1962 Gibson GA 8

[bolero]

this is a killer little amp...the low volume cleans are kind of sterile & ice picky, but when you crank it up, it really roars

 

kind of bizarre because they surely didnt design it to have such a throaty raunch when they built it, in 1962!!

 

I replaced the stock 12" speaker with it's wimpy ceramic magnet with an alnico Bell & Howell speaker, out of a film projector I believe? it has a light, responsive cone, and on certain notes it gives out some nasty cone cry ( at least I think it's the speaker....you can hear it at 1:03-1:04 in the clip )

 

1x12, 2xEL84 so it's about 15-18 watts I guess

 

 

 

 

 

lots of mistakes I forgot how half of these songs go...but you get an idea of how the amp sounds

 

 

https://soundcloud.com/roofleaks/bird-ga18

[koula901]

Gosh, that sounded wonderful!

 

and you have some nice chops, Bolero.

[58super]

Sounds great and nice playing. That B&H speaker is a Jensen so no wonder it sounds good.

[bolero]

thx guys...I've been experimenting with recording & mic placement, which is another reason I'm recording/posting these clips

[slider313]

Nice! Some nice "crunch" from that one. If you want to warm that amp up, and get a little more gain out of it, here's what I did to my friends:

 

There are three 500pf caps in the circuit; one each on the bass and treble pot and one in the circuit off of V2b. Change both on the pots to a .02 and the one off of V2b to a .01. If you've noticed, only one half of V1 is bypassed with a 25uf@25v in parallel with a 2.2k resistor. Do the same to the other triode. Find the 2.2k coming off of V1b and install a 25uf@25v in parallel. You can ground it to the second input just like the one coming off the first triode.

[smurph1]

Nice!! Congratulations on a great find!! Amazing how they changed over the years..Mine is a 59 tweed model with red pilot light, 2 inputs, and volume and tone top mounted..

[bolero]

Nice! Some nice "crunch" from that one. If you want to warm that amp up, and get a little more gain out of it, here's what I did to my friends:

 

There are three 500pf caps in the circuit; one each on the bass and treble pot and one in the circuit off of V2b. Change both on the pots to a .02 and the one off of V2b to a .01. If you've noticed, only one half of V1 is bypassed with a 25uf@25v in parallel with a 2.2k resistor. Do the same to the other triode. Find the 2.2k coming off of V1b and install a 25uf@25v in parallel. You can ground it to the second input just like the one coming off the first triode.

 

aha! thanks I may try that out!!

[SouthpawGuy]

Cool amp, can't say I've ever seen one over here.