Gibson GA15

You'll have read all the stuff below, so you know there's not a world of controls round the back of this thing. However, if you include the sound as a feature it's a solid 10. It is also, as others have said, pretty damn loud for 15w. Have watts got louder over the years?

I use this with a '56 ES-225, which means a single P90, and with a '79 Les Paul Custom with a diMarzio, a PAF and a standard humbucker. As others have said, this amp responds to an almost organic degree to what's put into it, so there's a world of sound to explore without touching the controls on the back.
Which is lucky, since the tone control's pretty pants: it can do warm or bright, but that's about it. No matter, the guitar does the rest.
Cranked hard and it gets all the warmth and harmonic jiggery-pokery of a great valve amp, but doesn't really go into crazed metal territory. Billy Gibbons would love one of these.
I use it for a '50s jazz combo too, and the ES through this little box sounds warm and rich and lush, with just a hint of growly drive for solos. It makes me sound much better than I am, and for that alone I love it.

Built to last by Trace Elliot, thought through and quality work. If there's a drawback it's the covering on the box, which is a bit soft and will probably get mangled over time. Ah well.

Had to take it to Trace Elliot to get the voltage changed (an American purchase brought back to the UK) - fixed and tested in a day, with all the advice (and gossip) I could ask for. Quality.

Been playing for years, have a ton of junk (but I'm reducing it) and wanted to get away from amps with hundreds of knobs that do very nearly the same thing through cabinet after cabinet of funny-sized speakers: so I bought a little brown box with one real knob and one speaker, and it sounds wonderful.
Part of me now fancies trying to add to it, but what's the point? It sounds great, so perhaps I should get on and play instead of fussing about more knob-twiddling.

Made in 2000, bought new in 2002. Very basic, single channel class A 15 watter. Two knobs, Vol. & Tone, one input,a bright switchand, a 16ohm speaker out. 10" Celestian speaker. This amp lives by the less is more rule.

I primarily play a Hamer Artist Custom and a American Strat. This amp is pure classic rock tone, which is exactly what I have been searching for. I keep the bright switch off, put the tone at 12o'clock and the volume at 3 o'clock. I can go from crystal clean to rockin' with a flip of the pickup switch and a twist of the volume on my guitar. I was really suprised by the depth and warmth of the lows. This thing looks like a toy and sounds like a 1987 plexi half stack. The amp is quite, but has made me realize how noisy the neck pickup on my strat is. One negative is that like all single channel non maser vol amps it has to be loud to get tube distortion. I naively thought that 15 watts would be managable, but, it is really loud!

This really hurt. The floor model worked great, but, the one I took home was DOA in the box. Sam Ash made good with an exchange, but, if they hadn't had one it would have taken 6 weeks to get fixed. My point is make sure you open the box and try it out before you leave the store.

I haven't dealt with them yet because I was able to get a new amp from the retailer. However, I thought it sucked that the amp would have to be "sent out" to be repaired.

You can't believe this is a 15 watt amp. It is loud, and has incredible SRV/Jimi "balls" to its tone. For $400 bucks this is a great buy.

Tone, Volume plus a bright switch. Very simple 'set it and forget it' design. ext speaker out. Class A, all With one 10" Celestion G10 60W speaker. All the inputs and controls are accessed from the back of the amp (which looks a bit like a heater) The front of the amp features a gold colored metal grill with a celtic cross hole pattern (which looks like your old highschool PA/talkback system) there is a big fat gold gibson logo just under the speaker grill. IMHO, this is a butt ugly amp! But the ears definitely like it!

I use a 1964 strat. This amp is one of the best sounding little suitcases I've ever heard. It is only 15W RMS but it specifies a 30W peak on the back of the chassis. I dunno, for a little tiny amp, it's loud as hell! The greatest thing about this amp is its tone stays clean as a whistle all the way up until about the 4 o'clock position of the volume dial. It features a bright switch, and if the tone is turned all the way up, it gets disgustingly bright and ringy, in other words, there are plenty of tones to choose from in between. This amp sounds great turned up about 3/4 tone rolled back halfway w/ volume on my guitar choked back about three notches. I've finally found a unique voice for my lead playing with this amp. It's all I'll ever need. This is the kind of amp that forces you to play better, it's that responsive... no lie, i'm dumbfounded.

ok so the cheap leatherette type covering will probably not last very long, big deal, I plan on recovering it with blonde leather and putting an oxidized copper patina on all the hardware ... the guts seem rock solid ... the power/standby/off switch is plastic, so we shall see if these break down with time.

I haven't had to deal with customer support yet

I'm locked into a major studio product right now and someone was nice enough to let me use this amp for some tracks, although I have a few vintage Gibson amps. Probably made in 1999. Very basic and simple: 1 input - bright switch - volume - tone - external speaker out and 10" speaker. Definately Class A circuitry and this amp is built right! I'm inclined to believe this amp will put out 20 watts RMS, although its rated @ 15 watts rms. Very loud! It can be clean or you can dial in some dirt with the volume. This amp is well built and sounds terrific in the studio.

I use a vintage Gibson LP (it can get a little heavy as I've been playing since the sixties) and a custom SG Special Limited Edition.
My vintage Special was stolen and Wayne Green at Gibson put together a hot rod for me, and I must say it's the finest guitar I've ever played, as it is really proving itself. Now, I like to track on old Neve and mix on SSL in the studio. Not surprising, this GA-15 holds its ground, and anyone who hasn't tried one is really missing out, as it sounds fantastic, rather quiet and records very nicely. Used a pair of Neumann KM 184 small diaphram condenser mics in a tight stereo pattern, and it sounded lovely: Incredible dimension, tight warm bottom and sparkling mids. When I wrap this project up I'm thinking about buying one of these, as it has a great more detail than the Fender Blues Jr, Laney LC 15 or Pro Junior I've used in a studio setting. Frankly they are all out classed compared to the Gibson. It will deliver warm clean sounds to smooth distortion and again can be quite loud. I was rather disappointed with a Marshall valvestate I bought for this recording project, as I was using it in combination with a 1965 Gibson GA 5 Skylark and decided to go with just the Skylark, as the Marshall sounded awful.

Having played a wide variety of gear since the sixties, Gibson is about the only company that I know of who refuses to compromise on quality. Many of the the musicians I have talked with are rather dissapointed with many of the products being made today. The recording business is where you get to sort and weed out the junk. Do yourself a favor and go with the Gibson GA-15, you won't find any plastic inputs on this amp, unlike the Fender and Marshall's I've used.

Don't be surprised if the manager or person you're talking to on the other end of the line doesn't play guitar. These guys love and live music. Really nice folks that have their act together. Sorry, but Marshall, Fender and most of the others don't. Very sad for the young musicians out there.

I've been a professional musician and producer for many years and have had the priviledge of working with successful artists and songwriters. Buy yourself good equipment that is simple. Having thousands of digital effects is not going to make you a better player - simplicity and classic designs will always be in style, which is why I recommend
Gibson. Recording is a serious business and your first impression may be your last impression - go with the best!

This is Gibsons revamp of the Velocette all valve Class A.. Still yet to go on the market and I am the lucky one with serial No. 1 !!!. It has 3 switches. Volume, Tone and Bright. It also has an external speaker out. Although it has The Retro look, the handle is plastic. A leather handle would make the look ideal. Although it's 15 watts, don't let that fool you. The tones are very powerfull.

I use a Jimmy Page Les Paul and Fender Telecaster 52 vintage. I also use a Fender Twin, Digitech 2120. I can get most sounds I need from Country to Heavy Metal etc. With this Amp, I can go back in time. The clean sound is ideal, however there is no reverb. To get original distortion, I wake up the neighbours by increasing the volume control. The only noise is from the Telecaster. Settings depend on style and so far so good.

Only had it for 5 days but knowing ths distributors reputation, I won,t be concerned about repair. However, its so well built I can't see anything going wrong.

Rosetti, the English distributor are well known and helpull.

The overall thoughts of this baby amp is that it's not a baby and will stand up to gigs and travel without any problems. It's very much a Pro and the sounds, NICE. It would have been nice with some form of reverb and independent bass and treble controls. Oh yes, the leather strap. It's not cheap but it's all valve !!