Gibson GA-5 Skylark

None.

Volume and Power on/off. That doesn't mean it can't produce a lot of different sounds. It can.

12 or so watts, 10" Jensen "Special Design" speaker. 2 inputs into one channel. This isn't likely to compete with a drummer who is heavy on the sticks, but mic's really nicely.

6EU7 Preamp, 6X4 Splitter, 2 x 6AQ5 power tubes, 6X4 Rectifier.

I will be modding for spkr out and I've installed a 2 prong to 3 prong conversion

All the things the other people wrote.. they are not kidding. Creamy cleans to hard rocky distortion (just a little shy of tiger striped lycra tights style distortion)

Outstanding response to the volume knob. This thing can give you a wide range of clean to hard drive based on your vol knob and your pick attack.

I'm liking it more with single coil pickups, my stock mexican strat is stunning though this amp. My only humbucker is a wide open metallish pickup (Ibanez / SD stock pickup).. I'll know more when I get EPI-LP out of the shop.

45 year old amp? The fact that it still works is a miracle.

Very simple circuit, so most people with electronics experience should be able to follow the schematic for basic work. Any pro tube amp tech will easily get this thing running.

I bought two very similar amps assuming I'd have to salvage to get one working. I had to replace the power caps on one and that was it. 200 bucks .. 20 bucks in parts and an hour or two to disassemble, find the schematic, and solder in the caps.

This is by far the best deal I've ever had with an amp.

This is pretty straighforward, 10" speaker, volume-treble-bass controls and tremelo, and about 12 watts. This is for me well suited to classic strat sounds although can also do well with jazz with a hollow body and the trebble rolled back.

I have had the transformers upgraded to deliver about 22 watts and this greatly improves the sound and versatility of the amp. With more watts you get a lot more clean headroom and this becomes a rehearsal capable amp that can stand up to a full band. This makes it a very small and light package that will amaze your friends with it's volume and presence.

You can pick these up for under 200 bucks and do the transformer mod for 150 or so - you have a boutique killer, point to point machine for well under 400 bucks.

It is a classic open chimey sound that gives you strat clean and blues sounds that compare with high end boutique boxes.

It has survived over 40 years and will no doubt keep going strong.

Not really needed...

I highly recommend this approach vs. an expensive hand wire or vintage Fender alternative. Great bang for the buck.

Basic Volume and power. That's it. Your AXE does the Tone and does this amp let the TONE shine through!!!!

Incredible. That's all you can say. Know there are others that will bring out that coment and THIS is one of them! Must be the mix of 6eu7 and 6aq5. Warm, very full and RICH sound!

Bought mine a project - blown rect tube, melted socket and fried Xfmr. Some idjut used gum foil in the fuze socket. Took my time and rebuilt with a Mercury Mag Xfmr (thier specific matched version), replaced the "melted" sockets, all the E'lytic caps (with matched custom reissue).

Speaker was also marginal. No wonder given the abuse. Settled on an Eminence Ramrod. Liked the Weber Alnico 10", but the Ramrod just handled the low end better and balanced out the darker sound from the amp. Note: The Ramrod was too bright and harsh in a Kal'zoo R-12. The Rajun Cajun does great and I feed it into the Weber via and Ext Speaker out for a mor Vint tone.



OMG. Have about 11 old class A's and low watt AB's, but this just has a sound that warms you over and takes your heart.

If you can gt one, DO IT. Don't care what you have, this one will find a PERMANENT place in your Active collection.

Dead quiet after the rebuild. Figure would be fine without any abuse.

Who knows. Maybe some of these amp MFG's will realize they might make some real $$ in offering Factory Spec Rebuild, but until then, find a great amp tech or work on you skills.

See bunch of amps that have "good" value, but to get a P-P wired with this sound and solid build, you'd pay much more for that that getting a blown one and rebuild (as I did) and still not gte the TONE these wonders will give you. Heck and last another 30/40+ years at that.

Can't be beat. a MUST have in your collection with the single power tune Class A's.

This is a 1963 GA-5, brown elephant hide tolex, silver face and brown speaker cover. It has a 5 tube compliment: obe 6EU7 (pre amp), one 6C4 (phase inverter, two 6AQ5s (in a push pull power amp design) and one 6X4 (rectifier).

I typically play a mix of nasty blues and dirty rock and roll. This sound is perfect for my tastes.

There are two input jacks and only one channel. In essence, the amp has two features; Power and Volume. Don't let that scare you, tone should be controlled at the guitar, not the amp.

I'll be test driving this amp live in about two weeks.

To me, low wattage vintage tube amps are tops for sound. This amp stays very clean until you turn the volume to about 6 or 7, then you get that wonderful cooked glass tube distortion.

I can not speak to the reliability of this amp yet, as I have only owned it for a week or so, but I believe that if its still sounding amazing after 43 years of usage, then that speaks volumes. This amp must have been played very rarely because it still has the original tubes yet doesn't have the tell-tale, "i'm dying" hum.

Please, on a 43 year old amp, I'm pretty sure this is a non-issue.

I have been playing for 16 years or so. I also play through a '65 Twin Reverb. My main guitar is a G&L Asat Classic, but I have a '94 Mexican Telecaster for slide and a '58 Flying V Korina reissue.

I would buy another one of these if it died beyond repair or got stolen. this little amp is wonderful. I love the tone and the volume is insane for 5 watts.

Early to mid-1960s GA5 Skylark 'Crestline'. Brown-Gray, wood-grained Tolex, oxblood grill cloth. Two channels with controls limited to off-on and volume; 6X4 rectifier, 6EU7 pre-amp, 6C4 phase inverter into two 6AQ5s and 10" Gibson 'Ultrasonic' speaker.

I play late 50s - mid 70s rock and roll, folk rock, and some county cooking with an early 60s Guild F212 and rebuilt Yamaha SA30 ES335 / Guild Starfire copy with PAFs.

Although there alot of RCA 6AQ5s out there, the two sets I tried didn't sound as good as a pair of NOS 6005s which is what I would recommend.

This is a bedroom/studio/practice amp that is something of a one-trick pony. However, when refreshed, it does that trick beautifully.

My copy had a broken rectifier socket, original cardboard multi-section cap, and out-of-tolerance power resistors. The Gibson Ultrasonic speaker had a 1/4" hole, and so on. I put in new/increased value caps, replaced the rectifier socket, NOS Allen Bradley resistors, and a new Jensen C10 speaker.

It's now bright, forward, slightly edgy, expresssive, twangy, absolutely Buddy Holly / Duane Eddy / High School gym, vintage, pure sound. Not a Vox, not a Marshall, it's a middle-America, inexpensive pickup truck.

Since maintenance, I only have about 5 hours on this amp. Compared to hand-built, boutique amps and to the Fender 75 and Supro Thunder 1 amps I have, it's pretty flimsy. 22 AWG not 18 AWG wiring, chassis is thinnish, commercial quality hardware and fasteners, that kind of thing.

It's the product of a cost-concious assembly line. I also own a Gibson GA1RT from the same era and it has a better built cabinet and thicker chassis steel.

If I were a professional musician, I wouldn't gig it without a backup. The good news is that there are still plenty of these amps around at reasonable prices.

Again good and bad news; the bad is you can't call Gibson for help however these amps are easy to work on, the schematics are all over the web, the parts are readily available, and they are not that complicated.

I've been playing the guitar off and on for 40 years. If this amp were stolen and I didn't have the GA1 to fall back on, I'd move up the 1960s Gibson line to a Ranger or Saturn; somewhat more substance and flexibility.

a no frills, one volume and one tone knob, point to point wired class a amp. dead quiet operation. you pay big bucks for these features, which are widely copied by boutique amp makers.

goes into a nice creamy overdrive around 7, pegged it sounds warm and chunky. quiet operation, a real dream.

these things are solid little bricks. made in kalamazoo, michigan, who knows when. at least forty years ago, because i know of later models with a tremolo.

This little thing is great for recording and small gigs. i prefer the skylark to my fender champ, and my little peavey tube amp.

Early 60's Crestline series with brownish grey elephant hide type tolex. Refer to the first review for the features, tube lineup and original speaker. I replaced the original 10" Gibson Ultrasonic 4 Ohm speaker with a 10" Alnico Mojo-tone that measures 5.4 Ohms, a safe impedance range for this amp. Don't get me wrong on vintage speakers, the original speaker is great, I just want to save it. I use this amp ALOT for amplified harmonica. It is one of my favorite harp amps and is very sweet for guitar. Runs very quiet. Has had one Mod before i got it, one knob added with some kind of signal cut that adds a little distortion. Definately a great recording amp that can be used live if miced through a good PA.

Sounds great with Humbuckers and single coil pickups, especially with my G&L Astat (Tele style). Whenever my buddy comes over with his guitar to jam he always heads for the GA-5. When using it for guitar and the amp volume turned up past 6 it starts to overdrive wonderfully, however I really can't turn it up past 4 or so when using my favorite Astatic JT-30 harp Mic (feedback and too much distortion), but I get plenty of Volume before 4 anyway. It's a LOUD 10 watts. I installed a 1/4" output jack and sometimes a drive a separate Cab that has a 1961 12" Jensen C12S(Ceramic) and a 1959 8" jensen P8 (Alnico) wired together for a 4 Ohm load. To me, with this Cab the amp sounds absolutely fantastic! Bigger sound with less feedback when playing harp.

50 years old and still a workhorse as long as care is taken. Don't slam it around, sit on it, stack things on it so it doesn,t cool properly, run the wrong impedance speaker(s), spill beer on it, etc. Good metal, good pots, Point to Point wiring, solid plywood Cab, simple to make repairs. I have had this amp for about 3 years and had it repaired once (caps), replaced the 6AQ5 power tubes once. Pretty darn good for 50 year old electronics. Try to get 50 yrs out of a current production amp that has circuit boards that warp, plastic pot housings, and undersized wiring made of recycled copper and tin, Good Luck!

warranty ran out long ago

I would'nt compare this amp to any other I have. It has it's own vibe. I like it so much I have considered buying another one, however the prices are climbing on these old Gibsons, and I'm a cheapo bargain hunter so i doubt i will find another for the same cost. Although there are still lots around and if in half decent shape they're still worth every penny.

I have the early '60s Crestline version with brown tolex and just an on/off switch and "loudness" knob. It came with what look like the original RCA tubes: 6EU7 preamp, 6C4 phase inverter, 2x 6AQ5A (EL90) push/pull power, 6X4 rectifier. It has the original 10" Gibson ultrasonic speaker. Very light on features, but if you're interested in this type of amp, that shouldn't be important -- it wasn't to me. It's fairly loud, and breaks up nicely at higher volumes.

I'm playing several guitars through it - a Gibson SG Supreme with '57 humbuckers, a Charvel Surfcaster with lipstick-case single coils, a old Harmony with P-90 wannabe pickups, and a '80s Ibanez RG550 with EMGs. The amp does a good job of featuring the sound of each guitar -- the sound is very different with each, as well as the amount of distortion. As you'd expect, the SG and the RG550 get the most distortion -- breakup starts at around 5. The others stay clean longer. The amp responds beautifully to picking intensity -- it's easy to go from clean to broken-up just by picking harder. The volume knobs and tone knobs on the guitars can change the sound/tone quite a bit, too. The amp is very quiet (just a little hiss when it's all the way up), and the sounds and response are GREAT!

I can't comment on reliability, because I haven't had the amp for that long. The fact that it's in as good shape as it is (with much of it apparently original) speaks well, though.

got it used -- don't know anything about support, but I bet the company would tell me to get lost, since the amp is over 40 years old.

I've got a number of small tube amps, and this one is the reigning champion for sound -- the other ones are an Epiphone 100, a Silvertone 1470 (still in the shop, so I don't know how it sounds), an old Magnatone, a Marvel AC/DC, and a Vox AD15VT (maybe doesn't count, but it is small and does have a tube). I really like this GA-5, and I'd heartily recommend it.

Tubes: 2 EL84s and 1 12AU7 (which I swapped for a 12AX7). It's a "whiteface" so it was built in the mid-60s. Comes with Bass & Treble controls which, in the case of such an old amp, is pretty handy. No tremolo or reverb. 10" speaker.

I play just about everything. Use it with an Epi 335 with a Seymour Duncan '59 in the neck position. Has the typical hum and buzz you'd expect form an old tube amp. Lacks bottom end so I crank the Bass up to 9 and use a 7-band EQ to give it a little extra bump in the low-mids. Wish it had more bottom end. Don't really turn it much past 2 or 3 because it's so noisey. I wouldn't think of using it without some type of overdrive pedal.

Here's where the problems start. I bought this amp on EBay last spring. It was in original mint condition, just filthy. Cleaned it up and took it to the best local amp guy for the usual checkup and to get the 2-prong chord replaced with a 3-prong. He installed the new 3-prong chord and replaced the caps. Brought it home. It sounded like cr*p. Brought it back in. Got the tubes replaced, biasing done, and a new Jensen speaker installed. Brought it home. It worked fine for a couple of months and then started making horrible popping and crackling sounds. Brought it in. My amp guy tried everthing and finally suggested that we try a new output tranformer. Purchased a NOS one on Ebay. Tried that. Didn't work. Blah blah blah. Currently it's still in the shop and my amp guy is stumped.

It's a 40 year old amp. Just getting schematics for it is a nightmare.

Been playing about 30 years. Semi-professional for a couple of years. Also have a Fender Blues Junior and a Roland Cube 30. Would I buy it again? No way. I've learned my lesson. These old amps may look great on a shelf or behind a plate of glass at your local Hard Rock Cafe, but doen't expect to have something you can use whenever you like. If you do own one of these and it's working great for you, I tip my hat to your good fortune. My advice: If you want some of that vintage amp mojo get it in a new package. There are plenty of manufacturers who will oblige you, for a price: Victoria, Marsh, Vintone, Louis, etc. If you're on a more modest budget, I'd highly recommend a Fender Blues Junior: great retro look, great tube sound, plenty of mojo and you can pick one up on Ebay for less than $400. Oh, and if you buy it new, it comes with a warranty. Not a bad thing !

This amp was a Christmas gift from my parents in 1967. It is a single channel, 15 watt amp with the original 10" speaker. It has three controls: volume, treble and bass. This amp is used as a practice amp although if mic'd it could be used on stage.

Fender Strat with stock pickups and a 1952 Gibson BR-9 lap steel. The amp is quiet since a tech replaced the plug with a more modern version. It still has no ground pin.

The amp was used for about 15 years on a regular basis. It then sat in the closet until about 1995 when my son took it to college. He used it for about a year as a practice amp in his dorm room until it quit working. I just had it repaired and it is now working like it did when it was new.

The repairs were done at Evans Music (Reid Walker Services)in Houston, Texas. They did a super job. I had four new caps replaced and the preamp tube replaced with a 12AY7 instead of the 12AU7 that came with the amp. They found a burned open 1K ohm resitor and replaced it. The pots also were cleaned for the first time in nearly 40 years. I think the repairs are warranted for 30 days.

I have been playing guitar for over 40 years and pedal steel guitar for about 25 years. I have a Les Paul, a Strat and a Tele. My steel is a Carter. For amplification I have a 65 Twin Re-issue, a Peavey Nashville 400 and a new Nashville 112. I run my steel through a Peavey Tubefex.

It is good to hear the sweet sound of this little GA-5 again after not hearing it for about 20 years. I plugged an Ibanez AD-9 Analog Delay pedal into it with my Strat and all the sudden I had that retro sound. It breaks up into a slight distortion at about 6 or 7. I tried pre-amping it with a POD 2.0, but it was pretty noisey. It would be OK on stage, but too noisey for recording with the POD.

1963 (part of their Crestline series built from 62 - 64). One volume knob. Original CTS 10" speaker RRRRRRRRIPS!! I always hear the 'i've replaced it with the much-preferred #&^@)! after-market brand' -- DON'T believe 'em. Old/aged and unabused original speakers are HARD to come by - trust me - they just get sweeter with age and temperance.

With 1 volume knob - this amp is "very limited" to the ONLY essential in sound! I do all of the adjusting from the guitar.

With my 355 - if Chuck Berry hadn't existed I would have invented him. Breaks up right at the "6" position. This is pure tube-overdriven sound I wouldn't dare plug a pedal into. Really rootsy, ballsy, Exile on Main Street straight ahead rock. Incredible sustain that snarls nicely with P-90's and PAF's.

It's funny...i've got a '64 Vibro Champ with stock CTS speaker - and it's built 10X's better. Fender's pine boxes are super-rugged in comparison. The Gibson seems like a cheap panelling job. BUT, in terms of growl - the Gibson is much more 'trashy' and preferred. Doesn't have nearly the top end of the VC which has more snap and sparkle.

Absolutely the very best amp for under $300 I have EVER played over the last 17 years.

My new amp is a circa 1965 Gibson GA-5 Skylark with a Gibson-labeled original 10 inch speaker, 2 Original 6BQ5 (EL84) power tubes, and a single 12AU7 preamp tube (also original). The rectifier is solid state, which gives it that snappy attack that I like. This amp was purchased at a yard sale along with a 1965 Epiphone guitar for $5. It has been sitting in a barn for at least 20 years. Cosmetically it was a mess, but I spent some time cleaning it and now it looks somewhat less of a mess. The electronics are all in really good condition and I'm guessing this amp had very little playing time. I have attempted to research this amp and have found that Gibson made 9 million versions of amps named the GA-5 Skylark, so information is sketchy. I believe this amplifer is around 4.5 watts (although the 2 EL84 power section might lead one to believe it should be around 15-20 watts. However, the amp could easily by buried by any 15 watt tube combo, so I'm sticking with the 4.5 watts story. It has a single channel, no effects loop, headphone jack...nothing but great tone.

I play Blues-Rock along the lines of SRV, John Mayer, Clapton (BluesBreakers & Cream), Van Halen, etc... This amp seems to nail those sounds and more, but isn't really useful for the Van Halen sound, or any high-gain metal sound. It's very responsive to the type of pickups in the guitar. With a humbucker equipped guitar, it nails that Free "All Right now" sound. With my strat, there's that SRV/Mayer sound that I'm shooting for. I pretty much dime all of the controls (Volume, treble, and bass) and rely on the guitar's voluime knob to clean up the sound when I want it that way. It's pretty noisy. I'm hoping that proper grounding will remedy at least some of this noise...it currently only has a two prong power cable. The distortion is very pleasing and musical. My only real potential problem with the amp is that I have to turn everything up to ten to get those sounds I want, and it's pretty loud (After 2 hours of playing at a buddy's house yesterday, our ears were ringing).

I get nervous playing through such an old tube amp with such a checkered past, making overdriven sounds that the amp wasn't meant to make. I have a digital/solid state rig (Johnson J-Station/Tech21 Power Engine 60) that will serve when (not if) this thing fails. I will probably play the newer rig more in an effort to preserve this little jewel of an amp. It should be an easy amp to service because of it's Point-to-point wiring and it's general simplicity.

HA!

I've been playing since I was a kid...about 24 years now. As mentioned before, my other amp is a Johnson J-Station through a Tech21 Power Engine 60, which sounds very good and is probably a more sensible rig for daily practicing, etc. My guitars are a Japan made mid-80's Squier Stratocaster, a new Indonesian Squier Telecaster, and an Ibanez Artcore AFS75T. If it were lost or stolen I would get over it...it's just an amp, for Christ sakes...and look for another. I love it's tone...wish I didn't have to play so loud to get that tone. It just sort of fell into my lap, so I wasn't comparison shopping or anything. In the past I've owned a Fender Blues Jr. (Not enough breakup, didn't really dig the sound that much), a Johnson JM150 (one complicated amp!), and various other junk that wasn't very good. When I was shopping for amps, I've played the Crate V1512 (great sounding amp) and the Ampeg reissues (also great sounding) and I'd have to say this little amp matches or exceeds the sounds of those new amps. Small low-wattage amps can still be had for cheap and they're probably built a lot better than new amps!

Skylark, got it with a Gibson Les Paul TV model, one pickup. The guitar is for sure a '59, so the amp is from that same era.

One knob, volume. On/off switch. That's all you get. And that's all you need. For years I miked this amp into a Twin and that was my sound. A Gibson 345 Stereo, the little yellow TV model, and eventually a '74 Les Paul Deluxe with the mini humbuckers ran through that amp and it sounded like a stack of Marshalls. Then it blew up and I had to replace some diodes or a capacitor. It worked again but would sometimes cut out. Too bad. I still have it though. I've seen these going for big bucks on Ebay.

Only one tone, but if it's the one you want, then you will be satisfied beyond measure.

If you loved Clapton's tone on the Bluesbreakers album, then you need this amp. Single stage distortion, like the Vox Beatle amps, is very smooth. And this thing produces the loudest 5 amps you'll ever hear. I have played this thing in an auditorium and it was too loud!!! I have been told by club owners to turn it down, also.

It very nicely gets louder to a certain point, then just distorts more and more, so you can control how much crunch you want with the volume knobs on your guitar.

I used it every weekend for years and it never let me down. It died quietly one evening at practice among friends, and has been resurrected for a few return engagements. Now on semi-retirement, "the little amp that could" may return to the stage for a reunion tour.

been playing for a long time. I own mostly Gibsons from 1959 to mid-70s and a Fender Strat '62 reissue, an Ibanez Artist (80s), aneat Hamer copy of the Gibson special double cutaway (an exact neck and body reproduction of the little yellow LP TV model except with two humbuckers, plus it has a very nice bridge with individually adjustable string saddles, strings can be adjusted for intonation as well as string height). I've also put some guitars together following Van Halen's "less is more principle," i.e., one knob, volume, no tone

Gibson GA-5 was made from 1959 to 1961, GA-5T, "T=Tremlo", was made from 1960 to 1961. I have a GA5T, got it in 1963, have never spent a penney on it, work's great.

I have a 1963 Epiphone,Olympic Deluxe,Double cutaway, duel pick up, solid body. Got it new. A new Fender,"stratocaster". A Harmony Sovereign acoustic, don't know year. A 1975 Horner 12 string acoustic, I got new. I use a Larence sound hole pick up, on the acoustic's. It sound's good clean and reverb.

I have had it forty years, it was three yrs old, when I got it. I think that speaks for it's self.

N/A

I have been playing for fifty yrs. I have a twin 60amp, with two 12" 100 watt speakers, FX with 99 + 30. Will make any sound, from clean to ???. But, I will allways have my Gibson Skylark, It's all I could afford in 1963. My EPIPHONE, was over $200. I paid about $250.00 for both. Wounder what that would be in 2003 dollar's ?

I believe it was made in the mid 60's,tube.I use it pretty well for my harp,(blues).It has excacly the sound I was looking for,although my buddies have plugged their guitars in and love the sound.Not many features,volume,bass,trebble,good for me,I'm not that technical.

It hums a fair amount initially but quitens down, great distortion at full vulume great for a harp.

I've only had it a couple of months, no problems yet. It was repaired just before I bought it.

Been playing about a year.If this one was to go I probably would get another.I like it cuz it's simple,portable,great sound,not much I don't like about it, sometimes more horsepower would be o.k. When I bought it I was also looking at a new fender blues jr,it was more $$, and I thought it would be nice to have a vintage tube amp,(it makes for good conversation and opinions when the buddies are over).

Think it's a '62.
Not many features. On / Off and a loudness (volume) dial.
All vintage tube and the sound to match.

Like to run it with my Epiphone 335 and an old Harmony Sovereign acoustic with a Dean Markley pickup in the sound hole.
I like to play blues and old rock and roll. Seems very well suited to these styles. This thing won't distort worth a damn on it's own but with my Danelectro daddy-O and Big Muff, it blows the doors off the place. It's not a loud amp but the stomp boxes help that a lot. It's my first tube amp I've owned, although I've played Fenders. The tone of this thing is just amazing and I'm amazed how good the pedals sound thru it. I feel like i've rediscovered my Dunlop Crybaby Wah and my Big Muff, they sound so good through this amp.

No breakdowns yet. But you should have extra tubes.

Warranty? Yeah, probably had one 40 years ago.

Been playing for 2 years.
If it were stolen or lost I'd definately find another.
I did some research on this amp before I bought it and from what I found there was nothing bad to say about the sound of this amp. And it was all true. Sweet, Sweet tone.