Comments on: A Game Changer – The Gibson GA 20 RVT Initial Review

By: Dilapidus

Dilapidus — Sat, 28 May 2011 22:30:10 +0000

Comments closed on this thread. Spammers hit it 20 times a day. Reach out to me if you want to add a comment and we’ll restart them.

By: Dilapidus

Dilapidus — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 12:20:03 +0000

And by the way, if you don’t think the Hot Rod/Blues Deluxes can sound great, maybe you are doing it wrong. :-)

By: Dilapidus

Dilapidus — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 12:13:02 +0000

As you like, but you seem to have missed the point. This is the best sounding amp I’ve ever owned by far and one of the best I’ve ever heard. Yeah it’s got warts, but at 400 bucks you aren’t going to come close anywhere. I’m sure Victoria’s are great amps, but they start at 4x what I paid. If I had that kinda money, I’d buy a TopHat, Jaguar or Matchless (and would definitely try a Victoria). My amp is not worth the 1k it originally retailed for because of the faults mentioned, but the sound is magnificent. Yes, darker than Fenders ( a definite plus in my book ).

So to recap:
Cons :

Loud Pop going to standby
Tremelo sound sucks

Pros :

Unbelievably beautiful sound, rich and complex
Very distinctive reverb. Great sound and you don’t sound like everyone else

Best of luck out there, I’m still very happy with my amp.

By: O

Thu, 24 Mar 2011 11:32:36 +0000

holly sh*t. i will stay away from this amp. if you think the hotrod fenders sound good then holly sh*t.

this is both a terrible and a GREAT review!

the comparison to the horrible fender hotrods, the “dark” sound, the poor tremolo and the boast about getting such a good deal off ebay… all very very helpful.

i would never consider this amp based on the review and the comments that followed it.

if there is a Gibson amp out there for me then it will the name plate will say, “Victoria” and not gibson.

Thank you Victoria amps for doing it right!

Shame on Gibson for not knowing when they had it right.

By: Steve

Steve — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 22:56:05 +0000

I actually bought this amp new thinking it would be a little quieter than it is (everything sounds quieter in the amp booth), but i still LOVE IT!!!!! I mosty play at church, and it’s really too loud of an amp for that setting, and i really didn’t care for the sound quite as much as i thought i would. It sat in the corner for about a year and a half. But, unlike most people here, i took out the eminence and left it out using the speaker space to carry cables ect. I decided to try it through a Traynor 1×12 cab with a Celestion V-30. I frickin Fell in love!!!!

I decided to buy a Hot Plate to Help with the volume, but the Same day bought a 1951 Gibson GA-20. It sounds exactly like the new one, only at about 1/5 the volume and 1/3 the weight. So, i use it mainly now, but i mainly use the New one for gigging (what little i do of it). So now i have the option of either the Vintage or using the Hot Plate on the new one.

Oh well, some of you may hate that idea, but it works for me. I do, however, agree about the trem. I never use it, and would much rather mod it. If any of you do that, let me know

By: Dilapidus

Dilapidus — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 04:13:31 +0000

Heya! How you doing? We seem to have a lot in common amp wise.

Very excited to hear you liked the change in speaker… I might get a ceramic in there just to keep it as smooth as possible. I’ll jack into one of the skylarks first and report back.

I’ve got a lot of new stuff to post so come back in the next week or so.

By: Epimacus

Epimacus — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 03:54:06 +0000

Interesting to read some other experiences with this amp. I’m embarrassed to say how much I paid for mine off ebay- but let’s just say I’m extremely happy with what I paid for an amp of this quality.
I think that the Eminence Legend speaker sounded good, but being the tinkerer I am, I went ahead and swapped it out for a 25 watt Weber 12F150 (I even got the gold frame version to match the amp- and no, I don’t have OCD). The speaker seems completely broken in now, and I consider it a significant upgrade. Slightly brighter (which is not such a bad thing for this amp), and better note definition with chord work when the amp is driven. Maybe a little less punchy than the Eminence, but still packs a wallop. The Weber has a smoother quality than the Eminence, which I really like.
Also put in some NOS tubes which changed the sound for the better, but not as much as the speaker change did. I have some matching Mazda 12ax7 tubes in V1 and V2, some Phillips and GE rounding out V3-V5. Matching Ken Rad (RCA made?) military version 6v6 in the power section.
I agree that the reverb sounds fairly good, but the tremolo is a bad joke. I generally don’t use either much, although low volume finger picking type stuff sounds pretty sweet with just a little verb on it.
I also wasn’t planning on buying another amp, but stumbled on a good deal and I’m glad I didn’t pass on the opportunity. This amp produces some very impressive sounds (when I hit the right notes) and is extremely versitile. I’ll be using the Gibson GA20RVT for some recording that is ongoing- seems like it’s perfectly suited for this application.
Nice to see your still posting good stuff on your site Dilapidus…

By: Tom

Tom — Sat, 16 May 2009 22:49:44 +0000

Dilapidus,
Yea, I agree on the ceramic speaker, you can drive them harder and not ruin a $200+ speaker, I have a Weber Chicago in my Tweed Blues Jr. and a Weber Ferro-Max in my Peavey Classic 30, which all do the job just fine. I think Weber speakers does it right, they offer ceramic versions of their higher end Alnicos, again allowing you to push em harder without the anxiety. I have not tried any pedals in front of it yet, thought my Fulltone Fulldrive might be good, at least the boost portion of it. I still can’t get over how big the sound is on this amp! PTP tag board construction is the way to go, usually, and in this case it it.

By: Dilapidus

Dilapidus — Wed, 13 May 2009 20:37:41 +0000

Hi Tom,

I’m glad I’m not the only one who scored with this thing. I think that this amp is the steal of the century and it wouldn’t be without the tremolo f$#% up

I would guess that selling it would not be that big a deal since you didn’t break the tremolo. It just sucks by design. I think that’s why I got the deal I did, and Gibson’s loss is my gain. I don’t really like Trem anyway. You should at least hold value, if not jump as people realize what an amazing amp that is for the money.

I would love to go side by side with the Celestion, but I don’t actually know much about the speaker I have. I tend to prefer the sound of ceramic magnet speakers.

Keep checking back. I will surely mod this thing at least for master volume and thanks for reading.

By: Tom

Tom — Wed, 13 May 2009 01:24:31 +0000

Bought it last week on Craigslist. Heck of deal compared to some of the boutique amps out there…being that it does the chimey Matchless/Bad Cat tone so well. Agree with writer that it could use a master volume. The mod I did, was pay the extra at purchase from a local studio musician, who gave me the choice, the factory speaker or a Celestion Blue
Alnico, never having one, I popped for it! Pissed that the tremolo is actually non functional from the factory it would seem, in that I can’t really sell it like that, should I decide to. Huge sound! I did a A-B comparison with my SF Princeton, there was none, the Gibson was double the volume, reminded me of the Fender Deluxe Reverb II I sold last year, probably because both have a cabinet much larger than they need, but that contributes to the resonance, and ultimately the volume. The mix channel is very sweet. Only mod I will end up doing is getting a stomp box to switch between the three imputs for different tone and volumes.