Genz-Benz El Diablo 60 Combo Review

[barbarianbrute]

i finally got around to posting this review. this amp is worth every penny and then some, so read it! if you don't know about the el diablo, here are some basic facts:

60 or 30 watt mode
el34 or 6l6 tubes
variety of tone controls (eq, contour, attack, compression, etc...)
reverb
active tone network (slight adjustments make really audible differences)

starting with the clean channel... what can i say, it's nothing short of superb. it's got nice sparkly cleans with a hint of jangle. unlike the loose sounding fender amps, this one isn't as jangly, but just as nice or better perhaps. very clean sounding even at high volumes. i love the clean channel and it doesn't feel twangy to play even with dropped bass and boosted treble. there's a lot of body to the tone. pedals are great through the clean channel.

the drive channel is basically like 4 channels. you can go vintage crunch, vintage crunch+compression, modern crunch, or modern crunch+ compression. using the compression button adds more gain to the mix and smooths out hte tone a bit. very impressive indeed.

this amp sounds a lot like a mesa or a fender at times. the clean channel is more in line with mesa clean tones, and the gain channel is either mesa sounding or fenderish depending on the gain and eq settings. it's indeed a very impressive sound.

it really is easy to get a couple of great tones right off the bat. NO ONE IN THEIR RIGHT MIND can dislike this amp - especially for the price. ths amp sounds great at low volumes. very smooth tone yet aggressive.

this amp may be marketed as a metal or high-gain type amp, but i personally don't see that. it has plenty of gain, but at higher volumes, full gain settings, and iwth the compression feature engaged. it's just enough to do even modern metal, but you won't have any left over IMO. unlike a peavy 6505 or mesa triple recto, there isn't plenty of gain in reserve. the distortion you get though is spectacular.

tried it with a tube screamer, ds-1, metal zone and metal muff and they all sounded great except the ds-1. it sounded good, but required eq tweaking with lots of bass to get a low end crunch. using hte vintage drive channel and a tube screamer, i got a really great saturated overdrive tone.

this amp is for WAY more than just metal even though it's one of the best for metal anyway. it actually sounds a little more organic than the 100watt version, but then again i never had a chance to really crank the 100 watt version.

in 30 watt mode it's another beast. it's like a hard rock monster or a blues legend depending on what you're looking for. this is a very versatile and well built amp. i'd highly recommend it and if you're in the market for a versatile combo amp, you owe it to yourself to give this one a test drive.

word of wisdom - there is a LOT of tweaking you can do with the controls so give it a fair chance. even with the stock el34 tubes, it has a more modern american tone. very smooth and lots of low end.

it's practically a closed back amp and extremely loud. you can kill birds on the window pane or small dogs with this amp.

check it out, it truly is a great amp

 

[ModestCargo]

Re: Genz-Benz El Diablo 60 Combo Review

You're an amp addict, aren't you? It seems like you own or have tried or want to own or try everything on the planet

Not a bad thing, don't get me wrong.

I'll have to check these out. Heard nothing but good about Genz Benz

 

[Surgeon]

Re: Genz-Benz El Diablo 60 Combo Review

You really got me interested in those last time you suggested them to me. I went and listened to clips I found on the net... **** I think I could really like this thing...

thanks for the review. Although I can easily see some people in their right mind disliking this amp... everybody needs/likes something different. Just because you love this piece means someone's gonna hate it (it's not about you, it's just a fact man, there will be people who really hate it and people who will hate it to contradict you )...sorry about that.

Anyways, I really really need to get rid of the marshall and have a good look at these... I can't seem to find the combos used around here, which is a real shame 'cause they seem to be a steal on the used market from what I can see from ebay (lord knows I really don't need/want a 100 watt head).

 

[Gamera]

Re: Genz-Benz El Diablo 60 Combo Review

Great review. I agree on much of what you've written but want to clarify a couple points for those who might be interested. And I've included a picture of the front controls to help illustrate and because everyone like pictures. I should point out that the amp ships with EL34 tubes but I'm running 6L6 tubes in mine so my experiences may be a little different.

The clean channel is aptly labeled as "warm" in the above. It has a warm, fat, organic tone with lots of headroom. Although it will get dirty if you pump up the gain and volume. Not distorted dirty, just a nice amount of light gain that responds well to your playing if you really dig in. As BB accurately pointed out, it's not as spanky and sparkly as most Fenders. It kind of reminds me of what I refer to as an "Evil Bassman" sound.

The "hot" channel has two settings, classic and high. The secret to this channel is the tube contour knob. It works in either setting and when turned all the way left it produces a fatter, flabbier, "Marshally" tone. Turn the knob to the right and you'll hear less flab and things tighten up and start to sound a bit more modern. And the tone controls respond differently to how the contour is set providing lots of options.

The texture button adds a fair amount of compression and really helps with legato playing, artificial harmonics, etc. It doesn't add any more gain, it just tightens everything up and focuses that gain more.

The global attack button is still a bit of a mystery to me but overall acts like a treble/upper mids booster. The manual says it can be used as a booster for solos but honestly I tend to prefer the sound with it engaged so I use it pretty much always.

Both the texture and global attack buttons will work on both channels.

And as BB pointed out you can run the amp in either 30-watt triode or 60-watt pentode modes. The modes have no effect on the amount of gain on tap, the 30-watt mode just lets you reach that gain a little faster. But since this amp is so loud it's a little difficult to tell. The two modes do color the overall tones quite a bit though with 30-watt producing considerably darker tones.

Due to the number of available tones and tweakable options this really is a versatile amp. It doesn't offer as many options as a modelling amp but it's far less complex to operate. Because of this versatility many people, myself included, immediately want to dial in Marshall or Mesa-like tones. If that's your intention you'll likely come away with the "jack-of-all-trades yet master of none" impression since it'll get you close but no cigar. But once you let it be an El Diablo and really get comfortable with a sweetspot is when it really shines. Used these combos can be had for around $750 which really is a great deal for what you get. So get 'em while you can because as soon as their secret gets out, so will their value.

 

[barbarianbrute]

Re: Genz-Benz El Diablo 60 Combo Review

good point. i wouldn't change the el34 tube, and to be quite honest, the el34s sound a bit more like 6l6 tubes in this particular amp - IMO. i've played many el34 amps and this one to me doesn't sound like one. i would have assumed they were 6l6s if i didn't already know they ship with el34.

to me the compression "seems" to add a bit more gain. i can't describe exactly what it does, but it certainly "feels" like it's been juiced with more drive.

to get really squeally harmonics though, i find that i have to use the compression feature. i wish it had a knob to control the compression feature instead of just a button so you can further shape your sound.

there are two things though. the compression feature actually scoops the eq a bit and the attack actually boosts the upper mids a tad.

when i first started using them, i couldn't quite get what i wanted out of it. after calling genz-benz tech support though, they explained to me how this works. i can get what i want out of it now, but like i said it would be a nice feature to have if they added a contour knob to control the amount of contour.

although the cleans aren't that fenderish, they are indeed extremely good. personally i like the cleans on this amp better because they are still chimey, but also very thick just like the drive channel. some people don't like a thick sound, but i do.

 

[Gamera]

Re: Genz-Benz El Diablo 60 Combo Review

Actually if I had to choose one word to describe any of the tones available from this amp that may be it -- thick. And therein lies my only real criticism of it so far, it can be a little difficult to dial in real jangly or more traditional Stratty tones ala Robin Trower. Although part of my issue is the fact that all my Strats are HSS and noiseless pickups which also makes a big difference so I know I can't blame it all on the amp.

 

[barbarianbrute]

Re: Genz-Benz El Diablo 60 Combo Review

Actually if I had to choose one word to describe any of the tones available from this amp that may be it -- thick. And therein lies my only real criticism of it so far, it can be a little difficult to dial in real jangly or more traditional Stratty tones ala Robin Trower. Although part of my issue is the fact that all my Strats are HSS and noiseless pickups which also makes a big difference so I know I can't blame it all on the amp.

that may be true. i use virtual vintage pickups in my strats and i still get a nice thick sound. the only way i could get the thing to thin out a bit was to drop the bass and mids a bit, up the treble, and adjust the contour control. that thins it out about as much as i care to go. that works good enough for me. it looks like this:

contour = 2 o'clock, bass = 10 o'clock, mid = 9 o'clock, treble = 2 o'clock

that works enough for me so maybe you can try it that way. another thing is the attack. i don't really use it, but for this effect i'll probably put it around 12 o'clock to keep it from sounding too trebly.

 

[barbarianbrute]

Re: Genz-Benz El Diablo 60 Combo Review

ANOTHER cool feature about this amp that i failed to mention earlier is the reverb. i personally still prefer the mesa reverb even over fender, but the reverb on this amp is very good.

the thing is, you can actually change the kind of reverb you get by adjusting the master reverb level and the channel reverb level. if you crank the master reverb and lower the channel reverb, you'll get more of a splashy kind of reverb. if you increase the channel reverb and decrease the master reverb you'll get kind of a more rich reverb sound.

maybe the only complaint i have about this amp, and trust me it's a very minor gripe, is that the reverb at higher levels makes it sound muddy - IMO. it's good for low up to med-low reverb settings, but setting it too high starts to squash the sound or something. maybe it's just my ears, but i never use that much reverb anyway so who cares. it's still a very nice sounding reverb anyway.