Garnet Session Man

Not sure what year this one was manufactured, but it is estimated to be early '70's. I got one they call a "stencil" amp, made by Garnet but it has a "Pro II" badge on it. I have confirmed that it is a true Garnet with the folks at the Garnet website. I got it for free, a neighbor of mine was cleaning out his garage and was sick of hauling this thing around (it's pretty heavy).

I play blues and jazz on my own, and in a pop/rock band. I've gotten the best results in the recording studio, cranked it up and was utterly amazed the the warmth and creamy-ness of this beauty. Amazing for live performances, but I highly recommend an attenuator (Ultimate Attenuators are the best!) to playat home to keep the warm tone!

Amazing natural overdrive when effects channel is driven. But i still use a Boss SuperOverdrive in conjunction with a Boss Overdrive/Distortion for some real nasty fuzz and feedback!

Effects channel and analog reverb (chillingly cool sounding!!!) and tremolo with Speed and Depth controls.

Foot-switchable "solo" setting with a pot in the back to preset the incease in gain, sometimes I play with it on all the time to get a different, slightly fatter tone.

It's heavy though, so hauling it is a drag - almost literally!

Guitars:

Guild Starfire IV - pre-Fender buy-out
- 2 Humbuckers

Fender Strat-Plus Deluxe - 2 Seymour Duncans - JB Jr. in neck
- Hot Rails in bridge
- Fender Lace Sensor Silver in mid
- had bridge hunkered down, don't like
wammy bars

Gibson Les Paul Standard - '50's style neck
- 2 BurstBucker Pro's

I have the 3 guitars for the different music I play. My Guild is on strict blues and jazz duty, can't beat the semi hollow-body tone, was thinking of selling it until I got my Session Man, this amp completed the4 package. The fender is for the poppy sound, and recording studio duty, again, the amp handles this guitar like no other.
The Gibson is my "look-at-the-dude-on-stage" attention getter guitar with the Heritage Cherry Sunburst finish. But on a seriuos note, this guitar picks up harmonics like a dog, and sustains like tantric...you get the point.

This amp has handled everything I've thrown at it, only 60W but I can't play it past 4 or 5. I am still finding new tones and sounds. Good Idea to take a picture of the settings when you find "THAT TONE" as the sound varies so much with small adjustments.

But this is what this thing was designed to do, a plethora of tones out of one combo. But it gets annoying to find that tone again, hence taking a photo of the "super settings" you find!

It a solid amp, but it's old! Tubes need replacing ($100 CAD) and speakers are soon to be replaced.

When I got it the effects channel would fade out and get super naselly sounding, volume control crackled very loudly. Turned out to be a capacitor shorting out a tube. Since I've had it serviced I've had absolutely no problems.

I've given an 8 due to the age, I just don't know when something's going to give out next.

I've been in contact with guys from the website, they respond promptly and always have an answer for any Garnet amp-related question. They went as far as to find someone locally to service it for me. Turns out Mr. Ho (local amp technician) knew Gar Gilles personally. Mr. Ho is amazing at what he does, he's been working on tube amps for 43 years!!! He can do anything with them.

For anyone in the Vancouver area Mr. Ho is the way to go!

I found a foot switch for the "solo" setting for $25.

I got this for free. I've heard so many tales of free amps and they have all been amazing stories. I've been looking at Marshalls, Oranges, Laneys, Vox, Fender, I just can't seem to find one that matches up to my Session Man. Well I can, but am not willing to spend the $2500 for something equivalent.

I highly recommend seriuos musicians find an old Session Man, I swear you'll never go back, unless you're a metal head. This amp does not suit the metal sound. Rock, pop, and especially blues and jazz is what this amp really excels at.

This is a 50 watt Canadian made tube head, built in about 1971 in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Uses 5 12AX7's, 1 12AU7, and a pair of 6CA7's/EL34's. Two channels with two inputs each, one channel with volume, treble with pull bright, mid, and bass, the other channel with the same controls as the first, plus reverb and tremolo rate and depth, and a master volume . Two speaker outputs on back plus on/off, standby, and ground switches. The amp I have came with a Garnet 3X12 4 ohm cabinet with non-branded speakers that are very similar to Oxford T10's. Pretty much standard fare for this era.

This amp is an amazing sleeper, as are all Garnet products I've either heard or heard tell of. I'm not sure what Fender's would sound like through this amp as I play mainly hard blues and 70's rock with a Les Paul Standard, but I'm sure it would be sweet. The amp can't get very loud clean, and its clean tone is pretty much warm and earthy rather than sparkling, quite similar to most Marshalls, but as the volume goes up a nice crunch develops that is very useful. However it's when the volume is dimed is when this amp really shines. There's no loss of control at all going up in volume , although the bass generally has to be lowered some or it gets a bit thick. Full throttle and this amp is indistinguishable from a Plexi, with absolutely no buzz, harsh harmonics, or squeals - just sweet, warm, full but not distorted overdrive at a fraction of what a Marshall will set you back. Absolutely amazing if early hard rock is your bag.

These amps, like Traynors, seem to be indestructable. It still has its original tubes in it, all Mullards at that, although I'm looking at picking up a set of NOS Mullards to be sure for when playing live. Still rocking after 27 years with no problems with the amp, speaker cones or voice coils. Also, circuitry seems well made, with quality parts (i.e. Sprague caps) throughout. Hasn't let me down yet.

Never has needed repairs, as far as I'm aware. The company is no longer in business but the circuitry seems relatively basic if anything goes wrong, however schematics seem hard to find, although there are a few Garnet enthusiasts around.

Although this amp can't switch from country to jazz to rock at the flick of a switch, it delivers unbeatable rock'n roll when you want it. I don't think these amps are too common, so you'd be looking at big bucks to replace it with a good Marshall if something drastic happened to it, but if you come across one of these amps, you won't get better bang for your buck. One last thing: as with ANY AND ALL tube amps, a good amp with cheesy tubes is going to give a cheesy tone. Good, preferably NOS tubes are needed to get the best out of an amp.