the trick.

As the night went on I found myself gradually bringing the treble back up. Cleans were noticeably better sounding than when I used the DI into a single 12 inch powered speaker.

Am going to spend some time next week dialling everything in, but overall I was impressed. I believe speakers can take a while to loosen up anyway?

Unfortunately I'm a total noob in the valve amps and cabinet stakes so sorry if that isn't much help!

I was researching breaking in the V30 on my TM112 cabinet. I found this on the Celestion website:

"Break in a speaker with a fat, clean tone: turn up the power amp volume to full, and control the level with the preamp gain. Use a level that will be quite loud, but not painful in a normal size room.
Have the bass and mid up full, and the treble at least half. On your guitar, use the middle pick up position (if your guitar has more than one pick up) and play for 10-15 minutes using lots of open chords, and chunky percussive playing.
This will get the cone moving, and should excite all the cone modes and get everything to settle in nicely. The speaker will continue to mature over the years, but this will get it 95% of the way there."

Here is a direct link to the article:

http://celestion.com/speakerworld/guitartech/1/104/How_to_break-in_a_guitar_speaker/

New GM36 owner here. My name is Dave, I'm in a local original band, well, local to the Allentown/Bethlehem area of Pennsylvania.

My main rig for the past couple years has been a TM18 head with a TC Electronic G-System, into a H&K CC212 cab. It's freaking incredible, but I realized something lately, 1) I would like to have more gain on tap, and 2) while I enjoy the G-System's amazing flexibility, I'm not really using it all its bells and whistles. So.... I decided to try the GM36 as a possible replacement for both the TM18 and the G-System. So far, so good. I was worried that the GM36's fx wouldn't satisfy me after being spoiled by the TC stuff, but I have no complaints. Currently I am trying different expression pedals with the FSM foot controller, and trying to get a handle on how to come up with a good volume control (I posted in the volume pedal thread about that).

Right now I'm just glad to have finally found a H&K user forum! Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey gravydb. Welcome aboard! I've been using my GM for about a month and love most things about it. One thing I don't like is how the volume function works with the expression pedal. I tried six different pedals as controllers, but didn't find one that worked well until I bought the Yamaha FC-7. It works, but as pointed out in other threads, not like a free standing volume pedal. Like most others, I'm going back to a separate volume pedal.

I do use the a small single switch to toggle on and off the boost function. I'll end up playing around with the FC-7 and other controller functions.

Good luck and let us know what you think.

Thanks E! I see in your avatar you are a fellow PRS lover? Nice!

I've only had my GM for about a week, so I'm still very much on the learning curve. The actual interface is a piece of cake of course, but it's the exp pedal behavior that is getting the best of me! Ha! I'll update my progress on the volume pedal thread. I have a Yamaha FC-7 inbound, as well as a Moog EP-3. The Moog has a knob on the side that controls the maximum range, so I'm holding onto hope that it might solve the problem? We shall see...

And I will probably do the same as you eventually, add a on/off footswitch for the boost. I like that idea. What kind do you use?

Hi there GravydB!

It's a small world.  My wife and I used to own a house on Gun Club Road in Bethlehem/Nazareth about four years ago.  We loved living in Bethlehem.  Great town.

Welcome to the forum.  It has only been around for a few months. That's why you just found it.