Epiphone Pathfinder

Update on my previous review. It looks like a 1964, with a replacement 1968 speaker. Same as this - http://www.vintageguitars.org.uk/epiphone64p10.php

Just played a little with a Fullerton (Aria) starter Strat, seems OK, but my playing is what you would expect for a raw beginner.

It's old, so a three-band EQ is expecting a lot...but two would be nice. Volume, reverb, and tremelo all in order.

This is the famous blizzard of nails sound. It is very, very bright. I loved it until I tried playing rhythm and found that I couldn't dial in ANY low end. This amp is thin...

It's old and still works, but I can't vouch from personal experience.

On something this old

If you find one CHEAP, they have nice lead sounds. But that's it. Otherwise...check out new amps from Fender, Peavey, anyone. Not this thing.

EA28-RVT from 1968. Sometime between 64 and 68 this model (and its twin - Gibson GA19-RVT Falcon) switched from Jensen to ceramic CTS for the 1-12" speaker. Two inputs into one channel. The other posters are confused about the monitor jack. Part of the signal from the output transformer goes through a resistor network to bring it down to a level that can be patched from the monitor jack to the input of another amp. The signal will include reverb and tremolo, if chosen. This is a way to get your signal to the PA board without miking the amp. I haven't tried it yet as I don't play out. The speaker is active when using the monitor jack because the tube amp needs the speaker load. Tube line-up is 3-6EU7, 6C4, 2-6V6, 5Y3. There is a reverb transformer in addition to the PT and OT. I bought this from e-bay knowing it needed to be fixed. But since this is a point to point amp, it can always be fixed. Reverb and tremolo are tube driven. Tremolo has Depth and Frequency but there is only one tone knob. A wooden hardwired foot switch is the only way to turn the trem and reverb on and off and fits in a metal holder inside the case. Using the reverb adds to the volume and the reverb signal can be played by itself. No standby switch for the tubes.

It's pretty quiet and the reverb adds a little noise. I've just used it for blues harmonica and its sounds lush with few feedback problems. Clean is smooth and more volume gets you some bite and raunch. My tech said the amp sounded a lot better than he thought it would, having fixed many Gibsons over the years. He played a little guitar through it and the sound was magnificent. The sound jumped out with a presence that was startling. He said to me that there are plenty of amps that come through his shop that he would not want to keep. But my Pathfinder he would want to keep for himself. When I try more things with the amp and have some other guitar players try it, I may do another review. To me, this amp is so good it made me want to try playing guitar!

I knew the amp was not working when I bought it. Now that it is fixed properly, I'm confident that I should get perhaps ten years solid use with just tube changing. Almost all of the parts swapped out were original or 25 years old.

Schematicheaven.com has the Gibson Master Service Manual in PDF. Because it is over 160 MB, you need broadband and "save target as". It will not come up for viewing. You need to look at both the EA28-RVT and GA19-RVT manuals to get the full picture of the reverb controls and the monitor jack.

I realize this is not a blackface deluxe but fixed up Pathfinders go for $200-300 on e-bay. This is a great value and provides some different sonic signatures for you. It weighs 35-40 lbs and the handle is solid. If you're worried about a back-up there will be room in your vehicle for a Champ or Kalamazoo Model One. If you were thinking Fender Blues Jr., you should listen to one of these.

This amplifier belonged to my grandmother (no kidding). As a gift, her kids (my father's generation; he was one of 5) bought her this amp and an old red Japanese electric guitar (probably a Teisco, given the era, but this is impossible to confirm.) I believe the story I got was that it was used at THAT time, probably a pawn shop or second-hand-store purchase. I never heard her play this rig; she mostly played unamplified on a Takamine acoustic (which my brother still has), and she played piano and accordion. I purchased it at the auction my grandparents held when they were "downsizing" from their old farmhouse to move to "town" (a small town of about 5,000) so they could be closer to the hospital when they were getting up in years. (This is why I only paid between $15 and $20 for it.) They're both dead now; I've had the amp for about 6 or 7 years. It was made in the early-to-mid sixties, in Kalamazoo, sometime after Epi was acquired by Gibson (which was '59, I think?). I've seen some used Gibson amps from the same era which are incredibly similar, except for the Gibson tag instead of Epiphone. It has one channel, but two input jacks. My brother and I used to both hook up to this amp at once. It has a crunchy old spring reverb, which is possible to play without the clean signal (turn up the reverb gain, leave the volume knob down). It has a monitor out, perhaps to drive an additional speaker. A footswitch controls reverb off/on and tremolo off/on. I can imagine this amp's tremolo being a great asset for surf guitar. It's got enough of everything I could possibly need for home studio or practice use, but I'm sure it needs some TLC (tubes, caps, wires, etc.) After having it a while, I have come to realize its value as a piece of gear, independent of the emotional value it has for me because of my grandmother's love for music. (Which is probably strange, because as I mentioned, I don't remember hearing her play this amp.) I give it an 8 rating because I'm sure there's probably something better out there, and this one needs a bit of work, I'm sure; but I rate it as high as 8 because I'll probably never gig again, now that my daughter is here.

I play a 40th Anniversary Fender Stratocaster with Lace Sensor pickups, if I'm going to play electric. (I also have an Ibanez early '70's SG knockoff, which I rarely play.) The style is going to be either blues or country, and the sound is going to be very Merle Haggard or Buck Owens-ish (which stands to reason; I'm using the same kind of guitars their lead guys were, but I'm sure they were probably using Fender amps.) Occasionally, if I feel REAL punchy, I'll try to get a Steve Cropper sound; like "Soul Man", or anything by Booker T. & The MG's. Since my daughter was born, I've only played outside the house on RARE occasions, mostly acoustic (1975 Martin D-18, sunburst top.) This lets you know that I'm pretty well into clean sounds, and this amp does this very well. If you want distortion from this amp, you're going to have to put it in another room and turn every knob to 13, or do it with a pedal. It may only have 15 watts, but it will run you out of a room with volume. It IS a bit noisy, but not overly noisy compared to some amps I've heard, and I'm pretty sure some of the noise could be cleaned up by an overhaul (new caps, new tubes). My Crate CA-125D is noisier than I wish it was, so I'm not too concerned about noise. The recorded sound of it is still relatively noiseless, especially if recording analog...the amp noise gets buried in the inherent noise floor of the tape. Since I'm honestly not very versatile as a lead guitarist, this amp has all the sounds I need (all I'm capable of in that area, in other words).

I already admitted I'll probably never gig again, but if I did, I'd probably not do it with this amp. Right now, without some work, I can only say that it would work as long as it worked, and when it crapped out, you'd be done. Even after an overhaul, I'd wonder if its 15 watts was enough to cut through a band with bass and drums. I'd use it as a studio and practice amp with no reservations, if I took the time or money to restore it and keep a couple extra tubes. By the way, it looks horrible; I am not so sure it wasn't stored in the barn for a while. The metal face is all pitted with rust; probably the chassis, as well. I don't know if I could restore this monster or not.

If someone at Epiphone was asked about this amp, they would likely look at me as if I just landed from Pluto. What company do you know of that supports its 40+ year old amps? I ought to offer to sell it to them for their in-house museum.

I've been playing for over 20 years. I have this amp, the Fender electric & Ibanez electric described above, a 1984 Alvarez Regent acoustic, the '75 D-18 already referenced, the Crate CA-125D acoustic amp, a Kentucky student mandolin as of last Christmas...and various other noisemakers, tuners, metronomes, harmonicas, kazoos. This is more music gear than any one man who does this only for hobby ought to have in the bedroom closet. If anybody stole any of it, I'd join a club...and then I'd beat him with it. But I'm sure I'd have to get something else or just do without, because I'd never find one like this again. I chose this amp originally because it was in the family; I'm glad that I have it now because of it's authentic vintage sound. I did compare it to a Laney; before I got the Crate CA-125D, I considered one of Laney's combos that *supposedly* had a clean channel for acoustic guitar and a distorted channel for electric guitar. My thought was getting just one amp to do anything I wanted. At the time, my brother was working at St. Louis Music and got me the Crate acoustic amp (thanks, bro!) and when the family auction was announced, I wanted the Epiphone. In the end, I'm glad to have two different amps to do the dedicated functions. Looking back, I'm not sure the Laney would have given me the sound of either of the amps I ended up with. For a recommendation, I would just say, if you like vintage tone at home or in the studio, and you can find one, I'd consider an Epiphone or Gibson amp from that era. Probably cheaper than the classic Fender amps of the period. But I'd definitely get a vintage amp for vintage tone, rather than a solid-state processor of some kind that "promises" to mimic the sound of the older tube-driven amps. They get close, I'm sure, but I prefer real butter over margarine, you know what I mean?

I bought this amp for $20 and stuck another $120 into it for tubes and stuff. This is a 60's vintage made in Kalamazoo, model EA28-RVT. It has 2 input jacks as well as a monitor out jack that I've never used. It's a basic single channel combo tube amp with reverb and a tremolo and one 12-inch speaker. (Mine has the original blue frame Jensen.)This is strictly a play-at-home amp, it never leaves my house. For features, I rated this amp a 7, only because I can't figure out a good use for the tremolo. It also has a functional footswitch to turn the reverb and tremolo on/off :-)

This thing has got a clean tone to die for. I used to have a Washburn acoustic/electric, and this amp absolutely sparkled with that guitar and my Boss Chorus pedal. The same is true with my Music Man Luke and it's EMG single coil pickups. It will break-up big time, even at low volumes, if you use a hot humbucker bridge pickup. It's a pretty cool sound! Kind of like AC/DC's "Hells Bells" intro. This amp works well with pedals to boot!

I bought this amp when it was already broken down. I had no idea what it was, or what it might sound like. I knew enough about old guitar amps to know that the filter capacitors were expired. I replaced the caps and got the amp running for a little while, then the power tubes crapped out. Long story short, I re-tubed it with Lord Valve's help and it works like a charm now. These old tube amps are built like brick s#ithouses. I gave it an 8 only because I don't gig with it.

I do my own repairs. These old amps are a pleasure to work on by the way. So simple :-)))) PCB's SUCK!!!

I bought this amp in the early 90's, which is when I started getting serious about guitar. This is the perfect practice amp! Awesome clean tones and it sounds great with pedals. I wish it was a 2x12 instead of a 1x12. I also wish I knew what the monitor jack was all about. I'd like nothing better than to hook this Bad Boy up to my 2x12 cabinet! I don't want to fry any transformers, but I'm tempted. For what it's worth, my other amp is a Peavey Classic 50 of the 2x12 variety. It's a decent all-around amp, but there's no way I could work on it like I do with the Epi. If someone stole my Pathfinder, I'd kill him if I ever found him. So don't steal my stuff ;-)

This is a mid 60s manuf. amp, I bought it on eBay working, but it needed some TLC to get it back to the original configuration. It has (from left to right) Two parallel inputs, Monitor output (plug in a 1/4 jack and it disconnects the internal speaker and routes the output to an external cabinet), Loudness knob (vol), Tone knob, Reverb knob, Depth knob, Frequency knob (both for the tremolo), Power knob, a power jewel and the fuse. It's a basic all tube amp, uses 3 6EU7s in the pre/drive stages, a 7199 for the reverb circuit, 2 6V6s for the output and a 5Y3GT rectifier. The reverb and tremolo is switched via a footswitch and it uses a ALNICO Jensen 12" speaker. I use this amp on stage (with an SM57 in front of it) and in rehearsal all by it's self and have no trouble hearing it. We play mostly classic rock, some blues, surf, as well as some heaver material and the amp works well for all of it. Now keep in mind I do use some stomp boxes with it. A DOD 250 Pre/Overdrive, an older Rat for the heavy stuff, and a Boss 7-band EQ for that lead kick. If you are into gigits/widgets and all that then this is not the amp for you.

I play a Strat w/Gold Lace Sensors, a Tele all stock, a Les Paul Custom w/PAFs, an SG w/P94s, an Explorer w/EMGs (which I'm changing to a set of ALNICO Bill Lawrence Pups soon), a Dean V w/Dimarzio Super Dist. pups and a Fender acoustic with a Fishman built in pickup. The amp works well with all of the guitars... which is very surprising to me. I plug into this thing, turn it on and roll the volume knob to 10... and play. The basic sound has an upper mid peak that is nice and chimey.. not brittle or ear piercing at all. With the guitar volume rolled up all the way the amp has a very nice bluesy kinda breakup, add a bit more gain with the DOD and it gets a Stones-ish kinda raunch. Kick in the Rat and AC/DC to Sabbath is on tap. It cuts through the mix (drums, bass, keyboards, another guitar player) extrememly well. With the addition of the effects noted above it has all the sounds I need.

I use this amp all the time...live and rehearsal. Now keep in mind, we always have a spare amp close at hand.. no knock on the Epiphone, you just never know when something is going to go south.. so be prepaired. We keep extra cords, tubes, fuses, PA amp, extra guitar(s), bass, snare drum!... like the Boy Scouts... always prepared! This is a very reliable amp, after all it's probably around 40 years old and still rockin'.

I've been playing guitar for well over 25 years, I have a 76 JMP Marshall 50 watt w/2x12, a 65 Fender Bandmaster w/2x12 and a Univox LM6 combo w/10". I use the Marshall/Fender in an over/under setup when we do big venues or outdoors but when it comes to small to mid size indoor gigs, the Epi is my weapon of choice. The Univox is my backup, nice and small. If some rat bast.. tried to take this amp I'd have to give him a Telecaster shampoo if you get my drift. I'm really pleased with this amp and would hate to loose it for sure. Finding another one could be difficult as old as it is. But you can bet I'd try

This is an all tube 15 watt single channel amp with a single 12" old jensen speaker. Power is produced via three 6v6 GT tubes and 4 sovtek 12ax7 tubes. It has 1 volume, 1 tone, 1 reverb, and two tremelo controls (depth & frequency(speed). It has two inputs and 1 moniter output jack, and an easy access fuse. The reverb and tremelo have an attached footswitch with about 20' of cable (but the amp itself does not have any reverb/tremolo switches on it) I wish the amp had seperate bass treble adjustments (however the single tone control does a real good job)

I love the sound of this ancient little beast. I like to play blues/jazz/alternative/and classic rock and it does well at each of them (with the help of a rat pedal). It is very clean at low to moderate volumes and gets a bit dirty near the 3/4 full volume point. This amp does not get extremely loud, it is a good practice amp although i think you could be heard over a drummer and a bassist but you'd be pushin' it. I play with a more recent japanese fender jagstang and an old 70s univox les paul copy with some funky blade type pickups that only produce distorion on this amp. The reverb circuitry is very strange on this amp (i like it) it kind of overrides the volume if you turn it higher than the volume (you can play on just the reverb if you desire to). the tremelo produces kind of a wavvy feel reminiscent of james bondish type music. The amp also sounds good with my rat distortion pedal and you can get lots of feedback if you desire!

My amp is very old, the chrome control panel is heavily corroded, several previous owners have drawn crap on the gray tolex, the speaker is ancient but it still sounds really good....I think that this is a good testament to its durability (however, the tolex does not have any metal corner protectors)

never called epiphone, i dont expect to either i dont think even epiphone would recognize this amp, its seems pretty old and is much nicer than thier current stuff (in my opinion)

I've only been playing for about a year, i had a fender princton 112+ solid state amp that was very loud for me so i sold it and found this amp, i love this amp compared to my charaterless black plain Princton112+. I dont know how old it is but the person i bought it from said it was built in the mid 70s. When shopping for a new amp, i looked at fender's blues junior, it too was loud but sounded very nice, I also looked at two 15watt ampeqs i liked them too, but, being short on cash, I came across this one. Being young and unexperienced, i can't tell much of a difference between the three except mine seems to be quiter and distorts slightly more at high volumes. If i lost this amp and was still short on cash, i would want to find another one just like it. however, if i could afford it, i'd probably by something more vintage cool like an old fender twin or bandmaster. This amp came across me at just the right time and has given me an increased desire to continue learnig guitar.