Epiphone EA-26RVT

I bought one on ebay without the cab. I built it into a head with a reverb tank and usually use it with a 1X12 cab with an Eminence Canabis Rex speaker. It needed new filter caps, which my amp tech did for me. He also modded the reverb channel for harp, making it more bassy (I believe he used larger coupling caps and biased it). Two channels. Each has it's own bass and treble. Channel 2 has reverb and tremelo. These were built from 1965-1967 and are identical to the Gibson GA20 RVT from that era. These supposedly have a very similar circuit to the Fender AA165 Pro Reverb, but with less power due to the use of EL84 tubes.

I use it mostly for blues/rock harp, although it sounds fantastic for guitar too. For harp, I'd give it an 8 with the unmodded channel, and a 10 for the modded channel. The reverb is to die for! The tremelo sounds good too, but I don't use it much. It's got a really smooth, creamy distortion, with a bit of a compressed sound. It never goes into raw, shred distortion. Of course, the speaker I use is a smooth, clean speaker. It doesn't get very loud. It's fine for band practice and small/medium gigs, but needs to be miced for large gigs.

It's old. Have a good amp tech.

Schematics are readily available. Gibson was nice enough to email me one.

I've got 4 other tube amps. Each has its own charm. I must say that I absolutely love this amp. It's my favorite for band practice and smaller gigs. So warm and creamy. For large gigs, I pull out an amp with 2 6L6's. These are still fairly cheap when you can find them. Get 'em while you can!

Same as a Gibson GA-20RVT. I had mine modified, "Deluxed" as I call it. Had the preamp tube sockets all changed to 12V. Had a larger OT installed. Weber speaker. Real nice. Real loud. Output is now 22 watts. Ch.1 is C&W, Ch.2 is voiced for jazz. Great sparkley clean. EL 84's ring and all 12V preamp sockets allow for 12AX7's. You can run Ch.1 into Ch.2 with some effects in between. I was doing that until my tech said, "Fry city possible...Potential Overload..Potential Overload.." I kicked his ass and stopped running Ch.1 into Ch.2

I play strats. And teles. I use HB's in Fender type guitars. SC's really ring, esp in Ch2. Crank it up or even at 5 on V and get that Hendrix, early JBeck rush. Super dead quiet. Not quite loud enough to compete in a rock band. But throw it in the back with bass and piano and this little killer with shine. Can take a good front end wallop. I am searching for the holy growl of clean sustain and this amp has it. At my age, amp quality is gauged in weight not watts. Turn it all the way up and...buzz awhile...

XLNT Reverb. I don't use reverb much because of distortion added. But this reverb (tube powered as they say) is real nice. Wish I had a pedal, I;d use this reverb as an effect. Oh well. Better than Fender reverb.

This old, it needed maintenance. Had caps replaced as necessary. Tech said that Reverb Tranny worked. He held it together with a thin plastic strap. Like metro cops use. the new OT is a variable ohm OT so I had three spkr outs added, 4 ohm, 8 ohm, and 16 ohm. The internal speaker wire has spade clips. So I can unplug the internal spkr. Black tape the spade clips and... 22 Watt head. Better than most blondes.

Support is in the tech. Find a good one.

This is the 12th amp I've owned. I also own a 12 watt mid 50's amp with two 6V6 and one 5y3. I don't recall what it's called. And an early 80's 60W amp with solid state preamp and two 6L6's. Forget the name of that one, too. The Epi is Pepi.
If lost or stolen, I would be pissed because I put a lot of time and money into this.

It'll go on my funeral pyre along with that brown 50's amp I referred to earlier.

68-70 Kalamazoo, Reverb /trem two separate channels with 2 inputs each, polarity switch,Bas and treble control ,both channels ,

I have played for 35 years and it does the job of two amps, it has reverb that surpasses even separate units,and loud clear highs,with sensitve my ES335 has jazz nuance, and warmth ! I had the GA 20 Gibson early 80's and this has that tonality,my 61 Les Paul has bright bite

No problems,reliable has stood the test of time

Because it is basically a Gibson ,it uses readily available parts

I love it becvause it gives me the vintage tube amp loudness with tonality ,less the bite of less not sustain

This was probably made about 1965. Uses a diode rectifier. Output tubes are (2)el-84 for about 15 watts. I think it is electrically the same layout as the Gibson GA-20 (but I'm not an engineer so I'm not sure). Has good reverb and tremolo, tone controls for each channel. Everything I want in an amp, but it does not have all the modern stuff like line out, effects loop and external speaker jack.

I bought it for $200, $40 for shipping, replaced the grill cloth with some Vox material for $20, re-tubed it for $80 (NOS), and then to put the icing on the cake, added a Celestion Blue speaker for about $240.....Yikes, this is old-amp restoration gone wild. These things get away from you!

Great sound!!! Unbelievable.....more like a Vox or a DC-30 than anything else I've owned. I think it is the el-84 tubes that give that characteristic. Fairly quiet. Makes the great British sounds, maybe like early Beatles. I love the reverb and tremolo. Yes it gets distorted fairly early on, maybe in the 6 range, and I love it. It isn't the fuzzy distortion that the metal players love. I play folk-rock/alt country with it....would be good if you love the Byrds, probably also good for jazz.

I've had no problems other than replacing tubes. I'd use it without a backup. Very well built and serviceable.

Long gone manufacturer, but a qualified local tech could fix this since it is probably a fairly standard circuit, nothing arty.

I've owned and played a lot of amps over 30 years...Gibson, junk, Mesa Boogie, Supro. This is the best so far. I'd buy it again, but they are impossible to find. Love the sounds. I wanted a small combo that would not kill me to haul around and did not cost a fortune. I think a DC-30 is in the same neighborhood soundwise, but much more expensive. I have to admit the cost added up to more than I expected. Nonetheless, in the next year, I may go in and add some more tubes to get a separate channel with more overdrive! Yes I wish I had channel switching, but I think I could add that.