Epiphone Galaxie 10 Combo

It's got what you need. That's all. I'm a fan of that philosophy, but if you aren't, shop elsewhere.

The real reason I'm submitting this review is because I have something to add to the other comments here - while I agree that this amp with the stock tubes isn't for everyone, it's PERFECT if you're looking for that intentionally-harsh, dirty-as-hell circa-1960 guitar sound. Hook up a tremelo pedal, crank the gain to 7 or so, and play "Rumble" and you'll sound more like Link Wray than Link Wray.

Or swap out the tubes for a less antisocial sound :-)

this is an update to my earlier post. i put some nos tubes in and the amp sounded way better. i tried a 1962 telefunken ecc83 and an amperex bugle boy 12ax7, the tele won out. for power i got a brown base tung sol 5881 (made in usa). it now sounds great on either clean or overdriven. i've switched boosters to an EH LPB-2 from the 70's. the nasty glass like harshness is all gone now. to the poster below, your squealing is not a problem (well it is, but it's not due to damage, it's bad design), these amps don't have a -ve feedback loop, so once the tubes are warmed up (say after 30mins) if you have the gain maxed out and are using you're neck pickup it will squeal like a pig. roll the gain back on the amp and it will go away. or don't use the neck pickup.

Features have been covered already in other reviews...Anyway, I bought this from musicians friend recently when it was being discontinued, it's the one with black tolex. I like the features just fine, I prefer simple amps..

I use a bunch of different guitars, but it seems to like humbuckers the most...It came with sovtek tubes, but I replaced them with JJ's. The JJ's took away alot of the harshness that it had before, but some is still there...Personally, I think this amp has too much treble, Even at low settings. I usually play classic rock, or alternative/punk...It does classic rock just fine, but for the alternative/punk, I use a distortion pedal with the gain set on low...It's sort of noisy with the gain past 6, but what do you expect? it doesn't bother me too much.

Well, this amp has had a problem.
It makes this LOUD squealing sound sometimes, so I wouldn't depend on it..I think it got damaged in shipping, there's someting rattling around inside. I've only used this amp a few times, so I can't really tell though.

I've been playing for three years, and I've gone through a number of small tube amps, and this is probably one of the good ones..I have an epi valve junior as well..I prefer that, but it's not as versatile as this amp. I don't know if I would replace it, it's a cheap tube amp, no big deal.

Hope this helps.

old stock from MF $99 with free shipping ;)) gain,vol,bass,mid,treb, stanbby, power, jewel light. very basic no frills. having a gain and mv is great when compared to the fender pro junior of the newer epi valve.

i'm using this with a us strat and tele. comes with sovtek tubes 12ax7 and 6l6. i have spare jj's so did a/b's, and i have to say for what i want which is more overdrive, the sovteks take it. the jj's are clean with a tad less gain, so you get a great clean sound but the overdrive is anaemic. i'm using a sweetsound booster, when i put the sovtek back in and maxed out the booster i was in heaven. so all you newbies out there use your ears, swapping in jj's might not suit your particular guitar/amp combo. if you use hb pickups maybe the lower gain is good. what i will say is i'm going to try some other tube combos too eg mullard ecc83, telfunken 12ax7, sylvania 6l6, maybe a svetlana if i can get one.
the one down side on this amp is the tone controls are fairly limited. i never had the treble past 3, the mid did hardly naything for the sound and the bass seems to be either on or off depending on whether you're above or below 2 on he dial.

n/a not had it long enough

n/a

This is cheaper than buying a boutique pedal that tries to emulate a real tube sound. also get two of them and run them in either stereo or have one set for clean the other for overdrive and switch between them it's like a having a 2 channel tube amp for under $200!!!
if you can get one cheap please do. i think they are much more flexible than the fender pro junios or newer valve epi's as you can dial in the overdrive you want.

Galaxie 10.....just bought one of the last before discontinued by MF. I love the tone. To sound good, I set bass on 10, mid on 2-3, treble on 2.5, gain on 6-8, volume 8-10. Very good crunchy sound. Compared it to my Fender Bandmaster and the Epi breaks up much nicer. Of course my bandmaster only gets power tube breakup since it has no pre-amp gain stage for distortion. To get distortion from the Fender, I have an L-pad in the speaker circuit and set the volume of the amp on 10. Power tube breakup vs. pre-amp tube breakup on the Epi......Epi much nicer......Thanks Epi.

Compared it to my SState Peavey Special 130 with Saturation and pre-post gain/vol.....to see how the breakup/distortion compares. The Peavey sounds nicer, but lacks the dynamic response of the Epi. It took me 20 years to learn to heavily dip the mids with an eq inline from the pre-out to the power amp in (loop) on the Peavey and the distortion channel sounds great now with an eq in line.

I needed the Epi for a compact, lightweight tube sound.....got it!
Great small tube amp package with great looks and nice tube crunch........don't forget to turn down the treble.........enjoy!!

10 in celestion tube($40) speaker, power and standby switch, bass, treble, mid, no pressence, gain, and volume, i want to wire this with a banana to 1/4in so i can hook it up to my cab which are 12 inches. i don't know how i think i have to take apart the whole amp to do this.

i read someone say its a little trebly, i kind of agree. the gain knob sucks, but i'm gonna put a 12u7 tube in it to make it more clean, i really only want a clean sound from this amp or i mean that's all i expected, but for more volume you need to turn the gain up too, so again the gain sucks.

i don't know tube amps are tricky aren't they. i was at a small show watching a punk band play and the guitarist had two half stacks and one shorted out or whatever. but so far this thing has been fine.

well i haven't contacted epiphone about this amp, but i've noticed to contact epiphone you have to contact gibson. i've have contacted gibson in the past and i think their support sucks.

i like that it uses a 6l6 tube when so many small low watt combos use el84s. i wish it came with a 12 inch speaker. i wish it sounded a little better too. for awhile i wish i hadnt bought it and i have thought about selling it. i also take into consideration i paid only $150 for it and i'm not going to find much better, of course unless i spend more money than it's worth so i'm gonna keep it.

Everything you need in a Class A amp knob wise and the standby switch is great.

I played it stock for a while then swapped out the tubes. I have some Vintage tubes in stock so I put a CBS 6L6 (with silicone dampers) and a Mullard 12ax7 in it. This amp sings now - the clean is amazing, the break up is great and it's very quiet even playing single coils. A tube swap is definately in order for this amp.

Brand new, but it's pretty sturdy. The chassis is stamped from some very thin stock and feels flimsy, so if you take the back off be carefull!

Brand new and under warranty.

I'd buy another one for what I paid for this one. Of course then I'd have to buy some new NOS, or vintage tubes, but it's worth it. They have a good foundation here and with a little work and a few extra bucks you have a great little amp.

No frills amp with volume, gain, bass, mids, and treble controls. Also has a standby switch which should be mandatory on all tube amps especilly a class A that runs hotter than usual

This amp is not for heavy rock. It does sound pretty bland with the stock tubes but I took the advice of other people here in this review and from a few guys in the Discussioin Forums who seem to love thiers and swapped the tubes

its amazing how much of a change you can get by swapping out the tubes. these guys were right there is a noticable difference for the better and not just a little but it makes the amp sound really sweet. I dont know what a recent poster meant by saying there is too much treble as Ive not had that problem. I do think a tube change is a must for this amp. I did try out the Galaxie25 and even though it had a bigger speaker and more power I wanted to see what this amp sounded like with new tubes and Im glad i waited.

I have changed the sp[eaker with a weber but liked the stock better so I left that one in but I did add a jack to connect other speakers.

If you are wondering how this sounds after a tube change its very nice and clean and when pushed it gets a little gritty. The clean sound is so sweet, nothing like the sterile cleans on alot of SS amps and not nearly as bad as some guys are making it out to be. Im thinking they never went for the tube change. The amp is great for blues and jazz and anything that requires a nice clean sound. also, I have noticed a huge improvement in how this amp responds to playing, much more than my SS amps ive owned so far. those things did not have that glassy sound and did not change with how hard you pick

I dont know yet, ive only had it 3 months but its holding up fine and I can crank it in my garage whenever I want. Now I know why people like to turn up thier tube amps its different than having them low volume all the time

As long as you keep in mind that you are not going to get metal sounds out of it then its a great little amp. I run my bad monkey in front of it for Overdrive sounds and use a delay set low for reverb sounds.

When trying different tubes in it I decided to start with better 12ax7s and if I understand it those are hotter than other preamp tubes. They did not sound good in this amp. Then I tried what others mentioned and I found the glassy tube sounds that are something I hope to never be without again. No more SS crate crap for me. I dont even miss the distortion on those SS amps.

I have also found that you cannot hide your mistakes with these amps you haveb to play it right or you will hear it right away

This is a no frills, single channel amp. Gain, Volume, Treble, Mid and Bass controls - stand by and power switches. That's it. It does have a cool red jewel light when the amp is on.

Opinions really vary here on this amp. There is no question that the stock tubes are very harsh and brittle. However, if you swap out tubes you can get a very sweet tone from this amp. It's not going to sound like a Marshall stack - you're going to get what a 10 watt amp with a 10" speaker is able to deliver. To me, the beauty of this amp is that you can absolutely crank it to provide a nice bass tube tone - dynamic and responsive - that you can use as a foundation for a pedal board.

The beauty of this amp is that you can run it hot - really get the response from the tubes - without peeling the paint off the walls. It's not going to give you a heavy metal tone - if that's what you're looking for then this amp will disappoint you. This amp is no frills but a great value when used appropriately.

In the near future I'm going to modify the speaker output from being hard wired to the speaker to be a 1/4" jack so I can try it out with other speaker cabinets. I think the tone is limited by the 10" speaker, especially when combined with the fact that it's enclosed in a small, open backed cabinet.

I have a Mullard 12ax7 and Raytheon 6L6GC in mine and the combination of those two tubes makes this amp sing! I run a mid 80s Japanese Strat loaded with Lawrence pickups into the Galaxie and I can get sweet tones. I use a couple modified Boss SD-1s and an 80s Rat for my gain structure - this amp takes pedals very well. I play in my church contemporary praise band and people are always shocked to see me carrying that tiny little amp around. I often hear "wow - you get that much sound from that little amp?" Yes, that's the benefit of a Shure SM57 to the PA, but still - the base tone is there.

So far, so good. I've had mine for several months and not a single issue with it.

I got it from MF - I've had very positive experiences with them.

This amp, when retubed, is a very solid 9! It does what it's supposed to - provide a smooth, rich tube foundation from which to build your sound. I've been playing for 24 years now and have owned, or played regularly through, all the major brands. This little Epi serves me well in what I need it to do. If this would turn up missing I might look to get a 15 watt two channel amp with a nice gain channel and 12" speaker - but not because I don't like this amp. This amp is an awesome value for the money - you can't touch a tube amp for $130!!!

Epi Galaxie 10, probably made sometime in '04. Single channel Class A with one 12AX7 pre and one 6V6 power tube, bass, mid, treble, volume, gain and 10" speaker. Typical practice amp, but gets pretty loud for 5 watts. I play harder rock, punk, metal, folk and alternative. So-so for the last two, but not enough gain for anything but blues, in my opinion. Used it for awhile to practice with but I got tired of running a distortion box through it.

I've played several guitars through the Epi: Gibson Goth V, Les Paul Studio with Burstbucker Pros, SG Faded and a Squier Strat. Amp has quite a bit of hum but is less noticeable at low volumes but at high volumes, just play and you won't notice it.

Overall this amp has entirely too much treble, clean or driven. Even with the treble at zero, it's still way too high. The only way I've found to get rid of it aside from a speaker mod (perhaps) is to run a separate EQ pedal through the line. Too much trouble in my opinion for such a pedestrian amp. If your idea of tonal variety is lots of treble and even more treble, this is your amp.

Clean channel is useable, but I've found other practice amps to sound way better (Crate GLX 15 for one). Gain is about as brutal as a butterfly; only useable if you play blues and you like a lot of treble in your sound, in my opinion, although it does like pedals. Digitech Grunge gives you a nice punk sound. When you dime the volume and gain you get a very nice breakup good for leads, but by then the speaker farts out. I thought the whole point of a tube amp was the ability to push it? Very disappointing.

Does not suit any style of mine where gain is necessary, even when it's only a little breakup that I need. Too much treble.

I'll give it a two because I can clean up the sound with pedals.

Had it for around six months or so, not one second's trouble. Reliability is where this amp shines; too bad I'm not inclined to play it much. Never would gig with it; I don't want to be laughed off the stage.

Never dealt with Epi, but it does have a lifetime warranty.

I've been playing for about four years or so, mostly off and on until this year. I own a host of other guitars as listed above. My main amp is a Crate GLX 212 and I love nearly everything about this amp, especially the core tone. Also use a GLX 15 when I want to keep things quiet and a Fender G-DEC.

If you like bottom end and/or heavier distortion, do not even bother with this amp.

I would not buy it again if stolen or lost; I'd never use it. I like the way it looks but other than that, it's dank. I only bought this because I wanted to see for myself what the big fuss is about tube amps and not go broke in the process. While I'm certain this Epi is not the last word in tube amps, I'm disappointed. Sure, it won't compare to a Blue Voodoo stack, but how often does cheap gear compare to big tickets items?

I've still yet to figure out why people go ga-ga when someone says tube amp and I'm even more flabbergasted at seeing how much more money people are willing to spend on them. No real difference in sound in my opinion when you take cost into consideration. Anyone want to buy this amp? Please do!