I bought another Gibson GA30RV ....

capnjuan

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Hi Sandy: after you Sunn warms up, take a look at the output tubes ... unless they are glowing too red ... or, as mine were doing briefly ... glowing blue .. or, unless your guitar/s sound oddly out of tune, you probably don't have any bias problems. You must have got a thrill looking at all that Sunn gear in that Steppenwolf(?) pic!

I got into guitar amps through the side door; tube stereo equipment. Back then, my idea of big power was an AR D-76 w/ four 6550s and another working as a voltage regulator. It drove the mid-range and tweeters in a pair of bi-wired Vandersteen 2Cis while a PS Audio 2C handled the bass. Through a stroke of luck, I had a client who couldn't pay my fees so instead he 'paid' me with a Marantz 7C pre-amp and Marantz 10B tuner both in their factory walnut cabs around which I built my system.

Anyway, there's a lot of tone to be had in single-ended 5 watt and twin-engine 10-15 watts amps; they can also be pushed to distortion at listener-friendly volumes ... what they might lack in brag-factor, they make up in lush, even-order harmonics. From Steve's thread on his in-bound Radical-Shacque Univox U45B: A lot to like from a pair of 6BM8s putting out 10 watts.

And ... at the risk of over-cooking the low-power commercial here: link to a demo of the six brown beauties listed below:

Gibson Skylark (single-ended 6V6 until 1963),
Supro Super (year unknown; early models single-ended 6V6),
Gibson BR-9 (gone after 1953; twin 6V6s out and a transformer for a phase inverter),
Alamo Model 3 (details ??),
Univox U-185 (details ??), and
another unidentified '50s Supro.

As a famous non-musician once said: "Small is Beautiful"

Cheers, John
 

Walter Broes

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krysh said:
but I'd like to have a 12"speaker better. 10" often sound too thin for my ears especially in combos....
I beg to differ! :mrgreen: My amps are a 2X10, a 3X10, and a 4X10, and none of them sound thin! If some day you're looking for a 10" speaker that's the opposite of thin, try a Celestion V10 or a Greenback 10 - more low end than a lot of 12"s!!

Cool amp and cool work John, as usual.
 

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Walter Broes said:
krysh said:
but I'd like to have a 12"speaker better. 10" often sound too thin for my ears especially in combos....
I beg to differ! :mrgreen: My amps are a 2X10, a 3X10, and a 4X10, and none of them sound thin! If some day you're looking for a 10" speaker that's the opposite of thin, try a Celestion V10 or a Greenback 10 - more low end than a lot of 12"s!!

Cool amp and cool work John, as usual.

:D somehow I knew you were coming to complain, walter. :D
thanks for the hint.
 

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capnjuan said:
Hi Sandy: after you Sunn warms up, take a look at the output tubes ... unless they are glowing too red ... or, as mine were doing briefly ... glowing blue .. or, unless your guitar/s sound oddly out of tune, you probably don't have any bias problems.

I'll check it out later. We're getting new windows installed in the house today, so I'm not going to have much play time. All I know is the amp sounds just like I remember, so there can't be too much wrong. It's really nice cosmetically too, with only one small snag in the grill cloth, and the tolex basically unmolested.

capnjuan said:
You must have got a thrill looking at all that Sunn gear in that Steppenwolf(?) pic!

I sure did John, as well as pages like this one, which of course was the reason I bought a 200S in the first place. What high school kid didn't want to be just like the Ox?


capnjuan said:
Anyway, there's a lot of tone to be had in single-ended 5 watt and twin-engine 10-15 watts amps; they can also be pushed to distortion at listener-friendly volumes ... what they might lack in brag-factor, they make up in lush, even-order harmonics. From Steve's thread on his in-bound Radical-Shacque Univox U45B: A lot to like from a pair of 6BM8s putting out 10 watts.

That amp is way cool! I'll have to keep my eye peeled for one of them. I could use a small tube screamer.
 

capnjuan

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Walter Broes said:
Cool amp and cool work John, as usual.
Thank you Walter and if I may, if I had to hump my own gear professionally, those 10s with their big voices, compact size, and modest cost savings would be attractive alternatives to 12s ... although with more lucrative bookings and stronger roadies ... :wink: Best wishes; J.
 

capnjuan

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twocorgis said:
... as well as pages like this one, which of course was the reason I bought a 200S in the first place. What high school kid didn't want to be just like the Ox?
Great links and thanks for posting them ... but I hope 'Mello doesn't see this - we'd get scolded for praising any bass player other than Jack C (although I voted for Jack B last time the subject came up). :oops: :wink:

Big Who fan here; especially the early stuff like this. J
 

capnjuan

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coastie99 said:
Currently on the drawing bawd at WuzzaTronics . a Gibson GA8T ( ECL82 / 6BM8 ) clone.
Gonna call it the GR8? a/k/a the Great? I think it'd be a GR8 name!
 

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capnjuan said:
Great links and thanks for posting them ... but I hope 'Mello doesn't see this - we'd get scolded for praising any bass player other than Jack C (although I voted for Jack B last time the subject came up). :oops: :wink:

Hey, when it comes to all-time great rock bass players, there's really very little to separate Jack C, Jack B, and John E. I love all three of them.

capnjuan said:
Big Who fan here; especially the early stuff like this. J

I think the the Who and Hot Tuna are probably the two greatest rock bands ever, and there isn't anything the Who did that I don't like, especially Quadrophenia. Then of course. there's Jack's bass solo during "Feel So Good" on Thirty Seconds Over Winterland, perhaps the greatest live album ever made!
 

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twocorgis said:
capnjuan said:
Great links and thanks for posting them ... but I hope 'Mello doesn't see this - we'd get scolded for praising any bass player other than Jack C (although I voted for Jack B last time the subject came up). :oops: :wink:

Hey, when it comes to all-time great rock bass players, there's really very little to separate Jack C, Jack B, and John E. I love all three of them.

capnjuan said:
Big Who fan here; especially the early stuff like this. J

I think the the Who and Hot Tuna are probably the two greatest rock bands ever, and there isn't anything the Who did that I don't like, especially Quadrophenia. Then of course. there's Jack's bass solo during "Feel So Good" on Thirty Seconds Over Winterland, perhaps the greatest live album ever made!

Veer!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpjwE1_IJUw

8) 8) 8) 8) 8)
 

capnjuan

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Nigel Wickwire said:
Nice post Cap'n. I don't know anything about amps, but it's a good write up and I appreciate the attention to detail.
Thank you Nigel; John
 

capnjuan

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Recent eBay sale of a near-mint GA30RV ... $1,350 :shock: Both original speakers although factory 8" Jensen is worth nothing. Rare stain-free cotton-backed vinyl tolex but control panel is a little burfed up.

Front.jpg



Slide2.jpg



Auction link and pics of the first successor model. Auction text is a little murky ... seller distinguishes post-tweed models by the number of knobs ... not the # of tubes but this thought to be the 7591 / 5AR4 tube-rectified model ... the latter also with 7591s but ss rectifier and an OA2 tube screen voltage regulator. 12" and 10" speakers ... a lot of amp (code for weight) for 30 watts.

front-1.jpg



The 10" speaker on left might be alnico, speaker on right is C12S and see the slots in the back ... that's where the speaker bell fitted on ... so ... that 10" speaker could also be a C10S.

back.jpg



The end of rear-facing controls and the widespread adoption of the 7591 by everybody not named Fender. Cleaner, more sparkly than a 6V6 which Gibson also dumped in its budget amps in favor of the 6BQ5/EL84. In both the low- and mid-priced range, they also gave up on tube rectifiers because another 5V / 2 amp winding in the power transformers added cost and weight.

Interesting link to details on the GA30 and other Gibson models here.
 
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