I bought this Genz-Benz El-Diablo 60 watts 1 x 12 combo in December on eBay and I’ve been using it regularly in rehearsal for the last 3 months. So I finally figured that it was time that I gave you guys my impressions of the thing...
Features:
-60 watts in pentode mode, 30 watts in triode accessible with a switch at the back.
-El34 or 6L6 tubes (GB states that the wattages are actually 50 watts and 25 when using 6L6) interchangeable via a switch at the back.
-External bias check-point.
-2 independent channels (labelled warm and hot respectively), both with independent volume, eq sections (active), and reverb control.
-Master volume, master reverb, tube contour (hot channel only)
-Footswicheable global attack function (basically a mid-boost for soloing) for which the level of boost can be pre-determined via a knob on the front-panel
-Footswitcheable compression (not adjustable)
-“Classic” and “High” gain characters for the hot channel.
-12” Genz-Benz speaker
-4-button footswitch with bright LEDs.
-Stock Ruby Tubes (12 ax7 and EL34s) except for V1 of the pre-amp which is a JJ 12ax7cz.
90% of my testing was done in the triode mode for volume considerations (I do realize that the tone is changed somewhat but the amp is so loud that I don’t really consider testing with both the master and pre-amp volume on 2 as being adequate test settings; and that’s in the rehearsal room with the full-band). With said full band (2 guitars, bass, vocals and a heavy-handed drummer) I can hardly get the master past 5 or 6 and the hot-channel’s pre-amp volume past 3… Everything’s a little lower for the warm channel. With the pentode mode, I couldn’t get the master further than 2, maybe 3… I did 3 rehearsals with the stock Rubys and then switch the pre-amp tubes to Tung-sols and the power tubes to Shuguang (these sounded quite similar to the Rubys actually, I also have a set of EH el34s that I’ll pop in there eventually).
Warm channel: This is the clean channel. It stays very clean at higher volumes, even when really diggin’ in. When the gain is almost dimed, there is some break-up but I found that the hot channel with very little gain sounds better for this application.
-With EL34s and using my LP Classic with a Custom in the bridge and a Seth Lover in the neck, the tone is very pleasant. Please bear in mind that I’ve never played for long periods through a good Fender and I always thought that the cleans on my JCM 800 4210 50-watter were “quite useable with the right pick-ups and string attack”, I’m by no means a clean-tone specialist although a good clean channel is something I need and appreciate. The cleans are deep, warm and, IMHO, rich. They were very chimey and responsive. The reverb helped a lot, it can get very wet and deep, wich is great. The interaction between the channel’s reverb control and the master-reverb can change the characteristics of the reverb itself. I experienced a lot and then found out that this is something that the user’s manual also points out… With the master higher, the reverb can get kinda “splashy”, which sounds very nice IMO, this is where I keep mine for my clean sounds…very sweet.
-With 6L6, the cleans remained sweet but lost a bit of their chimey characteristics and sounded a bit more focused to me. Still, I enjoyed them a lot.
The global attack for the clean channel makes everything stand out a little more. Cut through better for leads as you’d expect.
[continued]
Features:
-60 watts in pentode mode, 30 watts in triode accessible with a switch at the back.
-El34 or 6L6 tubes (GB states that the wattages are actually 50 watts and 25 when using 6L6) interchangeable via a switch at the back.
-External bias check-point.
-2 independent channels (labelled warm and hot respectively), both with independent volume, eq sections (active), and reverb control.
-Master volume, master reverb, tube contour (hot channel only)
-Footswicheable global attack function (basically a mid-boost for soloing) for which the level of boost can be pre-determined via a knob on the front-panel
-Footswitcheable compression (not adjustable)
-“Classic” and “High” gain characters for the hot channel.
-12” Genz-Benz speaker
-4-button footswitch with bright LEDs.
-Stock Ruby Tubes (12 ax7 and EL34s) except for V1 of the pre-amp which is a JJ 12ax7cz.
90% of my testing was done in the triode mode for volume considerations (I do realize that the tone is changed somewhat but the amp is so loud that I don’t really consider testing with both the master and pre-amp volume on 2 as being adequate test settings; and that’s in the rehearsal room with the full-band). With said full band (2 guitars, bass, vocals and a heavy-handed drummer) I can hardly get the master past 5 or 6 and the hot-channel’s pre-amp volume past 3… Everything’s a little lower for the warm channel. With the pentode mode, I couldn’t get the master further than 2, maybe 3… I did 3 rehearsals with the stock Rubys and then switch the pre-amp tubes to Tung-sols and the power tubes to Shuguang (these sounded quite similar to the Rubys actually, I also have a set of EH el34s that I’ll pop in there eventually).
Warm channel: This is the clean channel. It stays very clean at higher volumes, even when really diggin’ in. When the gain is almost dimed, there is some break-up but I found that the hot channel with very little gain sounds better for this application.
-With EL34s and using my LP Classic with a Custom in the bridge and a Seth Lover in the neck, the tone is very pleasant. Please bear in mind that I’ve never played for long periods through a good Fender and I always thought that the cleans on my JCM 800 4210 50-watter were “quite useable with the right pick-ups and string attack”, I’m by no means a clean-tone specialist although a good clean channel is something I need and appreciate. The cleans are deep, warm and, IMHO, rich. They were very chimey and responsive. The reverb helped a lot, it can get very wet and deep, wich is great. The interaction between the channel’s reverb control and the master-reverb can change the characteristics of the reverb itself. I experienced a lot and then found out that this is something that the user’s manual also points out… With the master higher, the reverb can get kinda “splashy”, which sounds very nice IMO, this is where I keep mine for my clean sounds…very sweet.
-With 6L6, the cleans remained sweet but lost a bit of their chimey characteristics and sounded a bit more focused to me. Still, I enjoyed them a lot.
The global attack for the clean channel makes everything stand out a little more. Cut through better for leads as you’d expect.
[continued]
mg: wow, you got a great deal!
.
