Gibson GA8t, GA16t, GA17, GA19

Hi Folks

Any of you play these or similar Gibson amps? Comments about the tone? How is the tremolo?

thx

steven

i have a ga20t, two-toned mid-50's amp that is wonderful.... i have never played one of the 60's varieties....

GA20 is also interesting, it looks like a 5e3 with trem. I'm curious, because Gibson did a lot of cathode bias with bias vary trem, something Fender never did as far as I know, and it's relevant for a project I'm working on. Can you describe the trem to me, in vague, hand-waving terms? Is it 'deep?'

steven

http://www.tdpri.com/forum/amp-central-station/82159-love-gibson-anyone-own-ga-18-ga-18t.html

My '60 Gibson Ga-18 has a wonderfully deep and effective trem. Great amp, imo.
Zook posted a schematic for the Ga-16t (Maestro, which is identical to the ga-18) in the thread above.

Thanks for the link, it's interesting.

Since I've started building amps, I've also started paying more attention to them, which means I've also crystallized my needs. That turns out to be single channel, tone control, trem, finished. Fender built a couple like that, as it turns out Gibson did quite a few that fit the bill. So for the first time I'm paying attention to them.

I think I have to look at Ampegs, too.

steven

I have an early GA19 that I got for $20 in the late 80's ( see left in photo). I don't tend to use it much anymore but it's fun to plug into once in a while. In a band setting, it's a wonderful sounding thing but I find it doesn't do as well for at-home volumes.

http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/showphoto.php?photo=9510

GA20 is also interesting, it looks like a 5e3 with trem. I'm curious, because Gibson did a lot of cathode bias with bias vary trem, something Fender never did as far as I know, and it's relevant for a project I'm working on. Can you describe the trem to me, in vague, hand-waving terms? Is it 'deep?'

steven

The Vox Cambridge Reverb had cathode bias and a bias wiggler tremolo. Imagine a Princeton Reverb, except with a long-tail inverter, cathode bias, and a Vox tone stack, and you've got the Cambridge.

The trem is great.

I really like my GA17RVT. Really nice tremolo and breaks up nicely.

Quite a few years ago I owned a GA30RVT brown Crestline amp. Tone machine, crazy cool, put a smile on every players face. different from any amp I'd owned. It was a meld of American and British sound. To go along with that a good friend owned a GA77 with a 15" JBL and a GA19 with a single 12. The 77 was the jazz amp tone we all love while the 19, although formated like a Deluxe, didn't have the personality of the two other amps. It was just another amp.
Dave

I built this amp closely based around the early 50's GA-20 and also very similar to an early 50's Valco amp - the are almost the same circuit. I only used the "mic" channel from the Gibson with high/low gain inputs very much like Fender Tweed amps. Iron is all custom, choke filtered power supply, and 12" Weber alnico (12A125, I recall).

It's amazingly articulate, even cranked quite a bit. Clean headroom is very little...... It sounds great for jazz at lower volume, but I built it for blues, also, and it really works fabulous. It does NOT take well to a Les Paul with hot 'buckers, it just turns to a muddy mess. But, with lower output 'buckers on a 335, it's a real sweet sound, and with a hot tele, strat, or P90's, it has this greasy grind that is a real hoot. NOTHING like a blackface Fender, that's for sure!

The only tough part about this design is finding quiet 6SJ7 input tubes. The glass ones sound better than the metal versions, but the glass ones can pick up any ambient magnetic fields and hum like crazy or are very microphonic.

Chris

http://mysite.verizon.net/n9zes/DSC02229.JPG
http://mysite.verizon.net/n9zes/DSC02231.JPG

Nice job on that cab. I like the color combination.

The more I look into this Gibson stuff, the more interesting they get.

Thanks everyone for the info.

steven

There's a new spot on the web for Gibson amps. Rob of Buffalo Amps started it.
http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/VintageGibsonAmps/

I have a '63 Falcon that's waiting for the funds for a cab job and a voicing.