Genz Benz GBE 1200

Just like the GBE 600 head we reviewed in February ’03, the 1200 is constructed from handsome heavy-gauge steel with an austere brushed-aluminum front panel. Genz Benz somehow managed to devise an elegant solution to populating a three-rackspace front panel with 18 knobs, 16 LEDs, and 9 switches. Every amp stage is clearly labeled: For example, instructive pictographs accompany the two 5-band ACTIVE EQUALIZATION sections and the GLOBAL SIGNAL SHAPE controls. The knobs and buttons feel hardy and turn with a detented, high-resolution feel. Lots of critical information and control is available via the front panel, including a TUNER OUTPUT, a MUTE button, and a five-LED operational status array. The GBE 1200’s back-panel accouterments are extensive. It’s got pre-EQ effect loops for both the fet and tube channels, a second tuner output, and a full-featured DI output.

The 1200’s interior assembly was clean, orderly, and mostly packed with well-reinforced components laid into printed circuit boards. A large toroidal power transformer accounts for most of the 1200’s weight. The 12 bi-polar output transistors are anchored to a long heatsink in a tunnel-and-fan format. The single 12AX7 preamp tube was well installed and easily accessed.

The heart of Genz Benz’s GBE concept is the footswitchable FET and TUBE gain stages, each of which can be used on its own or in a continuously variable mixture. While the tube stage combines a 12AX7 tube with solid-state circuit components, it does offer a distinctively tube-y sound, particularly when overdriven into warm and rich saturation. The FET channel is drier and quicker, without the TUBE channel’s tinge of organic compression.

It doesn’t take much imagination to appreciate that having two different-sounding, blendable preamp stages each feeding separate 5-band EQ controls and three contour filters makes for a near-silly amount of tone sculptability. We know the answer to the quantity question— what about quality? The 1200’s shelving LOW and HIGH filters and intermediary peaking midrange filters are quiet, well voiced, powerful, and blessed with musical bandwidth and slope. The footswitchable EQ contours, both low- and high-frequency boosting and midrange scooping, offer a quick and easy alternative to the ACTIVE EQUALIZATION section. Instead of simple on/off filters, each contour also has a level control to govern the amount of cut or boost.

Big Brother

The 1200’s high power is its most exhilarating feature. It’s blessed with ample headroom and a resilient, pliable feel, particularly in the low register. Fast slap and fingerstyle lines don’t blur in the low mids, instead punching with distinct authority. Like the other Genz Benz heads I’ve encountered, the 1200 is exceptionally adept at back-pickup fingerstyle funk tones—its dry, articulate attack and colorful midrange in tube mode combine for definitively snarky tone. While the 1200 does offer a somewhat smooth and pillowy sub-dub tone via EQ, its inherently crispy qualities don’t naturally lend themselves to super-fat tone.

The EQ and contour filters beg to be tweaked, but it’s a formidable challenge to figure out where to begin. Nevertheless, if I felt like I needed a bit more low end or some high-mid bump, the EQ generally offered what I sought. I liked the ability to control the amount of contour, an attribute I found particularly effective for hollowing out slap lines with the MID SCOOP button. The 1200’s DI was clean and crisp, if not syrupy and warm. On the gig, I dug the amp’s extensive footswitch-controlled functions.

The 1200 makes an excellent flagship for the GBE line. It offers the laudable tone sculpting and useable two-topology preamp of its little brothers in a powerful, eminently flexible package. It’s a great bargain and a solid tone tool.