Orange Amps Forum

Let's go back to 2008/2009.

I started looking for a better amp than my Hughes & Kettner blues attax solid state amp.

After trying blues junior, deluxe reverb, some Marshall or others, i was blown away by the Rockerverb 50. The price tag was substantial..... and thought that if I was possibly buying a RV50 and PPC212, i might as well try everything I could with a similar price tag.

And god knows I tried.....
Fender blues junior, hot rod deluxe / Deville, DRRI, PRRI, blues deluxe, bassman.....
Marshall DSL, TSL, Class 5, JVM410, Bluesbreaker....
Vox AC15 and AC30 hand wired, normal PCB, vox AC50....
Mesa boogie F50, stilleto, 5:50 express
Orange AD30, TT, R30, TV50....
Some hiwatt....

That list isn't exhaustive.

Some of them were pretty nice and left a favourable impression (notably the AC50, fender bassman and DRRI).

But only one made me hesitate with the RV50, it was the Genz Benz Black Pearl 30.

I bought the RV50, and I've been on the look out for a Black Pearl ever since. I just scored one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I hope it will live up to the memories......
It's a 4*EL84 amp, with FX loop and on board reverb. You can switch the cab impedance to 4/8/16 ohms.
The one I scored is a combo and comes loaded with a 12" eminence red fang alnico speaker.
4 and 2 power valves mode (30 or 15w) and pentode or triode mode (15 or 7w).

Single channel with an adjustable gain / volume boost.
Beside the 3 band EQ, it has a 5 way voice switch - I believe the equivalent of the old OR120 FAC knob. You can go from bright too thick and dark voicing.

I really hope it'll live up to the memories I've got from it..... because they're almost impossible to sell on!
Fender killed the guitar amp line of genz benz when they bought that company, and few people know these amps.

Great thing when buying them 2nd hand..... I just scored an amp that cost £1200 10 years ago for peanuts (around the price of a squier vintage modern)..... but if the amp doesn't work for me, it'll take me a while to find a buyer and get some peanuts back!!!!

Should pick it up next week!!!!!

Not my photo, but one I found online.... that amp belonged to one of our forum member, Thinline_Slim.

Cool, hope its what you remember!

Jondog wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 09, 2018 12:57 am

Cool, hope its what you remember!

I really hope it will be!!!!

I'm really excited, but Tuesday is a long way away!

From trying it out 9 years ago, I was really impressed, and followed it on ebay ever since. It's 2nd hand price is ridiculous as the brand is so little known by guitarists. But really great amps.

Been reading lots of owners comments and reviews, when somebody owns one, it's a bit akin to the Orange R30. People are really happy to own one and find themselves really lucky to have one.

Another 4 days....... ooohhhh the long wait.....!!!!!!

It's Tuesday !! Have you received it ? I'm curious about this amp, never heard about before you mentioned it.

Be ready to retube it immediately if it doesn't sound like what you remember....

Nice! I used to have a Trace Elliot Speed Twin 50 that I still want to get again. Super unreliable amp but my memory of it's sound is just sterling.

Picked it up after a 3h round trip.
The amp is brilliant!!!!

It sounds beautiful!!!! Brilliant cleans, and low gain affair.
2 gain stages, and a 3rd valve gain stage available on a footswitchable boost function.
Even with 3 gain stages, it feels like it has less gain than my 2 gain stages AD15.

Early days, but great sounding amp. A real gem I might say!

One of the wonderful with this amp is the voice switch.



From looking at the schematic, the voice switch, like the fac control on old OR120 amps, engages various capacitors just before the tone stack.

Goes from fendery to voxy to dark and thick....
It's it's own thing, but for now, I'm smitten!

Hubaxe wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 13, 2018 2:57 pm

It's Tuesday !! Have you received it ? I'm curious about this amp, never heard about before you mentioned it.

They're almost totally unknown.
Genz Benz stopped selling guitar amps a little while back. They're hard to find, but usually pretty cheap 2nd hand.

bclaire wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 13, 2018 6:08 pm

Be ready to retube it immediately if it doesn't sound like what you remember....

Thankfully, it sounds great!!!! Good thing, because it's an expensive one to revalve!!!

4 EL84
5 ECC83/12AX7
1 5G4R

For a single channel amp, that's quite a lot!!!!! Probably 1 more valve than my RV50!!!!

The morning after......

Sometimes, one has to stop and take stock. I'm just incredibly lucky. Sure, i haven't got bensnake or thejay's man cave, but hell, I have some incredible gear at hand, and have the luxury to choose which I will keep.

It feels pretty good to finally own the 2 best amps I had tried back in 2008.


Also..... to anybody playing an AD30 around the edge of break up, the black pearl is direct competition there.
A great different alternative. They are great value 2nd hand too - I got mine for £350 - that's just about the price of a new eminence red fang and a full set of valve for this amp. I got the amp for free pretty much......

the black pearl has been one of my lusting amps for a while, and i know it has for you also.. very stoked that you got your hands on one!

excellent find

I used a Genz Benz El Diablo combo for about 5 years and it was a killer amp. Their stuff was really underrated.
I remember loving the Black Pearl I heard back then and still hope to find a head locally someday on the cheap.

Congrats!

Mystic38 wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 14, 2018 3:17 pm

the black pearl has been one of my lusting amps for a while, and i know it has for you also.. very stoked that you got your hands on one!

excellent find

Thank you!!!

I'm pretty relieved now I finally got one.
I've been trying to sort out a few deals over the last 6 or 7 years, but they never happened.

It sounds superb, and now I can find out if I can make it work for me.
Can't wait to spend more time with it!!!

Surgeon wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 14, 2018 3:19 pm

I used a Genz Benz El Diablo combo for about 5 years and it was a killer amp. Their stuff was really underrated.
I remember loving the Black Pearl I heard back then and still hope to find a head locally someday on the cheap.

Congrats!

The black pearl is pretty different to the Diablo (as you know), but what an amp!!!

Its sound is stellar. Can't wait to put it next to my AD15- I suspect the black pearl to have nicer cleans, and can't wait to compare their edge of break up.

The BP might have less gain though. We'll see.


Keep your eyes open..... defo a great amp to try.