Epiphone Pacemaker

Built in 1965 I think. It was dead when I got it???a freebie.
Features? Please! On/Off switch and ???loudness???, 2 input jacks. You???re on your own for the rest.
Point to point wiring. Not your typical types of tubes and some one-off components inside too???.old school Gibson style???.you don???t find them built like this these days???not for under a couple of grand anyway. One twin stage preamp tube. Two 6AQ5S power tubes in a push-pull setup deliver a whopping 8 watts of power. With a new Jensen P10R (the original speaker was toast) and the new power tubes I installed, it???s pretty loud. I will gig with it, but I haven???t had a chance to yet. Miked it would definitely be gigable. It sounds incredible in my garage right now. Wish I could put in a sound byte right here.

I had to replace 3 filter caps and the speaker (ran some real stranded speaker wire as well???big difference). I plugged in my garage sale special???a Yamaha Strat/Pacifica type thing with 2 stacked single coils and a split humbucker in the bridge (never much in the way of tone), turned it on and WOW. Is this thing bright or what? With the original power tubes in it, this little amp has some SPANK! In your face presence, man. All of a sudden, my Yamaha POS has tone???and chime. Country as hell???hand me my Telecaster there, boy. And with all the controls dimed (the volume on the guitar and the loudness on the amp), it has some smack. Like Peter Green???s original ???Oh Well??? tone. Really! But something sounded weak and like it was fixing to let go, so, rather than fry some resistors???I bought a set of 11 power tubes on Ebay for 25 bucks plus shipping (try and find a deal like that on some 6V6???s ) and started experimenting. I put in the two newest looking tubes and now it has allot more balls, but a little less spank to the tone???I kept the original tubes though, cause there ain???t nothing even close to that initial tone. Tweed on steroids!

Well, the speaker is breaking in, now and I???ve played my guitarsenal through it for a while so here???s my take on the sound:
The cheap Yamaha sounds like a real Strat now???switch between the middle and neck pickups and it sounds just chimey as can be. Bridge and in between really has some bite???and I thought that guitar was punk. Wonder what a real Strat would sound like???why did I pawn that one I had back in ???83???.
My 65 Fender Mustang sounds incredible through this amp??? SRV tones. Unbelievable. It???s like this little amp just opened up a whole new tone palate for me.
I have a Gibson Marauder with some old DiMarzio humbuckers in it???really dark sound normally. Well. the bass is just much for this amp with everything maxed out (guitar volume and amp loudness). But back both off a bit and it cleans up just enough for you to enjoy sustain for days and great tone too???again, the presence of this thing is just unreal.
Lastly, I put my 73 LP Deluxe through, and Cinderella said, ???this one is just right???. Compared to my Deluxe Reverb that is kind of bassy and flabby with the stock 12??? Eminence, the 10??? Jensen is mega-tight. It really works well with this combination. I back out some highs on the tone pots, and we have sound as it is meant to be???and sustain close to the verge of feedback. I love the Jensen speaker. It???s certainly a big part of why this amp honks so cool. That and the oversized filter caps I had to use probably don???t hurt any. Stock caps were rated at 350V but I couldn???t find any, so I put some in rated at 500V. Capacitance values are the same so it all works.
I???ve got a LP Special with the P-100???s in it. Not too jazzed on those, but I???m betting that P-90???s are gonna sound just perfect through this amp, so I guess it???s time to come off my wallet and swap the P-100s out for some Seymour Duncans.

Considering it was DOA when I got it, who knows how long it???ll go before it craps out? It sure sounds healthy now, but I???ll bring my DRRI anyway because my drummer is freakin??? LOUD!
After 40 some odd years, filter caps are gonna deteriorate, especially sitting in a nice hot and humid garage in Houston. I???m guessing the Jensen speaker will hold out forever since it???s rated at 25 watts and in an 8 watt amp. I???ll run the amp till it breaks and then fix it again. I???ll give it a 7 just because the jacks weren???t even corroded when I got it. I???ll bet it all holds up just fine.

The schematic is in Aspen Pittman???s ???Tube Amp Book???.
There aren???t 30 components in the whole thing.
Torres Engineering, Gerald Weber, and Ebay have all the parts.
Radio Shack has the soldering iron.
What???s a warranty???

This amp is the tone machine I???ve been looking for. I???ve played through ???Boutique Amps??? that haven???t got half this much soul. It won???t break your back moving it, and the 10??? Jensen makes the whole system tight as can be. Again, this amp has presence to the max. My Space Echo kind of tones that down a bit, but it ain???t easy. It has it???s own little quirks you have to make allowances for. I don???t think you???d want to put your tube screamer into it. If my humbuckers can overload the inputs on this, I hate to think about what a Superfuzz or Big Muff would do.
It???s easy to work on though. Not much there to mess up if you use the basic tube amp safety procedures (see Torres Engineering website).
One of the guys that work for me gave me this amp???said it was taking up space in his garage. He gets a raise this year. This thing is just crying to be heard now.

1965.
Same as Gibson GA-5 Crestline.
Volume, off/on switch and pilot light.
10 inch speaker.
2 inputs, one to the right is higher gain.
Class AB.
8-12 watts.

With original 43 year old tubes, original cheap speaker and after a cap job I give it 8.
Since the amp has no tone control you control your tone with your guitar.
It can go from overly bright to muddy bassy and anything inbetween.
This is not a bright amp unless you use the bridge pickup of full treble.
Nice variety of sounds.
Breaks up around 7 on amp.
Max on guitar.
It can go from nice clean to ZZ Top distortion.

I replaced the tubes and installed a Weber VST P10R 10-100T speaker.
I replaced the 6AQ5s with 6005's (power tubes).
Smoothed the tone out.
The Weber speaker gave me more bottom and midrange and more volume.
This amp is loud enough to play with a drummer but at louder gigs and jams it should be mic'ed with a SM-58 or equilivelent.
I never give anything a 10 but this amp with new tubes, caps and speaker is just the sound I have wanted for decades.
My other amp is a 20 year old Marshall 50 watt tube half stack.

With new tubes, caps, speaker and grounded cord it should last another 45 years if cared for.

43 yeas old

It is light weight, easy to carry, looks cool, sounds fantastic and is loud enough to gig with.

I have been looking for an old class AB amp with 6V6's or equlvalant (6AQ5-6005) for years.
The collectors make it impossible for a player to afford a nice Fender or Gibson amp.
I paid what I feel is top buck for an old amp.
The amp is absolutely mint.
Not a mark on it and it was totally original.
It was advertised to have a loud hum.
This is expected in any old, original amp because shelf life of electrolytic capacitors is less than 20 years.
Caps cost me $14 and took less than an hours work.
Weber speaker cost $80 used.
I am a player, not a collector and this amp is being played at rehearsals and gigs.
It is exactly what I want.
I have not heard a better sounding amp.
It weighs about 25 pounds and is the size of a Fender Princeton...but much cooler looking and sounding.
I take my Marshall to the big gigs otherwise this amp goes where ever I go.
If you should buy any old amp be sure to replace the filter caps, replace the old inefficient speaker and keep fresh high quality tubes in it.
The preveous reviews saying that the amp is bright, noisy, tonelss etc are from people who did not take the time out to bring the amp up to date.
Definately worth the investment and time.
Since this amp is exactly what I want in a small amp I have to give it a 10.

Made in 196-65. One volume, one tremolo. Single 6" speaker (CTS?). Pair 6BQ5 power tubes and pair of 12ax7/au7. 1 Guitar & 1 Mic inout. Standard budget amp for the day. Point to point hand wired. About 12 watts.

Nice clean sound, strat plays with snappy tones and lots of brightness. This is pretty bright in general, since there is no tone control, i use a pedal with tone backed down to 3. Sounds like older champ but brighter with LOTS of presence. Blues and country tones shine.

Recapped after 30 years, thats all it needed. Original tubes were working fine.

Gibson actually mailed me a schematic (Original diagram dated 196?'s Xereox)with a phone call. WoW.

Nice addition to collection if sparkly clean tones is your thing. I bought broken for $25 and repaired for under $100. Was a Bad filter cap due to its age. Much better than a Old champ for the money. Esentially its a gibson falcon for lots less $$.

ha ha it's perfect, one knob is you need, your tone comes from you finger tips, true rock-n-roll

extremely detail, got more detail then my fender deluxe, i love it, i would never get rid of it.

not much to break

been playing for a few years and went through a 2 vintage peavy amps one 15 combo and a head, a fender deluxe and some odd number but this quite a find and it's my love

two great features on and volume. the best feature is fine tube distortion. the only thing it lacks is reverb. no vegamatic here on and volume models or simulates nothing a one trick pony

two thumbs way up it has the headroom of an 83 chevette dimed this bugger sounds sweet being a reverb junkie will have to buy external reverb sounds great with ts9 and a 10 expandora or boss dirt sounds great with just a cord balls deluxe without rippin your head off amp is very quite idling on ten.

so far so good have tortured it with heavy dirt and it doesnt seem to mind that at all

its a mid 60 s amp

i have been playing for over 30 years and have owned alot of amps guitars and effect pedals this amp is truly a fine a score if you can find one buy it. mine will never be for sale. I paid 40 and spent the same getting new filter caps put in it this would not be an amp you would want to be jamming with a heavy handed drummer your clean sound would be skinny.in that case i would use uncle biters vibro verb

This is in fact a 1962 Epiphone Pacemaker(Made in U.S.A. Kalamazoo, Michighan)- its debut year- 50s Champ Amp knock-off valve amp, this is the one with the brownish gold grille cloth with the old epi logo on the upper right, leather strap handle, 10 inch celestion speaker,3 knobs in the back- volume, tremelo, power on/off, 2 inputs, probably about 8 to 10 watts. I found it on the bottom of a bunch of crap practice amps from the 80s & 90s at Daddy's Junky Music in Dedham, MA for $200. WOW WHAT A FIND. Manager at Daddy's was mad he didn't see it before me- I giggled in his face.

Great for practice and recording as it is a quiet amp, but don't let this be a detraction- excellent tube tone.

Volume to half way and i get a great, well balanced clean tone that reveal what pickups are really made out of. A little over half way and it is a blues machine. Over that, a sweet sounding AC/DC,Iggy and the Stooges classic rock crunch distortion that actually is very very usable. Not much tone control variety with only the volume knob, but still a very very good tube "champ amp" style tone. I have had it for a little over a week and the sound is growing on me like a fungus! Very good for a blues musician or a singer, songwriter indie rocker like me! Humbuckers are ok with it, but any FENDER strat or guitar with P90s sounds simply amazing. My Epi Les Paul jr (single P90) and Gibson SG Classic (2 P90s) are perfect with this amp, teles sound thin and lifeless with it for some reason.
some noise on high gain, but not bad at all. Meant to be played as is, but you can always use pedals with it I guess.

Well, not sure, but considering this amp is over 40 years old and is still in this good of shape, it should last for a while. It is even outlasting the Fender Blues Jr I bought 6 months ago- the thing already needs to be rebiased- cooks tubes into toast for breakfast!!!

this is from a different era of Epiphone- so today's company probably does'nt care. my father is an electrical/mechanical engineer- works on all of my amps for free and they come out awesome! I need him to pass the knowlege down.

Been playing for a solid 14 years (since I was 10) self taught. have owned all popular guitar brands Fenders, Gibsons, crappy squires/epiphones, 68' silver face Fender Bandmaster head with 4x12 celestion loaded cab, fender blues Jr w/ celestion vintage 30 driver, Vox Pathfinder 15R (great little amp!!!!), have owned several other garbage brands as well. Butt load of effects.

I wish this amp just had a little more juice, say like 20 WATTS!!! I just really love the sound of it and I wish I could use it live.

For the posterity and coolness of the find alone I give it a 9, but when I actually turned it on with a strat and a les paul jr, GOOD GOD- I give it a 10! Great amp. You forget about it while you play- any equipment you can do that with and the music is coming from your heart.

Mine's a 1964 Pacemaker HEAD ONLY. The top was chopped of the original 1x10" combo. It's an all tube 15 watts amp. I use a 70's Vox Escort with a 12" Celestion as a speakerbox. It has just three knobs: on/off, loudness (not "volume"!) and tremelo frequency, but thatls all you need. I use a Danelectro Fish & Chips equalizer for the missing tone controls. I use it mainly for 60's beat and blues. Nice crunchy sound. Volume's just right for rehearsals (drowns the drummer) and for live work I mike it up through the PA system.

I use a variety of guitars: a 1962 Gibson Les Paul Junior (SG), a 1964 Gretsch Clipper and a 1958 Fender Duo-Sonic a.o. This amp has a nice crunch to it, but never distorts too much, even at 11.

Although it is over 40 years old it never fails to work. Old craftsmanship. I ALWAYS take a backup solid state amp with me ever since I saw a Dutch top group abandon the stage in the middle of a gig as they had no spare amp! That was a reissue Fender Bassman, but the Pacemaker always works........................

This amp was built in the Gibson factory in Kalamazoo, Michigan in 1964 (Gibson bought Epiphone way back in '56 I think). Haven't had to deal with them as the amp always works. You can find schematics on the net anyway.

I have been playing over 35 years now (started way back in the 60's) and I have owned dozens of amps from Marshall tube stacks to brandnew solid state amps. This is the best little amp I've ever owned.

a twin review
i have one with and without trem
so
1 volume and power switch
1 volume and trem speed
not a lot of versitility
but i'm happy

i changed both amp's speakers to naylor 1040's
best thing one could ever do!!
the one with out trem is god!!!
no bullshit between your amp and you
6eu7's rule!! fuck 12ax7's-- so thin
12au7's kill them also but i digress
this is my favorite amp and i have a 55 bassman a 65 basssman
a 68 plexi and an old traynor as well as old class A gems from-silvertone gibson danelectro montgomery wards and kalamazoo
i always pick the epi

thy are from 62!!
and still work!!!!!!!!!!!

i think it's gibson and has been from 60 on

in tri-stereo it's god
tri strereo is pacemaker w/trem on left-55 les paul jr amp middle-pacemaker w/out trem right w/3out's from a stereo chorus into stereo delay---heaven

This amp is VERY simple. It only has a volume knob and an on/off switch, a replacable fuse, one 10" speaker, and 1 (I think) 4" tweeter. The tweeter may not be original since it is not mentioned on the other reviews. Bought it at an antique store without tubes and bad power caps. After replacing these, I now have about $80-$100 in it.

This amp sounds very clean and good for what it is: a low power simple vintage tube practice/recording amp. The other reviews are correct in that this amp is very bright and trebley. Used alone with no effects, it would be good for rockabilly or country (sounds like early Johnny Cash). Would also be great with a reverb unit and a Strat or Tele. I use it by lining out of my Carvin x-100b through the preamp out to the Epiphone to add brightness to my sound. The amp does make some noise when used in this way, I think because the peamp on the Carvin is HOT. I can't get any of the overdrive at higher volumes that the other reviewers have mentioned. I get a little fuzz, but overall it's still a very bright, clean sound at higher volumes.

Despite the poor condition I found it in, I still trust this amp will work when I turn it on. Any of the problems it had are typical for older amps and are easily fixed. There is not much to it! I could probably even play it in the bathtub or in the rain! I think I'll go try that right now! (I am a professional. Don't try this at home!)

Customer support for Gibson was very courteous and informative. I initially contacted them to try to date the amp based on it's serial #, but they did not really have very accurate records for the period on its Epiphone Amps, and could only tell me that it was from the early to mid sixties. They did, however, have the schematic on file for the Tremolo version of the amp and kindly emailed it to me in case I ever need it. I was thinking of modifying the one I have with the Tremolo circuit. Yes, they even talked to me about a 40-year-old amp!

I have been playing for 12+ years, have owned lots of different amps and guitars, and I like this amp because of its brightness and tube tone. It is perfect for use in conjuction with other amps that have more bass response for a good, full, stereo sound. I kind of like the fact that all the tubes it uses are not very conventional for amps, because of the subtle sound differences, but dislike it because some of them could become increasingly difficult to find. If this amp were lost of stolen, I'd probably try to find another tube amp from the era. I might try to find one that had the Tremolo built in, or get a vintage Gibson, Silvertone, or Fender.

great one knob loudness...
no-body can get that wrong

i canibillised it .put the the amp in a rack with my dod 31 band eq
wired before the pre amp and my mesa v-twin before the power amp
run it through a 64 vox 2x12 ext cab (im thinking of getting a 15"
speaker cab ) cause i used the bass players (dont tell trevor) but to much mud need somekind of cross over

i use this live all the time but for practice i have my beloved ac 30
he"s even older the pacemaker does pop the fuse a lot but thats just because im a total bastard to my gear it can put out the beef alright but it wont win any marathons.if it dies i'll fix it an if it's stolen i'll get somethin else

''''''''''''''''''''''''whats there number''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

im 37 now been playing electric since i was 9, my primary live guits are 57 tele ,shecter custom strat, 91 gibson firebird custom shop' plus numerous more in the house i use live a stereo set up of a 62 vox ac 30 ,69 ampeg v40 , i use the pacemaker only on solo's with an old dod compressor ,250 pre-amp pedal,crybaby and a rangemaster the rest is controlled with an a/b footswich ,an a stereo volume controll