Gibson New (Old) Amp Day!

[schundog]

I called about a classified ad that was in today's local paper; a Gibson GA-5 Skylark. %250. I've never had anything approaching "vintage" tube amps, but know enough to know that this could be a waste of time. I got out to the 60ish year old guys place shortly after quitting time today, park behind his Chevy Silverado with a "Dale Jr." sticker in the window, and am invited into his and his wife's neat and clean 1970's ranch home. He tells me how he bought this amp and a Gibson Melody Maker brand new in the early 60s, played for a couple of years, and then gave it to his uncle who wanted to play. He all but forgot about it, until his uncle died a couple of years ago, and his cousin called, saying he "had something for him to pick up." Sure enough, it was the amp and the Melody Maker. "I sold the guitar a couple weeks ago," he said, "but I would have liked to have sold them as a pair." I tried not to cringe at missing the MM, even though I had seen it advertised in the paper a couple weeks ago. While I'm checking it out, wondering if I can negotiate with him, his cell phone rings with another interested party, and his wife chuckled saying how that was the third person calling about the amp. I paid the man promptly, thanked him and left. (Without even having a guitar to check it! I plugged it in and made sure the tubes fired up!) It's light as a feather. I got it home, plugged in and fired it up. I was a little dissappointed at first at it's tame, small speaker clean tone, but kept turning the only knob, "loudness," until it's five watts gave up the goods with my Gibson ES-335. Sweet. Next, ran it through my pedal board, with my Fulltone OCD, and Ah Karumba!! Good Stuff!! Pure Rock and Roll, and plenty of volume for the basement. Rolled back the loudness, and messed with delay for a bit, and it really sounds great for a nearly 50 year old 5 watt amp with a tiny speaker. I picked it up more out of curiosity than anything, but I think it may have come home to stay; at least for a while. Here's the pics;

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[big bob]

Great story, hope you get plenty of enjoyment out of her.

[brentrocks]

That is super cool!

[Steiner]

That's a sweet amp!

[FredZepp]

That is like the type of things that get my attention on craigslist or classifieds.

It seems like I'm constantly considering another something.

 

You did well with that one, I bet. The price is good and it should provide some real vintage enjoyment.

[Fernando]

Great story!

[bolero]

hey congrats!!

 

one of my fave amps is a GA8 from that era, same appointments, with 2xEL84 goodness

 

I always wondered if the knobs with that red arrow were stock or not, I guess they were...now I need to find more to replace missing ones

 

 

thx for sharing!

[LK155]

Schundog,

 

Nice find.

This is NOT intended as a hijack, but take a look at the Falcon I got from Kuz last summer.........sure looks like mine is the big brother to your GA-5. Same dead-elephant covering, same grill cloth, same knobs. Even the wood stain on the interior plywood is identical. Cool. Although I must point out that mine has the mojo-enhancing chrome-plated toggle switch for AC on/off instead of that lame tone-sucker rotary contraption yours has.

 

 

Here's a link to a list of GA-5 variations.

 

GA-5 link

 

If the age of this GA-5 is important to you, you may be able to date it by the power transformer.

Look for a 7-digit number on it; the last 4 digits should give you the year and week# of manufacture, e.g. 6332 is the 32nd week of 1963. The first 3 digits should be the transformer manufacturer e.g. 524=Triwec Transformer.

 

And if your speaker is a Jensen, you may be able to find a number stamped on it that will also give you a manufacture date.....e.g. my Falcon's speaker shows 220417, which translates to the 17th week of 1964.

 

A bit like archeology, isn't it?

Enjoy that piece of Kalamazoo history.

[Guest HRB853370]

I called about a classified ad that was in today's local paper; a Gibson GA-5 Skylark. %250. I've never had anything approaching "vintage" tube amps, but know enough to know that this could be a waste of time. I got out to the 60ish year old guys place shortly after quitting time today, park behind his Chevy Silverado with a "Dale Jr." sticker in the window, and am invited into his and his wife's neat and clean 1970's ranch home. He tells me how he bought this amp and a Gibson Melody Maker brand new in the early 60s, played for a couple of years, and then gave it to his uncle who wanted to play. He all but forgot about it, until his uncle died a couple of years ago, and his cousin called, saying he "had something for him to pick up." Sure enough, it was the amp and the Melody Maker. "I sold the guitar a couple weeks ago," he said, "but I would have liked to have sold them as a pair." I tried not to cringe at missing the MM, even though I had seen it advertised in the paper a couple weeks ago. While I'm checking it out, wondering if I can negotiate with him, his cell phone rings with another interested party, and his wife chuckled saying how that was the third person calling about the amp. I paid the man promptly, thanked him and left. (Without even having a guitar to check it! I plugged it in and made sure the tubes fired up!) It's light as a feather. I got it home, plugged in and fired it up. I was a little dissappointed at first at it's tame, small speaker clean tone, but kept turning the only knob, "loudness," until it's five watts gave up the goods with my Gibson ES-335. Sweet. Next, ran it through my pedal board, with my Fulltone OCD, and Ah Karumba!! Good Stuff!! Pure Rock and Roll, and plenty of volume for the basement. Rolled back the loudness, and messed with delay for a bit, and it really sounds great for a nearly 50 year old 5 watt amp with a tiny speaker. I picked it up more out of curiosity than anything, but I think it may have come home to stay; at least for a while. Here's the pics;

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hey, you snagged a little piece of history from the Kazoo plant, very cool. I am sure Seth had his hands on that contraption!

[schundog]

Thanks for the kind words, guys. Lyle, thanks especially for the extra info on these old Gibbies, although I think you are mistaken, my Canadian friend, EVERYONE knows that rotary on/off switches ADD tone!! LOL. I especially appreciate your link to the GA-5 site, as I had NO idea what tubes were in this thing. I've been playing the snot out of it this weekend, and really like the tones, especially with a tad reverb or delay added. The overdrive of the amp itself is pretty darn cool, but it takes pedals well. The only downside is I'm about to gag from all the 40 years worth of cigarette smoke I'm pushing out of this thing! Anybody have any ideas on how to deodorize an amp?!

[kbp810]

Great story and glad it worked out well! (well, aside from the smoke smell that is)

 

For the smell... you could try wiping down the tolex... then remove the speaker baffle (speaker too of course) and then dust the grill cloth with some baking soda. After which carefully vacuum it back out. That might help tame the odor a bit.

[smurph1]

That's a sweet amp!

+1

[smurph1]

I have a GA-8 Gibsonette which is about the same wattage except a little older..Very toneful, and you are right..they LOVE PEDALS!!

[SampleandHold]

Those old Gibson amps are great! I have a 1964 GA-5T-- much like your amp but with a built in tremolo. Not many people realize that those old Gibsons are very similar circuits to the highly sought after Fender amps from the same time period: http://www.netads.com/~meo/Guitar/Amps/Gibson/gfmap.html ...the amazing thing is that the Gibsons can be had for a fraction of the cost!

 

I was also a little disappointed with the 8" speaker; it was a little brittle sounding. However, I was fortunate to have had a previous owner rewire the speaker cables to an external jack; now, rather than run through the built-in speaker, I have the choice of running the "head" portion of the amp through a 1x12 external cab. What a difference, man! Fuller, richer, and oozes tone. It's a simple mod; does not change the circuitry or require dismantling or damaging the amp. If that 8" speaker bothers you, you may want to look into doing something similar, just for kicks.

 

Enjoy, and congrats on the great find!

[LK155]

Schundog,

Sounds like you're enjoying your baby amp.

As for the smell, put it out in the garage for a couple of days. (Worked for de-stinking my 535 case.)

 

And the suggestion to try an external cabinet is a good one.

The 6AQ5's are alleged to be about the same output as 6V6's, so with two of them, it is likely putting out about 10 watts RMS. Or in Fender-speak, about 22 watts.

That should be plenty to drive a 2x12. Or even a 4x12, if they're reasonably efficient.

And I bet you'd be amazed at the difference.

[mooonpi]

for amp grunge I take the chassis and speaker and everything electrical out of the cabinet and take the cab (w/grill cloth still in) to the car wash. Put it on the wash cycle and spray away. Rinse, and then shake all the water out, and set in sunshine or somewhere airy and warm. After it's dried you can glue down any loose tolex and reinstall. I didn't come up with this, read it somewhere, but it works great. I'm rebuilding an old Lesmann Accordian amp into a tweed super, and that cab was nasty. The old carwash trick really cleaned the scum out of the tolex and out of the grill.

[mooonpi]

Schundog,

Sounds like you're enjoying your baby amp.

As for the smell, put it out in the garage for a couple of days. (Worked for de-stinking my 535 case.)

 

And the suggestion to try an external cabinet is a good one.

The 6AQ5's are alleged to be about the same output as 6V6's, so with two of them, it is likely putting out about 10 watts RMS. Or in Fender-speak, about 22 watts.

That should be plenty to drive a 2x12. Or even a 4x12, if they're reasonably efficient.

And I bet you'd be amazed at the difference.

 

 

Yes, get a speaker jack on that puppy and plug into a cab. I have a home brew tweed champ that rocks plugged into different cabs....1x12...2x12...1x18 etc. I use the built in 8 in for the living room.