Epiphone EA-33RVT Galaxie

This is an amp that was made btw '63-'65--I don't know exactly which year. There are two inputs, one hotter than the other. It has a tube driven spring reverb (long pan), a volume knob and a speed adjustable tremolo. It has great "surf" and early 60s features. Its best feature is its tone. It's very nice for a cheaper amp from its era. All tube circuitry with some strange tubes compared to what most amps have today: Power Tubes = two 6aq5; reverb driver = one 12ax7; preamp (and reverb ?)= two 6eu7. Rated at 17 watts, although I have a 15 watt class A Palomino by Crate which is considerably louder than this, but, this amp is class AB (according to the tech who recapped it for me) which doesn't usually translate to as many db per watt as a class A amp--although this amp sure sounds class A to me. Oh, this also has a 10" speaker in a quite large (but light weight) cab. As far as features go, I use outboard fx along with the amp's built in one(s)and I have enough--with tone like this, I wouldn't really want to add or subtract any features.

Well, I just got this bad boy up and running after many years of not playing it do to some caps gone bad. Come to find out that whoever had it before me had replaced the stock speaker with a 10" woofer from a home stereo! After I got the amp fixed I had to put in a new speaker since the surround had rotted on the one that was in it. The tech that did the fix was trying to unload a speaker he had sitting around and now I understand why the previous owner put a home stereo speaker in it--this amp will cut your head off with how bright it is. You CAN dial out the brightness with the guitar's tone knobs though. The speaker the tech guy put in had an aluminum dust cap--Can you say "razor sharp"? Anyway, that speaker had to go too.
I replaced it, after much research,etc, with an Eminence "LITTLE BUDDY" 10" for a little over $50.00. It's a hemp cone speaker with a little less highs than many guitar speakers and some stout bass and warm midrange. It actually reminds me of a Celestion G12H 30 70th anniversary model that I have in my Palomino--punchy and throaty without overdoing it on the mids. It definitely helped tame down the high end and is also more efficient(99.1 db) than the other speakers that have been in there and is consequently louder than they too.
The amp is very clean up to about 7 on the dial; with humbuckers, you can get up to some light crunch over 7 and it does get a tad louder. Nothing heavy, but great for some blues and swamp rock. Same goes with my strat with "Fat 50s" single coils, although it doesn't get quite as loud nor as dirty as the Les Paul (which has Duncan "Antiquities"). A very vintage sound that is true to the era it was produced. You don't hear many like this new anymore unless you pay Beaucoup $$ for a boutique or hand-wired amp. Awesome tone for little money.
I've been playing it at home since I got it back a few weeks ago until tonight when I brought it to band rehearsal--it cut through quite well amidst another guitar, a keyboard and drums. It takes effects real well since it's so clean and tube. If playing live though, I think I'd mic it. In fact, I might just try that this Sunday at church, although I'm kind of worried that it might be too loud for me to play the amp at its sweet spot--we'll see...
Anyway, the tone is great, although I am going to try and pop in another reverb tank--this time a 3 spring long tank to replace the 2 springer which I think may be a little tired (unless it's the reverb transformer)from having sat under water before when stored on the cement floor of a basement. I could stand a little more richness and surf/splash etc. Because of the brightness and the current reverb, I've got to knock it off a point--even though the overall tone IS AWESOME. In fact, the guy I bought it from (although he wasn't the original author) heard it tonight and cusses himself all over for having sold it to me--and only for $50--he would really like to have it. He likes it better than his Marshall and his Fender (both all-tube). Great tone plus a lot lighter than the others. It's also lighter than my small Crate Palomino 1x12 too, even though the cab is quite a bit larger.

Here's the scoop, I bought this thing used 20 years ago and used as a practice amp to learn all kinds of hard rock --Zep, Montrose, Heart, etc with my DOD AMerican Metal pedal (awful thing really--I can't stand the sound of that thing anymore)cranking the amp louder than it could ever have done on its own. Then I got married, got a "repectable" job and left it stored in the basement of various places I lived until about 9 years ago--I plugged it in and HUMMMMM and Motorboat city. So I shut it off and didn't really touch it again til a few months ago. I decided that I wanted to get it fixed and so had a guy recap it. All the tubes checked out o.k. except for a sovtek 12ax7 for the reverb. The rest are RCA and Sylvania and still sound great. Everything on the amp except a few caps and that one tube have been great and functioned for years. I've only had it up and running for a few weeks now, but everything seems ship shape.

I've been playing for quite a few years and do a whole bunch of different styles, although rock and blues are my strongest suit. The tone is great which I love--on my strat, I get a sound akin to 2 cuts off the movie sound track "From Dusk 'til Dawn": 1) The very first music track called "Dark Night" which is roadhouse, reverb and tremolo soaked roots rock and 2) Jimmy Vaughan's "Dengue Woman" a slow, Albert-King-Texas-Style shuffle. With my Les Paul, it's a similar tone only louder and fatter like a humbucker should be.
Anyway, I paid $50.00 twenty years ago and $150.00 to get it fixed (I also had him add a 3 prong cord). So, for a little over 200 smackers I'd say this is a "Fantastic Value!", especially for the tone you get. If you see one, snatch it up, it'll be worth what you put into it.
Oh...incidently, this model is the exact same model as the Gibson GA17RVT "Scout". The only thing different are the faceplate cosmetics and the speaker designation--I know because I've seen the schematics for them both and they're identical.

This is,as far as I can tell, a 1960's Epiphone amplifier. It has 2 inputs but a single channel. The available amplifier control is volume only (no tone). there is a built in spring reverb and (wow!) Tremolo!
I got this amp from a friend who purchased it at a garage sale. It was ugly gray tolex with beige grille cloth. It was not working and had a blown factory 10" speaker.My first thought was, "oh well maybe I can turn this into a nice little practice amp". I have a great desire to get that fat 60's guitar sound and the newer tube amps don't really compare.
after replacing the tubes with new old stock rca's and replacing the speaker with a celestion 12 I redyde the tolex gray to a light beige color. I was ready to plug it in.
This amp is only 15 watts but the load was underated...It drives the 12 to unbelievable volume. It has tone that is unbelievable....and no tone control! My friend with a guitar store was skeptical about this...."He claimed that these were cheap amps of the 60's and couldn't possibly compete with the higher price amps for sound quality". That 12" speaker that I installed was a premium celestion vintage model. When I took it to His store and let Him play it He offered Me 300 cash...a customer who does blues rock was there and I let Him try it...He offered Me 600! No Sale..and if I ever find another...I'm keeping that too!
Iv'e go two Danelectro guita reissues..a 56 U2 and a U2 baritone and although they sound kind of good through My marshall combo and better throug My fender princeton, it wasn't until I plugged them into the Galaxy that I heard what they could really sound like!

Ive used Danelectro with Lipstick pickups, Feneder strat with single coil and modern Hamer, washburn and gibson with combinations of single coil and humbucker pickups.
This is a great Rock and Blues amp..the distortion available is not the type Metal crunchers would like. Probably a distortion device on the input would change that.
Ironically, this is a very quiet amplifier. The noise floor is really far down and I'm thinking of using a tube compressor on My guitar before the input stage, this I think will add even louder volumes, but might bring up hiss and hum level...
This amp has one sound really, but it's great! I couldn't make any model guitar sound bad on this. You have to use the tones on Your guitar for different sounds but they really work,believe it or not.
there is no clean channel and distortion channel, simple amplifier gain Knob does it all! It reaches full volume around 6 and after that it give You More crunch, not more volume...
The distortion sound is sweet, rich in tube harmonics..under 5 on the volume My accoustic electric even sounds good.

Iv'e used this amp alot and so far so good...there isn't a lot of electronice here so I'm guessing that unless I burn a tube this should never be a service problem.
Takes a good 40 seconds to warm up...then Wow!

This amp has no customer support..I would love to find the schematics for the amp circuit...this is an amp that epiphone should be reproducing now...with a 12" speaker of course instead of the 10
' original.

I Love this amp!!!! I Love this amp!!!
If You can find one..buy it!

This is a 1965 model. All tube. Made by Gibson in Kalamazoo, Michigan. One 10" speaker. Controls are: Volume, Reverb, Tremolo Speed, Power switch. Footswitch turns reverb and tremolo on and off. It lacks a tone control, but this is really not a bad thing, as it has a good full, well rounded stock tone, and having Reverb and Tremolo more than makes up for not having a tone control. Covered in grey tolex.

Has a full clean tone. Not a very loud amp, maybe 15 Watts or so. Not as bright as a Fender, but well balanced over all. Good for Jazz or 60's rock as a bedroom practice amp. Breaks up around 7 or so in a loose, bassy, medium gain way. Not loud enough to play with drums. Reverb is very deep. Tremolo is smooth and pleasing, not choppy.

Seems very reliable, as it is running on all it's original tubes and sounds fine. They are oddball tubes (6CA4, 6AQ5, 6EU7, 12AX7) but still available thru Sovtek. I had the stock 2 prong AC cord replaced with a grounded 3 prong cord to prevent shocks and hum. This should be done to all 2 prong amps as a safety caution, vintage or not. An amp that gives shocks and certified by "Undertakers Laboratory" is uncool. I'm sick of "Vintage" dorks who go nuts when they find out the cord has been replaced to a 3 prong on an old amp--come on--safety first.

not applicable.

Overall, as an inexpensive all tube low volume practice amp, this amp is not bad, as is true with most 60's Gibson/Epiphone amps. Of course, Epiphone amps today have nothing to do with these amps.