Pics of my GA19: about 15 watts, reverb and tremolo, bass/treble tone control. Fitted to a GA18 cabinet. Not quite the mojo as the Jeff-spotted, $10K, investment-grade '59 Bassman but Gibson amps, especially the transistion 'tweed' amps like this one falling between the 2-tone 50s amps and the 'Crest' models with the elephant skin tolex and the decal 'family crest' do not disappoint. Warm, lively tone machines.
Footswitch made of Phillipine mahogany; said to be the sections cut from the bodies of Les Paul guitars to create the cutaway...refinished, new switches.
As is common with these amps, upper panel long gone, home-brew replacement. Cabinet tolex stains common too; cotton backing, the lower panel is stapled to cabinet then covered. These stains look biological; on other amps, the rust from the staples bleeds through.
Control panel; pic understates extent of pitting. Corrosion scraped away with chopstick. 2 inputs plus Monitor out; Vol, Tone, Reverb, and Trem depth / frquency controls.
Complete replacement of caps and resistors; rebuilt power supply with upsized caps, JJ Tesla 6V6 outputs, Sovtek 5Y3 rectifier, 3 1960s GE 'short plate' 6EU7s, and a NOS JAN Phillips 7199 reverb tube.
Weber 12A125 alnico speaker; 30 watt rating; as good as can be found excluding the 15 watt, $225 or so Celestion Blue which I understand might be offered in a 30 watt model next year. Because of the 6EU7s, this amp has a 'darker' tone than the 2 X 12AX7 / 2 X 6V6 GA18, considerably more bottom with 12" speaker and upsized PS caps. Lack of bass is a common complaint in older, open-backed amps particularly those with dated ceramic speakers. In this amp, the tone control can diminish the bass.
2-spring / long delay Gibson reverb is generally good eough; neither 'rain forest' wet nor Phil Spector 'wall of doom'; tremolo is superb; deep and 'organic'. The amp breaks up around 4 on the neck pickup, 6 or so on the bridge; warm, round, chimey, sweet, musical signal. Although data is a little sketchy, this is a fairly rare amp with delivery of 200 or so units in 1961. Not considered as desirable as the tweed GA30; a two-channel RVT amp w/ 10" and 12" speakers that go on eBay for $1,000 to $1,500.
Like all amps from the period, they can be rebuilt to last another 50 years. I'll do a similar spread on a GA18; same cabinet but different circuit, 10" speaker.
cj
Footswitch made of Phillipine mahogany; said to be the sections cut from the bodies of Les Paul guitars to create the cutaway...refinished, new switches.
As is common with these amps, upper panel long gone, home-brew replacement. Cabinet tolex stains common too; cotton backing, the lower panel is stapled to cabinet then covered. These stains look biological; on other amps, the rust from the staples bleeds through.
Control panel; pic understates extent of pitting. Corrosion scraped away with chopstick. 2 inputs plus Monitor out; Vol, Tone, Reverb, and Trem depth / frquency controls.
Complete replacement of caps and resistors; rebuilt power supply with upsized caps, JJ Tesla 6V6 outputs, Sovtek 5Y3 rectifier, 3 1960s GE 'short plate' 6EU7s, and a NOS JAN Phillips 7199 reverb tube.
Weber 12A125 alnico speaker; 30 watt rating; as good as can be found excluding the 15 watt, $225 or so Celestion Blue which I understand might be offered in a 30 watt model next year. Because of the 6EU7s, this amp has a 'darker' tone than the 2 X 12AX7 / 2 X 6V6 GA18, considerably more bottom with 12" speaker and upsized PS caps. Lack of bass is a common complaint in older, open-backed amps particularly those with dated ceramic speakers. In this amp, the tone control can diminish the bass.
2-spring / long delay Gibson reverb is generally good eough; neither 'rain forest' wet nor Phil Spector 'wall of doom'; tremolo is superb; deep and 'organic'. The amp breaks up around 4 on the neck pickup, 6 or so on the bridge; warm, round, chimey, sweet, musical signal. Although data is a little sketchy, this is a fairly rare amp with delivery of 200 or so units in 1961. Not considered as desirable as the tweed GA30; a two-channel RVT amp w/ 10" and 12" speakers that go on eBay for $1,000 to $1,500.
Like all amps from the period, they can be rebuilt to last another 50 years. I'll do a similar spread on a GA18; same cabinet but different circuit, 10" speaker.
cj