Gibson GA-5 Goldtone Les Paul Junior Combo

Made in the USA 2006 the plate on the back has a serial number mine
ends /0406 I think it means April 2006 and the news seems to be that they are no longer making them.
Features if you want them then buy some other amp with all the bells and whistles personally I like it simple one knob and then control it all with my guitar,this is how they did it
in the fifties so thats fine by me.

Sound quality is a really subjective thing what some like others hate.
I own these valve amps a 5w Gretcsh G5222 and now the Gibson GA5 5w.
I'm plugging a Gibson ES335 into them I just love the sound of both but
the Gibson is the top dog when it comes to volume the speaker is bigger and the valves are of better quality.
The Gibson I have had a I bought it new of Ebay and imported in into New Zealand we have 240v here so I got a transformer to covert power to 120v but it was no good bad earthing and terrilbe hum so after a week of searching the web i found out that I could rewire the power transformer because it has multi tap very simple and bingo downunder thunder.

Looking at the schematic it's looks a very simple amp not many parts
point to point wiring where as the G5222 is a Printed circut and would
be a lot harder for me to repair.The gibson will take the heat a lot
better I believe, it just looks the part great first valve amp to understand what they are all about.

Don't know anyway after the rewire i better forget it

if lost or stolen i get another or maybe build it myself this amp has really got my interest in valves, caps,resisters,transformers etc
this is what tone is all about.

It's a basic one knob amp. Mine was made in 2006, and I'm assuming one of the last ones.

The five watts can still sting the ears. It's pretty damn articulate too. It'll make sure to let me know how I'm playing, especially driven.

I could use a tremolo, and maybe reverb, but I won't kick it for that.

Best tone I have at my fingertips right now. It eats up my Ric 360 and frankenstrat. (Yes, a la Eddie, but not my intention!) The Gretsch cries and the archtop sings.

I wouldn't really cut this out for clean riffing, just because it doesn't hold a loud clean tone, but the archtop with a P-90/HB mix sounds heavenly. It's got a quack of it's own! Again, I can't knock it's clean ability though. The low power 8 inch's straight cone and small size don't give it a chance to open up but they make for a hell of a break-up.

I usually use this for a classic rock, blues, or classic metal tone. (P-90/HB) It's my living room machine. I used my girlfriend's father's old Harmony-some weird circle shaped guitar-and the strange pickups on it made classic rock GOLD. Best sounding single coils I've heard in my life. If only the frets were usable above the 12th on that thing...

But I adore the tone this thing makes. I haven't even changed the tubes yet. I wanted to try a 12AU7 for cleaner tones, but I can't resist the tone right now even months in!! Plus, that's what my volume knob is for. ;)

PS- This thing makes me regret spending $250 on my Valve Junior stack. Come on, $300 for this? The tone isn't even comparable!

No problems thus far. We'll give it a few years before I can say!

Emailed them and got a pleasant response and the schematics/owner's manual. It took maybe 12 hours. 8 pm -> 8 am and I had a response.

Nobody stocks them anymore. I could've bought two of these suckers for less than I usually see them selling-and I should've! I've even planned up a custom design for one of these, but I don't know where to find one!

What features!! 2 Inputs and a volume knob, but thats all you really need.

This is a very VERY basic amp, but it has a nice sound to it. I play a variety of music from metal to classic rock and I think it should do ok. I use a Dean Vendetta 3 with Diesel metal shred pickups and it sounds great. After about half way on the volume knob you start to get a nice fat sound, turn it up higher and you can get a nice tube distortion. Real crunchy, but it wont do heavy metal with out a good pedal. Noise wise it's actually quiet. I'm extremely picky when it comes to hum and hiss and I have to say that I'm impressed. My hat goes off to Gibson for this one.

Ok i don't know if it was the factory or if it was the previous owner, but the tube shield on mine was slightly crushed. This caused the amp to short out and was probably the reason I paid a total of 300 bucks for this little gem. Long story short I removed it and it works fine. This is a basic circuit so if anything goes wrong it can easily be fixed. As far as gigging without a back up, thats always a no no. I don't care if you paid $10,000.00 for an amp, it can still break down during a show. Take something else just in case.

I've dealt with Gibson before and they were not as helpful as I'd hoped, but they did help so I have to give them an A for effort.

I have been playing for about 5 years and have owned Mesa'a, Peavey, and Custom built amps. This little amp is a keeper. If it was stolen I would buy another one if I could get another great deal on it. If not then I wouldn't buy it cause for the 800.00 retail I could buy a Bad Cat or Dr.Z or more likely a Reeves Custom 6. The only thing I don't like about this amp is the fact that it doesn't have any speaker out puts for powering another cab. I would also like a dedicated line out for recording. I was considering building myself a champ clone, but this thing was only 300 bucks and I couldn't buy the parts necessary to build an amp for that.

Not really any features but that's good in this case. Just two inputs & volume, nothing to get in the way of the tone.

Running a strat & tele through this little beauty. It does a nice clean tone but where it really shines is when it's cranked up. When I heard it for the first time with the volume at about 9 'clock I was floored! 5 watts into an 8" speaker never sounded so good, and it still cleaned right when I rolled back the guitar's volume. Just like a good tube amp should.

Got this just about a year ago & hasn't missed a beat yet! So far, its very dependable but if it does break down, it will be easy to fix. One thing worth mentioning is a while back the input jack started to static when I would plug/unplug the guitar cord, but a shot of WD40 fixed it right up. No problems since.

It is a pricey amp but to me, worth the money. It does a pretty good "tweed" sound which I like. I did replace the tubes with NOS but the JJ's it came with are not bad either. It doesn't really need any pedals but does take them well, but I only use a boost & a wah with it. That is what works for me. This amp isn't for everyone but for my needs it is great!

Reissue model. On and off switch. Volume Control. Regular and Low impedence inputs. What you see is what you get. Gave it an eight because it is designed for simplicity and tone.

Starts to break up a little prematurely, around 4 with an Epi Riviera, MIJ, c1978, dual regular HBs (not minis), The overdrive and distortion is wonderfully smooth and creamy though. Past 8, it's gone. Little noise. I play mostly blues and blues rock, so it's not a bad fit.

I'm going to try a different brand of power and a 5751 pre-amp to reduce the premature gain.

Purchased it used about three months ago. I use it only at home in the basement. It's still working.

Haven't contacted Gibson, haven't needed to.

I started playing during the Brtish Invasion and quit 10 years later. Started again in the Spring of 2005. Love the tone. Smooth dirty tweed. I can get a wide tone range with the 2 V, 2 T pots and 3 way switch. Last (real) amp I owned before this was 55-59 Tweed Tremolux and I sold it 30 years ago. So I can't really compare it to anything. If it were lost or stolen, I'd try something different for the hell of it,... after I gave the thief a good self-righteous tongue lashing (I'm Canadian - what do you expect)

I wonder what it would sound like with a 10" speaker though ( I think it will just fit one - have to cut a new baffle though ). I hope the tube swap will relieve a bit of the excessive gain. Other than that, I really it.

This one is a 2004 model. It provides good classic tube crunch at reasonable volume levels. It is a basic amplifier one channel one volume knob (should be called gain knob because the amp is loud from the get go). It uses a 12AX7 preamp tube and a EL84 power tube. The rectification is solid state (for this circuit design that is a plus).
The transformers are high quality Heyboer. I'm not sure who make the speaker, but it works well. I bought this amp for what it is, if I want effects I will use pedals or another amp.

The features provided work as designed.

I use a tele (bridge pup mainly) through this amp for hot rythym and some lead. It is very responsive to pick attack, you can get some killer clean high gain lead tones, or dig in for screaming distorion.

I have changed the power tube to a NOS RCA and the preamp to an NOS 12AX7. Amp placement is also a variable in the overall sound. I like to get the amp off the floor and away from the wall.

The amp does have the usual single ended amp hum, but I doesn't bother me once I start playing. I have built many single ended tube amps (Texas Tube Aplifier Company) and know that this amp could be made a little quieter, but there would be a trade off in how nice this amp breathes.

I bought this one used through ebay, its been shipped and is still in great condition. I leave it on for hours at a time. The only failures I can forsee happening would be tube related.

Never delt with Gibson. I read somewhere that these were built buy Mojo. Not worried about it, I know where to get replacement parts.

I've been playing guitar for 40 years. I use one tele (1989 USA Fender 52 RI) and one acoustic guitar (1977 Takamine D18 copy). I have several DIY tube amps. I bought this one to compare to the new Epiphone Valve Junior combo and it blows it away, but I will be modding the Epi to try to get the GA-5 sound (will try the Heyboer OT and Mojo speaker).

These are great sounding amps and worth the price.

This amp is pretty much as simple as possible. I have a new 2006 model that is slightly changed for the older ones. First of all, it has different inputs which are like "rubber coated" and a lot stronger than the previous ones. It also has a different transformer which is bigger and black (Im not sure what brand it is being that I do not know much about the internal structure of amps) compared to the smaller silver transformer in the older version. Finally, it has a different back. It's like the older version except it has a plastic cage limiting your access to the back of the amp. Which isnt that great especially if you want to hook up an extension speaker to it. Therefore, there is a little circular hole cut on the bottom right of the back panel where the AC power cable comes out of. This is hardwired to the amp (not detachable) so you have to hold the dangling cable when you transport it.

These things are very minor for me at least. If I want to put an extension speaker to the amp, I can always just get a longer speaker cable and force it through the hole that the AC power cable exits. Another inconvenience is that the speaker jack on the chasis is an RCA jack like on a Tweed Fender Champ instead of the standard 1/4 inch speaker jack on the chasis like on say a blackface. There are some cables at the Weber (tedweber.com) website under attenuator accesories if you want to hook it up to an attenuator or speaker cab. Look for the ones that are labeled "for Champs." Those might come in handy.

The other features are all you need for a little tone beast. Volume, 2 inputs, switch, thats it. 6 screaming watts. All tube, Class A Handwired goodness. But I didnt buy the amp for that, I baught it for tone. i played the amp in the store not knowing anything about it. The amp isnt the most historically accurate amp when it comes to some things. The original had a 6V6 (instead of the EL84 in the reissue), a tube rectifier (instead of the SS one in the reissue) and an AlNiCo magnet loaded speaker (instead of the ceramic magnet loaded speaker in the reissue). But once you hear the amp, you won't really care because it sounds so darn sweet! Also, the amp looks cool in it's blonde tolex, oxblood cloth, brown leather handle, chrome control panel and gold name plate.

I had this amp for about 4 months and is great for what I use it for. I play all blues and rock styles but mainly classic rock and Memphis blues (but Im a metal head too, not much though). I have a Gibson Les Paul R7 Goldtop and an Epiphone LP Standard loaded with duncans (Pearly Gates in the neck, Custom Custom in the brige). First off, clean. This amp has a lot more headroom than one would expect out of 6 watts. You know the drill, louder than it seems. The clean is very natural, but a little on the thin side, even with a Les Paul. I put my Boss Reverb RV5 in front of it to thicken it up a little bit and add some more depth (I use the hall setting). Cleans are like a Tweed Fender to me. Not ultra shimmering and warm like a blackface, but have a sharper attack with a hint of grit when taken up to about 11 oclock. The clean sounds are the most unforgiving ever. The amp will make you a much better player IMHO. The reason: dampening. If you dont mute the strings that you are not playing on, it will sound like garbage. Just stating the obvious here.

Now, the amp starts to break up at 12 oclock. Boutique style amps like this are very touch sensitive so if you hit a chord really hard anywhere on the volume, it's going to get a little raunchier. Amp does AC/DC impersonations perfectly. Or the Who's Next Era tones. Ultimate crunch! Cuts through amazingly but gets less touch sensitive as you wind up the volume. Cranked at 5 oclock is really loud, not bedroom levels here. I baught this amp as a practice amp when Im not with my band or gigging. Its loud for what I use it for, thats why I got a few pedals in front of it. Volume at 5 oclock has some qualities of a fuzz pedal. Bridge pickup with the tone at 10, if you pick over the neck pickup or just on the fretboard (I just pick there naturally), you will hear almost an octave up type sound a little bit. Sounds really cool actually. But I like the volume at about 4 oclock to 3 oclock to cut out some of the highs. The overdrive, especially with my Goldtop is really really fat. Most transparent amp too. I can really hear the difference between my Epi and Gibson - Epi is a little more progressive sounding with the high output bridge pickup and souped up neck pickup.

Like I said before, I got pedals for this amp. I have a Fulltone OCD which gives a great solo and treble boost (I got the tone on the pedal all the way up) for some Queen type sounds that arent really piercing. And I got a Seymour Duncan Tweak Fuzz I use to either drive the power amp tube (volume high, gain at medium levels) or to give a heavy metal type fuzz at lower volumes (like Smashing Pumpkins). Takes pedals well, I use the reverb on clean which really livens things up. I also like it with a Electro Harmonix Small Stone Phaser (a friend brought it over, I dont own it). Im going to get a Fulltone ChoralFlange soon which should be cool too.

Overall, the amp has a sick overdrive and pretty decent cleans too. Get a clean boost pedal if you want to enhance the cleans, add more sustain and increase the fatness. Nothing is perfect, so it gets a 9.

I can depend on the amp, but Im not going to rate it because I dont gig with it or anything. I just stays in my practice room for the most part.

Im going to buy an attenuator for this amp because its on the loud side. Even though I got the Fulltone OCD, its a different flavor of Ooverdrive compared to the amp's overdrive. And I only really use the OCD as a booster for solos (or if I want a more British sound or a more trebly sound). Its a great amp, responds to pick attack and rolling down the volume knob well (channel switching the old-fashioned way, turning the volume on the guitar down) and Im sure that you can mic it up for gigs like clubs and bars and stuff. Now that PA systems are pretty good these days, its not a big deal anymore. I plan to put some NOS tubes in it when the time comes that the stock JJs (which are actually not bad) get weaker. Maybe some RCAs if the wallet allows. Ill have to think about it. But until then, Ill keep on rockin on this little beast!

As I'm sure you know by now, it has a volume knob and that's it. I don't think that's a bad thing at all in this case, but it is what it is.

I'm playing mostly with a '91 Frat Ultra, still with the lace sensors. (I'm replacing them later this week with EMG's but that doesn't really matter here I guess).

Let me be another to say that the sound is amazing -- IF you're using it for what it's for. There's a million uses that this amp would not be good for just like any other amp. I got rid of a Fender Twin I had for years and I have to say, this amp sounds better to me. Much better.

What this amp does well is create a beautifully rich clean tone, warmer and fuller than the standard Fender clean tone that many like. It breaks up very nicely as you get the volume past 12 o'clock but it's certainly not a heavy drive/sustain kind of distortion. It's more of a classic overdrive sound. It's loud enough that playing in the basement I woke up the kids on the second floor playing with the volume at 9 o'clock (about one quarter power). But at the same time, I haven't tried it but I doubt it'd carry well enough to play with a drummer. On the other hand, it would be perfectly suitable for solo or non-drummer combo work in all but very big rooms.

Due to its simplicity it seems to get much more out of your guitar, both from the controls on your guitar and your touch. I can play with my pickup volume at full and the amp at about 10 o'clock and get a very nice warm clean tone. Then I crank the amp volume up to 3 o'clock for the nice overdrive sound (getting pretty loud at this point) but if I roll back the PICKUP volume to the same volume level as before, it still sounds the same as it did with the amp volume turned down. It doesn't muddy up or deaden like so many amps do when you roll back pup volume instead of amp volume. And it reacts extremely well to your touch on the strings.

No experience here, haven't had it long enough and haven't moved it around too much.

No experience.

I've been playing for over twenty years and have played through quite a few different guitars and amps. At this point, the greatest compliment I can pay to a guitar or amp is that it makes me want to play more. That's what this amp does. It's my practice amp, but I can't wait to practice with it. Of course it's not super flexible, you can't use it to immitate your favorite guitarists as you run through all your covers. It's more for practicing, for improvising and for exploring your guitar and your sound.

Depends on what you'd consider good features. I personally think the less knobs an amp has, the better the tone. This has exactly 1 knob which suits me just fine, so it has all the features I need.

This is probably one of the best(new)blues amps I've played through. I use a strat w/fat 50's & a les paul w/duncan pearly gates & both sound very good through this amp. The breakup is smooth & the cleans are warm and full. I was most impressed with the speaker. I usually end up changing the speaker & tubes after a while when I get a new amp just to try to get the best tone possible from it but with the GA5 I dont think it's necessary (I did, however, change the preamp to a nos Telefunken I had in another amp-it smoothed things out even more). It is a bit more noisy than other class a amps I have but is still acceptable.

Hey it's a tube amp, it's going to need something sooner or later. It's just the nature of the beast. Mine is still new but seems to be built very well.

Never delt with.

Been at this guitar thing for 23 years. I just love little class a low power amps because they can be driven into their natural overdrive & still allow you to be friends with your neighbors and the local law enforcement. I also have a '55 tweed Fender Princeton & an Epiphone Galaxy 10. Although the princeton wins out as my favorite, the GA5 is a very close second. It was a bit hard to swallow the $600 price but IMO it was worth it.

Brand new from the box. One volume and this is it. Class A . Not fair to rate features on this type of amp. Point to point wiring. Hand built

Sound pretty loud for a 5 watts . It sounds quite full for its size. It is in the same family as the old Fender Champ. When cranked, you hear Zeppelin, ACDc , very nice crunch tones. It is especialy good with single coils like a Telecaster. Mind you, I tried it with a 1984 Steinberger and it still sustains! The clean tone is very nice since it will break up early, giving you the Neil Young's dirty chords with some definition.
With humbuckers, it really distorts in the 1970 fashion. Good for recording and classic rock. It is not recommended for Surf music though.

Very well built. Attention to details very evident. No problems to date.

Did not have to use it.

The perfect little amp for recording and also avoid a divorce. Less is more. Since there are no bass , mid treble and reverb, Gibson really put top notch components in this little baby. Sound absolutly divine. If you do not like the sound, keep it as a conversation piece in your living room! Gorgeous to look at . If stolen, I would surely get another one , but they are pretty rare in my area and cost a bundle. I have been playing for over 35 years and owned quadzillion tons of gear. She is a keeper.