I'm just wondering about Gibson amps. No one ever mentions them! There's Fender, Marshall, Vox, and a few also rans, but no Gibson. I can't believe Gibson made electric guitars but didn't market amps to go with them.

Is it a case of poor product, poor marketing or missed opportunity? Even these days Gibson don't have a strong hold on the amp market.

http://thewaterboarders.bandcamp.com/

Yeah, I'm looking around and found this interesting: http://www.premierguitar.com/articles/21037-undervalued-gear-the-gibson-les-paul-junior-ga-5-amplifier?page=1

Gibson don't even mention Gibson amps on their own page!!

I like your photo, but even I can see how vulnerable those controls are. It's not going to last long on the road is it? Maybe another reason Fender dominated the amp market. They knew what they were doing and what a pro guitarist wanted.

http://thewaterboarders.bandcamp.com/

Matze,
I own a 1960 'tweed' Gibson GA20-T Ranger. Mine is somewhat modified by Mark Sampson of Matchless, so I was told by the reputable dealer from whom I bought it wholesale.
It's a 2-channel (midrangey & loud/brighter w/tremolo) nominally 20W amp with a pair of 6V6 output tubes. I put a 12AY7 in the preamp tube socket to tame the input gain a bit. Still breaks up early.
It's an amp with a lot of personality. It distorts & compresses easily and does thus not take to reverb very well. I switched out the original Jensen AlNiCo 12" for a Eminence ceramic Cannabis Rex for a less colored, full-range sound and am pleased with the results.
I prefer this amp for hot lead guitar sounds more than for rhythm, and it just won't play clean even at moderate volume levels. It pairs well with Gibson guitars for classic rock tones - raw and aggressive.
I haven't owned a comparable Fender Deluxe so I can't contrast them.

Squink Out!

I used to have a Gibson amp but I sold it just because it was sitting idle. It sounded great and it was cheap compared to a Fender. They usually great verb and trem.

Some Gibsons are outstanding. Not all are. I had a '58 GA40 for years. One of the outstanding models for sure. The one I always wanted is a GA77, Gibsons late 50s answer to the tweed pro. The last iteration of that amp - in 61 or so - had reverb. What a cool amp! Had the chance to trade for one, but the guy wanted my GA40. It was a standoff.

Post the tweed era, mid 60s, it got pretty hit or miss. Hard to generalize, as some were still amazing.
MD

I've had a couple of Epiphone amps from the early and mid 60's taking up space in the basement for a few years.

One is an '65 Futura 4-10, which weighs a ton and pretty much won't get out of it's own way. The other is a '61 Rivoli "bass amp." It's actually is pretty cool, even has a built-in optical compressor, an open back single 15 two 7591's in the final, three knobs, and probably a whopping 20" watts.

I am cleaning up the Futura and an equally lack luster '65 Standel Studio 40 for an upcoming basement sale. I also have a Standel oil can echo that currently needs mechanical assistance and a tune up if anyone is interested in it for say, 50 bucks. I can ship that.

The Rivoli is a keeper, really cool and I've never seen another one like it.

Best Reverbs,

ed

Traditional........speak softly and play through a big blonde amp. Did I mention that I still like big blonde amps?

VERY nice!

ed

Traditional........speak softly and play through a big blonde amp. Did I mention that I still like big blonde amps?

The deal with Gibson amps is that for every great one out there, there's about a dozen turkeys. Gibson had a different idea of how amps should sound, and aimed their amps more as jazz players than country guys and rock n' roll types like Fender did. A lot of their amps sound absolutely clean, a lot of them don't get very loud, and a lot of them can be painfully bright, or a combination of all three of these things. Also a lot of them use wacky tubes--especially in the preamp section--that can be hard to find, and are often "substituted" with more common tubes that just happen to fit the sockets, making the poor things sound even worse.

Somewhere out there, I'm sure somebody has put together a list of Gibson amp "keepers", but I've yet to see one. (The previously mentioned GA-20, EH-150, GA-77, and any of the 50's Les Paul amps are all winners, and I'd include any of the 60's amps that use the Ampeg-style 7591 tubes in 'em). One nice thing about this situation of not knowing what's good and what's bad is that you can find a lot of Gibson amps selling for diddley over squat.

I think I'm one of the few players on this forum that regularly uses a Gibson amp live. I play out with a big ol' 1966 GA-55RVT Ranger. It's slightly bigger than a Super Reverb, with four ten inch speakers, reverb, and tremolo. It is flawed? Sure! It's heavier than a Super, but only gets about half as loud, and has a "presence" switch that can peel paint. But does it sound good? oh, HELL yeah. Mine puts out a big mid-rangey tone that cuts through a mix, and allows me to play my big ol' Hollowbody Dearmond guitar at volumes I couldn't get anywhere near with another amp, and the tone controls offer a much, much bigger range of choices than your typical Fender of Supro. The amp stays pretty clean right up to the top range, but comes alive when you put a an overdrive or distortion in front of it.

Below are two links of me in action with the Ranger (I planned to attach them proper, but the SG101 site seems to not like doing that at the moment). See for yourself what a fine hunk of Kalamazoo amp sounds like.

Oh yeah--and I bought the thing for 200 bucks. From Guitar Center.

--Crispy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GApUW_y8Gbk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-_FWP0PHvs

Interesting responses. Anyone who had a Gibson amps seems to have modified it through need or curiosity.

It seems Gibson didn't take the amp market as seriously as Fender, certainly a Gibson amp in the UK would be a very rare beast.

I'd be interested in seeing one in the flesh - they look very vulnerable and in my opinion, pretty damn ugly!

I find it fascinating that a major guitar company like Gibson, who presumably had access to the same resources as Fender (regarding pro players and their requirements) failed to penetrate a market even when it was in it's infancy. In the same way that Fender really failed to penetrate the jazz guitar market that Gibson dominated.

http://thewaterboarders.bandcamp.com/

Here's a better shot of my Gibson. FYI: the only reason I replaced the speakers was due to 30+ years of horrid fuzzy abuse, max volume and a disgusting array of pedals. Then I go to play surf? Not even possible.

Da Vinci Flinglestein,
The quest for the Tone, the tone of the Quest

The Syndicate of Surf on YouTube

http://www.syndicateofsurf.com/

http://sharawaji.com/

http://surfrockradio.com/