gave me a really firm foundation in tube amp have with their guitar. That’s my goal. More amazing success for us, and people seem to
design. Even though it was for a different amp control with the touch sensitivity and how they really like it and we can’t keep them in stock.
than what I or my customers are personally play, or how they turn it up. It’s really hard to I’m very happy with how it’s gone. I wasn’t
going to ever play, it really did help. do something really excellent and complicated. expecting it to be like that. I think there are still
I think it’s easier to do something simple with some on Reverb.com, and we’ve been doing
excellence. those in batches of about three hundred or so.
[WM] One of the hallmarks of your designs
is the minimal number of knobs. In an industry
A lot of time we’ll get a bunch of emails before
filled with amps with millions of knobs, please [WM] A large number of your artists have we even list them on the site, so we’ll put those
explain that to us? more than one piece of Benson gear, what people on the list. Between those people and
does that mean to you? the dealers, there’s really not a whole lot left at
[Chris] I just don’t really see the need to put
the end of the day to stick on our own website!
more than a few controls on an amp, it should [Chris] I guess it means they like it, and just sound good with those. We really like they need different wattages for different [WM] Can you talk about the nuance of
keeping it simple. I came up playing Country applications or slightly different sounds. I am what the Preamp pedal does? And noting that
and Americana type stuff, and all of those amps very flattered that once someone goes Benson people are not running it into your own power
are usually simple. They’re clean until you turn that they often continue to go in that direction. amps, isn’t that a little strange?
them up, then they’re dirty. That’s always been That’s affirming to what we’re doing!
the ideal way an amplifier should behave, to
[Chris] To get the whole, dare I say, “magic” of
me. So that’s sort of the dragon that I’ve been [WM] You’ve got a fairly broad range of a Benson amp, it’s the pre-amp and the power
chasing. I just never really got that interested offerings including your Preamp pedal which amp working together. But there is something
in the channel switching amps. To me, an got a lot of buzz when it came out and is special about both of those component parts,
amp needs its own personality, and the more currently showing as sold out on the web site. in my opinion. The Preamp just sounds really
it tries to do, I think the less personality it has. Will there be more or is it permanently sold out? good on its own. It definitely distorts in a certain
The less control that a player has on the front
of the amp, maybe the more control they can
way. I’m not going to say it sounds exactly like
[Chris] The Preamp pedal has been an
the amp, because it doesn’t, but it is at the end
of the day a good sounding dirt box.
[WM] You’ve spent a meticulous amount
of time crafting a wide variety of cabinets.
Speakers and cabinets obviously mean a lot to
you, unpack the nuance of that if you would?
[Chris] I think there are two different
philosophies on cabinets for guitar amps.
There’s one where the designer doesn’t really
want the cabinet to resonate at all, he just
wants to hear the pure speaker. I think builders
like Mesa Boogie are kind of in that category,
where you get a very loud speaker and you
put it into a stiff cabinet. You’re there for the
speaker. We’re kind of on the opposite side of
the spectrum where I actually think of cabinets
like you would think of an acoustic guitar. I want
the cabinet to resonate in a complex way to
add to the sound of the electronics circuit.
All of our cabinets are tuned to specific wattages,
sizes and goals. Our 2x12 Chimera cabinet is
basically a giant acoustic guitar. It sounds like
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October 2018
WorshipMusician.com