George Benson — Rig Network

Benson's primary guitar — the Ibanez GB200 (later GB series) archtop built to his specification. The GB200's warm, full tone from its laminated spruce top and maple back provides the clean, sustaining jazz guitar sound. Benson uses the neck pickup almost exclusively.

Unique to this artist in the database

The L-5 CES through Benson's early CTI Records and early Warner Bros period — the same instrument choice as Wes Montgomery. Before the Ibanez signature, the Gibson archtop defined his sound.

Benson's primary amp — the Polytone Minibrute's warm, clean solid-state platform became the standard jazz guitar amplifier of the 1970s and 1980s. Its small speaker and focused output suit the small-ensemble jazz context where a tube amp's fuller frequency response would be excessive.