250ML Gallien

chillidoggy

Borrowed one yesterday, and had a plonk around with it earlier. Result: I have just returned from the 80's, but fear not, once I get these spandex strides off I'll be back to normal voice pitch. I thought it was awesome, what a sound from two tiddly little 5" speakers! What a fantastic sound! No, get down, boy! No more gas!

ddlooping

Is it for sale?

ZenOvertone

I bought one in 1988 new, £750 which at the time seemed a huge sum but the sound fitted the times, echo and chorus pretty much "always on" through two cabinets.  I did grow to dislike the sterile sound eventually (using an early Strat Plus with gold Lace Sensors...).  I almost bought the rack mount 250RL version a while back from Ebay (sure Bignorm from the old MR forum had one too). 

octatonic

I'll give you £200 to completely destroy it.

ICBM

I hated them at the time and I don't think they've improved with age.

I had one of the bass ones, it sounded OK and surprisingly loud at home, but at gig volume the sound came out about six inches and then stopped dead.

Van_Hayden

I kind of liked them - like the JC120 they're very much of the era. Gilmour used them on Delicate Sound Of Thunder iirc

dindude

Never trust an amp named after a size of drink I always say

Van_Hayden

And a small drink at that

chillidoggy

I've decided I'm not rushing out to buy one, but I do think if you want to recreate 'that 80's hair-metal, cock-rock sound', then this conjures it all up in a small box, and it does so very well indeed.

ZenOvertone

The 6.5" "Pyle" speakers are a known weakness over time, the rubber cone edges perish but TBH I never used them, using 1x12 cabs or a split 4x12. 

chillidoggy

I borrowed them from our guitarist, who also has the rack-mounted version. I think the effects on that model are controllable, rather than on/off.

ICBM

I think most of the pros who used them did put them through bigger cabs - up to and including a pair of 4x12"s.

To me they're like the Yamaha DX7 of guitar amps. When they came out they seemed amazingly powerful for what they were, and were capable of a lot of very different, new sounds which nothing old could do. They got used on just about everything.

Looking back (or even if you looked beyond the novelty, at the time) they sounded thin and artificial. The newness of the sound quickly wore off and they proved not to be very versatile after all because they couldn't really do any other type of sound either. They're now almost laughably stuck in the 1980s if you hear records with them on.

[Controversial thread diversion ] Line6 are the DX7/GK of the last ten years.

ddlooping

I wonder what it'd be like as a small monitor with a modeler.

chillidoggy

My mate uses his exclusively for recording these days.

Lixarto

I was a big fan of Rush in the mid '80s, when Alex Lifeson was using these.

Does it sound like that?

chillidoggy

Hmmmm.....yes, I think you could be right there. I does sound very similar. I asked our bass player, who used to be in a Rush tribute band, and he came back with this War & Peace-length dissertation -

 

 

 

Alex Lifeson

Guitars

• Ovation Adamas Classical mounted on a Omega Stand (Alex built this stand). Strung with Dean Markley Medium Light Bronze strings.
• Signature Aurora, Dark Vermillion
• Signature Aurora, Midnight Blue Metallic (2)
• Signature Aurora, Pearl White

The Signatures were strung with Dean Markley strings at .009, .010, .016., .028, .038 and .048. lubed with Finger Ease String Lubricant.

Keyboards

• Yamaha KX76 - Accesses samplers along with pedals. Fed into Gallien-Krueger 250ML amplifier as a monitor. This and second set of pedals removed after 'Time Stand Still'.

Other Instruments

• Korg MPK-130 MIDI Pedals (2)
• Moog Taurus Bass Pedals (2)

Amplifiers

• Bryston 2B Solid State Power Amplifier
• Crown Macro Power Amplifier
• Mesa Boogie
• Mesa Boogie Cabinets (4)
• Gallien-Krueger Cabinet (4)
• Gallien-Krueger 250ML

Started tour with Bryston amplifiers, then changed to Crown Macro amplifiers, ending the tour using Mesa Boogie amplifiers driving cabinets with 4 2x12 25-watt Geenback GM70 Celestion speakers. 2 cabinets were miked with the Sure SM 57's. Remaing 2 cabinets were for backline only. All 4 2 x 12 Gallien-Krueger cabinets were permanently mounted in lead-lined houses to insure perfect sound seperation between each cabinet.

Microphones

• Sure SM 57
• Sennhheiser MD 421

Effects & Electronics

• Gallien-Krueger 2000-CPL Preamp (2) split to Rane SM26 Mixer with line outs to the house speakers.
• Rane SM26 Mixer (2) - Split 6 ways to effects processors. A second one was added halfway through the tour for the second off stage stereo rig. The dry output goes to two TC Electronics 1210 Spatial Expanders with chorus and flange before going to the house along with the Gallien-Krueger 2000-CPL Preamp's output.
• Nady VHF 700 Wireless Transmitter used for all Signature guitars.
• TC Electronics TC-2290 Effects Unit(2)
• Yamaha SPX90
• TC Electronics 1210 Spatial Expander(2) - Adds chorus and flanger to dry output.
• Roland GP-16 Effects Processor
• Roland Dimension D Spatial Expander
• Akai 900 Sampler
• Yamaha DX7 Sampler

Equipment

• Omega Guitar Stand
• Finger Ease String Lubricant
  

Hope that helps - gosh I'm a Rush geek...

 

 

So, yes, our bassist is a Rush geek!

Lixarto

:-O

Bloody hell! (Thanks)

chillidoggy

I laughed out loud when I got to the Finger-Ease lubricant!

Lixarto

I think that might be made up.

Van_Hayden

No - you used to be able to buy it... From music shops I might add. It was a spray can iirc

JohnPerry

Had one in the 80s. Alex Lifeson recorded Power Windows with one. Got nostalgic for another recently but then discovered the Yamaha THR10C (or variants), which sounds equally huge but a thousand times better and is a thousand times quieter (my old GK hissed like a bastard). Recently got a GK MB150E bass amp, though, and it's magnif