New Amp Day! Benson Monarch!

Dan0h

Dan0h

Well-known member
I’ve taken a week with this amp. I have tried very hard not to be bias towards it since it’s a dream amp in my mind.

But the truth is, this is the most insane thing I’ve ever played through. Words, videos, audio clips do this work of art no justice at all. It is pure sonic magic in my opinion.

Chris is a genius for crafting this combination. I know all these words are cliche but I have no other means to explain it. Straight in it instantly sends vibes through any guitar I plug into it and makes them all sound alive, unlike anything I’ve ever felt or heard before. The amp is so fucking loud and clear and vibrant and full and round and instant and naturally compressed and sustain for miles. Every knob has huge variations and nowhere does it sound bad. The powerscaling is crazy. It does clean like no fender I’ve ever played, it does dirty like no pedal I’ve ever played. The low end response literally sounds like the low end you hear on master recordings it is huge and round and clean and sustained and never farts out. Punchy and bright, I can see where his bass playing has translated into the guitar amps. The mids are equally matched to the lows and rip, the highs are so high but yet never go unpleasant. It’s the widest spectrum of 3d sound I’ve ever played. The touch sensitivity is bonkers and the sustain is insane. Imagine the sustain of a big muff but clean and across the entire frequency spectrum. I can’t say enough about this thing. I did an AB next to my Supro and now I have to sell the Supro because I will never play it again, sorry Supro I loved you but…. Inspired and excited.
I will eventually get around to recording some samples but for now I just can’t believe it.

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A great amp is something too few players ever get to experience. Most amps these days sound bloody awful! So cheaply made and/or with so many options you can never get just one decent sound. With amps I think less is more. Get a simple, well designed circuit and build it as well as you can. Some of the old circuits can sound transcendent if built well with good quality parts. I'm using a Brown Deluxe right now, built with MM transformers and decent, not audiophile, components. No carbon comp, no paper-in-oil, etc - just good quality stuff with good lead dress. It's virtually noise-free and I use pedals to get whatever sounds I want. It's as good as I could want, but I must admit to wanting to try a Benson Monarch now!
 
HamishR said:
A great amp is something too few players ever get to experience. Most amps these days sound bloody awful! So cheaply made and/or with so many options you can never get just one decent sound. With amps I think less is more. Get a simple, well designed circuit and build it as well as you can. Some of the old circuits can sound transcendent if built well with good quality parts. I'm using a Brown Deluxe right now, built with MM transformers and decent, not audiophile, components. No carbon comp, no paper-in-oil, etc - just good quality stuff with good lead dress. It's virtually noise-free and I use pedals to get whatever sounds I want. It's as good as I could want, but I must admit to wanting to try a Benson Monarch now!
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So much truth. Simple low count quality components. Up until now the best sounding/feeling amp I had ever played was the West I had. 1970s hand wired bassman knock off with 1000 pound transformers. Such great sounds. But this monarch takes the cake. They just wrapped up their four year back log of builds and are taking new orders every few weeks. They also ship half their builds to local guitar shops so if you ever run into one give it a strum. I’m excited to record with this thing.
 
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