Epiphone Blues Custom 30

I bought one last year.
The features are summed up in the previous reviews.
I thought that the features presented were just great.
Shared eq, except that there's a separate mid control for the drive channel, is a stroke of genius.
Also the interactive option for the eq is as mentioned before.

It is also one of the most beautiful combos i have ever seen.
The fact that it is a stunnng view from the front and that the back of the combo has had as much attention to detail and is as beautifully finished as the front is unseen as yet.

I ve plugged in my 50th Strat-anniversary.
As much as i was raving about features and build quality, as much was i apalled by the sound it produces.
I am a professional musician and i have 15 years of experience with gear and i can honestly say that i have never heard such a horrid sound.
I just wanted a low wattage amp for practise at home, so i didn't test it in a shop and bought it for the looks as the amp was supposed to match my living room. As i trusted Epiphone for being a good brand (and i still do!), i didn't expect this anomaly.
I respect other peoples' opinions and i expect my opinion to be taken as seriously as any other. Therefore i was amazed by the raving reviews the amp gets here.
I tried and tried to get anything to sound rught but i just couldn't. One thing i can say is that the amp relatively matches "better(!)" with a tele than with a strat. I still didn't sound right, choosing my words carefully.
I didn't even find people to buy it from me! I bought it for 700Euro and had to sell it 2 months later to a poor (tonedeaf) sod for 300. Just imagine that!.
Mind you, my amp was functioning allright, because the shop had 3 other ones and they all sounded the same and 2 of them are still there!!

Had it for 1,5 months, so no opinion.
I won't harm a product for things i don't know.

Support was standard.

I had Epiphone guitars when i was young(er) and they were great, except for the fact that the pichups were subject to very early feedback when distorted. That was in 1995, so i guess things have improved since then. The guitars were well built and sounded right.
This amp however looks the part, but sound is another thing...

I would say, try it first!!!!!!
After weeks and weeks of trying to get one good sound, I just hated it.
I sold it with a great financial loss an bought a trusty Fender Hot Rod Deluxe White Lightning for exactly the same price, and i am LOVING it.

Was bought new in the UK about 3 months ago at a ridiculous price of ??270 which was bundled with an SG standard. I presume that it is therefore of latest design level w.r.t fuse problems, reliability issues etc all hopefully resolved since its launch. Certainly so far no problems, it works when it is switched on. It is completely stock, no mods whatsoever. It seems pretty poky - I had a Laney VC110 15W all valve amp which went noweher near as loud as this monster in 15W mode despite their identical power rating. I love the class A / class AB mode not only for the power difference, buit because of the different signatures sound. With the SG, I prefer the more edgy growl of AB, though in 15W mode its very smooth indeed.

It's been used with a new SG standard, and a Vintage V100 (les paul copy). I wold never have thought that the SG would sound so full and crisp in te centre pickup position, the amp is a boit hi-fi like: its pretty good at discriminating between a good and mediocre guitar - crap in crap out. It has a fantastic way of reproducing the dynamic feel, it's really very good at reproducing the tension of palm muted or even finger muted playing, you know the bits when you want the audience to shut up and listen quietly as you build them up slowly to a frenzy (step forward Angus Young). As far as distortion goes its a blues amp primarily, though playing a POD though the clean channel is good fun and as good as any modelling could be, by that I mean that modelling is only copying in concept, so if you want an authentic cound then buy the real thing etc.

so far so good.

Never had to deal with them

Been playing for about 30 years, have owned several guitars over the years, from epiphone SG, ibanez semis, to a yamaha sg2000 and a Gibson SG standard. I have only played 2 guitars through the amp, but as soon as I switched it on I knew it was special. The speakers have now burnt in somehwat and that top end raggedness has reduced, though it's still there in the background. I hate top en shrillness, in this respect I can understand why some find this a bit on the harsh side, but its better than the Laney and a world away from a Marshall MGFX100, but remember this amp was the same price as the Laney and not much more than the Marshall. Frankly neither are eve close to the Epiphone in its tone and dynamic voicing. It's a gem, and I'd buy another tomorrow.

i got mine in 2006 new. i've been playing a marshal 100 watt jcm 900 for 15 years. love it, but it does one thing only. HEAVEY ROCK! my playing has matured over the years and i wanted more from an amp. i started looking around playing alot of different amps and when i came across the blues custom 30 i new it was right from the first chord. it has two channels, clean and dirty. the so called clean channel is my favorite of the two. yeah, its clean at low volumes but who buys a two 12 amp to play at low volumes? this channel rocks some serious heavy tone when turned up past 11 oclock. the break up is raw and can be manipulated by how hard you hit the strings. channel two to me sounds like they were still working on getting it right and left it at that. a little thin to my liking.love everything else about it.

i play a 1992 gibson les paul birdseye standard with loller imperial humbuckers and a fender esquire with a semour duncan quarter pounder. this amp lets the best of these guitars personalities come through. so yes, single coils sound great through this amp. i tend to play heavyer styles of music (heavy/hard rock,punk,garage,dirty blues) and this amp delivers what i need. tones are thick and hold up to the rest of a loud band. it does take a little screwin around with to get used to it. but thats because its flexable. i dont like messy layouts. simple is easy to deal with when your on stage and your adrenalins all pumped up. a few knobs to tweak and yer on your way. i cant get the reverb past 2. its a bit much. but it great reverb. did i mention its LOUD.

so far so good. of course i replaced the tubes right off the bat. but no problems yet. i did bash it into a wall one night after a show. it weighs alot. but, i broke the mid pot for channel 2. i took it apart and extracted the pot and found an exact replacement. put it in myself and back in business. i rely on this amp. but, after reading some of the other reviewers problems, i'll be aware.

havent needed them yet. parts seem to be accesable.

i've been playing for 22 years. i know whats out there amp wise. this is an amp with something else to offer. like everyone says the only thing it doesnt do is the super heavy, high gain thing. but if this is what you need, then your looking at the wrong style of amp. get yourself a 4-12 cab and a 100 watts. my marshall does that best but thats all it does. the blues custom 30 does everything else. i would buy this amp again if needed. the mid knob on the dirty channel is useless to me. if its not all the way up it sounds thin. theres no complaining about an amp this cheap in price that sounds this good. its a born classic.

Not sure what year my amp is as I haven't looked and I bought it used and upgraded. I was asked to do a gig down in deepest part of Cornwall here in the UK and due to the amount of gear we had to take and that I wanted a cheap tube amp that I could knock about and not worry about I decided to buy one while I was down there rather than lug one of my Fender tweeds all the way there and back, nearly came unstuck as when I got down there there were very few used tube amps for sale in the local vicinity, anyway this one was in a local paper for sale so I decided to have a look at it, usually I wouldn't go for an Epiphone amp as I was used to Fender boutique amps and trusted them. The amps been upgraded with a full compliment of Tung Sung tubes and because the person was a radio electronics engineer for Racal at Goon Hilly Down (Google it) he gave the amp a full overhaul changing all the resisters and wiring for high quality items from his company, including a full overhaul of the transformer which he said was one the best ones that he had seen in any amp let alone a cheap amp. I have to say that I am really impressed with this amp and in testing side by side with my Fenders there's little in it in terms of sound quality, yep it sounds different to a Fender but not worse and in some ways sounds to my ears nicer. Considering it's about a 3rd of the price it wins hands down.

The sound quality is outstanding if you know how to drive tubes. The clean channel is clean and has quite good head room and the dirty channel is dirty which I would kind of expect. Not sure if the tube and electronics upgrades has improved the sound as I haven't heard a standard one to compare it to but side by side with my Fenders there is very little in it, I'm lucky enough to own an original 59 Basman, Hotrod deluxe, HRD Bluesman limited edition, Blues Deville, and a blues deluxe. They are all USA made and as far as I'm concerned about as good as it gets in tube amps and this cheapey little Epiphone keeps up with them easily and in some respects sounds nicer (To my ears) don't get me wrong I won't be getting rid of the Fenders but to be honest when I gig which is allot it's always the Epiphone that gets loaded on to the lorry. AS you can probably guess I play blues and a bit of rock and so far this amp does it all, it can be a bit hard to get a good balance between the two channels but if your a bit patient and know how to dial in tones with a tube amp then it can be done, once you've done it once it's pretty easy to do all the time. It just takes a little time and experimentation or experience to do it the first few times.

I would recommend that you upgrade the tubes in this amp as looking at the other reviews it seems that the stock tubes are not up to much, also any amp that you intend to gig with should always be given the once over by a good amp tech to make sure that it sounds as good as it can and also won't cause any interference or electrical safety problems, I must admit that watching your bass player get electric shocks off his bass is highly amusing but doesn't do your music career any good........

So far it's done about 30 gigs and hasn't missed a beat, but I always have a spare set up just in case (As a backup I take a Mac loaded with Fender Amplitube and then out put it to the house PA) also the band always have a couple of sets of high end tubes in case of problems. I bought a second foot controller just as a spare. I think the weight of this amp says it all, it's heavier than my Fenders, and the transformer is huge for a 30W amp which should mean that it's never under too much stress no matter what volumes you run it at. I think a set of casters would be a good idea although all our gear is put in flight cases for transport so maybe if you intend to gig it heavily a flight case would be a good investment.

Not sure and don't care, this is a very cheap amp and if it was to go wrong I've got an amp tech that would just repair it for me.

Been playing for 30 years on and off and most of the time professionally. I own half a dozen Vintage Fender Strats a mex strat and a few Gibson LP's
If it was lost or stolen I'd buy another one in an instant and get it upgraded straight away. Might try a selection of speakers in it just to see how it will sound. I've compared it to what I would regard as some of the best amps available and it holds its own against amps costing as much as 5 times as much which makes me wonder what exactly are we paying for........

All in all this amp seems to be a little gem that will do Epiphone's reputation a lot of good, if they carry on turning out stuff on this level and at a very cheap price I might even be tempted to take a look at their guitars......Heaven forbid...........

i use the blues custom with my stratocaster and i can say that is the best sound quality you can buy in that price range.if you want a marshall style amp this is it...

you can depend on it in everything...with the 2x12 lady luck and that you can do anything...

as i said i use it with my stratocaster and rat , fuzz , comp and wah pedals...mostly for hendrix sounds....it is absolutely a brilliant amp!
best buy!

30 Watt - 15 Watt switchable all tube, 2 channel, 2-12 combo amp with reverb. Very cool retro styled plywood cabinet nice black vinyl covering and nifty cane type grille cloth. This amp is very versatile for the rock-blues player. It is not for the high gain metal head. I play classic rock and blues so it fits me perfectly. The cabinet is built like a tank and weighs almost as much. The out put from this baby borders on punishing... it's the loudest combo I've ever heard!!! The only problem is the highs from channel 2 seem spiky and very directional.

I play through 2 Gretsch Electromatics, a 5120T, a Pro Jet 5235T and a 81 Squire II with standard strat pickups. The tone from this amp in stock form is every bit as nice as some amps costing twice as much. In 30 watt mode the lows are rich and full with clear mids and sparkling highs. the amp starts to break up very smoothly about 2/3 the way up. Great blues tones wide open on channel one. The O/D channel is just as nice but the highs seem slightly brittle. In 15 watt mode the break up comes around half volume and that class A creamy grease is smeared everywhere.
I decided to replace the tubes and install Weber beam blockers to smooth out the highs. A full compliment of Tung-Sol tubes with a JJ rectifier took care of the innards and installing the beam blockers(while not without a couple of minor installation complexities) was fairly simple. I fired the amp up and started to play..... OH MY GOD!!!!!! I could not believe the difference!!! The tone rivals any tube amp costing 2 to 3 times as much. And no spiky highs or directional sound. It fills every corner of the room with pure tone. All of my buddies now want me to mod their amps in the same ways so they can get that HUGE TONE. Total cost..amp 650...fully matched tubes 130... beam blockers...36... total...$816.00

So far no problems. This amp is BUILT!!! The PCB is very thick and solidly mounted at the tube sockets. Huge Transformers and a solid cabinet. "In this corner, weighing in at 69 lbs. and built to take a beating is the Epiphone Blues Custom 30."

Haven't had to contact them for service but I did request a schematic and they were very helpful.

I've only been playing for a few years and I don't have a lot of money to spend. I look for the best quality and performance from a product for the dollar. This amp wins hands down. Reasonable pricing and huge tone. If you play blues or rock and need a solid amp that will keep up with the rest of the band, this is it for half the money.

Don't really "get" the EQ thing. Interactive Etc. "Could use a direct out".

Does some things really good, like a blues sound. Has its own sound though. I use mostly a Les Paul with Humbuckers. It does not jump easly to single coils. But after some knob turning, works well with both. Does not really do heavy very well, kinda botoms out. Great clean, full of bass. Must change tubes! Everbody is correct about that! Can be very quiet and get great tones too. Don't have to be loud to get neat tones. I'd say its closer to Vox type or UK sound. But NOT Marshall.

The Reverb controll went out on mine. HAD to take it to the closest dealer (45 Miles), so they could ship it in, and charge me for the shipping. Not real thrilled about that. Then took several weeks to get back, and yes they fixed mine. The covering is soft, tears pretty easy. But since then, (been over a year now) works real good.

See reliability.

I don't see wheres theres anything better for the price. Lots of fun to mess with diff tubes and tones. I might try some others someday, but I'll never sell this one.

Mine is a 2007, somewhat versatile, its definately no metal amp, but all other styles, its great. Really wish it had a loop, but that aside, its got the greatest reverb of any amp I've owned, including Fenders. It has plenty of power for most gigs. I love the 15/30 watt switch. I use it in the 15 watt setting to get some power tube saturation at reasonable volumes.

I play a 40th anniversary Strat and an Epiphone Les Paul, and both guitars sound beautiful with this amp. I use a Jekyl and Hyde pedal through the clean channel for drive, but the amps drive channel sounds good. With Strats, its spanky and bluesy. With humbuckers, it gets a somewhat British sound, depending on the settings. It can get a little trebly, but I run the treble around 10 o'clock with no problems. Definatley can tell a difference in the class a/ab switch. I prefer the class a setting. But I've been in situations where I needed the extra wattage, and the 30 watt setting really helps it cut through the mix. No need to mic in small to medium sized gigs. Mine came with 6L6WXT's, which sound good, but I think this amp would be a good candidate for KT66's, which I may try.

I think this a well built solid amp. But do yourself a freakin' service, and as soon as you get it, replace the crappy no name rectifier tube. I think this is the cause to a lot of the popping fuse problems, because after a few weeks of owning mine, this happened. The rest of the tubes are sovtek and eh, but I noticed as I replaced the fuse and switched from standby to play, that there was a bright arc in the rectifier tube. So I pulled it out and replaced it with a NOS R.C.A. recifier tube. No problems since. Oh, and never use aluminum foil in place of fuses, don't take that advise. Fuses always blow for a reason. I gig with this amp at church twice a week, and I consider it very reliable.

Never used them.

Excellent amp choice for everything but metal, I got a Valveking halfstack for that! I traded in a Fender Hot Rod Deville for this, with absolutely no regrets. I thought that amp had the worst sounding drive channel ever. You really can't go wrong with this amp, especially for the features and price point. Its already gone up $100 since I bought mine, so get one before it goes up again, you won't regret it!

I'd like to ad this as an update for the blowing fuses issue that some of us, including me, experienced. (It concernes the fuse in the AC-cord socket.) This is how I fixed it. (DISCLAIMER: this is not an authorized method, and I can not guarantee that it will not cause damage to your amp. But it worked for me and since then I never had a blown fuse again.) What did I do: I wrapped one the blown fuses with ordinary household alu-foil (thus shorting it) and put in it's place. Then I switched the amp on. Since in my case the fuses only blew when switching it from standby to on, I figured it could be a faulty standby switch or it might even be the rectifier tube not working correctly and drawing to much current. So what I then did was rocking the standby-switch (turning it from standby to on and back) untill I did not hear any suspicious sizzling noises anymore (this sizzling always preceeded the blowing of a fuse). I then replaced the faulty foil-wrapped fuse for a new one and since then I never had a problem anymore!

Mind you, I am not a technician or an electronics-specialist! I have no clue why this worked (maybe I was just lucky) but I suspect I either wore in the standby switch or the rectifier-tube.

FOR YOUR OWN SAFETY: DO NOT FORGET TO REPLACE THE SHORTED FUSE WITH A NEW AND CORRECTLY WORKING ONE! AFTER ALL, IT IS THERE FOR SAFETY-REASONS!

The Blues Custom 30 is a great tube amp which delivers a variety of vintage tones at a really low price. If you are looking for metal stuff don't come close to this amp. It won't provide you with these. Everything else, this amp can do it. Still, I can't.

The Equalizer section is great as it can be switched between interactive and independent. Playing around with these two functions opens the door to a variety of sounds. Leaving the knobs in the same position and swithing from indepedent to interactive mode boosts the tone heavily. I wished this buttons was footswitchable.

The amp has a class A mode with 15 watts and a class A/B mode with 30 watts. And it has two channels. The first one being the cleaner one and the second the dirtier one.

And it has reverb.

Soundwise, this amp is the best I have ever owned. The first channel is the real thing. It has only a volume know and no gain. So, it can go from clean, at lower volumes, to incredibly great crunch sounds. If you fully turn up the volume it is the best crunch tones I have heard in a while. And in my ears the class A/B 30 watts mode sounds even better with this setting. I play a Tele with Harry H??ussel pick ups and a Gibson SG. And it is great fun to turn this amp up. Still, it is too loud to play at these volumes at home. If you play at lower volumes the first channel provides great crispy clean sounds which to me are fenderesk. However, remember that this amp won't stay clean for long. In live situations the band must be quite gentle to play along with this amp in clean settings. This problem is solved, of course, if you mike the amp. The reverb sounds cool to me.

The second channel in class A sounds really great, too. Here the distortion can be a lot heavier and creamier than i channel one. This channel won't stay clean, it is dirty as hell.

In class A/B mode, to me, the tone is too harsh and too noisy. This is not the strength of the amp. If you want a great loud crunch tone better crank channel one. If you want a not so loud overdrive/distortion you better use class A channel two. That is my preference and how I use this amp.

For the lack of great tones in channel two in 30 watts it is a 9 only. Plus, if you have a really loud band this amp won't have enough power to fill the room with music. Still, in most live situations this one will be miked. If not, in bigger venues I'd rather use my sovtek 60 watts amp. This one is not so beautiful in sound, but it is louder, of course.

I got the amp two weeks ago and if it would've broken down it would be the greatest piece of trash. Til now nothing happened. This amp seems quite reliable. We will see. Knock on wood...

In Germany you won't deal with the company directly. Only with the shop. So, no opinion here.

I love this amp. It has great tones and looks beautiful. I hope it will be with me for many years to come. Plus for this price it is a mustbuy!

I assume this amp was made around 2006, the blues custom is great tube amp and plays almost all music, from jazz, country, blues, classic to hard rock. Although I would keep away with the metal, 2 channels are great, first one is very clean warm and organic, the 2nd channel is sweet ass overdrive, to almost enough distortion and still hear ever note picked in a chord. Simple knobs and very basic to operate, this also has 30/15 watt switchable which is a cool feature. I manly use this amp at home, and maybe one day gig with it.

I use a Gibson Les Paul Custom, w/498 alnico & 490 Alnico and it sounds real nice, getting juicy crunch tones from the tubes. All I have to say is I bought this amp because of the tone and sound. Out all the dozens amps I owned, this one has sounded the best, At high volumes the 1st channel is clean till you get around 11 o'clock mark and it starts to break up nicely. 2nd channel is a juicy thick overdrive to almost distortion The EQ is fantastic, which work interactive or independent with a push of a button.

When I got this amp I only had one issue, the fan in the back was making a lot of grinding noise, till after a minute warm up it went away. I didn't want to return it for warranty cause it would take 3-4 weeks to get it back from the music store as it was there only one left, This was an easy thing to fix which I did myself and no more noise :)
All in all it seems pretty solid to me, build like a tank. and had no problems with it.

Didn't have to deal with them.
1 Year Warranty.

Over all this is the best tube I have ever bought to my ears, I had Marshall's and peaveys fenders and Line 6, None come close. the last amp I had was a Pod XT inside a atomic amp, I got sick of modeling and was looking for an amp that had the ultimate tube sound/tone and found this amp staring at me at the music shop. I was playing it for an hour to make sure it was the one. I went home and was thinking about it, next day couldn't wait and bought it. Just for the record, I always check the reviews at Harmony Central, as I never wrote reviews before on other Equipment. But for some reason I had to do this one.

I'm glad more people are reviewing this amp more now. This is a follow up for a review I wrote a while back. I bought mine soon after they came out in... 2006 or 2007. A year or two later, I still love the amp but I do wish it had an effects loop. I would like to put effects after the nice tube distortion but since it doesn't have an effects loop, I end up using my DOD 250 overdrive before the other effects and using the amp's clean channel instead. I love the DOD 250 so that's not much of a problem but if I have a tube amp, shouldn't I be using its distortion? A headphones jack and master volume would be nice too. Not a big deal though.

The "interactive" equalizer option is a nice feature where changing one band affects others. Supposedly that is a feature seen on some higher end amps. Enabling the interactive equalizer makes the output LOUD though - not for late night practicing.

Great sound. The distortion channel is kind of bright but not overly bright. Nothing that the treble knob can't take care of. Still sounds good.

I play with a customized Les Paul with Duncan SH-2 Jazz and SH-4 JB pickups. It sounds great. The amount of distortion/overdrive on this is just about perfect. It's responsive and "touch sensitive" with enough distortion to cover a variety of sounds. Noise hasn't been an issue, even when it's turned up.

Mine has never "broken down" but it did come with a scratchy treble pot and the light in the power switch didn't always come on - maybe once every 100 times I turned it on. Both were pretty minor issues and a Gibson repair shop fixed both under warranty. Great guys. Read on.

As I mentioned, when I got this amp, the treble pot was scratchy and the light in the power switch didn't come on once every blue moon. I emailed Gibson's customer support about the two issues but never heard back. Both problems were minor enough I wouldn't have bothered getting them fixed but one day I thought the reverb stopped working.

As it turns out, I was using a single button footswitch and it actually needs a two button switch - one for switching the channel and one for turning reverb on and off. That was why my reverb "stopped working" but since I didn't know that yet, I brought it in to a local music store in Omaha, NE that sells Gibson/Epiphone. Their store in Lincoln does repairs for all three of their stores but they recently stopped selling (and doing repair for) Gibson. The Lincoln store was in the process of becoming a Gibson repair center again (so they could still do service for the Omaha store) and after talking to Gibson and the store's repair guys, everything got hurried along and the repair was taken care of under warranty. They really went above and beyond.

Overall, I great amp. I considering some new speakers but honestly, I'm not sure why. I think that might have more to do with wanting new gear every so often.

If this were ever lost, I would probably buy a new one but I might look for something with an effects loop too. An AC30 would be nice :-) but I wouldn't consider that as much of a value.

Features as described in other reviews below. They are well thought out and very usefull for all guitar-applications.

A decent basic sound, comparable to my Fender Blues Deluxe. It most certainly is not a boutique amp, but for the low price I didn't expect it to be. I was looking for a decent working horse to back up the Blues Deluxe. For my taste it is voiced way too much to the treble site, so I find myself turning the treble all the way down. Same goes for the bass. The mids I turn up all the way. I then get a very usefull sound for my playing which is mainly jazz (Grant Green is soundwise my dream-tone) and some old school rock'n'roll also (I like Scotty Moore's tone). For the latter I do overdrive the amp, but never more than a slightly over-the-edge-crunch a la T-Bone Walker. For jazz I sometimes use al slight edge a la Grant Green at the end of his career. Depending on what volume I need the amp to break up I fiddle with the 15W-30W switch or use the OD-channel. There's little difference between the two channels, but if you dial in more OD, you need to temper the treble.

The amp does what I want convincingly with enough tube-characteristics. I think the Blues Deluxe is soundwise somewhat better, but I had to swap the speaker in that to achieve the sound I like. I actually played the Blues Custom through the twin P10R's I placed in my Blues Deluxe and found it sounded a lot better, even at low volume, so if I decide to keep this amp, I might consider replacing the speakers by some P12R's of P12Q's (I like AlNiCo's).

The interactive EQ-function I do not use, sounds to compressed and blown up to my taste.

Hmmm. I intended this amp as a back up for my Fender Blues Deluxe, or to use it together with that on the larger stages since I play more and more and can't afford an amp to break down anymore. But..... as with some users below, the fuse in de AC-cord sometimes blows for apparently no reason, which is very frustrating. It always happens when I switch from standby to on. Epiphone/Gibson claims to be unaware of this problem in response to my email. When the amp is playing, there seems to be no problem at all. I will have to bring it back to the shop while it's still under warranty, but I find this sort of thing to be very anoying. (anyone with tips on this: please email me!). If I can't get the amp to work reliable, it's of no use to me as a gigging musician.

Hmm. I mailed the company (you are automaticly forward to Gibson Europe if you want Epiphone support in Europe through the website). Got a friendly but not very helpfull mail in return: go to your dealer was the answer and no, we are not aware of this problem. But it happens a lot I see on the internet. I asked for a schematic and the directed me to their site, that actually contains a lot of schematics, just not for the Blues Custom.

I'm a gigging musician, professionally enough to need an amp that's reliable. I hoped this amp could be a cheap back up amp. Well, maybe after some service from the shop I bought it, it will be. Or maybe this is a lesson for me not to be cheap and leave the Chinese-made amps alone and finally go for a professional and thus more expensive product.

I do think soundwise this is not a bad amp though, and overall it's constuctions seems well: sturdy made in an attractive retro-design. If the fuse-problem turns out to be a simple problem, than this can be a lot of amp for the money.

I have read a lot of good reviews on this amp so I ordered one from a very trusted online vendor. I recieved the amp on 6-30-2008 at about 3pm and plugged it in right away to start messin' with it. I turned on the power switch to let the tubes warm up for a few min. and plugged in my Gretsch 6120 DSV and began to play at a low volume. Then after about 5 min. --fizzel--. It went dead on me, no lights, no sound, nothing. I pulled out the large fuse in the back and it looked fine, and I could not figure out the problem. I quickly called Gibson and they told me to send it back the the vendor for an exchange. I called my vendor and they emailed me a return slip (free shipping, which is great) and was going to box it up when I noticed a small fuse located under the power cord socket.

I pulled out the little fuse and it was blown. I have the same amp in minature (Epi. Valve Jr, great amp) and it uses the same fuses and power cord socket assembly (250v fuses), so I took out that fuse and put it into the Blues Cutome 30. Everything lit up again and I was able to play the amp for about 30 seconds, then --fizzel-- again!? I then found the spare fuse with the Blues 30 and put it in for one last try. Everything lit up again, but this time when I went to turn the play switch on --fizzel-- again!?

I looked up on some forums to see if this issue has been wide spread, and found that other customers seem to have the same issue, including the review below (see next review) and all the issues have been posted within the past 45 days. I called up Gibson to see if this was a widespread issue, but they said they have not heard anything. So I boxed it up and sent it back, and still waiting for the next one to arrive, I will then give my full review on the Blues 30 (if I don't have the same problem).

The guy I talked to at Gibson was pretty cool, but they could not help much (I did not expect much from them anyways) and the nearest Gibson tech center is a 2 hours drive, eventhough I live in a rather large city.

The online vendor I deal with is great, they shipped the amp originally for free, I sent it back to them for free, and they are shipping another one for free. The amps is 79 lbs, so the shipping would be about $150 if I would have paid for all the shipping charges myself. I am very happy with their customer service.

I bought the amp a week ago and ad first was in doubt. But after turning the level upwards a bit I was convinced. The amp has a very good basic tone and the rest is very well handled by the drive, the level dials and the extra mid and eq dials, which take some getting used to. It's a bit odd coming from a fender pro 185 ;-)

An effects loop would have been a nice extra for this amp.

1 word: Great. Sounds super. Only thing you really need a stompbox for is metal. But when you're in to metal, I assume you'dd be lookin' for others amps all together ;-)

Since I bought the thing I played on neighbour friendly volumes. No gigs or whatsover. This afternoon I switched it on, put it on standby and went out for a bit longer than planned.. like 15 minutes. When I came back I was ready to play. Switched the amp to play and then it happened. It went down. Power lights off. It's completely dead. I checked the fuse, but it's still ok. I guess the powerplant has given up. I'll bring it in tomorrow to see what we can do about it. Assume it's not a big thing though. It looks solidly built. no loose ends or other flaws.. so I'll have to wait 'n see. When this happens on a gig this is a big issue, so I rate this very low.

This one's comin' up tomorrow.

The sound is so gooed, I'll have to give it a secnd chance..

I just got it from the Guitar center and had it drop shipped to my home, so as far as I know its the latest model as of 4/14/08.
This amp is just what I was looking for, nice tube sound and basic 2 channel front end controls. onboard tremelo/vibrato would have been cool to kind of finish off its vintage styling. I use this amp primarily for recording tracks for video and animation, so the A/AB mode is very welcome here. I also like the Interactive eq option.

I have a '79 Les Paul custom, '76 Strat and new '77 Epiphone SheritonII and it sounds nice with all of them.

I have only had it for about a week now but when I first got the amp it hummed like a bum on D street, but only in class A mode. So I figured I may have some bad tubes, I changed both 6L6 output tubes and that took care of that problem but I was occasionally getting a loud zap sound from the speakers and found that to be a bad rectifier tube, so I changed it and it took care of that problem. Then I noticed that there was no reveb. I called gibson and got a schematic and located a bad 12AX7 reverb tube and it all works fine now.
By the way this amp now comes with all EH 12AX7 preamp tubes, sovtek 6L6 output tubes and a shuguang 5AR4 rectifier. This may be the reason it sounds as good as it does. I replaced all of the bad tubes with groove tubes exept for the rectifier which I replaced with a Mesa 5AR4. I won't give an opinion here because this may have been a shipping issue, you know how UPS (United Parcel Smashers)can be.

They were ok on the phone when I called about the tube issue, but wanted me to take it to a certified repair shop. The closest one is hundreds of miles from me and I wasn't about to make that drive for a tube swapping session. So I ended up having to eat the cost of the tubes I replaced.

Beyond the fluke that I encountered I think it is a very nice amp and I will eventually replace all of the tubes just because.

The most verstatile amp I've ever owned. In fact, it's so versatile I don't even use half of it. It has channel switching for two completely different types of tones, (basically dirty and clean), and I only play clean. EQ is really interesting to play around with, with two different modes to mess with.

It's really unbelievable how good this amp sounds for the money. Is it the best amp I've ever played? No, but the best amp I've ever played would cost me close to 2K. For the money, nothing can touch this. I play mostly hollow bodied guitars with P-90 style pickups, and these guitars sound incredible through this amp. The tone isn't harsh or brassy at all, but full and round. This amp is a rockabilly/blues machine on the clean channel. I played this amp against my Fender Vibrolux Reverb, and this amp smoked it! I also play strats and teles, and they sound fantastic as well. This amp is the ultimate gigging amp for the styles that I play.

I don't know how reliable it is yet, but it's built like a Sherman tank!

Haven't used it yet.

For the money, you absolutely cannot beat this amp. You could pay twice as much and not get an amp as good as this, and believe me, I've payed more than twice as much for amps that I didn't like half as much as this one. If this got stolen, I'd replace it in a heartbeat, no question about it. I still am in shock over how good this amp sounds for the money. Again, I played this amp against many models, mostly Fenders, and this blew them away. My Marsh is the only amp I own that sounded better, but it's only 10 watts, so this amp will be my live go to amp.

2 channel switchable 30watt tube amp with class A A/B operation 15/30 watts. very basic controls (volumes, bass, treble, middle) for both channels - independent and interactive eq control - smooth tube driven reverb

i play a variety of styles & not every venue needs/wants to have 100 watts of Marshall power - but a hot tube twin fits smaller clubs nicely. the BC30 covers that ground perfectly; even if i need to drive my external 212 Genz Benz the BC30 has the power and range to get it done properly.

imho this amp has superior sound quality with a retubing, but sounds plenty sweet stock after speaker break in. what you put in is exactly what you get out - i've now played the BC30 with a variety of guitars and this amp does it all! keeping that in mind the BC30 will not make a cheap guitar sound vintage - it will sound good, but it will expose it as an inferior instrument. plugging in a high end LP, Fender or PRS and you will be rewarded with vintage and modern tones as you feel the soul of warmth that only tubes will provide. with a few stomp boxes this amp can also rock out pretty heavy and loud - it's not a metal amp, but it can still crunch along with my Marshall and Peavey

i've not owned the BC30 long enough to determine this - it weighs a healthy 70 lbs - hopefully that's part of the reliability

i've been playing guitar for about 20 years - trust me when i say the BC30 is a great purchase. i've had my opportunity to attend a few NAMM shows and try out all the newest gear - this amp is a perfect sleeper pick. i brought this amp to a jam session and the tone and power of this amp made everyone want to play it. the BC30 is destined to become a classic. the only negative feedback i've heard is from people that are not experienced enough to take the time to LEARN how to use this amp correctly - each guitar has a unique voice and you will need to take that into consideration with the BC30. this amp now proudly sits next to a Vox AC30 in the studio room (the Marshall and Peavey have their own space in the garage for pure sonic destruction).

Been 0ne year since I submitted a reveiw on this amp... Things are pretty much the same..love / hate relationship. I love this amp.. isn't a one note pony, is a chamelion if you got time to do some serious experimenting. I hate that my memory isn't reliable and writing down the settings isn't reliable altho this will get you in the ball park. I wish it was easier to dial in what I want, I do like that in the interactive mose it is heavily connected to the guitar..

Sound quality, when you hit the spot its a 10+ if you don't can be a frustrating if you know what your after.. here is an example. My deal is a solo performer of mostly northern Mississippi players tunes. One tune I dig is a tune by R.L. Burnside.. Black Mattie, not complicated except in its simplicity. He gets a very strong treble that is not going to make your ears bleed... The guitar I use for all of Burnsides tunes is a Burns Bison, especially the Wild Dog in the "A" mode. In order to emulate this sound I roll off all the high freq the pot will roll and in the intereactive mode eq mode a little tiny change can make your ears ring for a week, but hit the sweet spot and the sound is eerily close to Burnsides. When i gig, i have to open with these tunes because its a bitch to get it exact, don't want to drive em away with bloody ears, then from there on my list progresses parralell to the ease of tuning in the tones. What a frigin hassell but what a success. I end with a few tunes by Jessie mae hemphill using a hollow with 57 pat. Gib Hums.. the humbuckers are great and easy to tune in basically class A no interactive and mid on all tones, really a geat primitive sound with the early Gibson chime. O' I use no pick, not sure this amp is a pickers amp.. but I know from nothing about picks.

Had a power supply go down... after the warranty was gone.. evidently this prticular supply was a weak link on some of the early models so i received a spankin new amp.. Nice huh? I think my situation was a fluke for 2 reasons.. 1 is my volumes are low, 2. I haven't heard of others with this problem, I'm glad it happened for the Class mode has a barely audible infamous class A hum

GREAT

I took my 2 "go to" guitars around a month ago to diffeent music outlets and worked out quite a few amps. Some great sounding amps to be sure but for the most part each amp sounds like the same amp with different dialed in tones.. I had and still do like the re-issue Fender Deluxe, if not for the amount of volume to bring forth some distortion i would go back to it, I'm not one for the attenuator that reduces the volume by disippating volume with heat. As I mentioned in my early review, if your into early electric blues, even electrifying Robert Johnson, this amp is verstile but if your in a hurry or your guitars are single coils best try one out, in fact you should play thru any amp you are interested in. I'm still hangin in with this amp, I've had many starting with a tube VOX Super Beatle many moons ago, this amp is not utopia, but is any amp?

Just got this amp yesterday, so I'm limiting my comments to the footswitch...

It doesn't come with a footswitch, which is a minor bummer... I'm thinking that most people that buy this amp will have a switch or two laying around anyway; I did.

This amp wants a 2 "button" switch; one for channel switching, and one for 'verb on/off. 2 button switches require a Tip/Ring/Sleeve (TRS) cable; if you use a one button swith with a standard guitar cable, the verb will be shorted "off."

The cheapo Crate 2 button swich that I had did NOT work right off the bat.It seems ad though this amp requires less than 1 ohm resistance to trigger the relay, and the Crate measured 1.3 ohms. I snipped the leads to the LED's and all was well; worked as designed. After snipping the leads off the LED's, I measured .89 ohms at the end of a 25 foot cable (Canare Star Quad). YMMV.

I think my BC30 is an '06, possibly '07. The amp covers most of the bases well, from clean to dirty enough for me. The two channels sound pretty evenly voiced, so when you switch them its not like day and night. I got mine on e-bay with the footswitch included, and it is very useful. I tend to use the 15 watt setting more often with the equalizer off of interactive mode. The interactive mode lets you unleas ha whole new range of sounds, but I like the precision of independent eq. I use this amp in my room, and in a big basement as well. It has plenty of power, I can play with my friend, and he was a 50 watt Hiwatt. I don't really think it needs much extra, I'm very grateful for its simplicity and effectiveness.

The sound of this amp is excellent all things considered. I play through a Gibson Les Paul w/Burstbucker Pros and a Fender Strat w/Tex-Mex single coils. This amp really sounds exactly like I want it to, and that is bluesy. I can get good classic rock out of it too with the LP, and with the Strat, I can cover some reggae and funk tones too. It can be a bit noisy at higher volumes, especially when you are closer to the amp. If you attack too hard, the highs give you an "ice-pick" sound at times, and it sort of hurts your ears. The amp can go from super-clean to medium dirt, and everywhere inbetween. The equalizer is very good, especially since it has two operation modes. The clean channel can get pretty crunchy past halfway, the overdrive channel gets really meaty after 4 or 5 o'clock on the volume. The distortion is not for metalheads, but it may suit hard-rockers.

Haven't given it too much abuse, but I have knicked up the tolex a bit. No break downs caused by the amp, haven't had it long enough to have any problems yet.

Haven't dealt with them yet, no repairs or modifications of any kind done. Don't know if there is a warranty, I bought it second hand. I'm sure I would have much trouble finding an amp tech who could work on it, I do live in the live music capital of the world.

I have been playing as a hobby for three years now. I also have an Epiphone Valve Junior Head and Cab, Vintage Epiphone EA-26 RVT Electra, Gibson Les Paul, and a Fender Strat. If this amp were lost or stolen, I would probably replace it, but only if I could find another footswitch. It sounds like they are few and far between. I love the tone and the look, especially the white piping, everyone who sees this thing think I paid a fortune and a half. If only they knew I paid less than $500! I compared this with comparable Fender amps, as well as some Peaveys. This amp just seemed to have the most bang for the buck, plus not everyone and their mama already has one, they're fairly new. The features on this amp allow me a lot of good sounds, and I am happy with the ease of use. I don't think I wish I think it had anything else except a cupholder and an ashtray.

2007 Epiphone Blues Custom. One of the later Black Tolex ones, which is too bad I love the way the navy blue ones looked. I gues Gibson thought that was to close to some of their GA models. For an amp with just a few tone controls, it still seems somehow to have too many(!?).The oddball mid control on the OD channel is a little superfluous, and in my experience it seems to cancel the other one out,rather than add more control and yet, I wouldnt change a thing. All great amps have some weird little quirk like that.Importantly, this is a TRUE all tube amp, in that is has a rectifier tube. Most new amps,including marshalls and oranges, all of which are 3 times the price of this angel can't even say that anymore. I use Groove Tube Gold 6L6 power tubes, Groove gold ECC83 preamp tubes and a REALLY sweet Electro Harmonix 5U4 rectifier. This combination sounds goorgeous in my amp.

I have 2 basic tones. A clean and an overdriven (original huh?)I try to keep my sound as natural as possible by avoiding unessesary sound processing.For effectsI have an older BOSS flanger, a tape echo a freind made and a Leslie cab I made. I use Gibson Pauls With Gibson Humbuckers. I use Gibson, Dean Markley and Ernie Ball Nickel Plated strings.I dont use gates or limiters cause I dont use a compressor. They were made to imitate natural tube amp tones, so i dont need one.This amp is no noisier than most tube amps.To cut down on noise i use good cables and debug as needed. Gibson les pauls and tube amps are going to produce some amount of noise, i like a little anyway.This amp sounds absolutely gorgeous. Warm and rich clean tones and soaring, tortured, magnificent saturated tones.Good tube amps are diesels that work better hot.The distortion is not brutal it is dynamic,harmonic, rich and musical. and loud

The amp is built like a brick house, It hasnt broken down yet. talk to me in twenty years, i have a feeling if im still around it will be too.

Ive owned a bunch of amps over the years.Most of them of the brand name variety we all know.I never been more happy with any of them.In fact,I just passed on an old Blackface Bassman that had finished its tenure with me an moved on.I wasnt going to get another amp for awhile having just picked up this sweet epiphone twin. But it inspired me to try to SoCal 50, and its a peach too. Im sure glad theyare building amps again these days.

It has what you need. All the other stuff would be nice but it's not a deal breaker. 30 watts of tube is like 70 watts of solid state. It's loud enough to cut through any band. We all know the features so lets move on!

I use Gibsons's LP & SG and a frankenstein Strat thingy with Lace Sensor single coil pups. I play classic rock, blues, a little funk. The amp sounds awesome in my basement and at gigs, some of the larger rooms I mic the amp, but we mic everything anyway in large rooms. This amp will give you what you want. It covers all styles of music. I have read people complaining about features and tubes and other stuff... so here's my 2 cents.... sound is subjective... if you like it who cares what somebody else likes.... the average Joe's like us can never sound like the pro's we dont have deep pockets!! but this amp works!and gets you close. The clean is clean and the distortion is distorted...use your knobs on the guitar and the amp and you make nice a nice sounds come out. My humbuckers sound great and the Lace pups sound like they should sound.

So far so good...materials are like every other amp, wood, metal, plastic, electric stuff. Same materials like my other amps but a $1000.00 cheaper! It looks cool, very retro. Holds up well. I gig and practice with this and it's built like a tank. It weighs as much as Fat Bastard though!!! it's a back breaker, but it's worth it. I'll do the falling out of the SUV test, and spilling beer test later and let you guys know how she does!! No noise, pops or whistle's, If all goes well this should be with you for a long time. Its hard to rate this because they are a new amp. But hey I gave it a 10 just because of the over all feel and quality of it.

Never needed them with this amp so.......I plead the 5th! I used customer service once many moons ago.. and it was ok...not one of those people reading from cue cards! that have no clue what you're talking about.

BUY THIS AMP then play around with changing tubes, mess around with different speakers. If this were built with all the best stuff you would pay $1500.00+ for it. Use your guitar Tone and Volume knobs they do have a purpose. Dont just worry about effects. You would be surprised on the tone you can get if your in touch with your guitar and not the effects! Make cheap changes, like tubes and get what you want. I have an vintage 4X12 Cab from Marshall and all I can say is it's sounds amazing with this amp. Trust YOUR ears and not someone else's. I own TWO! BC30's. Caster wheels and foot switch would be nice! but hey it could be worse. I've been playing for 25 years and this is one of the better amp deals in a long time. This thing is a sleeper! There are about 25 things that can effect your sound, buy this and your down to 24. I love everything about the amp, I hate the weight. If it were stolen I would use the other one I own and then go buy a new one so I have two again. THE END

The Custom 30 under review is a late '07 model, bought in early '08. It came with 12AX7EH, Sovtek 6L6WXT+ (not the 5881's advertised for this amp)tubes, and a Shugugang 5AR4 rectifier tube. From what I've gathered, the 12AX7EH's and the 5AR4 are upgrades from the Sovtek's in earlier models. Not sure about the 6L6's, if the repesnet a change in power tube specs or not. The only tonal difference is the 5881's break up sooner than the 6L6's.

I play blues, jazz, and some rock and country. This amp fits all of these styles, especially blues and jazz. So far, I've used this amp for rehearsals and home practice. Should gig well, though, in small to moderate size rooms. It's a straight forward amp, easy to operate; not a plethora of knobs to tweak and fiddle with. It has 2 channels, Clean and Overdrive, and an onboard tube-driven reverb. It features an "interactive" EQ that allows you to dial in the mid range from the OD channel indepedently from the OD channel itself. Nice touch!

The nicest thing about the BC 30 is the 15w/30w option. The 15w triode operation is clear and clean as glass. While it's not a true Class A circut, it sings and provides more than enough power and clean headroom. The 30w AB operation is a little dirtier and very loud.

There's no FX loop, so batt. driven effects are a bit noisy. No headphone jack either, but I'm not sure why that would be a plus. An onboard tremelo would be nice, especially given the overall blues/jazz vibe of the amp. But neither's a show-stopper in my book.

The biggest downside is the amp doesn't come with a footswitch, and it's very hard to find one. Found only one online vendor, and they were back ordered for 3 weeks. This is an almost inexcusable oversight for an amp that requires footswithing to easily access its best onboard features. That's the biggest single reason I've given it a lower rating.

As mentioned, the cleans on this amp are very good. The OD has a good growl and a wide palate of voicings, from sandpapery to crunch. The lows and mids are well rounded, and the tone pots very responsive. The highs are mellow and sing. The overall EQ palate is versitile given the responsivness of the pots.

I run a late '90's Am. Standard Strat, a Custom HH Tele, and a Switch Wild IV through this amp. One thing I've noticed is how well the BC 30 lets each guitar speak. The humbucker come through full and rich, the single coils plunk and twang. I've seen some complaints that this amp doesn't handle single coil PUPS well. I think it handles them very well, by allowing them to sound like single coils.

My main FX are an FBM-1, DD-3, TR-2, and a Tubescreamer TS7. I've also run an OC-2, CH-1, BD-2, and Crybaby though this amp. It handles batt. driven effects well, though there is some hissing.

The reverb is adequate, but not great. It has a kind of spongy feel to it, not tight and bouncy. In general though, this amp sound excellent at low volumes and doesn't loose al lot a higher volumes, especailly on the 15w setting. The 30 w channel distorts much sooner (almost out of the gate) but still sound fine. The onboard fan is a tad noisy, but I plan to mainly use this amp live and not for recording.

I've not giggd with this amp yet, but I'd trust it on the road. The construction and design are superb. The pre-amp tubes are protected by spring-loaded aluminum cases, and the rectifier and power tubes are held firmly in place by tension clamps. The Tolex is rugged, as is the speaker grill. The vent opening on the back panel is covered with heavy-duty wire mesh to protect the speakers.

Haven't had any problems, though it's still pretty new. I did call Gibson and left some messages with their amp tech asking about the power tube switch, but haven't heard back. I suppose it's not in the league of blowing a tranny or frying the circutry, but I'd like to know. Can't say what this bodes for any future interactions with Epiphone/Gibson. Guess I'll find out. It does have a 5 yr. warranty and can be registered online.

I've played professionally and semi-professionally for 35+ years. This is truly one of the best amps I've owned in that time. I've mainly used Peavey's in the past, and looked seriously at a Delta Blues 115 and a Fender Blues Deluxe before getting the BC30. Was looking for a different sound and found it. I'll definitely keep this amp and have it repaired should it break down.

Two channel Vintage Vibe amp. Multiple speaker out for driving cabinets or reloading the speakers. Is there a footswitch option? No FS included. Has power on and stand-by switches on front face. the switch for A/AB conversion is on the back panel and easy to access. power wise this amp is under-rated. It is compareable to 50w Mesa's and 60w Peaveys I've owned. One strange feature is that Red channel has its own mid-boost knob. Red channel is the Achilles heal. The distortion becomes Thin and transistor sounding the more you move it past half way. I've found it better to keep the gain low and raise the volume. The result is a more useable distortion.
Now the cabinet quality deserves a 10. You will ONLY find this type of workmanship on amps that are MESA price and above.

Sound is so subjective....
Green Channel is Awesome in class A. Very nice and punchy in class AB. Red channel is just OK if you don't raise the gain past half way. there isn't much difference between A and AB. It needs help.
Gibson USA designed this amp to have two completely different sounding channels. Unfortunately you have to adjust your tone control settings every time you go back and forth.
What works for me; I use green channel set to 15 watts and drive it with a DigTech Bad Monkey. i get a warm clean and a responsive high gain.

So Far So Good.
This amp is built like a Peavey,,,, I mean a tank...

Never Have Had To Use Customer Service.

I've been playin' for 29 years and have owned almost everthing worth owning. I play a wide array of guitars from a stock Tele, import Les Paul and a high output 80's metal shredder. This amp has preformed well with all of them. The reverb is very deep. Keep it set at 3. if the amp was stolen, I'd probably be able to chase the crook down because the amp weighs 75lbs.. Yes 75lbs!! Why hasn't anyone mentioned this??? I got rid of a lightwight easy to gig Carvin Vintage 16 for this PIG. I'm no small guy, this amp is difficult to lug around. Brothers, You NEED to mention this unfriendly feature. Guess if the nameplate said MESA I'd be proud to bust my back..