2005 Gibson GA-20RVT Amplifier Hand Wired 15W 6V6 with Jensen Blackbird Alnico

  

This beauty is a 2005 Gibson GA-20RVT Combo Guitar Amplifier with one 12 Jensen Blackbird Alnico speaker, the 100W version. Features a powerful drive channel with bass & treble controls and a clean channel with tube-driven accutronics reverb, tube tremolo, and bass / middle / treble EQ. This is a non-master volume amp that can get a great blues style overdrive when you crank it. The best sound comes from using the mix input to route the signal through both channels simultaneously. Preamp tubes have been upgraded to Tung Sol reissues, which are my favorites in this amp by far after trying many new and old tubes.

These tubes improve the treble response nicely. The speaker cable has been upgraded to a Monster Studio Pro 1000 and the reverb tank cables were also upgraded. This was not a reissue, in spite of having the same model number as an old Gibson from the 60's. No, this was a completely new circuit that features hand-wired components mounted on turrets on the circuit board and with the tube sockets and controls all chassis mounted.

It features a push-pull cathode-biased dual 6V6 power section which happens to be my preferred design, as seen in the Swart AST for example. It is not a very common circuit these days, but one of the advantages is that it allows for a certain amount of tube swapping without worrying about re-biasing. So you can freely mix different pairs (of the same type/brand) of 6V6s.

With the correct adapters you can even use EL84s. If you want to know more, just ask me.

This is an amp that needs a brighter speaker, and there are many good options. And I'm a crazy speaker guy! I have two of these Gibson amps and love them both. But I need to downsize, so when I went to decide which one to sell and which to keep I tried to find some difference between them... Some later buyers of this model amp complained about a weak tremolo, but that's not the case here.

It's a beautiful looking and wonderful sounding combo. I've had a lot of amps come through my studio, and aside from amps that cost more than twice as much this has been my favorite.

Sorry to see it go! Here is the original description from Gibson. 2 channels plus mix input. Two-Tone Vintage Brown and Tan Tolex.