Harley Benton GPA-400 Reviews

Does the job

Surprised how good this sounds for a budget brand. Well placed my rack pre amp. Nice 👍🏻

Amazing for the price

I've been using this amp for a few months now, pairing it with an amp modeler and sending the signal through a 4x12 cab. If you want to, it can get incredibly loud. It certainly is loud enough for any live application. Now I've started splitting my signal into two cabs for my side project, also great. The EQ is also great for fine-tuning your signal as a basic post-EQ. Very handy. It doesn't give off too much heat and is easily transported thanks to its thin shape. I don't think I'll need a new power amp any time soon. My only little gripe with this thing is the knobs feel a little cheap. They work fine, they haven't broken or anything, it's just they could be nicer. But overall, worth every cent.

Excellent product

Loud and clear. Its one drawback is its quite heavy.

Great but change the knobs

Awesome rack power amp especially for the money, more power than you should ever need and much lighter than most others with only half the power

Only criticism is the cheap chrome knobs make the whole unit look cheap and nasty, I swapped them for some basic black control knobs and improved the look dramatically

Cheap but incredible!

I was very hesitant on buying as it was a cheaper alternative, but I’ve had it for months now and it’s perfect! It’s used to power my Kemper Profiler and honestly I can say I will never be without it! Sounds and works just as it should, if you’re more on a budget then definitely buy this!

Don't overspend on a power amp for your Kemper when you can buy this!

In my Thrash Metal band, Blacklist, I use the Kemper Rack Profiler (unpowered) and send it straight to the FOH, so do not need the power from a Power Amp unless I am unable to go to the FOH. I bought this Power Amp to go in my rack unit with the Kemper and it works amazingly and is SUPER loud!

Do not over spend on a Power Amp, this is worth it's money tenfold.

Amazing for Compact rigs.

Super clean and transparent power amp. I pair this with an amp modeller. Can drive 4 cabs. In one of my bands, me and the other guitarist both connect our modelling preamps to this and drive a cab each. Its fantastic value for money. Fits in my backpack.

Good amp

Good little amp , I use it in order to send the helix into the guitar cab

Work perfectly

I ordered this as an amp for my Sony speakers. i know it's a guitar amp but it works perfectly for my speakers. It's great value for money. The sound quality is spot on.

Would recommend.

Great amp for that money.

I?m definetly content with this amp. Enough power, even for two amp sims. Great sound.

My first power amplifier.

Why i ordered this Power Amp?

Very shortly - I was rehearsing with Line6 Amp trough my Line6 POD HD 500X preamp and Harley Benton 4x12 cab and the sound wasn't that good because of Line6 amp, so I decided to replace it with this HB Power Amp.

Now how it sounds?

It sounds very good, i am really satisfied with the result i got.

Features?

Well... it is Power Amp, there is not much of it. But! There is one and very useful feature, where you can connect two outputs (Stereo) and inputs at the same time! It is very useful if your second guitarist does not have any Amp/Power Amp.

About quality...

When I received this Power Amp, it had small plastic piece of something inside just lying around inside and making noise when I moved it. I don't know where it came from, but all the elements inside were not damaged.

Harley Benton GPA-400

Rehearsals, playing live, top performance, not heavy at all,

Fine amp for the price, I never pushed to hard, I dint have the need, it has enought volume for my thing, I play Jazz and Fusion, clear transparent sound, I used with Helix in Stereo and mono set up, I do not need anything else to amplify my guitar tone, want to buy another, just to have it as spare one, great purchase, no negatieve punten.

Amazing PowerAmp for the Money

I use this for my AxeFX Ultra and it works amazingly! For metal tones, you don't exactly need an expensive power amp, more just looking for one that can handle using a 4x12 for live use!

Pros -

Inexpensive

Powerful

Cons -

No 3-band EQ

Power amp didn't work when it arrived

This is an update to the negative review that previously left. I'm leaving it below. The reason that the unit wasn't working was this it was not receiving the correct voltage. It is a European product and I live in the United States. After purchasing the correct transformer the unit worked great, I'm very happy with the unit. With that said, I do have some draw backs. I need the unit to fit in a rack. the unit itself does, but the transformer does not. So I have to keep the transformer outside of the rack. Eventually I will have to buy a deeper rack so the transformer will fit. It's an expense that I was not expecting, but considering the cost of the unit, it still makes sense. So just keep that in mind when buying this product.

(original review)

I received the GPA 100 yesterday. I hooked everything up and no sound is coming out of the unit. I've been writing customer service for 24 hours but I have not received a response. Very disappointing.

Ideal replacement for busted power amp

bought second hand TE 715 bass combo.Sounded awful,determined that poweramp section was defective.No repair possible.Ordered GPA400, connected pre-amp line out to it ,then output new poweramp back to combo speaker.Result : as new !

I use it for Kemper and for Guitar or Bass Box :) no prob at all :)

Simple amp, easy to use and very loud!

The GPA-400 has everything you need from a power amp, especially if you carry it around a lot. At only 3kg, it is so light that it makes travelling to gigs super easy.

There are two channels, each with two speaker connections (jack plugs), so simple and straight forward. The resonance and presence are effectively tone controls, similar to bass and upper mid - I know electronics experts will cringe about this description, but that's pretty much how they work. They can be quite handy for balancing up the tone of slightly different speaker boxes.

There is a push-button mute switch on the front, signal indicators and red clipping LEDs. I never got these to light up, because it is so devastatingly loud, I was frankly too scared.

The sound is clean, really really clean and the high frequencies can be a little bit shrill, but this can be mostly accommodated by EQ in the pre-amp.

So to summarise, a cheap, sturdily built, very light, tremendously loud power amp. It will not sound like an over-driven valve power stage (which will weigh ten times as much), but it will accurately reproduce anything your amp modelling effects unit delivers to it.

For the price, this is an excellent buy.

Amazing amp for the price

I bought this amp to fit in my rack with my Line6 Helix and its just perfect. It weighs hardly anything, runs cool and is plenty loud enough for a thrash metal band! I use it live though my Marshall 4x12 and its great.

Ok the controls on the front are a bit naff, they feel and look a bit cheap but I guess you can always replace them.

I did attempt to replace this with a Seymour Duncan powerstage 700 - sent it back, bought another GPA400 :)

Rock solid and very affordable

Can't fault this unit in any way. The sound is very clean for a power amp of this price. Its very light and feels about twice the shelf price.

Cool "on a budget tool"

I am using it with Fractal Axe Fx II. Bought it just to have the ability to play it through the cab as a monitor/workaround. It amplifies surprisingly clean, very user friendly manipulation that allows you to tweak the sound Presence and Resonance, which is just enough to make your guitar sound be kinda perfect. Very good tool, especially for the price. I am pretty sure it can do the same job as a way more expensive amplifier