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EFK1 · June 30th, 2009, 09:46 PM

I've had a GA42RVT for a year now. Very neat amp. These amps had some QC issues early on but the most recent of them (last 1-1.5 years) seem fairly reliable. They have a HUGE sound with a monster bass response - almost too much, although my brit speakers and 66 tubes aren't helping that -, very tweed meets marshall but with the added benefit of very warm and wonderful clean. They are not high gain - mostly like a tweed or JTM45. In fact, I've converted mine to a pseudo-JTM45 combo with greenbacks and KT66 (as opposed to the stock 6L6GC). They run and are biased HOT, I've got @ 492 B+ on mine right now and they come stock biased at something like 80-90% of dis (hence the 6L6GC use). They are true handwired on a turret board very neatly, seem to have pretty tough transformers and are built very well w/ birch ply save that the back design keeps too much heat cooped up around the tubes (I modified mine). DC heaters, multiple 4/8/16 OT taps. The stock eminence speakers are modeling speakers which do this amp absolutely no justice so plan on speaker replacement. Circuit design is by Pyotr Belov. In short, the amp is built like a tank, weighs about as much, and has a lot of potential if you can get a good deal and are willing to put in a little extra for new speakers and new tubes as well as some 'fiddling' inside to tweak it (but don't we all do that?). Reverb is pretty good, I don't like very much if any so I'm not a great judge of reverb but there is more there than I'll ever use. Bias-vary tremolo works very nicely also. Be prepared for either an attenuator or a MV addition (I added a Fischer-derived PPIMV which is perfect) as they are LOUD, certainly the 42RVT (I haven't tried a 40). There are some cheap chinese internal caps which I plan to replace but it all works well at the moment so I haven't gotten to it yet. All in all, a very familiar sounding combo with a classic sound. You can push it more towards heavy bluesy type tweedish/marshall tone as I did, or it sounds great with TAD or winged C 6L6GCSTR with Tung sol 12ax7 and I'll bet some great jensen type speakers would push it towards blackface territory, or at least true old Gibson amp territory. BTW, it works well w/ 12ay7 and 12at7 with no issues so you have those options also. 12at7 in PI slot is really great in this amp.

June 30th, 2009, 09:46 PM	#5 (permalink)
EFK1 TDPRI Member Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: NE PA Posts: 26	I've had a GA42RVT for a year now. Very neat amp. These amps had some QC issues early on but the most recent of them (last 1-1.5 years) seem fairly reliable. They have a HUGE sound with a monster bass response - almost too much, although my brit speakers and 66 tubes aren't helping that -, very tweed meets marshall but with the added benefit of very warm and wonderful clean. They are not high gain - mostly like a tweed or JTM45. In fact, I've converted mine to a pseudo-JTM45 combo with greenbacks and KT66 (as opposed to the stock 6L6GC). They run and are biased HOT, I've got @ 492 B+ on mine right now and they come stock biased at something like 80-90% of dis (hence the 6L6GC use). They are true handwired on a turret board very neatly, seem to have pretty tough transformers and are built very well w/ birch ply save that the back design keeps too much heat cooped up around the tubes (I modified mine). DC heaters, multiple 4/8/16 OT taps. The stock eminence speakers are modeling speakers which do this amp absolutely no justice so plan on speaker replacement. Circuit design is by Pyotr Belov. In short, the amp is built like a tank, weighs about as much, and has a lot of potential if you can get a good deal and are willing to put in a little extra for new speakers and new tubes as well as some 'fiddling' inside to tweak it (but don't we all do that?). Reverb is pretty good, I don't like very much if any so I'm not a great judge of reverb but there is more there than I'll ever use. Bias-vary tremolo works very nicely also. Be prepared for either an attenuator or a MV addition (I added a Fischer-derived PPIMV which is perfect) as they are LOUD, certainly the 42RVT (I haven't tried a 40). There are some cheap chinese internal caps which I plan to replace but it all works well at the moment so I haven't gotten to it yet. All in all, a very familiar sounding combo with a classic sound. You can push it more towards heavy bluesy type tweedish/marshall tone as I did, or it sounds great with TAD or winged C 6L6GCSTR with Tung sol 12ax7 and I'll bet some great jensen type speakers would push it towards blackface territory, or at least true old Gibson amp territory. BTW, it works well w/ 12ay7 and 12at7 with no issues so you have those options also. 12at7 in PI slot is really great in this amp.