Genz Benz Neo-Pak Pic and ranom thoughts...

[groover]

Probably should have continued my earlier thread but I'm not sure how to edit the title. For reference here is the link to my previous thread: Genz Benz Neo-Pak - Opinions

 

Just Acquired the head from a friend of mine, he is letting me use it for a while before talking terms of sale.

 

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12419221/GB-SWR.jpg

 

Random thoughts:

- It is bigger than I expected it would be, almost the size of normal head, very light though.

- Looks and feels solid and high quality.

- SWR cabinet is 8 Ohms and the Neo-Pak is rated 225 Watts at 8 Ohms. For only being 225 Watts it is much louder than I expected. I've been borrowing a 300 Watt MarkBass 2x10 combo from my church and that thing is surprisingly loud, this Genz Benz/SWR rig is easily as loud if not louder. I guess having two more 10" drivers makes a bigger difference than 75 more watts.

- The head with the SWR cabinet sound great! I like it better than the previously mentioned MarkBass combo. Over all very clear and punchy sounding, aggressive mids and warm lows. EQ is simple but very effective and in combination with the shape filters I can make a fairly wide range of tones.

- Can get some nice fuzz when pushing the gain up, no extreme shred or anything like that, just warm fuzz.

- Based on playing with it for a couple hours I think I'm going to buy it, I do have the opportunity to take it on a couple gigs first though, don't see any reason why I would change my mind but it is good to be able to test it out practically before laying out the cash.

 

Next step: Light weight cabinet...

[Seamy ALB]

Nice looking head! Can it be mounted in a flight case? I'd be wary of lugging it around if it can't be rack mounted.

[groover]

It can be put in a rack if I can find the rack ears used somewhere, also there was a carrying bag made for it that I might be able to find on EBay or somewhere. There are other options, for now my friend handed to me in a box with plenty of packaging I'll just use that.

 

Another thing I noticed about this amp, it seems really sensitive to input signals. There seems to be a bigger difference in tone between the 5 switch positions on my Stingray 5 HH when playing through the Genz Benz than when I play through other amps. Almost sounds like I have 5 different basses instead of different flavors of the same bass. Does any of this make sense?

[Buckeyebassmastr]

Sounds like the input on this amp is much more sensitive than other amps you've used. If you're going to try a nice neo cab, I'd suggest trying the Carvin BRX 10.2~which has 2 10" neo drivers rated at 300 watts each and a HF horn. I had the BRX 10.2 and BRX 10.4 in my last rig and the Carvin BX1200 head and biamped both cabs at larger gigs and only used the 2 10 or 4 10 cab depending on size of gig. The head with just the 2 10 Neo cab was plenty loud and sounded great for almost every gig. My brother (bassist also) used my rig for over a year and was sold on it big time and he was a die-hard Ampeg guy! Try it, you'll Love it!

[groover]

The Carvin cab is in consideration along with Avatar. Problem is not being able to plug the amp and bass in and try them out first. I know there is return policies but that just seems likes a big hassle just to test some new gear. I think I'm going to see what I can find in stores in my region before I start thinking about chancing something online.