Gallien-Krueger PLEX Bass Preamp Pedal Reviews

If you are looking for a preamp for your bass, you won't get it wrong with the GK PLEX. I read all the reviews here in Sweetwater and other sites and I didn't have any of the issues other people mentioned below. You also have the two years warranty with sweetwater, that is a great peace of mind and also a great shopping experience when you know sweeteater got your back!

I've been a GK amp guy since 1975. This pedal captures the sound I have come to love!! Great tool for anyone playing into a PA or that needs a new pre-amp for an old amp.

This is the best Di box I have owned! You can practice with it without being hooked up to the Sound System, and the pre amp is awesome!

I've waited to get this item and glad I got it from a great company like Sweetwater. A bass players dream. Doesn't matter what kind of bass I play through this GK Plex, the clarity and the drive are amazing. Very impressed and satisfied that I've made a great investment.

First of let me say I put this through the test. I used this for bass and was blown away by how clear the sound was and how powerful the sound came out. I was able to dial in the bass tone I wanted very easily. The line out works real nice into a roland VS recorder. The usb works great in a daw with very clear sound no lag or delays. The headphone jack is in stereo and is very clear sounding. It is nice to be able to play along with songs from your mp3/ music player. The preamp is solid built heavy and all metal construction. I would recommend to all bass players of all experience levels.

I've been using mine for several months. I've had no issues with it. I get compliments on my bass tone very often.

If you are looking for that incredible GK sound without the use of a combo amp, this is the best in the business when going DI to your soundboard. I'm using an Ibanez BTB776PB and it greatly enhanced the tone of those bartolini pickups. I've tested and used several preamps and was very disappointed, but then I found this one. The price tag is slightly high, but worth every penny!

The GK Plex... Love this Thing ! Great Job GK !

I have had tons of pedals including the Mesa Boogie Subway DI, David Eden WTDI, and many more. This is BY FAR the better pedal as it relates to features, build quality, and sound. To have something that you can carry in your gig bag that's great for practicing with its aux input and headphone features, enough sound shaping features to dial in a great tone for recording, and rigorous enough to handle the live performance environment! Did I say it has a TUNER TOO! I'm VERY HAPPY with this purchase!

Great product a little complicated at the beginning but after a while over a million combinations to set you toys, all you need for your perfect tune

As a sound engineer and musician, I recognize how priceless this tool is. It has everything your FOH guy is gonna want, especially if the rest of your rig is cheap for small bands. The compressor and EQ are second to none in any pedal I have ever seen. I don't use the OD that much because I use a separate amplifier for that but it also sounds amazing. The preamp is also exactly what you'd expect from GK. Love the send/return as well. They call it a preamp pedal, I'd call it a dreamy-do-everything-you-could-ever-imagine-pedal.

I love this thing! Compressor, tuner, pre amp, distortion, amp selection, DI, recording interface.... does almost everything!
Love the send/receive jacks also. DI works good also.

Playing bass for 18 years, wish i had this before.

My pre amp did not work when it arrived. SW gave me an advanced replacement that arrived the next day. So great service first of all. I love the DI feature and the compression and overdrive sound great. The extra control in the click features of the dials are fun to experiment with. I am still dialing in the sounds I like. It is an excellent tool!

If you are in the market for a preamp this will fit the bill perfectly! Another great product from GK.

I bought this unit for the combination of features, DI/GK voicing/boost/comp/tuner, for mainly live use. After fiddling for some time I was able to dial in some very usable tones through the headphone out which surprisingly translated very well live through FOH. In my opinion it does a great 800rb tone through the DI without having to mic a cab. The boost works very well in conjunction with the compressor but does take some tweaking. All-in-all this is a solid built unit with great sounding authentic GK tones and packed with usable features. Money WELL spent.

NOTE: This is a biased review as I love GK. I own a NEO 4x10 & a 700RB as my main rig and will be purchasing more NEOs in the future.

Have only had the Plex for a week now and I LOVE every tone that I can get out of this pedal. This turned a Ampeg 12 combo amp, my son's, into a GK 12. I never could get a tone dialed in that I was happy with. The Plex solved this.

Also, I love that I don't have to lug my 700RB to band practice anymore to get my sound into the mixer. This pedal is basically plug and play for me.

It has some items included with it that I will not utilize such as the tuner or the compressor.

I would love to put it on my pedal board as is but I feel this is the weakest thing on the pedal. It does have a warranty but I would like to have that reassuring feeling of it "being built like a tank". Not an issue. I will treat this pedal with extreme care and build a special mount to house it on my pedal board. This will be replacing the MXR M80 Bass D.I.+ Bass Distortion Pedal currently on the board as I love the distortion on the Plex better.

I’m not saying that others aren’t having the issue, I just know that I’m not.... The reason for 4.5 instead of 5 stars is because sometimes it’s hard to get in and out of the tuner mode....but that doesn’t happen very often.

I'd like to thank Sweetwater and Gallien-Krueger for the PLEX Preamp pedal I won in the door prize drawing Friday morning at #GearFest 2017! Thanks also to Trip Wamsley of Gallien-Krueger for the personal demonstration of it's capabilities. Out of a crowd of about 16,000 people who would have imagined that I'd win - not only anything at all - but something I can use and actually NEED. Praise God!

The other reviewers pretty much do justice to the capabilities, so I won't go into that again. But the personal service I received from both Sweetwater (Joel Helton, you're the best!) and Trip Wamsley of Gallien-Krueger blew my mind. I never once felt that I was taking up their valuable time, they were glad to spend as much time as needed to answer my questions and didn't mind that I came back later to speak with them in more depth. Thank you gentlemen, and thank you Sweetwater for hosting #GearFest 2017 and providing us with access to the fabulous musical artists. The workshops were incredible!

I waited for the re-released version so no noise, and I could get any sound out of it I needed.

This is a really fun pedal. I'm using it mainly in two ways

1, As an audio interface (I'm using an IMac) so can practice with a USB connection to the computer and use headphones connected to the pedal.

2. For rehearsals that are DI to PA. I can supplement the PA sound with headphones connected to the Plex. This helps make up for the "everything except bass" loud in the PA mix without having to drag my rack with the in ear stuff I use live to each rehearsal

This pedal is absolutely as flexible and customizable as it advertises, but the controls are advertised confusingly; turning the knobs control the EQ and levels (volume, gain, amount of compression), and clicking the knobs in engages presets for their secondary features (bass boost, contour, etc.) The Master knob when pushed engages one of 5 EQ presets that can be further tweaked with the upper row of knobs, making this thing insanely flexible, way more than more popular/more established DIs (coughSansAmpcough). The amount of I/Os it has is crazy as well - I haven't used the USB out, but the 1/4" jack and XLR out have served me well.

As with many things in life however, it doesn't live up to all the hype. The built-in overdrive isn't nearly as good as a dedicated OD pedal, but I didn't expect much from it. I use it as either a volume boost with the OD preset at 1, or as a crappy fuzz with the OD preset at 5. I'm also disappointed in the built-in tuner: double-tapping the compressor button to switch to the tuner is very finicky to engage, and the tuning display wavers constantly, so it's very difficult to get an accurate tuning. Another frustrating issue with the tuner is that it doesn't mute the volume 100% when it's engaged, more like 90%, so your tuning sounds will still come through the PA/amp if you're playing on your own, but I assume nobody will be able to hear the tuning sounds in a crowded bar.

Other than these issues, I don't regret buying it at all. If you're looking for your first DI, a new DI to be the core of your rig, a one-stop recording tool, or a compact bass rig for live worship performance (all four were what I was looking for), this is definitely the preamp for you!

I've been using the GK Plex for a year or two now and I wanted to put it through its paces before making a review.

When I first got it, it had some issues with the built in noise gate, that was fixed with a firmware update. I use it, with some pedals (a chorus and an EHX Bass Soul Food) in the FX loop, to produce the majority of my tone, bypassing the eq on my amp.

The EQ options are great for shaping tone, and the extra options from the push knobs take it to another level. That's all of the positives I have.
I'm not a fan of the onboard overdrive as it becomes easily unusable, I'm putting something in my FX loop to take its place.
The other complaint I have is about the compressor, it sounds good with subtle settings but you shouldn't expect too much from it. I'm placing another compressor before the unit.
The tuner works, kind of. My band plays in Drop A, it doesn't pick up my lowest A, and when I'm in standard it barely picks up my low B.

The Plex is meant to be an all-in-one preamp/DI solution. It kind of is if you lower your standards a bit or aren't looking for a lot or you're looking for a good place to start with a preamp/DI with numerous options.

This DI is well made and I believe the best choice of the few that met my requirements. Headphones & Aux In - Check! Allows me to practice silently with metronome, iTunes, etc. Quality DI with eq, ground lift and pre/post switch. I use it to retain some control for gigs where I"m going direct without an amp. Also very helpful when doubling on upright. My Markbass Tube 800 has two inputs, so this EQs my electric and a different Preamp EQs my upright. The tuner is good. I don"t find the distortion- the increments are either too much or too little for what I"m looking for. I also have a hard time dialing in any useful compression, but that could be my own shortcomings. The amp modeling is interesting. With the EQ flat, you can cycle through all 5 settings to start with the tone that most closely matches your preference. 3 Stars here means "Really Good". The difficulty with Distortion & Comp effects are the only thing bringing it down from Excellent.

I've had the Plex for a couple years now. Mostly playing live bar gigs.
Pros:
- can be set to mimic any of the GK bass amps and get really close to tones
- looks nice

Cons:
- White noise floor, in a quiet environment lots of hiss
- Compressor is awful, attacks are distorted
- Tuner double tap is a pain. Should have been single tap tuner, double tap compressor.

I've played GK since 1978. Always great sound, dependable, etc.

In one band we play amp-less so I figured, what better way to keep my G-K sound than the PLEX, plus it has a built-in tuner and compressor so I can free up some real estate on my pedal board! Well, this device has two flaws and those are it.

I use an MB800 - the voicing was perfect! EQ: Check. Overdrive: Usable. Sound: Great.

About your compressor and tuner, Bob...

The comp goes PRE loop, dude, not POST. I called Jason, the chief engineed and ask if I was doing something wrong, is there a switch or knob I'm missing...nope! The comp is post. It's nice to know that he thought a toggle switch for pre/post was a good idea. If you see it in the future, please think of me.

Then there's the tuner. Lots of bands tune down, right? Lots of bassists use 5-strings, right? Yeah, well, no Bb. Not real useful. Mentioned that to Jason as well - a software fix maybe? No dice.

Regrettably I had to return it. Maybe someday they'll fix the flaws and I'll buy the 2.0 but for now I'm using the MB800 as a pre/DI.

I liked this unit for the first 4 months then the DI went out on it.
Rendered in useless.

When I bought this pedal, I was expecting something like an all in one solution, a tuner, a compressor, amp sims, eq and overdrive, need a chorus? you have a nice fx loop to add whatever effect you want.

So, what could go wrong?

The tuner is ok, it do its job, but you have to double-tap the switch precisely, if you don't, you turn on/off the compressor, why can't you just press the switch for a couple of seconds instead?, no one knows.

The amp sims sound very similar from one to another, is that bad? no, what is really disappointing here, is that they only emulated the EQ curve, they completely lack the growl we all love from the real amps, what about cab sims?, there is no cab sims at all... not even the option to load Impulse Responses.

The overdrives go from decent to unusable, do you want to blend the clean signal with the overdriven signal? forget it!

I'm a compressor aficionado, I love compressors, have had almost every format available in the market, and I know when it's good or bad, and the one that the Plex has... sucks really hard!, the only usable settings are the subtle ones, if you want something serious, slap for example, you will end sounding cheap.

What really s***s the most, is the USB audio interface, even the most cheapest BOSS or Line 6 units kicks Plex a** in this context, it doesn't have ASIO support, the audio routing is a joke, it is even worse than a Behringer cheap audio interface.



So, why don't I give the Plex just one star? because the EQ section is really good, and the amp sims, as an EQ voice, are pleasing, but by no mean justify the price.



There's a firmware update coming by... since a couple of years now, maybe in two or three years they launch it.

It was very nice while it lasted. Bought it last fall after its predecessor died under a sudden freak rainstorm at an outdoor show. Not the sort of device you can deploy without reading the manual repeatedly, but it was doing fine in practices. I carried it around in the (very nice) box it shipped in, but when I was finally able to use it at shows: the first show just before we went on, it locked up (no output, no response to controls) until I power-cycled it, but then was fine. During today's show it froze in the middle of a song and I had to do the desperate scramble to plug a 1/4" directly into the PA since I was using this as a DI, so no bass for the rest of that song. I now cannot trust it, and must try to RMA it while I figure out some alternative that maybe I can trust. Thought the brand rep meant something, and if not that at least the price... This sort of thing should not die after 8 months of very light use.

The feature set of this unit and GK's reputation for quality convinced me to purchase one of these for my situation. The overall sound of the unit was very good, as were the features for the price. The biggest drawback was the noise-floor of the unit. I play in a church direct and any kind of noise is not ok to amplify through FOH. This unit in particular had a high/constant white-noise as well as a strange high-pitched whistle come out of both the D.I. out and the line out. I was sad to have to return this since it was perfect for my situation otherwise, but I'll be going with something else. However, if you play in a venue with a lot of background noise anyway (i.e. bars), this unit would probably be perfect.

Great pedal in theory but I've run into the same issue with the super loud high-end hiss. Especially notable using any of the compressor issues. Bummer.

Just got a replacement unit from Sweetwater which they shipped as fast as possible (thank you).

Still as noisy as my first unit which I returned (see my earlier review). I tried it through my pedals, direct from bass to amp, powered through another outlet, different cables, another bass. etc. etc. It sounds like a distortion pedal with too much gain. Now I think outside the return period since it took a month and a half to get it back in stock and get a replacement. Looks like I'm out of luck unless GK can fix it.

It's a solidly built pedal and the presets sound beautiful but mine had a loud hiss and made my signal drop so low that I had to add more Master (which added even more hiss)

At least two early adopters in Talkbass.com complained about the same things. Maybe they have QC problems in GK.

Note that there is no bypassing the preamp section unlike a Sansamp. It's always on. The only sections you can turn off are the OD and compressor sections.