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.

the galaxie 25 is a small single-channel combo tube amp, with reverb and a single 12" celestion. accordingly, there aren't tons of features -- but instead the question is how good are the features? the amp is rated 25 watts RMS. the circuit drives the EL84 power tube pair very hard, and probably is close to 25 watts... but who knows? the 12ax7 preamp + tube-driven reverb are nice idea, and capable of sounding pretty good if dialed in just right. the EQ (high/mid/low) works well, and tweaking is absolutely necessary to get a usable tone out of the amp. NOT versatile on its own, but responds quite well to pedals. the cabinet's built like a tank. the electronics are cheap and delicate. I sometimes wish it had a second gain channel or a boost... but that's just not what this vintage-inspired amp is about. I'd prefer a tube rectifier, as well. Overall, features are a good value. if it were a $1200 amp I'd be disappointed; for less than $300 the features are very good. note that I changed all tubes and re-biased a few times before I found a sweet spot & tube set that sounds good and nearly eliminates the infamous galaxie hum.

sounds like an old-school tube amp, for the most part. the solid-state rectifier gives you a slightly more modern sound, say compared to a 1950's amp. the galaxie 25 has its own voice: it's very clean, but not in a fendery way. sounds big, clear, loves to be pushed hard. cranked to 10, preferably with a signal boost like the boss EQ pedal mentioned by a guy below, the tone breaks up nicely, & very sensitive to how you play. great sound for blues, classic rock or alt-country rock. the amp responds well to both single coil and humbucker pickups, but my favorite guitar w/ the galaxie is a 70's MIJ les paul copy with 70's gibson patent # pickups.

I've had no trouble. it's been played A LOT over the last year around my home, but only gigged a handful of times. it has CHEAP, fragile electronics, so I'd be wary about counting on it for frequent gigs or much traveling to gigs. the hum can be a big problem, but I think in most cases it's a problem with the 'setup' (tubes, bias) and not so much the amp itself.

harmony central reviews are about as close as you'll come to customer support for this product.

I've been playing for 13 years, mostly various sub-genres of rock and country. my smaller amp is a tweed fender champ, my larger amp is a fender '59 bassman RI. I've got a half-dozen guitars, mostly 70's and 80's MIJ copies of famous US guitars. also some old Harmony and Kay beasts as well. I love the old off-brand 'vintage' stuff. over the last few years I've rotated through several small and mid-sized tube combo amps, vintage and newer.

tone is largely about how you play, and I get a kick out of trying to get the best possible tone using equipment usually rejected outright by the folks who really sweat the details. it's all about seeing if you can make a cheap guitar and a galaxie 25 with a couple $15 danelectro pedals sound like a million bucks. makes the guy with a $4000 rig look quite the sucker. it can be done, but you gotta work at it.

the galaxie 25 is not a GREAT product, not even a GOOD product, but it's a perfectly usable mid-sized tube amp. it looks cool, in my estimation. it's not as good as most of the competitive amps, but almost, and it's available for around 1/2 the price. still, the amp has its own character. since buying the thing, I've played far more hours on the galaxie than any of my other "better" amps. I'd recommend it, but buy it for what it is: a cheap, simple, fun one-trick pony. if you need fender tone, or vox, or whatever, save your money. you CAN sound really good playing the galaxie, but getting that perfect sound using this amp may be a project. I wouldn't buy it again, but have enjoyed owning it.

Unknown year. Probably '04. All Sovtek tubes.
No frills :) Input, Volume, T,M,B,Rev,Standy & Power. Single channel. That's it.

I was looking for one w/ FX loop, but only if the loop is hard-bypass. I'm so sick of noisy loops. I've never found one quiet enough, so I think I'm done with them. I'm think it has enough juice for what I need. I'll get into that later.

My buddy has a DR Z. Maz 18 and I've been a fan of single channel amps ever since. I'm only giving the Galaxie 25 a 9 because I still want an amp w/ a flawless FX loop. Other than that, it's exactly what I wanted.

Mutt Strat, Hamer Tele, Parker Fly Classic. It's what I've been looking for. Suits my style. I'm a stickler for NO breakup whatsoever (unless I want it to) on a clean channel. This factor alone was what made me pass on the Peavey Classic 30. I really dig that amp, but I wanted "punchy Fender" clean, and the Peavey was too growly on the clean channel. That's not bad. I still recommend it. But I want CLEAN tubes under the $500 range. I know, I'm not asking for much right? :) I'm just really into dynamics...

Of course this is no Dr.Z., but it's still LOUD enough for what I need. I tried it out @ Musicians Friend Clearance outlet in KC. I thought it sounded great, but it lacked the "oomph" I wanted (for example, eq and volume just seemed to not move much in shape or color.) Sounded really cool turned up to 6 or 7, but I knew this wasn't the full capacity of the amp. I had this feeling that since it's a crappy Epiphone, it just needed some simple mods and I'd get what I wanted out of it. I was right! And, I didn't even have to open it up. I got home and still couldn't manipulate eq or volume well, so I added a Boss 7 band eq and voila! Holy Moses. This amp loves the signal when it's a little hotter. Next I slapped in my Boss DS-1 and after five minutes I had both clean and dirty sounds I was looking for. What's really cool is the DS-1 gain is only between 1 + 10 percent. That's it. The 12AX7's in the amp must just love the 3rd and 5th harmonics the DS-1 is producing. That's all it needs for an outstanding overdrive or distortion sound, depending on gain from the DS-1.

I experienced almost no humming from the amp. A little 60Hz is normal. I can definitely live with it. Introducing Boss pedals didn't degrade signal (enough to notice at least) My Zoom 505 delay did throw in some crappy "digital fuzz" as my notes decayed. I took it out and things were perfect again.

I'm giving it an 8, but if it weren't for my EQ pedal, it would be a 4! Watch this guys! The potential is there, but it may take some work.

Still new. Looks VERY solid. It was only $169.00, so I'm not gonna freak if tubes go bad. Heck, I might replace 'em anyway to see what happens.

If it weren't for Harmony-Central, there would be no support for this product. I hate Epiphone, and subsequently Gibson for mass producing all this crap and never taking any pride in it. No user manual at their website. In my opinion Gibson only makes a small handful of products anymore that are worth anything. I'm sure my combination of good Sovtek tubes was a fluke. I'm still not so sure my EL84s are both firing 100%. Regardless, I'm giving the credit to God for this amp because it came along at the right time and the right price and it's just what I needed.

I'll give it an 8 1/2. I like it a lot. It's far better than I could have expected for $169.00 (I don't mean to rub it in...) It was a return to MF w/ no visible damage. I think I got lucky. The tag said, "no gain." Well that made sense to me since it's a single channel amp. Sure enough, it was just fine. It was the only one there, and the only one I've ever physically seen.

Listed below, single channel w/ reverb, T/M/B, vol. Simple amp with spring reverb. You'll need a pedal for real overdrive & sustain.

Use it with humbuckers & P-90's, sounds great with both. Absoultely NO NOISE Problems, no hum. Good sounding little amp, clean & punchy. sounds like a ballsy Blues Jr. to me. Goes from very clean to bluesy break up, no hi gain or big sustain. I use a pedal for lead tones. Loud enough for most jam & band situations. Great back up amp.

Bought it used with no tubes in it. Cost me $53 for tubes, and I have to say I like it. Seem solidly built, and the tubes are well protected so should be OK.

Hope I never need to know.

I would have to give it a 9 because it does exactly what it is supposed to. It's a basic, one channel tube amp, works well with pedals and sounds good at all volumes. Good sounding little amp that has better tone than any solid state amp out there.

Follow up on my 7/10/2004 review. I did the DC heater mod and the floating center tap mod detailed in the 12/22/2004 anonymous review. The hum problem with these amps is documented throughout these reviews. Better tubes help reduce the hum problem, but that alone is not enough.

You buy this amp either to play it clean to get a good clean sound as your foundation upon which to add your effects. The trebly shrill folks complain of can be ameliorated with a combination of proper bias, good speaker and the right V1 tube.

The B+ on mine was 368. I had an old set of RCA EL84s from 1960 installed. They biased nicely at 17.5MAs. (53% at idle). These sound nice once the tubes warm up.

I found that the dark sound of NOS GE 5751 tubes perfect for this amp. I can take the treble up to 6 or 7 without getting too shrill.

I also decided that I'd help out my little 25 watt amp by moving air. So I stuck a 16 0hm Jensen C12N in the amp. I always run in parallel with an Avatar 16 ohm cab loaded with one Reverend Alltone 1250 and one Eminence Legend 122 alnico. The combination of three speakers that sound nice clean makes for some beautiful clean tones.

The hum was reduced 90% by having a tech do the DC heater mod and adding the floating center tap detailed in the 12/22/2004 review below. The amp isn't as quiet as a church mouse, but it is now very usable and delivers a very nice, chimey clean.

Owned it almost a year. I could always count on it to give me a steady, annoying hum. It never has failed me either in working or humming.

The level of hum these amps produce is over-bearing. Read the reviews here on Harmony Central. The problem is not an isolated one. It is documented on just about every review posted here. To its credit, Epiphone is good about responding to e-mails and answering telephone calls. But musician's pay for amps that work. Epiphone fails to step up to the plate and fix the hum problem PROPERLY under warranty. I understand that would result in some $ outlays on their part, and no company wants to do that, but it is their obligation. Let's face it: the amp should work properly right out of the box. Had I not purchased the amp cheap, I would not have bothered with the mods. The bottom line is that Epiphone has been good about e-mailing me an owner's manual within 24 hours and answering telephone calls, but they fail to step up to the plate where it matters most - in authorizing those repairs that are necessary to give their customer(s) a usable amp.

6 stock. 9 as modified.

Would not buy another, but would instead put my money into an amp that is better designed.

What else do you need from an amp? This amp has volume, treble, mid, bass, and reverb. nuff said.

I've used this amp with a variety of strats, a gibson LP gary moore, and a epiphone emperor regent.

Since I work at a music store, I had the ability to test three of these amps. The first two had the bad hum problem due to the crappy output transformer problem that many have written about. The third one was actually fixed by epiphone themselves. This cancelled out the hum problem.

I find this amp (even with new tubes) to be a very "brittle" amp with emphasis on the treble side. There is hardly ANY warmth to this amp whatsoever. In fact, the output of this amp is very nasally with any kind of guitar. The volume is very touchy, and there is a noticable difference in volume between 1 and 2 (almost double), and there isnt much change after that. Poor chinese construction.

I have had this amp past 6 and still have had no breakup.

But just to give you and example of brittle this amp is: I have bass on 8, mids on 5, and treble on 2, and its STILL too trebly. No warmth whatsoever.

I have had this amp for about 6 months and have used it in about a dozen gigs and practices. It still works. However, the chassis gets EXTREMELY hot (much more hot than even my handwired 68 twin) after only an hour of use. I cant picture the cheap component lasting for a long time of repeated use (but thats only my speculation)

This amp is meant to be an affordable answer to a vintage-style tube amp...it succeeds in this area. Honestly, the look of it was a factor in my purchase of it. I like the size and weight. So far, it has worked every time I used it. But it has a very punchy, powerfully trebly and nasal sound that lacks any type of warmth that you would expect from a blues amp. I beleive that jazz players might like the amazingly clean sound it produces, but it does not suit my tastes. The fact that the speaker of choice (a celestion 70-80) is known for its bottom-end does not help this claim. But I hae never had good luck with gear, either. Maybe I just got a dud :-)

I picked up this amp in an Ebay auction for a mere $195. I didn't want to pay much more than that because I'd read a lot about problems people have had with them, especially really bad hum, so I knew I was going to have to put some money into having it fixed up. Below I will detail exactly what my amp tech. did to the amp to resolve the issues with it. All ratings are based on how it sounds post being fixed by a very experienced amp builder and repairer. I paid him $200 so the total cost for me was $395 - only about $45 above what you would pay if you bought one new from a catalog.

This is a very basic amp - it only has a single channel so it's hardly feature-rich.

I use both a Strat and an Epiphone Dot. By manipulating the guitar's tone and volume controls and those of the amp. I can get a good range of sounds from SRV-style strat twang through to mellow jazz box. The amp. was terribly noisy when I first got it but is now extremely quiet thanks to the work done on it. The amp. is plenty loud enough to play with a drummer (assuming you play blues and jazz as I do). Amazingly loud really for only 25 watts. Don't expect to get much in the way of distortion unless you use a pedal with it. It sounds great with pedals - I'm using a Digitech Screamin' Blues and a Crybaby. The overall sound is very punchy, very "tubey" for want of a better expression.

The guy who fixed it for me assures me that it will be reliable but I haven't had it long enough to find out. It seems very solid in terms of the physical construction.

It was used when I bought it so probably out of warranty (not sure when it was made) based on age and defintely out of warranty given what I have had done to it - so I wouldn't expect to be able to get any support for it from Epiphone.

So here is the low down on what was done to it by the amp. tech:
- Added a ground switch
- Rewired the power transformer
- Moved the output transformer (too close to other components)
- Moved reverb transformer (same)
- Made tubes D.C.
- Remade ground plane
- Grounded reverb
- Shortened all wire harnesses
I'm no expert so I can't comment on the technicalities of what was done but it sounds great now. He put the bad hum down to poor design and claimed that changing the tubes would have had minimal effect on the noise problems - the tubes that it came with are still in there and they sound just fine.
I'm very happy with the way it sounds now and have achieved my objective of getting myself a simple, solid, great sounding, portable tube amp. for an investment of only $395. If you buy one of these stock be prepared to have it worked on - it's well worth it.
Oh yeah, I have been playing for about 24 years and for the last 5 or 6 years my main amp has been a Line 6 Flextone (which I'm keeping as a backup). The Flextone is very versatile but the Galaxie beats it hands down for real tube warmth.

This is a follow-up to a review I made for this amp a year ago. All of the numeric ratings stay the same as last time, wanted to share some of the amp's history since the first review I submitted.

I had previously mentioned that the noise floor of this amp was improved by using better tubes than those provided by the mfgr. True, but I was still a bit irritated by the remaining noise. Being a Hi-Fi nut, S/N ratio is important to me. I finally opened the unit up, split the heater wiring up after the 6BQ5 outputs and inserted a well-filtered FW bridge circuit to supply the input, reverb driver, reverb recovery and phase inverter stages. The original filament circuit was not referenced to chassis ground, so I created a floating "center tap" for the heater winding with a pair of 100 ohm resistors tied to chassis ground from each side of the pwr trannie's 6V winding. Once this was complete, I discovered why the amp like to "eat" output tubes. A quick check of B+ voltage to the output plates revealed a whopping 360V, way higher than any common 6BQ5 is rated for. I reset the bias for each grid to -17V and installed my last matched pair of Amperex 7189A {6BQ5's on steroids} tubes, and buttoned it up. After the surgery the amp still rates a 8-9 in the tone department but is as quiet as a church mouse. Please, for those of you out there that are not familiar with working with tube equipment, remember that this amp packs more than enough voltage and current to inflict a lethal shock. I previously mentioned I am a tech, and would recommend any changes be made to this amp by someone familiar with working with high-voltage gear.

Other than smoking output tubes, this amp has been fine. after witnessing the internal construction of this amp firsthand, I would not say it's great, but in this day and age, about as good as can be expected for the price. Now that I have leaned up the bias and installed output tubes that can handle the level of B+ voltage in this amp, it should be as reliable as any tube amp. Time will tell...

I don't think the warranty would be in effect after the "elective surgery" I have done to the amp. Being a tech, I don't care, if it craps out I'll trouble-shoot it myself. Too darn bad that Epiphone didn't see the importance of including DC pre-amp heater supplies and decent quality tubes. The amp is a "diamond-in-the-rough", but could have been a real star for their amp line with a bit more careful design. With the inclusion of the DC supplied heater circuit, I can probably go back to Sovtek 12AX7's and not suffer the earlier hum problems... Nah, I don't think so...

I hope this follow-up review and suggestion help out my fellow owners of this potentially fine little amp.

2003 or earlier
Features have been covered below play country,blues and southern rock so features are enough to cover fests and clubs I play. We mic everything it cuts through fine with competing stage volumes of other players would like a master volume control.

Primarily use a nashville tele with tex mex pups and a powerbridge. this amp suits my music style fine nice sparkle. when it first arrived it had the HUM mentioned by all reviewers below. Took it to an authorised service center who replaced a pre-amp tube and hum improved but returned to a lesser degree played with a variety of tubes as others have suggested and settled on a GT12AX7M V-1 a JJ 12AT7 V2 a EH12AY7 V-3 and a EH 12AX7 V-4 and stock power tubes HUM is diminished to a usable level The amp has a great chime nice reverb and when putting a boss Blues driver in front a nice overdrive sound

It seems solidly built more so than my Blues Jr. Carry replacement tubes and fuses. No breakdowns in a year of sporadic use

Epihone / gibson quickly replied to E-mails service center was east to find, quick, thourough and the repair was fully covered by 1 year warranty

Been playing for 18 years semi-professionally have ownes other solid state hybrids and tubes amps and thus far this amp is my favorite. nothing compares to all TUBE sound for my styles of music. I believe it is an exceptional value after tweeking

adequate features ,, controll panel recessed in back making accident changes by rubbing up againt the front impossibe which as ya know is plus on the fly giggin. This is an 04, no channel switching or loop. It does have an external speaker jack and if you don't mind running down the output tubes, pluging in another speaker to your liking puts a nice drag and distortion is possible at lower volumes. This amp is used on the go and at home. I have a con-cork-tion of tubes planted in the amp... more on that below

I have written quite a few reviews for this great review site and usually make a disclaimer at the beginning.. besides having lost quite a few brain cells in the 60's my disclaimer is that early blues, delta and other wise is my criteria for an amplifier and what I try to replicate is old early sounds when electricity was really just used to be heard over the din of the crowd at the juke joints and the distortion wasn't something that was wanted it just happened when the amps were turned up when amps 1st hit the market.. with that said, it didn't take icons like Muddy Waters, Tampa Red, Robert Nighthawk and a long long list of other greats long to realize "hmmm, dis here distortion fills up dem quiet spots when I be playin' alone" I don't think anybody actually said that verbatum but its no lie that it was something that was used because thats what happened when you turned the amp up louder the peeps yakkin in the joints.

The guitars that are guitar I never would part with are the export versions are the American version.. I go to a store get a guitar off the wall .. hold it, feel the action and plug it in without looking at the fine print to find out which country it was made.. My three work house electrics are an Epiphine 57 re-issue with soap bar pups, an Epiphone single cut away hollow with humbuckers and a 1970's re-issue Strat import, each and every guitar mentioned is a great match for this amp. I am surprised by the nice "bounce" it has, a nice touch response not expected, the reverb seems ok to me, only use reverb to emulate players like Junior Kimbrough or players that over-do the reverb purposefully. It does have the dreaded noise spoken by other fine reviewers below but in my case a change of tubes cleared up 90% of the unwanted noise. I have never own a tube amp that had no noise, I'm sure somebody reading has and I say.. I am very happy with your fortune, but at the age of 54 and playing for 40 years with all tube amps from you name to this here Epi, there's always some kinda wierd stuff going on sometimes seemingly for no reason at all, sometimes I think my house is under attack but it turns out to be the amplifier purging itself of gas or flatulations never to happen again, or maybe it will. While I'm on the noise deal, (this is the 3rd time this has happened) I saw this amp sittin around at a local music store for sometime and got kinda dusty which iss usually a sign that it aint being tried out because somethings wrong with it, marked with a ridiculous low price.. you buy it at there cost and they have it fixed for zip.. and 3 times this happened, I bring the amp home knowing somethings going to be wrong, turn it on hear horrible noise, shut it down, change the reverb tube and the amp is happy and so ain't I. I'm not telling anybody that this would be there experience but I paid just a little over $100.00's for it and fixed it with another tube which 9 times out of ten is the problem.. another problem can be extranious signals come from parts unknown around your area, use to have a leaky transformer in front of my house and about 3 or 4 times week it would reak havok on anything I owned whether it be a radio or amplifier. The utility company told me the noise had nothing to do with there equiptment, cut to the chase, a bad car wreck knock down the pole which was replace along with new transformer.. no more noise 3 or 4 times a week.

Ok, back to how it sounds.. for my guitar and the early electric tunes that I try and emulate the sounds of it is a BIG FAT 10.. on the other hand at one time a few years back I got into flat picking (I usually only use a thumb pick if that) and I had a Heritage hollow single cutaway with nice hums and with a Fender Twin the sound was so beautiful it was un-earthy I'm talking beautiful, for T-Bone Walker type sounds or for neck pu for Jazz and a fantastic bell like tone on with the bridge pu when I rolled off a bit of high fre

when I brought it home to it was the pits, but it was the reliability of the tube and not the amp that caused the mischief. If you get into the back of it, obvously its not an old ORANGE amp or whatever, although I wouldn't try it I think it could take a few topples, and if the tubes don't leak it would be not much different the a higher end amp. When I brought it home it was -3 but with not a problem to speack in almost a year its a 10 so far

have not a clue

Lots of great young palyer coming along with short money but BIG talent, just make sure you know what you want and take your guitar with you and although its a pain in the ass go from place to place and hear what the deal is, and a good place to get a feel is here at Harmony Central which more often then not these players give a great indication of there personal experiences which can point you in the right direct and saves much time in narrowing down or enlightning to different amps, there are amny amps here reviewed that I enjoy reading about that I never knew were out there cuz "they ain't in here" ..Rating is based on any price tag under $300.00 and with decent tubes.

Purchased brand new a few weeks ago. Featurues are covered in the other reviews here, so I won't repeat. Definitely wish there was volume and gain instead of just a master volume. I do not care for today's modeling amps that look like the console of the Space shuttle. This amp has good, basic features that allow you a reasonable degree of flexibility.

I typically use this with "power strat" type guitars (like my S/S/H Parker Nite Fly or my S/S/H Charvel) or with semi-hollow body guitars. This is a nice little amp for clean and/or bluesy playing styles.

But it is noisy. You MUST use top quality tubes. It will not forgive if you use second rate pre-amp tubes. The stock pre-amp tubes sounded O.K. - better than say a solid state amp. But the hum they gave off was too much. As others have noted, it will hum like crazy. The stock SOVTEK pre-amp tubes are second rate. I replaced all of the stock pre-amp tubes and noticed a significant reduction in the humming, but I could not eliminate the hum.

I experimented with tons of different tubes. In V1, the new Groove Tubes 12AX7M was the winner. The JJ ECC83S came in second and the JAN Philips 12AX7WA came in third. The Groove Tubes 12AX7M had a rouder tonal quality. The JJ and the Philips had more bite. I also tried Ei 12AX7s, SOVTEK 12AX7, EH 12AX7, Shuguang 12AX7, NOS JAN GE 5751, NOS JAN Philips 5751 and others.

I didn't think twice about putting a JAN Philips 12AT7 in V2, the reverb driver. These tubes are notoriously excellent for that specific job.

V3 is a very interesting story. I noticed that the majority of the hum I was getting came from this tube slot. I tried all of the 12AX7 types mentioned above here, but I also tried Sylvania 12AY7, GE 6072A (military 12AY7), some 12AU7 types and others. The problem with V3 is that too low gain in this tube will compromise the amp's full tonal qualities. This was noticeable immediately even with a 5751, but became more obvious as I tried lesser gain tubes. And because most of the hum was related to this position, any tube that was not top quality stuck out like a sore thumb immediately because it would increase hum. After hours of testing, the JJ ECC 83S that came in second in V1 found a home in V3.

V4 - the phase inverter. An interesting thing was happening here. 12AX7 tubes were giving me a darker tone. As I experimented with 5751s and 12AT7s I noticed that I was getting a slightly brighter tone, which I preferred. I wound up using an NOS GE JAN 5751 here, which happens to be the tube I prefer using for PI duty in most of my clean amps.

In the end: v1 - Groove Tubes 12AX7M, V2 - JAN Philips 12AT7WC, V3 - JJ ECC 83S and V4 - NOS JAN GE 5751.



The Celestion Seventy/80 stock speaker did not sound bad. It has a nice chimey quality that goes well with this amp, but it also has bright, "clank" that gets exaggerated with this amp. I experimented with several other speakers including an Eminence Legend 122 alnico, an Eminence Legend Vl2, Celestion Blue Alnico and others. The winner to my ears was the Reverend Alltone 1250.

The tube changes and the speaker change made a nice difference. I'll be working on the power tubes next.

6 rating stock. 8 with the improvements.

Can't tell yet. Too soon.

E-mailed Gibson about some warranty questions and requesting an owner's manual. They e-mailed me back the next day. No repairs to date, and I hope I don't need any. My experience to date warrants high marks in this category.

I've been a mediocre player since junior high school...for over twenty years. A good sounding amp is an essential part of covering up my playing. Seriously, I've accumulated tons of amps and guitars over the years, but I have always had a real preference - maybe even an affinity - for cheap, low wattage tubes amps that sound good. This amp fits that bill. I don't think it sounds as good as my Hot Rod Deluxes or my Crate VC 50 heads, but it definitely holds its own when it gets called on.

The usual - Bass, Mid, Treb, Reverb knobs. The standby switch is a plus, many amps this size don't have `em.

This sucker sounds incredible with my setup. I won't bore you with the whole list, but my basic rig is a Gibson Les Paul Coppertop -> Fulltone Fulldrive 2 -> Ibanez TS-7 -> BOSS BD-2 Blues Driver -> Galazie 25. I play many variations on the straight-up rock sound, ie. Hootie, Zeppelin, Van Halen, R.E.M., Live, etc. I tend to use effects for overdrive anyway, so the extreme cleanness of the amp is a bonus. Also, this amp is incredibly loud for its wattage. Noticeable volume drop around 2-3, but past that, it SCREAMS.

When I bought the amp it was unusable - it had a terrible hum when powered. This was fixed by simply replacing the awful tubes that came with it with new EL84s, 12AX7s, and 12AT7 to drive the reverb. No more hum, and it sounds better than before.

It was unusable when purchased, but it seems built pretty solidly. Surprisingly good protection around the tubes - not what I expected from Epiphone for a $300 amp.

Never dealt with 'em.

Great amp overall, incredible amp for the price. I've been playing roughly 5 years, and this is the best amp I've had for the money it cost.

Bought on Ebay, probably a '04. I wanted to post my review to add to the hum problem/question. I play mostly blues and the amp is fine for what I want. I don't look for a lot of versatility. I find a good sound and go with that (don't see the need to sound like 5 different people). This is a one channel amp, no effects loop, no headphone jack (who needs it, get a practice amp), great sounding reverb. I use this amp for home practice and jamming. It has more power than any other amp with 2 EL84's that I have ever found, blows away my Blues, Jr and my Tube 30R, I think its on a par with my Hotrod Deluxe. I never understand why people knock down the rating on a amp for lack of features, an amp is designed for a certain purpose and if you want alot of crap on your amp get a piece of crap solid state modeling amp. If you want good tone, get a tube amp, turn it up and groove. This amp has all the features it is supposed to have, but I will knock off a couple points for the cheesey chassis, they wanted it to look good but I think they should have used a stonger gauge metal, if they want to save money paint the chassis and keep the cheap chrome treatment.

I'm not going to list all my guitars I mostly play my Tele... This amp has a very nice sound that suit my style, a blues style, I can't touch him but the tone reminds me of B.B. King, not alot of variety but again it that's not what it was made to do. You might geet a hint of distortion at loud volumes but I can't turn it up more than half way, just too loud and a piercing clean. If I want to drive it more I use a "blue tube" pedal. I personally, don't like alot of distortion just a kiss of overdrive. I would like to say I think the reverb is excellent, especially considering the low buck category of this amp. This is a very subjective catagory what one person loves another could hate. Personnally I love the sound of this amp.

It's a tube amp, should be no problem, if there is I will fix it myself. Here is where I would like to address the issue of hum with this amp. When I received mine it definitly was a hummer. I wouldn't turn the volume past 1 'cause the hum was to loud. I soon as I had the time I pulled the chassis out and the little pots for adjusting the bias are right there. Now if you want to do this be very, VERY CAREFUL. Amp voltages can kill! Anyway I pulled the chassis set it on it's side at the back of the amp and plugged the speaker back in, plugged the guitar in and there was the hum. I choose one of the variable resistors and with a very small phillips screwdriver very slowly turned the resistor and viola! the hum was gone. No changing tubes, no special wiring, nothing else. Now I crank it up to about 5 and jam to my heart's content. I will knock off a couple points here 'cause they should probably do this at the factory.

I emailed customer service at the Gibson website and received the schematic and even an owners manual, turn around time 24 hours. Don't know about factory service, I build amps so I just fix 'em myself. I think it has a 5 year warranty, but since I got my used I didn't get a warranty card so I'm not positive.

I have been playing for 35 years, I have a Hotrod Deluxe, a Blues Jr, a Tube 30R, a Tube 30, a Homebrew 5e3 Deluxe, a Homebrew 5f2a Princeton, and 3 or 4 other miscellaneous amps I have made. Out of all my amps this is second to the Hotrod Deluxe. This is a great amp for the money, especially if you find one used. If you don't need alot of features and don't need to imitate 7 other guitar player you should check this out. Yes, there are better amps out there, but nothing in this price range sounds this good. If I lost this I would find another one in a heartbeat. I love the retro look, it sounds great and it's a great value.

2003 - Galaxie 25
25-Watt All Tube Guitar Amplifier, 12AX7, 12AT7, EL84, Tube Reverb, 3-Band EQ, Master Volume Control, Stand-By Switch, 12" Celestion Speaker, External Speaker Out, Blue Tolex Cover, Switchable 115/220 Volts.
Some will find this very limited (especially with the single input and no pre gain).... but I'm bumping up its rating based on the fact that its supposed to be a simple stright foward vintage-style tube amp

I'm mostly a Jazz, rock/blues player. I run a telecaster and a vintage Epiphone Emperor with floating pickup.

Suits my style of play perfectly. Super SUPER clean. You really can't get this thing to distort even with every knob cranked to 10. I've always been more of a pedal hound or outboard effect in the mix kinda guy... so I want the cleanest reproduction of the sound of the guitars coming from the amp.

ISSUE: I read these reviews beforehand about the noise and I'd say many of them didn't do it justice. It was UNUSABLE as it came from the factory. I've heard hair-dryers from the 60's that are quieter (and I don't mean the hand held variety... I'm talking the chairs like your mom uses in the salon where you have the big plexiglass dome you pulldown over your head.. picture that with someone playing a guitar quietly about 60 feet from you and you'll have an idea of how bad this thing was) I won't go in to too much detail unless someone really wants to know, but I had the amp properly biased (that didn't fix it) replaced the pre amp tubes (still no love) had the entire amp basically re-wired (which actually made a lot of progress towards fixing it ... 80% there) and converted to DC heaters (Eureka at the end... now stuidio quiet... I mean I can turn every knob on the amp to 10 and you almost wouldn't know its on except for a very light electric hiss, but definitely better than about every tube amp I've ever owned). So, 150 dollars later, I am ecstatic about the sound of the amp... smooth, very creamy clean sound that is hyper-responsive to the player.

The amp is ridiculously responsive to your attack on the strings. You almost "play" the amp like its an extension of your guitar. Some may even find it too responsive... As metaphor: If you're looking for a Lexus (with onboard computer to correct your mistakes and interpret how you "mean" to be driving), this isn't your amp. If you're looking for a good old fashioned british sports car (where you can feel every pebble in the road and the accelerator translates every micro-centimeter of travel in to horespower), you'll love this thing.

I wrote epiphone a very long winded (like this isn't?) version of the above and perhaps they'll actually do something about it. But, DO NOT buy this amp unless you're prepared to have it worked on. if your looking for reasonably priced no-brainer tube amp... check out the Peavey Classic 30. I don't think the Peavey has the potential for outstanding sounds this amp does, but it will sound darn good straight off the showroom floor.

Now that the work is completed I'd give it a 10 out of 10 for sound... but I want to make sure that anyone considering this model knows what they are getting in to.

Really just got it... and since I had some extensive mods done I can't really comment on the reliability... Also, since the work I had done on it was of the void-your-warranty type I don't think it would be fair to comment on this particular aspect.

Like I said, I got in touch with customer support through Gibson Musical instruments and recieved 1. Form letter just to let me know that my email was in the queue and 2. A short email from a real person assuring me that the issue was being addressed. I'm going to rate it in the middle of the road (5). Some companies' might not even give you the warm fuzzy of the email response... but I'm not going any higher on the rating till I hear that the amps have actually improved.

Again... overall from the factory I would have given this thing about a (2) but after taking the time and money to "fix" it I'd give it a (10)... I'm going to average the two and rate it a (6) merely because it really does have the potential of being a great amp.

Ok, so I thought I would put in a little note about fixing the hum in this amp. (It seems this is the only info on the net about it.)

The one thing that I did that made a difference and was very simple only involved lead dress. I unsoldered the power transformer and twisted the wires and soldered them back. This made a big difference in the hum in the amp and also the reverb. I also changed the amp to DC heaters, but this was a more subtle change. If anyone wants the schematic for the DC heater mod, just email me.

I didn't comment any on the sound, since I only had it on my bench for a few days.

Great sounding amp with a tendency for noise issues. I thought I'd have to live with the noise to enjoy the tone but found a fix thanks to input from others and a willingness to work the problem.

The Galaxie's tone compares very favorably to much more costly amps. I also own a Fender Custom Vibrolux and a TopHat Ambassador. The Galaxie isn't going to replace either of these amps but I'd be very comfortable using the Galaxie 25 for smaller gigs.

Let's get back to the noise issue. This amp was unusable when I originally received it. It had a hum that was LOUD! It's always a good idea to think first and panic later so I decided to try swapping a few preamp tubes to reduce the hum. I initially ended up replacing 3 preamp tubes that did reduce the noise but didn't eliminate it. I also replaced the phase inverter tubes and EL-84's with a quality matched set.

I read in Harmony Central that there were two bias trim pots that could be adjusted to reduce hum that could be caused by an incorrectly biased amp. I decided to take the amp in to the local tube amp guru to have this done scientifically. I'm sure that the amp was biased correctly but when I got it back the hum was still there.

Other posts discussed the reverb a factor in the hum issue...without mentioning which tube drives the reverb. Perhaps you have a tube chart for the Galaxie 25 but I didn't receive one. The 12AT7 that drives the reverb is the V2 or the second tube from the input jack side of the chassis. After removing the tube in V2 an powering up the Galazie 25 I was thrilled to find that there was NO HUM! (No reverb either but I was making progress.) I installed a new 12AT7 in V2 and fired up the amp and presto I had reverb and the amp was still hum free. However my amp originally had a 12AX7 in V2 and that gave the preamp a fatter more compressed tone that I happen to like. I recently ordered a Sovtek 5751 preamp tube that has about 70% of the gain of a 12AX7 so I tried that tube to drive the reverb and that substitution kept the amp quiet yet gave me the bloom I originally had when the amp was humming. Victory!

Time will tell. I'll be using this amp daily since I can get great tones out of this amp at very reasonable levels. I'll also be gigging with this amp at smaller venues.

Thank heavens for Harmony Central!

The moral of the story is that this is a great design that ships with tubes that must not be run through any form of QA.

Gibson/Epiphone better start shipping these with good tubes or get ready for a black eye.

The tone is a 10 after you retube and rebias.

I have to dock Gibson/Epiphone 5 points for shipping these amps in this condition. (I think I'm being kind with this rating.)

Epiphone Galaxie 25 Tube Amp - presumable made in 2003
This is a basic 25 watt tube amp - only one channel - cool retro look - tone controls inclued treble, mid range, bass and reverb control.
It also has an extension speaker jack & a reverb footswitch jack (footswtich did not come with amp)as well as a standby switch. Finally, is also has a 110volt/220volt switch in the back, which is damaged - (the only part of the amp that was damaged during shipment!!)
These features suit me fine. The only extras I wouldn't mind having are tremolo & headphone jack - (Headphone jacks don't usually come with tube amps, anyway, so no big deal there!)
For what I paid for this amp, the tone is well worth it!!! I'll give this amp a 7 because it doesn't have all the bell & whistles that amps nowadays offer, but that doesn't make this amp a bad value!!!

I use a 70's strat with stock pickups, a 70's ES-335 with stock humbucking pickups, and a burns marquee reissue with stock pickups (my bottleneck slide toy!!). They all sound very good through tis amp. I play mostly blues, swing, pop & jazz, and this amp handles all of these styles pretty well, blues & classic rock the best,.... don't count on this amp for industrial strength metal, though...(at least not without a petal!!)
Here's where mine differs from all of the others - most reviews I have read concerning this amp address a loud buzz or hum or however they describe it. Mine appears to be the exception to the norm. Mine is very quiet, even with the reverb cranked way up....(the reverb sounds great, by the way!!)
However, it also differs in that other reviews tell about how loud this amp is. As good as mine does sound, it just doesnt have the balls of my Fender DRRI of Peavey Classic 30. (I guess I'm kinda spoiled...these are both great amps!!) They are rated at 22 watts and 30 watts, respectively, and they are both considerably louder than the Galaxie 25, which is rated at 25 watts. (The Galaxie 25 also seem to break up at a lower volume level thatn the other amps, too!!)
Maybe they just have shitty tubes, or maybe the 110volt/220volt switch being damaged has something to do with it. As you can surmise, I am technically challenged when it comes to the mechanics of these amps. All I know is I plug into a tube amp with my guitars and it usually sounds better thatn that solid state stuff!!!
The lack of balls is somewhat of a dissapointment, but i feel this amp has really good potential because of its agreeable tonal qualities.
I an quite sure this thing can be souped up to become quite a little monster!!!

I tried to get an owner's manual through Epiphone online (since I got this at a cut rate because it was slightly damaged, it didn't come with a warranty), but their site dosen't appear to be very user friendly (For lack of a better term!!) Since I have no warranty, I'm not expecting too much from Epiphone!!

See above

I've been playing for 30 years, and for most of those years I used a Music Man RD110. that, for the money, and only one tube, was a great amp. Since then I've been through Line 6 Flextones (ok, but, too much effects for me & besides, why copy tube amps sounds when the real thing is much better???), Fender DRRI (still my fave!!), and a Peavey Classic 30 (this one is worth checking out, too!). I bought this amp out of curiosity, and hopefully to use when I go on vacation to check out open blues jams, etc...I can probably mike it, but I would rather make improvements to realize the potential that this am has. If anyone can enlighten me as to what i can do to improve this bad boy, (i.e., tubes, transformers, rectifiers please e-mail me at the e-mail address listed below. Thanks.......

2003 model, made in Korea & ships out in a box from Kalamazoo.

This amp is not weighed down with lots of features, and that was why I bought it. Single chanel, all tube (AB circuitry), decent plate reverb, 25 LOUD watts through a celestion speaker, the standby switch is a useful feature you wouldn't expect on an amp in this price range.

Although I'm happy with this amp I would be interested in a 'Galaxie Twin' with two 10s or 12s as the case may be. An effects loop would be a nice feature though not absolutely necessary. The only surprising omission was a headphone jack.

Product design on the amp is great. They are only available now in black, though I would have preferred blue. Simple control panel with a large on/off light that casts a cool red glow.

It sounds pretty good with my three main guitars: a Nashville Deluxe Telecaster (3 single coils), a Epiphone Dot Elite (humbuckers) and a Rickenbacker 360-6 (humbuckers). Play shoegaze-influenced melodic indie rock where the amp is overdriven and run through some modulation effects.
I agree there is some buzz from the reverb circuitry but I use an EH Holier Grail for a deeper reverb. I am going to investigate switching out the tubes from the Sovteks to electro harmonix ones pretty soon.

The three tone controls are useful at dialing in sounds. It's not a muddy sounding amp at any volume. It can get VERY loud and stay clean. I use a Vox valvetone OD to break it up (gorgeous pedal).

I can attest to another comment that there is a volume drop around 2 or 3. Under 3 is very quiet, but it's loud enough that I never turn it past 6 when practicing with a full band & drummer.

Seems well made and has handled moderate use for the last couple months I've had it. I would gig without a backup but do not plan on using this in live situations.

Cannot comment on service, but the Epiphone website is TERRIBLE.

I've been playing a few years now. I bought this amp to keep at my studio so that I can leave my Vox twin reverb at home. Side by side, they're not at all the same animal, but this one's got plenty of play. They've been showing up on Ebay really cheap, and I've been thinking about picking up a second to run in stereo. For the price range and the quality of construction, I don't think you can find much better.

This is just an addendum report to the other reviewers who have experienced hum and noise issues with the Galaxie 25. I would like to suggest a simple fix for this issue.

Sound is as expected with all tube amps, very good. Reminds me of an Ampeg Geminii II I owned in the 60's. I too had issues with hum, especially with the reverb section. The amp comes spec'ed with Sovtek (Suktek ?)tubes. I immediately swapped out the reverb driver and recovery tubes with "new old stock" 6201/12AT7's available @ Antique Electronics. This took care of all of the reverb section hum, regardless of the depth setting. Some residual (not excessive) hum remained even with the reverb section bypassed. I simply changed the input 12AX7A (Sovtek) with a new JJ/Tesla ECC83, this lowered the noise floor to a very respectable level. I found the Sovtek 6BQ5 output tubes inoffensive and will change them later when required. I can recommend this amp after replacing the reverb and front-end tubes.
I can't comment on the phase inverter tube, since I am flying with the supplied Sovtek 12AX7, although hum is not usually an issue this far down in the circuit. The sound of this amp is very good with both single-coil and humbucker p'ups. If you are looking for heavy distortion, plan on using a distortion pedal, this little amp is surprizingly clean, the natural clipping obtained is great for blues, but not shredding.

Can't comment yet, but the exterior build quality seems very nice. The amp I have was built in Korea, which has a reasonably mature electronics industry, which bodes well for longevity.

Not a bad buy other than the lousy tubes supplied with unit. Factor in the cost of at least the 2 12AT7's and one real 12AX7 to kill the hum issue when comparison shopping. Hope this info is useful on this little amp.

I'm submitting another review after my first one down at the bottom of this page...
Since having a broken reverb, i've replaced it with an accutronics reverb pan, and modded this amp a little more to my liking. I bought a weber Blue Dog speaker,and a dual-rectifer mod kit from torresengineering.com, and NOW i'm getting the sound i was looking for. The speaker came first, and it adds a clearly defined but dark sound to the mix. (this coming from a guy who has only stuck to halfstacks!) I plugged this amp into my 4X12 with vintage 30's, and then back into the weber speaker, installed in the combo, and actually preferred the 1 speaker in the open backed combo! it sounds much fuller, much richer, just plain BIGGER than the 4X12. (if that makes sense.) but enough on the speaker. I had two 5y3 rectifer tubes installed and the old solid state rectifier pulled out, and now this amp is incredibly responsive. I actually sold my Marshall dual channel JCM800 because i like the sound of this so much better. You just play lightly, even with the volume cranked, and it's clean and chimey, just strum harder to get more distortion. The harder you play, the harder this amp barks at you. i'm amazed. It does get pricey for all of these modifications, but this amp is a steal! try out some different options with it, you just might like what you hear.

This amp is now perfect, at least for me. By this time, this amp has now cost me over $800, with all the stuff i have done with it, but i've got my tone, and i still spent less than an amp that would do it new.

TO anoyonmus that just posted can I am a computer tech sprung up from a TV tech can you give me a more detailed ajustment procedure via my email truthm@bendcable.com I just bought this amp and love the tones it puts out but the buzz is deafing especially when you turn reverb up. need Help I dont want to return this heavy beast. As far as features this amp is basic tube model no gain no second channel just bass treble and reverb volume of course and you are going to need it cause this will blast you out of your house. no kidding. I Rate 7 cause love to see another channel and gain for distortion but hey I got a GNX 2 and awesome

Beautiful is all I can say just beautiful tones. Plus 25W hummm its much much louder than my 65W Princeton CHours amp.

DOnt know yet due to problem unsolved about humm and buzz.

Customer support seems pretty good so far two emails and two replies within 2 days. They gave me a tip to eliminate buzz but reversing REVERB in and out leads this helped emensly now reverb control has no effect on the BUZZ and humm and its been cut in half. but still there.

Been playing for 10 yrs Ive owned crate fender princeton, By far this amp is the best sound Im rating a 7 but may change that to a 9 if buzz is fixed

The hum in the amp is due to an improper bias setting on the output stage. The amp uses separate bias potentiometers for each tube. This is a nice feature that allows the user to use unmatched tubes but get a very balanced output. The current should be set independently on each tube to 23mA. If the tubes are drawing uneven current there will be a hum in the output. This adjustment can be made in 15 minutes and will make a huge difference in the output of the amp. With this set properly the amp is very quite. Just make sure that both tubes current draw are set as close to each other as possible. This is not a problem per say with the amp but just an improper set up.

Since this adjustment can be dangerous if you do not have experience working on amps take it to a good service tech to perform the adjustment.

2003, Blue tolex (and I dig the blue!); one-channel, three-way EQ (bass, mid, high), reverb (more on that later!). Single 12" Celestion, 25w. Plenty of power for the small club gigs I play. Nice retro styling, solidly constructed and no heavier than you'd expect from a tube amp of this size. I don't need any bells & whistles, but a full-on rocker might want a second, switchable channel.

I'm playing fairly straight-ahead jazz, duets w/ bass player and trio with bass/drums/guitar. I run either an Epiphone Alleycat semihollow or an Ibanez Artcore AF75 through this thing. Humbuckers on both, so should be whisper quiet. Unfortunately, the Eppy has a nasty hum that I've tracked to the reverb stage. I've switched out the tubes, but that only makes a bit of difference. I think it might be a shielding issue, but I've been having too much fun playing to do much about it yet, and it's only a problem if I use the reverb. I've been running an outboard reverb unit so far, with no complaints.

Absent the reverb-related noise problem, the amp's tone is gorgeous at any volume I'm liable to try. Loud and clear at 1.5-2.5, and I've pushed it no louder than about 5 in a small club. Everyone remarks on the warm tone and clear articulation, so I'm happy there. I don't usually use distortion, but I have a feeling this is the wrong amp for real crunch.

I'm dumping the rating for sound a bit because of the hum. Absent that annoying 60cycle buzz, this is a 10 on my scale. Even so, if I bypass the reverb, it's everything I'd hoped it'd be.

I've only owned this amp for a couple of weeks, and I've only played out with it a few times. The housing seems solid, the design is logical, with nothing much hanging out where it can get snapped off or anything. I'm impressed with the protection of the tubes; noting cheezy there. I've used it on gigs with no backup, and so far it's been trouble free. I carry a couple of spare tubes and a fuse, just in case.

I'm worried about the hum. As the amp is still under warranty, I may either send it back for another or try to get warranty repair. I don't like messing with wiring, and I suspect that's the problem.

I'll hold off on rating this until I've used this thing for at least six months; but I suspect it'll hold up nicely.

I'll leave off rating this, since I haven't yet tried to press Epiphone. I'll let you know how it all shakes out.

I played for about 15 years before hanging it up for graduate school, about twelve years ago. Recently begun playing again, so this is the first amp I've owned since selling my 100w Marshall head.

Even assuming the reverb-related hum problem to be endemic to the model (and I think any hum can be solved by the right tech!), I love this amp. Fun to look at, wonderful warm tone, great articulation on chorded and single note passages, easily portable but powerful enough for a small club gig. If I decide to send this one back for a replacement, I'll keep the replacement, even if it still hums. I'll just use an outboard reverb and call it good until I can get an amp tech to do appropriate voodoo and cure it. The rest of the package is more than enough for me. And I cannot imagine much more for $350!

The rating is really idiosyncratic for me. An amp is all about tone and articulation for me, not volume or crunch. This one just "feels" right, and hearing it makes me want to play.

Epiphone Galaxie 25, made in 2003, just before they switched from black to blue tolex. i'm glad i got the prior, having a blue amp is a bit too showy for me. Single channel, volume and tone controls, (no gain knob), and reverb control..
25 watts, all tube..
I'm more of a two channel kind of guy, but i can make do.
A gain knob would have been nice, but a distortion pedal would do the trick, i guess....

This amp is brutal for a practice amp. I bought it expecting a little combo i could turn up and roar on at moderate levels, and i've yet to turn the volume past three. It is unbelievably loud for 25 watts. Louder than i remember my marshall half stack being at 7 or 8.
Volume control is strange, though. It will be silent until about 1.5 or 2, and then it jumps in fairly loud. I tried running a booster pedal into the front end, but it just made it louder with a little grit, i've yet to figure out how to get this thing to distort. The harder i've pushed it, the more it sparkles, which really isn't so bad. I've pegged the volume for a split second here and there, and it's just...incredibly loud. No distortion at all. Strange..... Reverb is weak, i'll get into that later.
Sound wonderful for what it IS doing, though. Beautiful bouncy clean, even with the stock tubes. Strum a chord and it chimes like bells.

This is where this amp's rating gets hurt. It DOES have hum, as all amps do, but i have a feeling my power tubes are messed up or something. I've switched out all the preamp tubes, but i've yet to touch the 12AT7 driving the reverb or the EL84s. the reverb pan is mounted to the base of the amp, so it picks up vibrations right off of the floor, and this can lead to some serious noisiness. As far as my reverb goes, as far as i can tell, it's busted. it was faint when i first got it, and now i just get a wave of feedback when i run up the level on the reverb knob, so i'm going to try swapping out the 12AT7, and if that doesn't work, mounting some padding in between the reverb and the base of the amp.
The amp itself works fine otherwise, no complaints for 350 bucks.

It's a nice sounding amp, and the price is unbelievable. Even with the busted reverb, which i'll get fixed, i feel this amp is a steal.