Gibson GA-5 Les Paul Jr. amp

  • Thread starter Thread starter hixmix
  • Start date Start date
It's pretty like a 6-watt Coach purse - not calling you a sissy or anything.
 
Yow! :eek: I love blasting away with a little tube amp like that, they record such a big sound! Whats the control section, a volume and a tone I bet? You got you a jewel there dude!
 
Just one knob for volume.

However...............

I got an order confirmation and then about a half-hour later received an e-mail informing me they're out of stock. Bummer! :mad: :mad: :mad:
 
Last edited:
Damn~cruel world---You definitely have my sympathy hixmix :(
 
i got one last year at GC for 499. it has a sweet sound with my LP jr w/p90s.

it only has a volume knob. thats it.
 
I picked one up at GC last year for $250. It's been my go-to amp for playing and recording. Sound breaks up a little at 4 with my strat and then adding a little OD makes it sweet. Not so great with my SG. My boogie hasen't got a played for a long time. Enjoy.


Dara
 
I second that vote for the Epi Valve Junior. A mighty recording amp it is.

There's nothing quite like the simplicity of an input jack, a tube circuit, a volume knob, and a speaker.
 
Gibson's been making the GA-5 for about 50 years. You will find many for sale on eBay, and you can pick the vintage you want.
 
cephus said:
It's pretty like a 6-watt Coach purse - not calling you a sissy or anything.
Well, I wouldn't play stadiums with it. :D
 
Eric, the owner of Guitartrader.com, is making an attempt to make good on the orders that were confirmed then later denied. I'll let you know how it plays out. I commend him for standing up and taking responsibility in this matter.
 
Cool!!

I made a "clone" of the GA-5... except I addded a GA-8 type tone control... The scheamtics for the "reissue" GA-5 can be found on the net... It sounds pretty good... The bass can get flubby when turned up loud and there IS some harshness to the distortion.. I shall sometime investigate how this can be fixed, but it sounding great until i distort it too bad... It was a fun build for about $150, and I've designed an antique radio style cabinet that I will put it in....
 
mcmd said:
Sound breaks up a little at 4 with my strat and then adding a little OD makes it sweet.

wow, i wouldnt think of using an OD pedal with my GA-5. The beauty of the amp is the fact you can crank it up and take advantgae of the simple and pure tube circuit...but to each their own!
 
is this amp good for recording heavy metal? I'm talking about death/black metal?
 
I doubt it...I think the single knob stops at "hard rock".
 
yeah I figured. I just can't see an amp with one knob be that useful.
 
well, when you turn that one knob all the way up and use a pedal of your choice it'll give you any kind of metal you want (from lead to stainless steel :-) . oh yeah, and don't let the volume surprise you.
 
ericlingus said:
yeah I figured. I just can't see an amp with one knob be that useful.

im the exact opposite. im not interested in a "jack of all trades and master of none" amp. if im going put $500 into amp it better put a smile on face everytime i play through it.

its OK for an amp to do one sound as long as the sound is awesome and this amp qualifies. i made some great recordings and the guitar sounds HUGE.

whats great about one knob is theres no room for error.
 
I've found small combos are great for recording (yeah I know, it's pretty common knowledge but still worth mentioning).

One of my friends recently got a Peavy Classic 30...oh man. That thing is so easy to record. Everytime we're struggling with getting the right tone, we plug that thing in and it almost always does the trick. The great thing about small combo amps like that is the sort of natural compression they have. They can only put out so much output, so you get the amp cranking, dial in the gain on your mic pre, then go mess with the settings on the amp. You get the right sound on the amp and then go back to your pre to find that your at almost the exact same level. Everything above a certain point is just saturation/breakup/etc...

That's where the Classic 30 is really nice in my opinion. You've got 3 different gain controls. The "Normal" knob which is like the master volume, a "Pre" knob which I assume controls preamp gain, and a "Post" knob. Using different combinations of those 3 knobs give you a pretty wide variation of sounds.
 
Back
Top