Gibson GA15RV Goldtone 112 Combo

See the other reviews for features.

My Goldtone has tan tolex and a gold grillcloth. It came with a Celestion Vintage 30 speaker. The circuit board says Trace Elliot Velocette 12R.

As others have said, it only has one tone control. Sometimes I find myself wanting more tonal control. On the other hand, its nice not to be endlessly tweaking it like some Mesa/Boogie amps I've tried.

I almost always run it in triode mode (6 watts)so it breaks up earlier. At 6 watts, it keeps up with the rest of the band. At gigs, we always mike our amps, but this amp could cut it even without a microphone at bar gigs. I run it with an external cabinet and I always run at less than half volume.

I think the tone sounds "small", "boxy" and "honky" at higher volumes. I think a Fender Princeton Reverb sounds "bigger" even though that is a 1x10 combo. So I always plug the amp into a Mesa Boogie 1x12 3/4 back cab with a Vintage 30 speaker to get more bottom and a much bigger and richer sound. That cabinet makes a world of difference.

The amp came with a Celestion Vintage 30 speaker. I think the tone is way too punchy and "in your face" with that speaker. It has a real spike at about 800 Hz. It was difficult getting good "strat quack" sounds with that speaker. So I replaced it with a speaker from my Crate Vintage Club 50 combo (similar to an Eminence Legend GB12?) which has a more mellow response. I then moved the Vintage 30 to my Mesa cabinet. But no speaker seems to remedy the small, "boxey" tone, so that is why I always just use my Mesa cab.

Some have said the amp is too bright. Yes it can be. But I tend to play dark-sounding guitars (Gibson, Reverend) in the darker 6-watt triode mode with the tone at 9:00, so I always have the bright switch on. It can get quite bright in the 15-watt pentode mode with the bright switch on. I suppose playing with an external cab tames the brightness too.

In the 6-watt triode mode, it stays clean until about 11:00-12:00 on the volume. That is when it starts to distort a little. I don't remember where it breaks up in 15-watt mode.

To me, the clean sounds more Vox-like than Fender-like. It cuts through more than a Fender. It has more midrange punch.

The amp really crunches at about 3:00 on the volume in 6-watt triode mode. It has that nice 70's crunch, sort of an AC/DC crunch. But at that point, the amp is too loud for my band situation.

This amp is much more distortion-pedal friendly than my Fender Twin Reverb. Distortion pedals through my Fender Twin Reverb tend to sound like amplified distortion pedals, while distortion pedals through this amp sound more like real amp overdrive. In fact I can pretty much duplicate the cranked tone of this amp by using the amp at a lower volume with my Barber Burn Unit distortion pedal and a little low-EQ boost. Using the boost channel of the Fulltone FullDrive 2 pedal in uncompressed mode with this amp produces a fat, singing lead, that has little buzziness. Although that borders on being too loud.

This amp has good clarity and really cuts through the band mix.

The reverb is not bad, but I prefer Fender. It seems like I can detect the reverb on a Fender while playing a note. On the Gibson, I don't notice the reverb as much until AFTER I've stopped playing the note. The Gibson seems to have a longer decay time than the Fender.

Stock, I'll give it a rating of 7.
Using it with an external cab, I'd give it a rating of 9

Really no problems.

I've heard it crackle and "blat" a few times when hitting a power chord. This usually happened in the first few minutes of use and then it quickly disappeared.

The power switch snapped off. It was a plastic toggle switch. I replaced it with a metal toggle switch.

I contacted Gibson about replacing the switch. I was surprised that they didn't carry them. But they directed me to another company that sold them. It didn't take them long to respond.

Been playing since about 1985. I've been gigging on and off since 1996.

My other amps are a Fender Twin Reverb and a Crate Vintage Club 50.
I sold my Reverend Hellhound amp to get this one since it was too dark.

Actually, many of the positive qualities I've attributed to this amp can also be attributed to my Crate Vintage Club 50 amp. The clean channel of the Crate amp sounds very similar to the Gibson plugged into an external cabinet and it has an overdrive channel too. However, with the Crate I only use one of the two speakers and the one I use is not the stock speaker. I also changed the stock preamp tubes.

If it were stolen, I'd probably check out some other amps. I've never found an amp I've been completely satisfied with.

Just a volume, tone and reverb with LO/LINK and Hi inputs, 12'' Celestion in an nice gold cabinet.

DESIGNED and originally built (mine as well in 1998) by Trace-Elliott in southern England, where the genleman-designer really knows his trade !

Gibson bought it and this (originally named Velocette combo) became GA15RV Goldtone as we review them here.

It has ALL the feature true guitarist NEEDS; I have modelling amps and these have tons of buttons and presets but what's the use of that when all I need is TONE and here I get it !

So it is 10 = VERY VERSATILE.

Very balanced design by a chap who understands guitars and music, hence the fabulous sound of an almost class A tube 112 combo (not quite as it isn't single ended design like my THD UniValve or Epiphone Valve Jr; also it has a solid state rectifier which is fine in 15Watter, yet not quite the vintage tube-rectigfier 'squashing tone').

Still it is perfect small medium club amp and I did use it in open spaces with a microphone through the PA : always sounds fabulous and I nowadays mostly use the 6W triode sweet sounding option.

In short it excells in jazz, pop, rock, blues, latino and actually anything as it can play metal and sing for days, when I DRIVE the input with a THD Univalve used as a preamp !

It loves all guitars (including bassy Les Pauls) as the designer obviously knew how to get the right range of vintage guitar tones.

All pedals work fine, and if you are desperate you can always add a Vox Valvetronix preamp if you need those zillion presets (that no serious guitarist ever needs on stage ...

In short, as compared to any amp I used, and there were at least 30 since early '60s this is the best sounding combo together with a Fender Prosonic combo and several expensive small boutique amps like Cornell or Bad Cat. Of course, $650 THD Univalve is in a league on it's own, yet that is a REFERENCE amp by now :-)

So, 10 = Sounds Awsome!

Several years of regular gigging and I didn't even change the tubes !

I have a back-up but I never had to use it, so it's 100% reliable = 10.

I wouldn't trust Gibson much as they are too big and arogant to be useful, but somewhere in these reviews is the name of the TRUE DESIGNER who was with Trace Elliott and who is still around in England and is still playing with amps. I phoned him once and we had a great chat as he appreciated people who love his amps and GREAT sounds ... if anything ever goes wrong I would contact him or any usual technical guy who understands classic amp designs like original Vox AC30 or similar.

So the designer gets 10 while Gibson get 7 (a grace :-)

With $650 THD Univalve that is clearly the very best class A true single ended design amp, this is the second best with Fender Prosonic combo not counting several famous yet >$2000+ boutique designs (Cornford, Matamp, Dr.Z, Carr, Alessandro, Cornell, Kendrick, Zinky, Budda, Koch, Fargen, Klancir etc ...).

In short, this is the best stage gig combo there is, as Prosonic weighs 25kgs and this GA15RV is only 17 which is important for serious musicians without a crew.

As to the sound - perfect and if there is anything you need on top you can add any pedal as it likes them all (Tubescreamers and similar).

Finally, I have even linked it in a series with a Fender Cyber Champ (that is mimicing 6 Fender amps and vintage sounds and effects) and the combination gives me any sound that I can possibly imagine (except death-acid-metal). 6W triode feature is superb for bluesy songs.

If you can still find one - buy it as this is the best kept secret in the business; I know as I play since early '60s and that's >40 yrs ...

Oh yes, even Variax (500 and acoustic) and Roland VG-88 and GR-33 sound great through this amp ... so it is almost perfect = 9.5 as I reserve full 10 for Andy Marshall's Univalve (THE best tube amp :-)

Two things that bother me - controls and inputs are at the bottom in teh back and it's a pain in the ass to adjust. There is no light showing teh amp is on, and as a result I've left in on for the whole day on several occasions.

This amp is awesome. I previously owned a Velocette SE with a 10-inch speaker, which also sounded very good until the power transformer got fried. I had it rewound, but it didn't sound the same and I no longer trusted it. After Gibson took over Trace, I took my amp to a store and compared with the Gibson equivalent of my Velocette. The Gibson sounded better. The sound was rounder and fuller, as opposed to the Velocette, whose sound just a bit too aggresive.

The 12-inch Goldtone with reverb is even better. I've done two major things, however, that improved the amp tremendously. I replaced the stock Vintage 30 with a Celestion Century Vintage. The Vintage 30 was not bad, but it was a bit too heavy for my tastes. I should say that I play clean jazz. The Century Vintage has a quick response and very similar sound to teh Vintage 30, but it's lighter overall.

In addition to a new speaker, I've had a local carpenter build me a custom cabinet from spruce. The original cab is MDF, which is a mixture of who knows what - it most likely consists of whatever happens to fall into the bin where they're mixing the shit that it's made from. It's heavy, ugly, and doesn't hold screws too good. The new cab not only looks 1000 times nice, it also sounds better. I had to laugh about one reviewer's assumption that the cab is made of Baltic birch... The construction is very cheap and very sloppy too - it's outrageous how much Gibson asks for it.

Back to the sound - for my needs it's pretty much the ideal amp. I also have a Boogie Mark I, which is a great piece of equipment, totally reliable, and at last - after also I put in a Century Vintage as well - it is managable. It weighs 22 kilos, however, as opposed to 15 kilos my Goldtone has after the above mods. What I like about the Goldtone is that it only has volume and tone and doesn't allow you to fiddle with teh sound - you plug in and it sounds great. Different tubes change the sound dramatically. The Velocette SE was even better in this regard, because it had a single power tube (6L6, 6V6, EL34) as opposed to the EL84s in the Goldtone.

Velocettes were known to get fried, and teh Goldtone is basically a Velocette. I usually bring along my AER Compact 60, as I don't entirely trust the Gibson.

Gibson once sent me a custom L-4 CES archtop after I bought an ES 165 and received about three replacement guitars that all had the same problem - basically they were falling apart. Otherwisem, getting spare parts from Gibson is impossible or incredibly expensive. Since I'm living in an obscure European country, I'm sure I'd have to look for some unauthorized repairmen to fix this thing if it breaks.

I've been playing for 35 years. I have a degree in music and used to be a pro for many years. I'm in a different (much more lucrative) business now, but I still play concerts in clubs and at festivals and record CDs. This is an excellent sounding amplifier, the only amp I like better than the Boogie Mark I. The amp really works as an extension of my guitar (Mark Campellone custom archtop) and does justice to it. The sound is alive - it is very colorful, cuts through well, and fills up space in a very musical way. BTW, I also have an AER Compact 60, which is an awesome piece of gear considering its size and weight.

2004 GA-15RV, built in America, Black tolex vinyl, one channel, bright switch, Volume & Tone controls, reverb control. Two imputs (high & low) and extra speaker jack (16 ohms). The tone control is actually all you need because it is a double pot. that adjusts treble and mid-range as you change positions, some people haven't liked it but I find it to be excellent for dialing in your tone and is very simple to use. 15 watts from 2 X EL84 and two 12AX7 pre-amp tubes. Pentode/triode switch to cut the power to 6 watts. I bought this amp as a small pick-up and go amp for small gatherings and gigs but I now have to admit that it is one of my favorite amps. Even rated at 15 watts it is just as loud as my Vintage Super Reverb, in fact in small places I have played on just the 6 watt mode and it is simply wonderful. This amp doesn't have alot of "features" but it is obvious that it was designed by a working musician who wanted a great tube sound in a simple yet versatile package. It's the simplicity of the design yet amazing number of tones that has impressed me so much about this amp.

I play a Eric Johnson strat, Nocaster, 57 Goldtop, and Gretsch 6120 into this amp and they all have there own sound, if fact this amp is my easiest to get a great tone with amp. The headroom is surprising because I like my clean sound to be "really clean", the sound is very full and warm with a nice "chime" on the top end. With my 6120 I can get a great jazz sound on the front pick-up. The reverb is nice and deep sounding and is one of the best I've ever heard. With my strat I turn the Volume control to max (the amp is very quiet even at full volume) and use my guitar's vol control to go from clean to crunch to full distortion. The amp's distortion is warm and articulate, you can feel the tubes working as you play, the amp is very touch sensitive. Tone wise this amp puts many of my vintage amps to shame, it really has a great blues/60's rock&roll feel to it. It is more than loud enough to gig with.

I've only had the amp 3 months, but so far no problems. The models made in England had some problems with bad transformers and the tube sockets melting but the ones made in America are well built and the problems have been solved.

Gibson has always been helpful with my guitars but this is the first amp I've ever owned from them.

I've been playing 30 years and have had one of every amp ever made and still have the following amps: Sewell Texaplex, Sewell Texaverb, 66 Super Reverb, 62 Blonde Bassman. These are great amps but I find that the portability and great tones + the simplicity of the Goldtone 15RV really appeals to me. If it where lost or stolen I would immdiately buy another. This is my only class A amp and I'm beginning to understand all the interest people have in that type of design. It's nice to have an amp that was clearly designed by a guitarist not an engineer.

This is a follow-up to my original review for this amp. Now that I've had the amp for almost a year, I figured I'd revisit it.

Quickly on the features...

* 12" speaker (I have both a Celestion Vintage 30 *and* an Eminence RedCoat)
* single tone control that controls bass, mids, treble
* SS reverb with short tank
* black leatherette vinyl covering with gold-toned appointments
* 15WRMS, class A; dual EL84's, several 12AX7's
* goldtone metal speaker grill
* weighs about 40lbs
* heavy duty handle - looks and feels like leather, but assume vinyl
* rear mounted chassis on bottom of cabinet
* rear mounted controls and input
* regular guitar input
* additional lo-link input that can be used for several things:
- plug in a guitar with active electronics
- slave one GA15RV to another for bigger sound
- direct out to a PA
* low and high power switches
* included foot pedal to toggle reverb
* personal computer-like removable power cord

The amp is single channel, no effects loop or headphone jack (though the lo-link jack might work for that!)

I originaly gave the amp a "6" for features for a less-is-more thing, but after discovering the mutli-use of the lo-link input, I'll bump it to a 7.

OK this part is simple - great clean tone! Though I don't use it, this amp has excellent OD tone, too.

I play Gibson archtops - P90's & humbucks and use multi-FX pedals for a variety of tone. This amp loves pedals of any kind. And the amp is very quiet.

The reverb is decent but over the top like any Fender amp with tube reverb. Reverb is much bettert than typical SS-driven reverb and for jazz with jsut an archtop, it works fine. If I use the reverb, I use it in small measure. I typically use reverb on my MFX pedal for the sake of convenience.

This amp does everything a Deluxe Reverb RI does, having recently owned one of those... it can get bright and chimey and unlike the DRRI can get bassy if you need it. I do think the trad BF look of the DRRI is cooler, but there's something to be said for the GA15RV's use of gold on black.

I still think the amp "sounds awesome", but had a bad experience with it...

With the Eminence Redcoat, the GA15RV sounded thin and shrill at a house party we played. It sounded like an AM radio to me. Afterwards, however, when I watched the video, the doggone thing sounded fantastic in the mix. I mean bloomin' fanatastic. Well, I didn't see the video for a month and ended up putting back a Celestion Vintage 30. So now the amp has a V30 and I'm loving the sound.

This amp seems very dependable. I don't take a backup amp to gigs, assuming that I cna plug my MFX unit into a PA if my amp goes down.

I've had the amp for a year; never had a problem - not a rattle, glitch or anything else. Then again, I've not gigged but for 2 house parties with this band. Still, I'm very happy with the stability of the amp.

One thing before I go... getting the speaker out proved to be a pain. You really should take out the chassis, but I'll be darned if I could even get the chassis out. I unscrewed the 4 screws under the amp that I assume hold the chassis (not the screws for the feet), but I still couldn't budge the chassis. It's like it's glued down. With time and effort I was able to dismantle the speaker baffle from the inside - the way the amp is deigned you have to change out speakers fro the inside. By not being able to remove the chassis, what should have been a 10 minute job turned into 60 minutes.

Made in 2004. Celestion vintage 30 speaker. Vintage style, all tube, non-master volume, class A 15-watter. Covers blues, jazz and classic rock with excellence. The "pentode/triode" switch is very useful: use one for gigging, the other for practice. The "bright" switch is great for sparkling up the humbuckers at lower volumes. Very neat dual tone control: simultaneously works with high and mid frequencies withouth touching the bass. I wish the reverb was tube driven and had a larger tank. A point-to-point wiring, tube driven tremolo and fx loop would be nice additions, but that would mean a lot steeper price tag and not so vintage style anymore. For what it was designed, the amp has plenty of features.

The sound of this amp is complex and mature, if I may. Nice full cleans, creamy overdrive, singing distortion. Equally beautiful and versatile with both humbuckers and single coils. Sounds are usable in virtually any control setting. To find a bad sound, one needs to really, really try. To those experienced with long-tank all tube reverbs, this reverb may sound unnatural. Signal-to-noise ratio is superb. Some audible hiss with the bright switch on. Reverb is somewhat noisy when maxed out. Overall the amp's noise levels are very low compared to the amps in its league. It's big brothers, Super Goldtones are quieter, but they cost 3 times as much.

The unit is dependable. The cab is well built and the construction is very stable: the center of mass is low due to the amp placement. The handle is comfortable and sturdy. The speaker and tubes are protected by metal grills. The thing would survive a nuclear attack better than I would. Once it started producing some buzz on certain notes (a common resonance problem in any combo amp). Titening the transformer screws solved the problem.

Requested the schematics and got them the next day.

Been playing for 16 years. Own mostly American built amps and guitars. If it were stolen/lost, I'd try replacing it with the same amp, which would be difficult as they are not made anymore. This amp's greatest feature is its tone, which I love. I am not fund of its reverb, so it's always turned to a minimum. Compared to the closest competition, e.g. Fender Blues Junior or Ampeg J12T, GA-15RV wins hands down, especially for humbucker equipped guitars. I wish it had tube driven reverb and tremolo, and that is answered by the Gibson's new GA line.

Mine is a late model production with ceramic tube sockets and an Eminence Governor. Reverb, Volume and a dual ganged Tone control. All valve signal path. There are ICs and transitors in the circuit but they are for the reverb and tube power supply.

The sound of the amp is remarkable. It?s extremely chimey and quiet. The tube filaments are run on DC which contributes to the quietness of this amp. Set up stock it sounds wonderful. I have since replaced the speaker with a Celestion Blue and the preamp tubes with an RCA blackplate and a Sylvania 12AX7 in the phase inverter slot. I?d say it?s world class now.
It has a unique voice. I have a ?71 Marshall Superlead, a Marshall Bluesbreaker Combo Reissue, a Fender Super Reverb reissue and it fits in nicely. Funny how I?ve assembled a fleet of amps that require hotplates in the clubs I play in. So I decided 15 watts was plenty for practice and gigging. It?s plenty loud and no hot plate needed..
I typically run this amp in pentode mode, volume about ? up and tone about ? up (extremely mellow). The guitar volume controls the overdrive. No 1 x12 is going to have the shake and smack of a 4x12 but set up in a MF stand I have plenty of stage volume. When we play bigger shows I can shove a 57 in front of the amp and dial up a little bass on the mixer so it sounds even bigger. But even on it?s own it sounds big.
The combo has a complex and intriguing tone. I can get the milkshake drive or a VOX chime and that?s really cool with a strat bridge. My les pauls and my fenders both sound great in their own way.
I can?t recommend this amp enough. I don?t ever think you can have enough voices for your guitars so consider this for a little different vibe. Had I acquired this first, I might have fewer amps now. .

Well built

I emailed Gibson for a schematic and they emailed one back to me in 30 minutes!!!

I?ve had this amp for 3 weeks and have used it for a live show and several practices. Great, well built, attractive and a lot of guys have mesas, fenders, marshals, but how many guys show up to a gig with Gibson amps? Well, there?s one more now.

Well, as far as features, they are minimal. As has been said, less is more. Volume, tone, reverb..and the pentode/triode switch. An effects loop might be nice, but I suppose the retro vibe might be lost. I had the Ga30 and it had one, but it was noisy. I rewired my pedalboard to go straight into the front and my God, what a sound!

I play mostly Gibson's..Les Paul and 335, a Carvin CT6m (now there's a GREAT guitar ) and an American Deluxe 50th anniversary strat....this amp has it all covered. Very bright, somewhat voxy and responsive. I almost bought a Vox, but the build quality of this is excellent. Very spanky AND receptive to pedals...WOW!

Built like a tank. Solid and serious

Don't know, but the Gibson support for guitars is great

I prefer this on the 6 watt setting....The volume is simply incredible...I'm overdriving it with pedals and the tones are simply amazing...don't let the low wattages fool you...she's LOUD and then some. For more, put it through a cab...i can't wait to do that. I bought this as a backup and can't seem to quit it...almost a class A bad habit! Good work Gibson! This is a classic in the making.

Follow up to my review directly below. Wrote a letter to customer service say ing that I preferred the V30 speaker the GA15RV was advertised to come with. They wrote back that they were sticking with the original position - no replacement speaker allowed.

Granted, the Eminence RedCoat sounds very good, but I wanted the amp as advertised - Celestion V30. Of course, now with the V30's being made in China, it's probably no biggie that it worked out the way it did, but they wouldn't budge on this issue.

My amp was one of the last batch of GA-15RV's before they were discontinued; made in 2005, I think. The amp is very versatile, but without channel switching to switch between clean and overdrive, you have to manually adjust the amp. Obviously, this would be difficult to impossible in a live situation, which is why you need 2 of 'em :)-

The amp has one channel, a single 12" speaker, 2XEL84 power tubes running in or near Class A, 2X12AX7 preamp tubes, SS/IC-driven reverb, dual (lo and hi) inputs, volume knob, tone know, reverb knob, speaker out for hooking up to a larger cab, a switch for low power (6W) or hi power (15W), a bright switch, black leatherette covering, gold-colored metal grill, gold-colored metal corners and knobs, and a removeable power cord ala a PC.

There is no effects loop.

All controls are on the bottom back of the amp, which leads me to "set it and forget it" when using the amp. I use pedals for effects, volume control, and OD, so it works out well for me.

The amp has a cool look to it - unlike most amps out there; very distinctive.

The GA-15RV weighs as much as a Fedner Deluxe Reverb and is almost the same size; it's slightly narrower.

This amp is a true example of where less is more.

I am using humbucker-equipped and P90 archtops for rock/pop and dabbling in jazz. The amp is very quiet on its own. you get some noice when you go ito low power mnode and dime the amp for distortion, but its neglible.

The amp has a very clear, articulate, yet thick tone. The amp can be warm or bright depending on your use fo the tone control and the bright switch.

Pedals work very well with this amp and its loud enough to play gigs; just mic it up for larger gigs.

My amp shipped with an Eminence RedCoat series - The Governor model speaker instead of the stock Celection Vintage 30 I had expected. The Eminence is a nice speaker and made in the USA, but I was expecting a Celestion V30... more on that in the support section.

All in all, it's a great sounding amp.

From what I understand, Gibson used double-sided epoxy boards and other top notch electronic components for long-term reliabiltiy. The amp ships with JJ Tesla EL84's.

Well, usually I love Gibson customer support for my guitars, but trying to get Gibson to provide a Celestion V30 in place fo the Eminence has been nothing short of a disaster. While friendly, they certainly are not helpful.

You see, they ran out of V30's for their last run of these amps and sub'ed in the Emeneice RedCoat speaker. I suppose they have severed ties with Celection as their new hand-wired series of amps use Eminence speakers now.

After a volley of emails to their customer service dept (not an appropriate title, if you ask me), I now have to write a manual letter to their HQ to get the V30 the amp was designed to work with and for which it was advertised.

Great amp, looks cool, has a Vox-ey type of vibe to its tone, loud, clean, well built, sounds great... eh what else is there.