Yamaha Amp Thread

[JayFreddy]

Any love for Yamaha here?

I like the clean tones I get with my G100-III and DG130H. I used to have a G100-II that was nice too, but stupidly sold it chasing after some valve scheme that didn't work out... My G100-III sounds great for pedal steel and acoustic guitar too.

I recently won an eBay auction for a VR6000, basically Yamaha's answer to the Roland JC-120, but with a stereo effects loop, and split parametric EQ's, one for the highs, and one for the lows. For the price I paid, I can use it as a practice amp and not feel guilty, but I'm excited to try my Boss GT-8 in the stereo FX loop.

Didn't Yamaha also have Soldano design a tube amp for them at one time?

Looks like Yamaha has completely canned their premium guitar amp division, not enough money and/or too fickle...

[endzone]

I picked up one of the Yamaha/Soldano amps a few months ago.
It's a T100C, 100watt, all tube, 1X12 combo. I think they also made it in a head only and a 50 watt version. I found mine at a pawn shop for $100 in mint condition. The clean channel sounded as good as any Fender Twin I have ever heard. The gain channel wasn't working so I've recently taken it to an amp tech friend to work on as he can get to it. I read on the internet that Scotty Moore plays one of these in bigger venues.

http://www.scottymoore.net/T100C.html

I'm looking forward to getting it back.

[pango_twango]

Best sounding amp (tube or SS) I've owned: Yamaha 30-112

Best multi-effects (ranked against the Boss's and Behringers I've owned): Yamaha DG-Stomp

Best dirt bike (sorry, had to throw it in) I've owned: Yamaha YZ-125

[JohnSS]

I also have a Yamaha G30112. Really loud for 30 watts! Great clean sound - I use it with stomp boxes as well as for acoustic 6 & 12 string. I also use it to augment the highs in a bass bi-amp set up for church on occasion. (Got the idea from an interview w/Doug Pinnick of King's X)

[casterway]

I used to have a really nice little 15 watt Yamaha amp, with reverb. Might have been a jx-15??? I must have sold it, stupidly.

I love Yamaha products. I think they should make everything - TV's, watches, appliances, cars, bicycles...everything! Blow Sony off the map!

[11 Gauge]

For years and years now, I've been watching a local jazz band at a little pub, and all that the guitarist has ever used is an old Yamaha amp. I don't know the model number, but it looked old in the early 90's.

I thought that the DG stuff actually showed promise over other similar offerings, but I guess that the marketing wasn't right, or guitarists simply weren't ready.

[teleman65]

I have a G50210 from the 70s.
I'm not really fond of the sound but I ran a Sansamp in front of it to warm it up and it sounded fine. (maybe they should have got together with Tech21)
I can't believe the amp is still in one piece. Solid build quality. Loud for 50W. No resale value or I'd have sold it.

[JayFreddy]

I'm not a big fan of the 70's G-series, but the 80's and 90's ones are a huge step up. Mike Stern used a G100-212 II for years, as did Phil Keaggy. I have never compared my G100-212 III to a series II side by side, but they are similar.

I had a G100-III 112 that I let go to one of my students, and the clean tones on that are sweet. He uses it for acoustic guitar in church, and puts a MFX in front of it when he wants to rock out. Very clear and professional sounding tone for not a lot of $$$. As I said before, they're good for pedal steel too.

Cranked up too loud, and they will give you nasty solid state clipping, but you are damaging your ears at that volume too... At most usable volume levels the G100-III will hang with a Twin in terms of tone and warmth, IMHO.

The DG series are a whole other story. Unlike the earlier G-series stuff, the distortions and overdrives are very high quality, and they're much easier to use than comparable Line6 stuff (e.g., Vetta, etc.)... Still, I don't think the cleans are as quite good as the G100 III series.

If you keep your eyes open, I've seen Yamaha DG60's go on eBay for less than $200... Here is a good example of the tones you can get from a Yamaha DG series, straight out of the box:

[Tdot]

I have a Yamaha AA5

[backalleyblues]

I had two of the original G-series amps, a 30-112 and a 25-112. Both sounded terrible to my ears, and I moved them on... the later ones that I have played through were much better, though, haven't tried the DG series yet (haven't even seen them!)

Franc Robert

[Rumble]

The first ten years I played I used a G100 112. It sounded great to me and was loud enough for any drummer I ever played with. Got a lot of compliments on the tone. Then I discovered tube amps. I still have that old Yamaha (it wouldn't be worth anything if I tried to sell it). For the last few years I've used it for vocals and it's great- heavy on the reverb and it is loud enough to keep up with the guitar amps.

[TNO]

I needed a loud/clean amp for the 10-piece band I'm playing in. Found a DG-100 212 on Craigslist this morning for $200. I've been playing around with it this afternoon and it really sounds amazing. All the tones I need are in this amp and it's really friggin' loud.


Unfortunately it's as heavy as it is loud :(

[JayFreddy]

bump...

[Tele-phone man]

I have a G100 112III that I have used for years as a gigging amp and as a practice amp. Warm, clean, bodacious headroom. The output section is very rugged. I can attach a 4 ohm 2-12 cabinet to this combo, giving me 3 12's at about 2.8 ohms, and it not only sounds incredible, the amp barely breaks a sweat. I tried this at low volumes, and then kept notching it up. Not a glitch. Yamaha probably wouldn't recommend this hookup, and I would never do that with a new solid-state design, but this particular amp is over-designed.

Back in the 80's I had both a G100 212 II and a G100 212 III. At the same time I had a Roland JC120. I took turns at various gigs, so I was able to A/B/C them in the same environment with the same band. The Yamahas always sounded great, never clipped even at very high volume levels. The Roland, however, did NOT have the necessary headroom. The difference here is that the Roland is actually 2 60W amps, one for each speaker. The Yamaha is a mono 100W amp, and it has higher voltage rails with a very stout power supply, so it can deliver plenty of current on transients without sagging the power rails AT ALL. The Roland just doesn't have the same power.
I also found that the Yamahas have a much more controllable overall tone, with a more detailed and focused midrange that cuts through beautifully, especially for jazz. Since I didn't use the chorus effect on the Roland, I never regretted selling it. The Yamahas, on the other hand, I wish I still had.

The ONLY problem I have with the Yamaha is WEIGHT. These amps aren't huge in dimensions, but they are stupidly heavy. Of course, that weight is partly the result of superior speakers, a heavy-duty chassis, transformer, and heatsink, all of which contributed to tone and reliability. The cabinets could have been plywood, rather than particle board, but the amps would still be heavy with that chassis and those speakers.

[woodman]

i had a 2-10" Yamaha in the mid-80s, and thought it was the best solid-state amp i'd ever played. but it went out the door when a buddy sold me a blackface Super Reverb for $300!

[RichardM]

I have two.



G100B 212, top

B100 115 II, bottom.

Love 'em both.

[4 Strings]

I found a G25-112 in a heap of garbage a few years ago and picked it up mainly because there was a Rola Celestion G12-30 sitting in it. I wouldn't bother to use the ugly thing for guitar as I have other amps that I much rather use.
So why keep it at all? Well, believe it or not but because it is great as a practice amp for bass. It has a fat, slightly compressed tone and it is usable already at very low volume - which is how I use it so as not to annoy my poor neighbours - whereas most all other amps that I've tried need to be pushed quite a bit to even begin to sound good.

Used for guitar, the onboard distortion and reverb sound like crap.

BTW, what is the proper speaker impedance for this amp? Mine's got an 8 ohms speaker but since I don't believe the Celestion to be original I'm not sure which impedance it would like to see.

[sgnl2nz]

I have a G50 112-II that I recently bought at a garage sale. It's as heavy as it is loud, but extremely versatile with the parametric EQ. Good clean and reverb, and even the onboard "distortion/OD" is usable. The singer for my band used to play guitar through the same model before it was stolen, and I thought it was a tube amp until I got a chance to take a good look at my own. And long before that, my very first amp was an old Yamaha G5 in the blonde wood cabinet. Dunno what ever happened to it, lost in many moves ago.

[JayFreddy]

Well, the VR6000 I won on eBay got smashed in shipping. I got a partial refund, but I'm really bummed. The specs on that amp looked too cool. Stereo effects loop?! Dual band parametric EQ's?! I will be keeping my eyes open for another one. In my experience, the first generation of G100's were comparable to other solid state offerings of their era, but the IInd and IIIrd incarnations of the G100's really deliver the goods in terms of clean tone. The distortions are "usable", but that's not why you get a Yamaha amp. Yamaha = CLEAN.

[zumbo]

I recently posted this to another forum....but to repear:

I have been playing a 60 strat and a 68 tele thru a Yamaha G100-212II for almost 30 years. I love this amp!!!.

I did replace the stock speakers with EV-SRO's way back when.

Back when I bought it, I was working at a music store and we sold Musicman and Roland. Could have given myself a great deal on either one. But ended up at the competition and bought the Yamaha.

Loud, clean, punchy....unable to turn it past 3.5. This is a great amp. I even like the overdrive used at a low level. But if you want great overdrive, get a pedal. I have always explained to people, there ain't no good "clean" pedal on the market.

One more thing....I own a computer shop and the guy next door has an amp repair service. Top tube amp repair guy in California north of SF. He told me that the amp in the Yamaha is "stereo grade" and is the same high quality that they put in their receivers at the time. Meaning....they were designed to give max power at minimum distortion. I don't know about any of that stuff but once I put the EVs in the amp.....from then on, sparkling clean at any volume.

And yes.....my only complaint is it weighs in at 91 lbs with the EVs.

[RCinMempho]

I have a DG60FX112 which is essentially a DG Stomp with a 60 watt amp and a 12" Celestion speaker. Great amp with all the effects on board. I was playing the riverboat cruises, and this made it a one trip load in/out for me.

The other nice thing was the main volume was just that - a volume. The amp models had a gain and master volumes separate from the amp volume. Once you dialed it in, the main volume just made that sound louder or softer. That made it perfect for the riverboat thing because downstream you played fairly quietly. When you came back upstream, you had to crank up to drown out the engines. It was absolutely the perfect amp for that application.