Epiphone Galaxie 25

Covered in other reviews. One word: functional.

This is the main point I wanted to comment on. The hum with these amps is a problem. I found that using a good NOS tube in V1 made a major difference. The stock Sovtek 12AX7A hums like crazy, as did every new production tube I tried in V1. When I stuck JAN Philips or GE 5751 pre-amp tubes in V1, the hum was significantly reduced.

My amp tech commented that the OT, PT and choke were too close together. Moving some things around did not help as much as he had hoped. The second I tried a new production 12AX7, the hum was back.

The stock power tubes were Sovtek EL84s. They are good sounding tubes for clean amps, but they are not stellar. Also, the ones in my amp did not match up well. The amp had not been biased from the factory. The mismatch was one of the factors contributing to the hum. I had some old RCA EL 84s manufactured in 1960 installed and properly biased. Very nice!

Others have commented on the speaker. I installed a 16 ohm Eminence Legend 122 alnico in mine. I always run it in parallel with an Avatar G112 speaker cabinet loaded with a 16 ohm Celestion Vintage 30. This set up sounds great. It pushes plenty of air and does a nice job of taming the shrill highs that are inherent in the amp's tone and which are accentuated by the stock Celestion 70/80.

Bottom line: buy a JAN Philips or GE 5751 for your V1. Change the speaker.

Hasn't failed me in five years.

Gibson advises that there is just about no support for these amps. They are no longer made.

I will repeat here as a follow-up which applies to all amps using detachable IEC AC mains cords as does this; the supplied cords are small appliance, three wire 18 gauge units marked AWG 18/3 on the sheath.

For good tone you should up-rate as follows: for amps 5-20 watts, use AWG 16/3; for amps 25-50 watts use AWG 14/3 and for amps 50 watts or more use AWG 12/3.
These are no longer made in these gauges, so you must peruse the local computer repair shop to find them used for $2-3 each.

A marked tone improvement is assured from this inexpensive upgrade.

I prefer post-punk (early U2, New Order, the Cure, Cocteau Twins) but also play standard poprock and occasionally country, bluegrass, and soul. It has fine tube clean to build on and would suit a number of styles.

I do wish the reverb was a little deeper (or the mix a bit higher), but I'm a reverb junkie.

Plenty of volume.

I use this with a Fender Standard Tele, a Dean (Fat) Strat copy, and a Limited Edition Tele (humbuckers with split coil, Korean made)

I followed the recommendations of another reviewer hear and had a new speaker installed. (Eminence Red Coat) This resulted in a huge improvement in tone, adding clearer bottom end, presence, punch, and removing a lot of general harshness muddiness and woofiness. It's still not versatile in terms of clean to dirty, but you can certainly get more usable clean tones with a speaker change.

I'd recommend a speaker swap to anyone. (out of the box 7, speaker swap 9, maybe a ten with great tubes)

I've had this amp for three+ years and used it extensively. It finally broke this year but was repaired rather easily. I wouldn't worry about bringing a back up, as it's been quite reliable overall.

I've never dealt with Epiphone.

I've been playing for about 7 years. I feel the best feature of this amp is the weight/volume ratio. It's loud enough to compete with a loud band yet isn't extremely heavy. There's also plenty of clean headroom, which is not attractive to some players. I prefer pedals for distortion when playing live (primarily for convenience and volume reasons, but I also like fuzz) so it suits my needs well.

Occasionally the reverb will start feeding back. Other than that I have no complaints. (as long as you change the speaker)

It's a simple amp with just the basics. Volume. Tone. Reverb.
Would have liked a tremelo...

I love the sound of this amp. It's warm, and the reverb is really nice.
The only problem I've ever noticed is an occasional feedback type hum eminating from the reverb when you hit about 6. However, like I said, it is only occasional, which is weird, but I can live with it.

Aside from that, it is a very clean sounding amp, even all the way up, barely any distortion.
It prefers a nice hollow body ES-335, but it sounds pretty decent with my jaguar.

Never had a problem with it. I have played shows with it, and I don't feel the need to bring a backup.

never really needed any support, but their website is not very informative.

I've been playing for 7 years or so... shoegazer/experimental styles.
I would by another one of these if it were stolen, actually, I am considering buying another one to chain it to for shows.
For a tube amp at this price, I dont think you can beat it.

I was aware of the hum issues before buying it, but the looks and the price were the deciding factors. I'm glad I bought it.

Nice looking tube amp with basic features. The exception is the tube driven spring reverb which is a nice feature that no amps in this price range have (that I know of). It really sets this amp apart from others and was the only reason I was interested in one.

I added a master volume so I could get more of the preamp gain at a lower volume. I'd recommend this to anyone.

This is hard.. the amp sounds so good, but there's this hum and I had to work to get rid of it. Without the hum it's an easy 8 or 9.

Yepper, like many here, mine came with a hum that was unacceptable even tough the guy I bought if from on ebay said there was none. I emailed him my concern after reading the reviews here, he assured me it was hum free... it wasn't.

I switched out the tubes for a matched set of JJ's. I changed both the preamp and the EL84's. The tube switch eliminated about 60% of the hum. Then I messed with the little bias things for the power tubes and twisted the wires.. this eliminated about another 25% of the hum. It's much much quieter now, but still not noiseless like a Fender Twin Reverb is.. then again, it isn't near that expensive. But I can play it now and have recorded with it.

I also found it sounds better through an external speaker cabinet but that is my personal preference. To me, the Celestion sounds a little odd in there however, I'm not a fan of Celestions. But tons of people like them so what do I know?

Seems stable, but I'm easy on my equipment. It does get warm, but I have fans for that.

N/A

A decent amp that could have been a great amp. If you're willing and able to put a little work into them they sound great, but mine was less than satisfactory when I got it. I still like the thing and after all the work I put into it I'm keeping it but it isn't my #1 amp. Just another amp for a variety of sounds.

update on an earlier review.... my suggestions for getting the best from this little amp: upgrade the tubes... NOS in the preamp, jj's or similar in the power amp. twiddle with the "bias" pots on the board to find a sweet spot where the hum's less of an issue.

MOST IMPORTANT>>>> I swapped a bunch of speakers in and out of this thing, and settled on the eminence "red fang" low wattage alnico. I can't stress enough how much this helped the character of the amp. cost me $100, worth every penny. best $100 I've spent to improve my tone in 15 years of playing.

tone & reverb knobs best range seems to be between 2-3. any higher or lower, tone get's to be unusable.

with the tubes and speaker upgraded, and the tone settings right... the thing sounds like a million bucks. I couldn't believe my ears after the speaker swap, this amp would've been famous if epiphone had shipped it with an appropriate speaker. been using a fender classic 50's telecaster, and I can do anything I need to on the cleaner end of things.

requires an overdrive or distortion pedal to get anything too crunchy, though you can get the amp to dirty things up a bit cranked all the way up and really working your guitar.

more or less, it's turned into a great little amp. really. I sold my fender bassman reissue, peavey delta blues, and a couple '60's off-brand amps because this amp has the sound I need at the right size and the right price.

never had any trouble.

never dealt with 'em, but wish they'd provide a little more web-based support & info.

with upgrades, a 10, without upgrades maybe a 6. with the changes, I can't believe this amp, and neither can the guys I play with sometimes. about 15yrs experience, mostly rock country pop etc. I've been through a lot of amps, and I've kept this one. I haven't had the luxury of owning any top-dollar amps, but I don't mind much. I'm kinda anxious to try out the epi blues custom, but either way, I'll probablys still hold on to the galaxie 25.

The manufacture date is unknown. It is not versatile because it has a Class A design; so a high gain (Class A/B) sound is not possible. It has a good clean sound with lot's of warmth. However the tube reverb ads a vintage tone to the sound. So Blues, Surf and Country sounds are great with it; just as long you control the volume from the guitar.

The only feature that it really needs is High Gain tonality (Marshall sounds). And it can be possible since it can be hot rodded. For the price I give it a 9.

I am mainly a Blues and Surf Player and the tube driven Reverb makes that vintage twangy sound. More on the Vox side since it has that Class A design. I haven't encountered any hum problems, maybe because I purchase it new.

It depends how you define versatility with a Class A amp design. For very high gain sounds I use a Tube driver, which has a tube inside then ad a MXR Distortion + pedal and then EQ with a Autowah last in the chain; this set up makes the amp scream, with lots of sustain.

And wether I am using mainly Stratocasters or a Gibson Les Paul, SG with P90's; the amp puts out great tone with those respective effects. Humbuckers or Singlecoils the amp sounds good with those effects in the chain.

Straight to the amp, it's going to give you a very nice warm clean sound pending of whatever electric guitar you are using. This ampl stays out clean at full output; because it wasn't design for high gain use.

I have taken the amp with my effect pedal case everywhere and have received good comments for it. Eventhough the amp was manufacture in South korea the reliability is good. Keep in mind that you can always hot rod this amp to obtain a higher gain sound at the cost of volume!. After gigging with this amp; it does not need servicing as of today. So the South Korean construction and design has been relatively good.

Gibson helped by mailing me the schematics for future hot rodding I am planning to put into it. It's has a warranty but I haven't encountered any problems with it.

I give this guitar an 8 because it does what it suppose to do; give clean round warm sound at low or high levels. All you gotta do is use your very favorite distortion pedals, (Recommend Overdrive/Distortion pedals with a 12AX7 Tube inside) and this amp will sound excellent since it is Class A design or for the money you can have it Hot Rodded. And this still be cheaper since In the Amp market; high gain, Class A/B Boutique Amplifiers are very expesive to do!.

So you can do what I've done put good pedals in front and a Marshall Plastic Logo in front and people won't know the difference or hot rod it!.

The features of this amp have been fully spec'd by the other reviewers. I bought mine new in 2005. It was discounted because of a small dent close to the fuse hoder to 45% of the list price, which is 1000AUD in australia. So i got it for 450AUD.

I thought to write this article 'cause I love this little amp. Maybe its because in australia we have 240V/50Hz, but i did not have any problems with a bad hum with this amp that other reviewers have noted. There is a small hum for sure, but not bad when compared to the sound of a V8 at idle that the power supply on my old Peavey Classic 50 used to make! I play bluesy, rocky, coutryish stuff, and this amp is a winner. I play a 72 Reissue Tele through it, but used to have a stock standard Tele also, which was stolen. I have also played a LP copy with humbuckers on it, and an Epiphone LP. All guitars sound great clean, once the EQ controls have been adjusted to fatten up the sound and reduce the treble. It has tremendous warmth and body. To add distortion, i use a TS9 tubescreamer, which gives a real nice overdriven distortion.

I also have a 1969 Cry Baby Wah, and it likes this amp!!

Its bloody loud. The tubes truly come alive at vol = 4, and at this volume I can be heard done the street! The sound is punchy in the extreme. A great sound is all i can say... it suits what i play

The reason I got this amp is that I never played the Peavey Classic 50 loud enough at home to get a nice full valve sound. This amp has satisfied my need for a nice valve tone and moderate volumes. It would be loud enough for a small club venue for sure

The only negative thing i have to say echoes another reviewer, in that the chasis gets very hot after moderate time. But it was played for 7 hours straight last weekend, and didn't skip a beat. But the heat does worry me

no idea, so cannot rate

I have been playing for 10 years. I am of ok ability, some days good, some days bad, more due to lack of proper practicing. But this amp makes me sound good, and played with my 72 re-issue, it rocks. The sounds you can get out of it just played straight with no effects make you want to keep on playing. I have no problems with this amp as yet

Long Spring Reverb; good chrome steel chassis and Tolex finish. Nice styling. Would have liked to see built-in Tremelo.

Very bright with little bottom end with any source.
The weakness here was the choice of Celestion Seventy/Eighty high power speaker; utterly inappropriate for a 15-25 watt tube amp.
The correct choice should have been Celestion G12M or Eminence Red Coat "Private Jack". I chose the Celestion and now this amp is full, complex, responsive and would have achieved 'cult' status were it shipped this way to Dealers.
So, an as shipped 7; a qualified 10 as described.

No trouble after 12 hour break-in.

Will keep it and service as needed. A bargain even with typical flaws, but speaker MUST be replaced with appropriate duty type.

Gallaxie 25 with black Tolex. This has a nice "Fender" style reverb with a long two spring pan made in the orient. I am mainly going into some of the issues needed to make this thing work properly, as this seems to be a big problem. First of all, this is a typical "Black Face Reverb" Fender amp circuit, though without the cathode caps on the two middle stages. The EL84s only need about -15 volts of bias and so the extra gain would only make the thing noisy. Mine had numerous revisions, which are listed on the schematic, which Gibson promptly E-mailed to me. These mainly tweeked the frequency response of the amp.
OK, the main problem is that the line voltage selector says 110 volts... and they mean it! This is why the thing "eats" tubes. With a "high" line of 120+ you can have well over 7 volts on the filaments. When running at the right voltage (110v), the amp draws .25 amp in standby, and .5 amp when on, and idling, with the EL84s pulling 23ma. The amp came with a tiny 1 amp fast blow GMA fuse. I changed the fuse holder to a "real" one and put in a 1 amp slo blo AGC fuse. The hot and neutral wires coming from the power socket were wired backwards! This amp had already been "modded" by someone - there was a cut in the ground trace
between the two large and the four smaller filter caps, with a separate wire run back to the ground "tie" point. Also, the red and white reverb cables were wired backwards on this amp. The red one (marked "input") should go to the red jack on the reverb pan (also marked "input"). This end of the pan should be closest to the power transformer as it has the higher signal level - and is a low impedance circuit, and thus less likely to pick up hum.
I tested the tubes. The 12AT7 was OK, the 12AX7s were all weak in at least one of the sections. When plugged into the V1 position of a "hot" Fender Pro Reverb, the 12AX7s were quiet. One of the EL84s pulled about twice the idling current of the other! A note on biasing: the schematic calls for 10 turn bias pots. The ones in this amp were one turn... and they go up to "0" volts. One must be very careful with this set up as a careless slip can fry an output tube. The method suggested for measuring bias current is the worst imaginable one - going accross the OPT winding. Do everyone a favor: stick in a terminal strip with two 1 Ohm metal oxide resistors in the EL84 cathode leads, and measure across them! One can thus "match" tubes using the amp itself, by finding ones that have the same current at the same bias voltage! BTW, the 23ma, recommended comes out to ~12 W at the proper line voltage - which gives a B+ of about 350 V. I upped the screen resistors to 4.7K, though half of that should be fine - if you get the voltages fixed. The easy way to deal with the inappropriate 110 Volt power trannie is to buy a good Variac. Also, one can add a large power resistor in series with the line. My solution: I added two CL80 NTC thermistors to the line... and a CL11 to the filament winding. This, of course, necessitated removing the center tap and adding a 2W Wirewound "hum" pot.
This amp is a real rat's nest: I tried - literally - everything, including moving many components off of the board, rewiring the grounds, putting the reverb trannie on the top of the chassis, and still an obnoxious hum remained, though much attenuated from the original level. I started sticking in other good tubes - like J&Js - finally replacing V1 as a last resort. I had both the reverb and the volume pots all the way down, so this should not have mattered... but it did! That did the trick - it was now as quiet as a "normal" amp.
Once the amp was "quiet" I tried unbalancing the matched pair of J&J EL84s which I had installed using the bias pots to see if I could make the amp produce hum - as this is a suggested fix for that problem. This made no difference, at idle, but may have some effect when the amp is near clipping and the supply ripple goes way up. The two bias pots are, obviously, there to compensate for the fact that the EL84s supplied in these amps are not "matched" and one can, thus achive some sort of balance, this way.
One more thing, The reason that the sound level comes up so much going from "0" to 1, or 2 is that there is a linear, instead of the usual log, pot in the volume position. If it bothers you... Mouser Electronics carries most versions of the cheesy Alpha pots used in the import amps... and they have no minimum order amount.

I don't know about the particular speaker that comes with this, but the cathode cap on the first stage is a 1uF, which will, subjectively, boost the mids and highs. The tone stack is pure Fender BF, but with a 150K slope resistor. I gave it back to the owner to play with and have not heard back from him, yet.
The owner bought the amp, because of its size and sound, and was willing to spend a considerable amount to have the thing fixed properly.

The amp was basically new, as it was unusable in its original state.

Gibson will gladly supply you with a schematic and biasing instructions, as detailed above. Otherwise... don't hold your breath.

This would have been a neat little amp, right out of the box... if it had been designed properly. As with most of the new amps, the emphasis is on ease of manufacture, which can make sevicing a nightmare. The owner really liked the "retro" styling of the amp.