2023 Benson Amps Monarch Reverb 1x12 Combo Surf Green

After a long wait and fevered anticipation we are now stocking new Benson Amps again. They are still limited in availability but we've had four new Bensons come into the shop in the past month. However, all but one have sold before we could list them online. This sweet Monarch in Surf Green tolex is still available, but don't snooze too long if Benson is your jam because this amp will likely find a home very quickly.

Our love for Benson amps (and pedals) is due to their incredible tone and build quality. The Monarch amp is their flagship amp, and this is the combo model with onboard Reverb. Chris Benson has succeeded in creating a Reverb that is gorgeous and usable across the full spectrum of the control knob, so you have a world of choices at your fingertips.

If you've been hoping to snag a Benson Monarch, here's your chance.

FROM BENSON AMPS:

“The Monarch was my first design, and largely what my other amps are based on. When I worked at Verellen Amps in the late 2000s, several amps would come in for repair every week….high powered vintage monsters all the way to low powered newer boutique amps. Here’s an annoying thing I did….instead of working hard like I should have, I took them apart and studied their circuit designs. If I liked a particular aspect of an amp I would try to figure out what it was. This eventually grew into an understanding of how harmonics are built up, how a circuit is filtered and gain staged, what components sound like, what engineers were trying to achieve, and how they succeeded and failed. It was also an education in what fails on the road and how to make something that is easily repairable.

I had a donor metal chassis sitting under my bench at the time….an old Bogen PA head….that I would incrementally build snippets of circuits I was particularly interested in…it probably went through hundreds of permutations. Often I would tack solder circuits together, often while it was powered up, (Which I don’t recommend). One day all the pieces fell into place, and I got a euphonic clean tone that transitioned into an aggressive harmonic distortion and I about fell over. I showed it to my bandmate and we freaked out.. That design became the Monarch” -Chris

2 x JJ 6V6 power tubes, 2 x JJ 12AX7 preamp tubes, 12DW7 reverb driver, 5AR4 rectifier

Speaker outputs: 1 x 8 ohm

Foot switchable reverb

Point to point construction on terminal strips - no circuit, eyelet or turret board

Custom Soursound output transformer

Carbon comp resistors

Mallory 150M capacitors

Dovetailed pine cabinet

Benson Custom Ceramic Speaker