Harley Benton GPA-100 5-stars Reviews

Awesome

Built like a tank. Simple to use. Sounds great. Super loud. Is there anything else to say?

Great pedalboard amp

I use it in conjunction with Harley Benton (Joyo) American sound as a preamp and it works perfectly. It's a bit dry on its own and drive pedals don't sound as good as with the preamp engaged. Loud enough for anything. Using it for rehearsals with a very loud drummer and gigged with it plenty of times. Takes any cabinet.

Great backup

Bought as a back up for gigs/shows and it works perfectly handling the stress of a big theatre size of show, brilliant piece of kit

A better option to the Seymour Duncan Powerstage range!

I'd been using the Seymour Duncan Powerstage 170 for 4-5 years before I got this and honestly I should have done it much sooner. Even though the SD is of great quality I've been driven to the point of insanity since the first day I bought it because of the damn fan noise! To most it might not be loud enough to bother you (especially whilst playing) but I've got very sensitive hearing and at bedroom volumes the noise of the fan whirring away drove me crazy! The Harley Benton does not have this problem, it's completely silent and sounds every bit as good as the SD and is of the same build quality for less than half the price. I'm a very happy customer indeed! Used with a Fractal FM3 and it sounds glorious through my trusty Zilla 1x12 cab.

Unbelievably functional piece of gear

Tired of carrying 30kg amps to the gigs and replacing their tubes again and again, I decided to go digital with my rig. Now, all types of guitar amps are under my feet, however I still want to drive my Marshall stack to hear it. Decided to try this inexpensive toy more as an experiment rather than final solution. And guess what - it stays with me for few years now. It is so convenient it fits to my helix bag pocket along with the wires. The 100W written on the box ain't a joke. In most cases I crank it half way to drive my 1960A. Volume at 3 o'clock makes an sound terror on a stage. :) Pros: Big volume knob, EQ on board, intuitive in/out (as in guitar pedal effect), no external power supply, just regular cord. Lighter than feather, strong as a tank, cheap as dirt, loud and undistorted sound. Cons: ummm.... Came back to buy one spare, just in case.

Very simpe and good power amp.

Use it with a preamp pedal into a 75watt 16 omh 12 inch speaker, and run my the rest of my pedals through. Decent sound. I cut lows (i shape the sound mainly with preamp) , i push the volume at 3oclock,

having my Preamp pedal volume also at 3 and the gain at 9 ock.

It stands very well next to my jvm 215c when i play stereo.

Solid build!!

Amazing choice

thr amp u need, just plug ur multiefects and its ready to work. truly amazing

Awesome Power Amp for this price

Even if I have not tried any other Power Amps I am satisfied to plug in between the BOSS GT 1000 and the Cabin 4x12 at rehearsal or live at bars. Do not hesitate

Great idea, well executed

Perfect for a pedalboard set up - put it at the end with a preamp just before it and you can leave your amp at home. Simple to use, transparent and NO WALL WART!!! YES!!!

I'd like to see a 300W version or more for bass. 190W @ 4ohm is fine for rehearsals and small gigs but it might be lacking in a bigger room. I'd happily tolerate a slightly bigger unit for more headroom.

Absolutely no complaints from me though. This is a great bit of kit, built like a tank and it's a bargain. You'd be mad not to pick one up.

Amazing!

I use mine regularly through my Line 6 Helix and sounds incredible! Well worth the price.

Good power amp

It is loud! Sound a bit dull, but that could be dialed out by EQ. The knobs are not aligned ("zero" position of the knob does not correspond to the printing on the pedal). Not a performance issue, just optical.

Compact and Loud

If you're looking for a portable power amp solution that you can mount on your pedalboard to play nice with your other effects and a preamp pedal, this is the one. Class D power amp, the size of a stompbox, has got plenty going for it, and the layout and setup couldn't be more straightforward. Absolutely worth the money

Super amp for no money

Sounds great, is compact, handles straightforward, has welcome tone controls and no fan! The only (rather unimportant) negative that I can imagine is the absence of a headphones output.

Sold my tube amps

I had a Blackstar ht20 head through a 412 cab and a Blackstar club 40 mkii, both phenomenal amps. Thought I had my dream rig.

I got the GPA 100 and DNAfx as backup. Changed my mind, sold the tube amps!

True, nothing is quite as good as a high quality tube amp. But all things considered, unless you are a professional touring musician in a major act, just do what I did.

I've been playing for over 3 decades, all genres.

wonderful piece of gear for very cheap price

sounds great , build like a tank

Topp poweramp

Fungerer utmerket for å bruke ampsimuleringer i et kabinett. Testet både med HX Stomp, Quad Cortex og mer amp-liknende pedaler (Tech 21 blonde, Joyo American sound og liknende).

INCREDIBLE value for money!

I have practiced 3 musical instruments for 30 years....owned tons of gear.

PROS:

1. The value is incredible. This is a 190 watts power amp that fits in your hand. This is a similar design to the Seymour Duncan Powerstage, at a fraction of the price! I have other Harley Benton gear, one isolated power supply and one attenuator. All this Harley Benton gear exceeded my expectations, this is THE best lower cost, professional gear you can buy.

2. This is PERFECT for tube preamps or hardware amp sims. As oppose as other designs such as tube power amp, which colours the sound, which now I do NOT like anymore, the GPA is a class D power amp. Basically, this is a HI-FI power amp for your preamps. You do NOT want class A or class AB power amp for your Pod, if you want the power amp to reproduce EXACTLY the tone you hear in your Pod when you use it with headphones.

In the past I swore by tube power amps....now I do not! I STILL use ONLY tube preamps (not Pod or amp sims) but I am definitely a class D power amp convert. I do NOT want the power amp to colour my preamp. This is an old debate with tube amp guitarists. What happens with a tube power amp is that as you increase the volume, the bass and treble will roll off, and the mids will increase. But today I do NOT want this anymore. Today I want BASS, a modern metal tone. I don't want the bass to roll off! I want the power amp to reproduce EXACTLY the same tone, at ANY volume. THIS is what Class D power amps such as the Harley Benton will do. Plus, it is a FAR MORE efficient form of amplification. Almost 200 watts in your hand! With class A or class AB whether tube OR transistor, this would result in much bigger and heavier gear (you need bigger components than class D), etc etc, and this adds to the WEIGHT and the COST. This is why class D power amps cost less. But 75 euros for 190 watts rms? Incredible.

3. The GPA has a powerful ACTIVE eq. So you can add as much bass, mids or treble as you want, AND you can also CUT these frequencies, which you cannot do with PASSIVE tone controls, found on MANY power amps that are a LOT more expensive than the GPA. So basically the GPA is the PERFECT power amp. Some people lamented the fact that the GPA doesn't have resonance control. But ALL power amps have resonance, in the GPA it is just fixed. BUT there's ACTIVE bass control, which is BETTER than resonance control, which is PASSIVE and thus weaker. The bass in the GPA can take your head off, but it doesn't get boomy. Also the treble doesn't get harsh. This works PERFECTLY with my tube preamps.

The GPA will NOT sound inferior to the Seymour Duncan. And it's made solidly, of metal. This is not some cheap Chinese rubbish. The GPA is perfect for pros too....you don't always have to buy famous brands. Frankly you'd have to be dumb to prefer the Seymour Duncan Powerstage to the Harley Benton GPA 100! They both do the same things!

4. the GPA will tell you if the preamp output is too loud and distorting the input of the GPA. It also has a protection circuit in case of impedance mismatches at very high volume. But if you use correct impedances, it will probably last a long time, like any quality gear.

5. With my Blackstar HT Metal tube preamp my setup is pretty much NOISELESS, even with Ultra gain! I usually use noise gates, but I don't need it now. Just incredible! And the tone is amazing!

CONS: Absolutely NONE. A tube power amp does NOT sound better to me, only a tube PREAMP sounds better than non-tube preamps. I have made extensive tests in the past, for example I tested my tube preamp into a tube power amp and a solid state power amp, and the tube power amp did NOT sound better. But both tube power amp and solid state power amps WILL colour the tone and compress it at HIGHER volume. Because they are all class A or AB. But Class D, as used by the GPA , is MUCH more transparent than class A or AB. Like I said, basically a HI-FI power amp for guitarists. In my case, this is EXACTLY what I want. But the other advantages, such as ridiculous price and size and weight, are huge bonuses of course. Class D power amps are the BEST! (If you have a great preamp!).

So be smart and BUY the GPA!

This is the best power amp for the money

Run with helix and tone x and performs perfectly

I wasn't convinced at first, but it's PHENOMENAL

At first I wasn't convinced to the idea. Just wanted to test and see what the hype is all about.

My concern was about bass+mid+treble EQ - instead of traditional depth/resonance + presence that power amp suppose to have

So treble is acting 100% like the presence in my Randall RM100, it works in frequencies of presence, not treble.

Bass isn't a traditional depth/resonance or it's waay more sensitive. You can completely shake your cab or remove the low-end. It's super cool.

Mid can almost turn your G12T75 speakers into V30's or you can scoop your amp to that early Scott Burns death metal sound.

Turn up mids in preamp and cut them in GPA-100 or vice versa, cut in preamp and crank up in GPA-100. It's another cool feature and extra tonal possibility.

I'm going to buy second GPA-100 to make dual amp rig!

I have no idea if it's loud or not - tested it only in bedroom volumes, read other opinions.

Affordable power amp for hobbyist

I had this connected to my Blackstar HT5r head via balanced xlr output + di box. It’s an affordable solution to get 100w on those very rare moments that I need something louder than a 5w tube amp.