Matrix GT1600FX vs. GT1000FX

H

HiGainYan

Member
Howdy - I’m on the fence here between these two and I’d love to hear what you guys think. They seem to be exactly the same but for the power.

I’m looking at using it primarily for guitar with one 4x12 at 8 ohms and another at 16 ohms. I think the 1000 is enough for this setup but I am torn on getting the 1600 as I could use it for bass sometimes as well. Is there any drawback to getting the 1600 if you’re not really using all the power ? Does it need to be at 80% or so power to sound at its best like a tube amp?

I’ll admit to being confused by solid state amp power ratings as a 200w tube bass amp seems way louder than a 800w SS bass head through the same 800w 8x10 cab.

Edit : a buddy found a thread here ‘is the gt1600fx too powerful’ lots of good info there
 
Last edited:
The GT1000 will be more than enough for guitar use. If bass guitar is in the picture then consider the 2U GT1000 as the extra cooling helps a lot if you will be playing louder gigs or club stages. For bigger gigs on bass then consider the 1600.

You'll find when the 1600 interacts with a speaker, you will get a slight impedance curve (more than the 1000) at the lower end. It's almost like a little extra sub bass in there. Aside from that the amps are pretty much identical aside from power obviously.

No need to be 80% or whatever. The main driving factor as to whether it will sound good will be volume overall. Usually where most people experience the wattage of the amp increasing and the amp then starting to push higher volume and then air is around 1 or 2 o'clock. Nothing to do with the amp as such and anything special inside but just a factor of power and the speakers starting to react to that.
 
Thanks for that. I did wind up calling the shop and speaking with Andy and he helped me decide on the 1600. I’ll post some thoughts on this once I get to set it up and try it out! Cheers
 
So It's been a while since I got the GT1600 and it is definitely pretty damn loud!

I have a few Ampeg SVT4PRO's and they have a similar SS power amp set up i.e. 2-800W channels and for reasons I don't understand the Ampegs are nowhere near as loud as the GT1600FX. That was the stumbling block for me here with so many folks adamant the GT1000FX was tons of power for guitar, I kept thinking back to SVT4's and they are underwhelming for output.

So I'm glad I got the GT1600 as I can use it on the bass rig where it sounds really good but on guitar I ran into issues with the whole concept of using my guitar cabs not quite living up to my expectations on the tone front. Yes, good and even great results can be obtained by tweaking EQ's etc.. but good though they may be they are falling short of the sonic excellence with a wide variety of tones that I hear running the AF3 through some decent studio monitors.

Looks like I need a set of redsound MF10's or similar to be happy with the AF3 guitar rig tone outside of the studio!

and YES!!! the GT1000FX is more than enough for guitar.

Cheers
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom