Hi Folks

Any recommendations for a good powerful keyboard combo amp for my G70. I am using a Yamaha 1000w 12 channel desk with 2 x 500w Peavey speakers at present, good sound but a lot of gear to carry with my beloved G70 and not too much space to store in my house. I do split bass on certain gigs with a drummer so I need a nice fat bass sound as well as good tops.
I have been reading reviews on the Roland KC 550, spec looks good but i dont know too much about it.

Any thoughts?

I moved a copy of this post to http://www.synthzone.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/forums/37/1/General_Arranger_Keyboard_Foru where you may get more results.

I use a Traynor K4 playing in the classic rock band I am in ( and I am very happy with that ) though that probably does not pump enough bottom end for a full arranger keyboard accompaniment. Because I play with live bass and drums that is not a concern for me. In fact it suits me better as it doesn't conflict with the bass frequencies from the bass guitar. Before when I used a powered box with a 15" speaker I would have to severely cut the bass frequencies to make it sit nicely with the band. The K4 has a separate summed mono output that can be used to feed a sub woofer if needed.

I just like the midrange and highs on the K4 so much better than the powered box I used to use.

Nick the Rolands are pretty good..Bit pricey but they are good combo amps. Forget Motion Sound, no bottom end at volumes above about 5 on the dial.

Its the KC series I am referring to. I had the KC880 for a while, AWESOME keyboard amp, stereo too (true stereo as in TWO speakers). But heavy. It is on wheels, but as you are younger than me you can probably manage the weight.

At the moment I use a pair of QSC K10s and a Peavey 15 powered sub, so don't discount using a pair of powered boxes either, whatever brand.

They can be very versatile and are easier to get up "off the floor"

Dennis

Once you get into doing LH bass with live drummers, your needs for a keyboard rig go up dramatically. Especially if you are trying to do LH bass AND keyboard patches, you are asking a LOT of any combo amp to do that and keep both ends of the spectrum nice and clean.

To be honest, most of the time I see people doing this on a full time basis, they use a separate small bass combo amp JUST for the bass (and stick it near the drummer, they like that!) and then a full range rig like you already have for the key sounds. Otherwise, the drummer has to deal with your keyboard sounds blasting him as much as the bass (and they DON'T like that!).

If your band already has good monitors, and sufficient monitor sends so the drummer gets a different mix from everyone else, you can skip this part... but split the bass off to a separate output if you can, no matter WHAT you use.

Oh, and BTW, if you don't already have either the SR-G01 or SRX-07 expansion cards, GET ONE! They have HUGELY improved bass sounds over the stock electric basses. Worth every penny.

I'm with Nigel regarding the Traynor K4 Combo Amp...it works best in a "combo".

A great "keyboard" amp to be sure, but not for arrangers...just not enough low end, especially for reproducing bass sounds, whether played manually by the left hand, or by the auto-accompaniment.

I've had great success with, and highly recommend, the Yamaha Stagepas 500...relatively light, easy to transport. and reasonably priced.

Ian

Diki, I do have the SRX-07 expansion and yes great basses. I am leaning towards the Roland KC550 Kb amp mainly for reliability, I came across some good

reviews on the Behringer K3000FX Ultratone amp but also bad ones particularly regarding reliabily. The Behringer has a nice design and has lots

of nice features, designed I believe by the Germans but poorly built by the Chinese,pity.

Nick

I have a pair of Crate KX 220's I got for my Hammond XK3/w bass pedals. Never really had to use both with the stereo link function, one can really crank out sound including bass. Crate later changed the name to the KXB220 to include bass players. Same company thats makes the famous Ampeg bass amps. They are no longer made but you can find them for around $300 used. New they were over $600. Heavy but very compact and will accept a stereo signal to send out to the main PA if you are in that situation. Four channels with a dedicated mic channel with reverb ( cheesy spring reverb but it saves bringing a separate unit) so its works well for the OMB thing. It also has a speaker out which will push two more 8 ohm speakers or a 4 ohm bass cabinet for really big bass. And they are built very well, no problems except one loose input jack after lots of gigs. Beware of Behringer reliability. Two repair shops near me won't even try to fix them. They're cheap but its buy-play -and throw away.

Good luck

Bill in NJ

"Beware of Behringer reliability. Two repair shops near me won't even try to fix them. They're cheap but its buy-play -and throw away."

I agree with this assessment of Behringer's products from my experiences with NOT their amps but their mixers.

Ron

Well, I guess I'm going to be the one to contradict others views on Behringer. I have a K1800FX and love it. I also have a JBL EON-15G2, a pair of LEM D400's and a Leslie 3300, 122 and 145. Until recently I had a Traynor K4. I sold it because of the absence of any low end to speak of, non-existent stereo imaging due in part to both left and right speakers being mounted on the same plane instead of being angled away from each other and the fact that I believe the crossover point is set to low sending too much mid to low-midrange signal to the summed woofer. Other than that it is a great amp; I used it along with a Motion Sound SW15 powered sub, which I still have. Prior to the Traynor K4 I had a Motion Sound KP200S which had better stereo separation than the K4 but didn't compare in features and sound.

Last year I needed a smaller amp for various gigs. I ended up with the Behringer after comparing it to the offerings of Roland, Hartke and Peavey. The K1800FX had better features than the others, cost less and sounded just as good (they all sounded a little different from each other side by side but all sounded good). I have used the K1800FX quite a bit and have never had a problem with it. I'm glad I chose the Behringer.

added- If you are considering the KC550 from Roland, check out the Behringer k3000FX. I have used bass pedals with my K1800FX and it worked pretty well, but the extra power and 15" woofer of the K3000FX would pump out more than enough bass.