Genz-Benz vs Genzler

[SteveBassJr]

I have been using my Genzler Magellan 350 almost everyday for about 6 months now. Love it! The tone is fantastic no matter where I set it. I have been through 5 amps in thr past year trying to find my tone. It really nails it for me.
Thats all I can add!
Love Genzler!

 

[buldog5151bass]

When Ithink of Benz, I think of great cabs that came out before manufacturers realized bass cabs didn't have to be heavy to sound good.

 

[Jim C]

I had a 9.2 for many years and it never had a scratchy pot
My NeoX 2x12 sounds great to me; this idea of a new cabinet is better hasn't been my thing other than going to something like a Bergantino which is at a much higher price point

It's like drag racing; places 6-10 have about the same amount of money in development and equipment
The top 5 guys have 5x that amount
That last few percent of perfromance costs a ton of money

 

[BadExample]

That exponential increase in costs (time, effort and money) to get closer to top performance seems to apply to almost all things in life. I find a goal of mediocrity much easier to achieve!

 

[Jeff Genzler]

I love Genz-Benz gear and I am curious about Genzler. Is it similar (I would expect so) or significantly different?

Just thought I would post a few comments as it relates to GENZLER AMPLIFICATION. Certainly we remain extremely proud of our past heritage with GB, but as we looked forward, G-AMPS allowed us to start with a clean slate. We can't change who we are at the core so many players have commented that the GENZLER products feel "familiar", someone said "like stumbling across an old friend again".
BUT, we had the chance to take a look at what we wanted to design and then come at it in a completely new and different way. The Bass Array cab are among the obvious designs we came at with a radically new and innovative approach to full range speaker system design. And I must say that the inquisitive nature of the bass player community has really latched on to what these cabs are all about. That is one thing I've always admired about our community AND this TB platform.

With the Magellan amp designs, the differences might be a little more subtle but still dramatic. Having a clean slate to start with, we took a look at a lot of new ways of doing what we wanted to do. In many cases that also involved component selection as well as circuit designs.

With comments made here in this thread, one major component change we made was to use pots with electro-static plastic wipers, (still metal shafts) but they do not rely on the usual carbon wipers ---- which are susceptible to issues that can become "scratchy". NOT SO with our current pots. And their longevity and feel are exceptional. Also, we use gold-plated jacks that are much less susceptible to contamination that might cause intermittent contact, and many other higher grade components where chosen.
And what we could do now with the new 700ASC module, one that was designed by ICEpower with tremendous input from amp designers that used their previous modules ---- which we were. This "carnal knowledge" has given us an extremely stable platform for an incredibly powerful and reliable amp.
With many of our circuit design decisions we wanted to make sure our amplifier was extremely musical and intuitive, yet versatile. We feel our approach using the CLEAN and DRIVE channels, along with the dual Contour Circuit and other features accomplishes this design requirement.

I hope this background provides some answers to the questions here as players continue to discover and ask questions about the new GENZLER AMPLIFICATION gear.

 

[pjbassist]

Holy Cow ^^^ @Jeff Genzler himself!! Man I love Talkbass! I am following this thread with great interest! I have been playing SWR for the past 20 years, specifically the Pre-Fender redface Bass 350. I still have, love and gig the 350, but have experienced recent reliability and headroom issues. After much research of what was and is available as an upgrade, I purchased a "Very Good" condition Genz Benz Shuttle 9.0 which I will have by Tuesday of next week. I have actually never played one, and can say that I am both excited and terrified. I wasn't ready to make the jump to Genzler, but considered it strongly. I love the simplicity of the Shuttle Series and really wanted that 12AX7 tube preamp, similar to my trusty SWR.

Overall, I considered Genzler, Genz Benz, Markbass, Bergantino, Epifani, Tecamp, DNA and briefly Mesa. I hope I made the right call, but won't know till I hear it? I can say, even though I haven't even received the amp yet, I have no regrets. No matter what I bought, it was going to be used, b/c of my budget...I guess we'll see how it pans out. The timing of this thread is very ironic, and TB has been a wealth of info in this process! I guess I have a soft spot for revolutionary amp builders that get bought out and eventually shut down by Fender.

 

[Eddie LeBlanc]

Fender / Kaman Music bought out Jeff Genzler many years back. Then in 2013 (I think I remember) shut Genz Benz down. Then sometime in 2015 Jeff started to bring Genzler to life (first real showing was winter NAMM in 2016). And was focusing on Bass amplification.

Since the Genz-Benz purchase by Kaman / Fender there have been a few upgrades in electronics, Class D amp design, and even Neo speaker construction. And Jeff had some improvement ideas all his own. There is a tremendous amount of difference in the Genzler Amps of today versus the old Genz Benz designs. After all, once Kaman and then Fender bought them out, no upgrades or design changes happened and that was over 6 or 7 years ago.

My Genz Benz amps still do fine, but can't compete with the Genzler gear.

 

[BadExample]

Holy Cow ^^^ @Jeff Genzler himself!! Man I love Talkbass! I am following this thread with great interest! I have been playing SWR for the past 20 years, specifically the Pre-Fender redface Bass 350. I still have, love and gig the 350, but have experienced recent reliability and headroom issues. After much research of what was and is available as an upgrade, I purchased a "Very Good" condition Genz Benz Shuttle 9.0 which I will have by Tuesday of next week. I have actually never played one, and can say that I am both excited and terrified. I wasn't ready to make the jump to Genzler, but considered it strongly. I love the simplicity of the Shuttle Series and really wanted that 12AX7 tube preamp, similar to my trusty SWR.

Overall, I considered Genzler, Genz Benz, Markbass, Bergantino, Epifani, Tecamp, DNA and briefly Mesa. I hope I made the right call, but won't know till I hear it? I can say, even though I haven't even received the amp yet, I have no regrets. No matter what I bought, it was going to be used, b/c of my budget...I guess we'll see how it pans out. The timing of this thread is very ironic, and TB has been a wealth of info in this process! I guess I have a soft spot for revolutionary amp builders that get bought out and eventually shut down by Fender.

I expect you'll like it. Be sure and let us know how it goes and good luck with your new amp!

 

[DWBass]

@Jeff Genzler, thank you for the insight. I really enjoyed my time with the Shuttle 6.0 I owned despite the scratchy pot issue. I may own a Genzler in the future.

 

[Djadja]

for the folk who are hearing the difference in the top end of the Genzler vs. the Genz Benz, where you playing the Genzler head through one of the bass array cabs? If so, the top end is different on those cabs... as are the mids for that matter. The transition to the mids is very smooth and very vocal and the highs are smoother and less hard/agressive than with a typical tweeter. If you were using those cabs, the difference you're hearing may have been there rather than in the head itself.

I would add that I'm sold on the bass array cabs and love mine.

 

[Sav'nBass]

I have owned a Gender Benz 6.0, 9.0, 12.0 Max, 9.2 Max and a SL900 and I now own a MG800. I sold the SL900 in order to get my current cab but I liked all of my GB heads.. and I love my Magellan head. To me the MG800 comes close to the versatility of the Max heads sonically without the same level of mechanics... It is a much easier head to work with and for me the fact that I can mix a 8 ohm and a 4 ohm cab is priceless. I use a 4 ohm Boom Bass Tank 1012 but I also have an 8 ohm Lil G.. I have yet to need both cabs but the fact that I can safely use both cabs if I had to is great. If I were to buy a new cab I would get a BA 212 but my Tank does what I need it to. All the GB/Genzler heads I have ever had had very clean DIs...

 

[pjbassist]

I purchased a "Very Good" condition Genz Benz Shuttle 9.0 which I will have by Tuesday of next week. I have actually never played one, and can say that I am both excited and terrified.

UPDATE: Opened the box today on my Genz Benz Shuttle 9.0 and plugged it right in...Dang, this thing sounds excellent! Well made, simple and very intuitive, I am thrilled. No regrets here, can't wait to gig it later this week!

 

[catcauphonic]

Just this past Sunday at the annual Emerald City Bass Con i got to plug into @silky smoove 's Magellan/Array configuration for the first time... though conditions weren't ideal to put it thru some different settings (there was a cacophony of bass playing happening all around me), S.S. Chris did say that he thinks the cabs are what really makes the biggest diff in in the chain of sound (or something along those lines) vs the older GB stuff.

Still, from what I'm reading there are enough reasons to hope to bump into a Magellan for sale in the future when my finances give the ok. Until then i'll stick to my Shuttle 6.2 or Streamliner 900 atop the NeoX2×12 and still be quite satisfied!!!

 

[silky smoove]

FYI: That wasn’t my Genzler gear, it was Sean Fairchild’s. I’ve played on it a number of times though and am pretty familiar with it.

 

[Wicked G]

Just this past Sunday at the annual Emerald City Bass Con i got to plug into @silky smoove 's Magellan/Array configuration for the first time... though conditions weren't ideal to put it thru some different settings (there was a cacophony of bass playing happening all around me), S.S. Chris did say that he thinks the cabs are what really makes the biggest diff in in the chain of sound (or something along those lines) vs the older GB stuff.

Still, from what I'm reading there are enough reasons to hope to bump into a Magellan for sale in the future when my finances give the ok. Until then i'll stick to my Shuttle 6.2 or Streamliner 900 atop the NeoX2×12 and still be quite satisfied!!!

The Shuttle 6.2 and Streamliner are awesome amps and the Magellan 800 would be an excellent addition to them. The cabs may make a big difference but the amp also does have it's own identity. It has more color and weight to the note and definitely hits harder than the Shuttle 6.2.

I also find it more immediate and solid than the Streamliner and although I can EQ them pretty close, there is still something about those tubes that the Magellan just quite can't replicate. But it is also pretty cool to switch from clean to distortion with a footswitch while still keeping the same volume with the Magellan, plus being able to change the sound with the contour button.

Not on knock on any of the amps, just pointing out differences that I have picked up on with other cabs including the GB UBER's. But I have to admit that for my tone goals, I am really loving the Streamliner and Magellan over the Shuttle. YMMV

 

[Snackulus]

I’m glad I found this thread! I used to own a Streamliner 900 that I was using for a reggae project. I absolutely loved it. I reluctantly sold it earlier this year to help out my parents financially. I’ve since recovered from that & am looking to purchase a replacement. Now I’m in a bit of a pickle...
I figured I was going to have to wait until a Streamliner 900 eventually showed up in the classifieds. But then I discovered the Genzler amps. (I’ve been seriously out of the loop). By chance, could anyone chime in on what would be a better amp for reggae? Streamliner 900 or Magellan 800?
Sorry, I know this is subjective & comes down to personal taste. Pros/cons with either? I suppose this is a good problem to have.

 

[Texan]

I’m glad I found this thread! I used to own a Streamliner 900 that I was using for a reggae project. I absolutely loved it. I reluctantly sold it earlier this year to help out my parents financially. I’ve since recovered from that & am looking to purchase a replacement. Now I’m in a bit of a pickle...
I figured I was going to have to wait until a Streamliner 900 eventually showed up in the classifieds. But then I discovered the Genzler amps. (I’ve been seriously out of the loop). By chance, could anyone chime in on what would be a better amp for reggae? Streamliner 900 or Magellan 800?
Sorry, I know this is subjective & comes down to personal taste. Pros/cons with either? I suppose this is a good problem to have.

The Magellan does everything the Streamliner did and more. The Magellan is a mix of the Shuttlemax and Streamliner with more heft to the sound.

 

[adivin]

There is no way I’m ditching my SL and 9.2 just for the new flavor of the day. They work too well.

 

[Snackulus]

The Magellan does everything the Streamliner did and more. The Magellan is a mix of the Shuttlemax and Streamliner with more heft to the sound.

Thanks for the response

 

[jnewmark]

My gas for a different head stopped when I got my Shuttlemax 12.2, The ability to use two 4 ohm cabs, sealed the deal for me, and the endless tone choices have been wonderful. If a Genzler ever dropped in to my lap for cheap, I would of course give it a go, but, the 12.2 is here to stay for my current gig situation.