Genz-Benz El Diablo 60-TS

Gens Benz is more known for their bass amplification that actually sounds pretty good compared to their guitar amplification product lines. This is a 60 W amplifier that has a warm channel as well as a hot channel. There's a lot of features and controls built into the amplifier's which are a selling point for them. They usually have a small niche in the market because they're not really well known as far as tube amplifiers but this is a cool amplifier. This amplifier basically has a 60 W source of power dropped into 30 W of power. There's quite a few features that come along with again spends products that are unique to itself that I have seen other places but not as frequent. One of those things and see contour control which allows a person to dial in the mid range to their liking.

UTILIZATION

FEATURES

• Tube Buffered Input Stages
• Warm Channel - Gain & Volume Preamp Controls; +/- 15db Bass, Mid, Treble Tone Shaping; Reverb Level Control
• Channel Selector Switch
• Hot Channel - Classic or High Gain Switch; Dynamic or Compressed Tube Texture Switch; Gain & Volume Preamp Controls; Tube Contour Control; +/- 15db Bass, Mid and Treble Tone Shaping; Reverb Level Control
• Global Section - Attack Switch with Level Control; Master Reverb Control; Master Volume Control
• Standby and Power Toggle Switches
• Four Button Footswitch Included


SOUNDS


This amplifier has a very good clean tone especially when he uses Fender Stratocaster guitar with single coil pick ups. It has a nice body fender style clean tone that is very polished and smoothies. It also has a decent overdrive channel that allows a few extra features that blend your guitar and effects pedals into the sound of your speakers through this amp. At one control mentioned above called the contour really allows that to happen for even more options of total variety.

OVERALL OPINION


The amplifier seems to be a little harder to find you can only buy them on the website. These are a British voice amplifier so if you're looking for that great Marshall style and tone and this is a cheaper alternative for you. It does have some cool features and options available so if you can find one and a decent price I would say go ahead and grab it. Of course these are not the most acclaimed amplifiers in the world but you get a good sound for someone who needs a multiple channel amp.

• Tube Buffered Input Stages
• Warm Channel - Gain & Volume Preamp Controls; +/- 15db Bass, Mid, Treble Tone Shaping; Reverb Level Control
• Channel Selector Switch
• Hot Channel - Classic or High Gain Switch; Dynamic or Compressed Tube Texture Switch; Gain & Volume Preamp Controls; Tube Contour Control; +/- 15db Bass, Mid and Treble Tone Shaping; Reverb Level Control
• Global Section - Attack Switch with Level Control; Master Reverb Control; Master Volume Control
• Standby and Power Toggle Switches
• Four Button Footswitch Included
*12ax7s and EL34s


This is an all tube, 2 channel amp that's meant to go from super clean to super high gain. The options are great, lots of versatility is offered

UTILIZATION

All the controls are active, meaning that they don't require extreme settings to make big tonal changes, so take your time with it when tweaking.

Otherwise everything else is pretty much straight forward. The attack know is sort of like a high-presence control in my opinion. The tube contour control is more like a general presence control.

SOUNDS

Ok so here's where I get critical. I bought this after I bought tried and sold the 100 watt version cause I was told that the 60 tribal series head was probably a bit warmer and not so sterile sounding. Unfortunately, even though they're both powered by EL34s, I still couldn't get a nice smoother high gain sound out of this amp line. Everything sounded very modern and very..not scooped but bitey, too much to the point where it was just too harsh sounding. I can see how this would suit for a lot of modern metal players however, but for me I generally like it to be a bit more saturated so the high end isn't harsh.

I believe at the time I had this with an earcandy cab and eminence speakers. My other guitarist at the time had the type of cabs with a 5150 head and it blew the genz benz outta the water. Minus the cleans of course, the cleans on this thing are brilliantly shimmering.



OVERALL OPINION

Overall for the price, there's a lotta features but to my ears it doesn't sound like it's worth the investment. I've tried both this and the 100 watt version and am simply just not impressed by the distortion sounds. It sounds like a solidstate amp but with flashy lights and tubes inside. I've only heard a few decent sample clips from others and I personally haven't been able to get it to sound anything close or better to what I feel it should sound like. The 100 watt version was slightly better but not substantial.