Acoustic Guitar Magazine | 7 years ago
As a professional musician and engineer, Jeff Genzler helped to lead the development of lightweight, very powerful amps for musicians. His previous company, Genz Benz, helped to make class-D amplifiers common among bass players, who require a lot of clean power to amplify their low frequencies. While at Genz Benz, Genzler realized that the principles of solid-state amplification that work well for bass are equally suited to acoustic guitar. This led to amps like the Shenandoah, which was a popular choice for many acoustic guitarists.
After Fender acquired Genz Benz (and mothballed the line), Genzler took a few years off from the amp biz, returning recently with his new self-named company. The Acoustic Array Pro is the company’s first acoustic offering, and shows Genzler returning to innovative products with unique designs.
With its solid-state electronics and light weight (just 27 pounds), the Acoustic Array Pro shares some pedigree with those early Genz Benz amps. But the heart of this amp is a vertical speaker array of four 2-1/2-inch neodymium paper-cone drivers aligned in front of a 10-inch woofer. The woofer’s job is to produce depth and warmth for the low frequencies, while the small speaker array provides clarity and authentic acoustic tones to the mid and high frequencies. It’s Genzler’s claim that some tweeter-outfitted amplifiers can sound harsh, so he used this arrangement to produce what he feels is a warmer, more natural sound.
Singer-songwriters, duos, and small combos who play in small- to medium-sized rooms should check out the Genzler Acoustic Array Pro. It has enough volume and high-quality sounds to make you heard, and is small enough—and light enough—to not make too big a footprint in a smaller space.
