Gibson Titan III

1964/65 depending on the speaker ID scheme from Jensen (2x10') and Altec Lansing (1x15"), TITAN head, s/n 701082, TITAN III cabinet.

2 channels with tremolo on first channel. Amp has already been described in great detail by previous poster (wolfskier). He has a unit pretty near identical to mine.

Reverb would be nice but the amp was designed w/o. Holy Grail or modeler fills in pretty good.

I use my Titan at home; plenty of power in the 65 watts and 3 speakers.

Great all tube amp. I'm no musical guru but I know tone when I hear it.

This amp just sounds sixties. I've never cranked it up over the top but tone is sweet.

Using Gibson SG and Melody Maker, sometimes Ibanez Artist.

Amp provides a good blues tone and when a drum machine is added the 15' Lansing gives you the feeling their is really a drummer behind you.

It has the expected hum of an original all tube and when she warms up she quietens down. You could heat a house off the head after about 20 minutes.

If I gigged I would love to haul this heavy deal around. Thank God for wheels. Dependable? Still going after after 40+ years.

It's always been the real deal as long as I've had it. No problems.
I did change the speaker cabinet cable to a modern day cable. The original cable was made of old brown lamp cable; the same wiring that is used throughout the cab speaker system. As soon as I replaced that cable 50% of my hum was eradicated.

I agree with wolfskier; Gibson has no information on these old Kalamazoo units. That was the impression I got from Gibson USA customer no-service. They have a few schematics but I found much more info surfing around. I will list a few that have useful stuff if anyone is interested in old shipping totals and more dynamic/technical data. Gibson was not much help and seemed to brush off my questions.

www.superiormusic.com
www.gibsongarage-amps
www.vintaxe.com (This guy has the old original Gibson catalogs)
www.harpamps.com (Gibson instruction books-very basic)

I have enjoyed guitar since I was 10 y/o. 46 years I guess now. I've had a bunch of stuff over the years but now I have a Gibson SG and a Melody Maker from years gone by. Also an Ibanez Artist, Alvarez accoustic, an old Washburn SG/Melody Maker/LP rip-off but it plays good, 1940's Stella accoustic, and a resonator guitar, a ROCKTRON RepliTone, a VOX AD50 and some other junk. Three of my guitars were stolen last year by a crack-head. PLEASE: jot down your numbers on your gear. I got all my stuff back. Pawn shops will buy anything. Protect yourself! I was lucky.

I think collecting these old Gibson's is more than $. We need to preserve the gear from yesteryear. Look at it this way. The one thing these old amps don't have is the little tag on the back that says MADE IN CHINA. That fact alone makes good enough for my money.

1964 Titan III as per nos. on the Jensen speakers dating. Lansing 15 inch dating shows it as a 1963. S/N stamped on the face of the Titan head 701082. Gibson can't or won't explain Kalamazoo dating sequence on this unit.
2 channels, has original leather-like covers stamped w/Gibson logo in green ink. Unit is in absolute mint, not a scratch on the brown Tolex. Speakers are perfect. Unit was bought new by sellers father. Unit was stored in a closet for 25 years and played occasionally by father/son. Father died, son sold it.
I use this amp at home. Not a professional musician.
All original tubes in place. Minimal hum, 2 prong original power cord. 65 watts of pretty raw power.

Sound quality is good. Trem works. The Lansing 15" Bass Musical Instrument Speaker creates a great low end and keeps pumping.

I use mostly Gibson guitars SG and Melody Maker. Sometimes I use my Ibanez AR200.

Pretty clean sound. Bass speaker offers great sound when I use a Zoom FX with the drum machine. You can feel the drum coming off the front of the cab. Pretty cool.

Depend on it? I think so. Never let me down to date. When it gets warmed up you could heat a house off the head.

Gibson didn't offer much except a pretty bad schematic sheet.

Go to www.harpamps.com/gibson
or
www.superiormusic.com
or
www.gibsongarage
or
www.vintaxe.com (follow directions to gain acces to OLD GIBSON manuals

Been playing for 30+ years.

I would hate to lose this old amp. I am collecting some others as well. Discoverer, Falcon, Skylark, Explorer. Still looking for these. Have a friend who has several on hand. E-bay prices are getting stupid.

1964 Gibson Titan III piggy back amp. 65 watts, very clean powered with 4-6L6 power tubes. Speaker configuration is 1 15" 16 ohm Altec Lansing and 2-10" 8 ohm Jensens. This speaker configuation has it's own passive crossover network and what looks like a fuse. I would appreciate another reader's expertise on this device. The 'fuse' on my cabinet is disconnected and I can't seem to find anyone knowledgable enough to comment. The amp has no reverb but has a very nice tremelo. 2 channels, each with Loudness, Bass, Middle and Treble and completely independant of each other

Clean as a whistle, very full sound with that 15" speaker and surprising punchy with the 2x10" speakers. It's a unique sound in that there is enough bottom end to satisfy and yet crisp enough on the top end. It's not easy to describe except deliciously vintage, wet and full sounding. Don't look to get an overdrive sound out of this amp, it is beautifully clean a low volume or wide open.

Solid as a rock. No issues except that the back plate covering the 6L6 tubes gets very hot - caution is needed. When I look at this amp I think of something incredibly well built with heavy 'real' components in the wood and metal. Think of a '57 Chevy or an early sixties tank of a car and that's what you get here... nice, real nice

No support available that I know of - but to honest I haven't tried.

I have been playing for 30+ years, professionally and not. I've done everything from backing up famous artists like Aretha Franklin to playing radio & TV jingles, to club dates and parties to ???? You name it, I've played it. I use a variety of guitars depending on the circumstance. Mostly a couple of strats with different gauge strings, but I also have an old ES335, a Gretch semi-hollowbody, a couple of acoustic electrics and a stock Peavey Jack Daniels guitar with 2 humbuckers that literally screams (when I need to feel young again). This amp is an old gem.. if you come across one buy it and keep it in the house just for fun. Put a couple stomp boxes with it if you like, but it's just a very cool looking fantastic sounding amp from a long gone era in craftsmanship

Manufactured in 1965 or 1966. +/- 50 watts through 2 channels; 11 tubes including four 6L6's in push-pull for the final. Independent Loudness (I love that!), Bass, Mid and Treble controls. Controls are the brown "appliance" knobs with brushed crome "pointers" rather than the round, chrome knobs used on the Gemini, Mercury and later Titan models. Tremelo (rate & depth) on Channel 1 only. LDR (light-dependent resistor) tremelo design restricts the depth. Hard-wired foot switch. Closed back cab with ported 15" Altec-Lansing. In a separated compartment are 2-10" Concert Series Jensens. The 15" and 10" are connected via a passive crossover network. Trapezoid cab & head finished in brown Tolex (with unusual pattern). Chrome control face with Titan logo decal on head. Brown vinyl handle on head and cab top, fixed aluminum handles on cab sides with aluminum (or white steel) corner protectors at the cab bottom. Brown tweed grillcloth. Plastic Gibson logo on the cab grill at the top left with the Titan III logo decal affixed to the right of a brushed aluminum trim strip over the grillcloth at the top. Four removeable castors allow head and cab to tilt back on a stand integrated into the back of the speaker cab. The head utilizes brushed steel latches (with recessed pockets for the head's feet in the cab)to attach the head to the cab rather than the more secure "slide-and-lock" system utilized on (presumably) later models. There is also a cutout at the bottom of the head to accomodate the cab's top handle. When using any volume, one needs to remove the head as the tubes vibrate violently...and I don't trust the latches anyway! Custom made leather covers for cab & head. Mint condition.

Depends what you're looking for.
The crossover network lets the 15" carry all the lows providing a very warm, deep tone. The tone controls themselves enable a very wide range of warm tones, especially the Mid control. If volume is what you desire look elsewhere; there is so much headroom in the 6L6's, it is difficult to overdrive. I use the pre-amp section (2 12AX7's) of an old 1950's McGohan PA amp to provide some overdrive, but I harbor no desire to push the 40 year-old speakers. The combination On/Off Polarity Reverse switch and the use of a non-grounded (2 prong) AC plug provides very effective hum elimination. Minimal hiss with treble all the way up.

Other than new caps this year, no problems. And this amp has gone from below zero in the back station wagon to egg-frying hot (running near wide open)over the span of a few minutes!

Other than a schematic, Gibson is no help whatsoever. I'm in a worldwide search to find another Titan III cabinet (in decent shape) with no support from Gibson. One would think they would be interested in this classic.

Guitars used: '65 or '66 Gibson Melody Maker (came with the amp), '72 Epiphone(Japanese)semi-hollow, '85 Focus 3000. Also use this head with a different speaker cab for an '05 Arbor bass.