Product: Gibson G100B Combo
Price Paid: FREE/new speakers (EVM15Bs) used
Submitted
01/26/2004
at
08:15pm
by
Chas Lamb
Features
:
7
Made in 1974-only by Gibson. 100 watt solid state transistor 2X15 ported combo enclosure. Treble, Mid, and Bass EQ, Contour control(a plus), harmonic multiplier (definite plus, great, warm, buzzy bass fuzz), pre-amp volume, and master volume knobs. High and Low inputs. Additional speaker output (must be 8 ohms originally), and line out. Additional power outlet in back of amp. 100 watts out of this vintage beast is enough to keep up with a semi-cranked guitar stack. Sometimes I hook up a slave amp to power an additional 2x10" cab if I need more volume. Cranked is good for any practice volume.
Sound Quality
:
10
I use a Washburn B-15 with passive EMG P&J's and an active preamp for extra vintage sounding dirty bass. I use a Washburn Status headless with EMG Extended P&J pickups when I want a really clear, meaty, rich sounding bass. This amp souds great clean, and even greater when you add some of the harmonic multiplier in the mix. With the preamp cranked past 7, the harmonic multiplier turns from distorted fuzz into really warm, fat sounding bass. With the preamp on half, and the harmonic multiplier past 7, you get a really fuzzy distortion. I almost always play it with the harmonic multiplier on 6 or 7 and the preamp on 7, erally fat, round, colorful, rich, rumbly retro bass sound. This amp puts out tone that I haven't been able to reproduce with any bass pedal. Almost had a pedal made out of the preamp curcuits of this amp, I liked it so much.
Reliability
:
9
After almost thirty years of abuse, the only problems were blown out speakers, and a melting solder connection at a coil. I think it happened after playing cranked 10/10 for an extended period. Never play the pre past 7 now, and haven't had any problems since I replaced a few caps.
Customer Support
:
7
Gibson was great in sending me scematics on this and a few other older amps. Not too knowledgeable on an antique like this made only one year, though. Who would be?
Overall Rating
:
10
This is quite possibly my favorite bass sound ever. The Acoustic 360 preamp + slave power amp and the Acoustic 370 are my other two favorite heads. Something with the construction of the speaker enclosure gives this thing a magical tone. Two very small compartments only as deep as a guitar cab, with two large ports in each one. Pretty unconventional porting as far as cabinet tuning goes these days, but somehow it makes the sound perfection.
