Guytron GT20 Combo

Bought my GT20 almost exactly 2 years ago in Feb 2007. I've used it with convincing results for jazz, blues, R&B, country, and rock styles that require the vibe of an AC30, Marshall, and similar modern boutiques. It doesn't do the Santana/Boogie thing all that well and doesn't even try to get into triple rectified/5150 territory. Sorry metal fans! 2 Channels switchable. Separate series effects loop per channel. It has an XLR line out that is taken after the EL84 power tubes so you get the tone of the entire amp, not just the preamp. This is the same approach used in their 100W GT100-FV where the preamp section AND 2 EL84's are the tone generating section that feed the final power amp. The GT20 line out can feed another amp with the same tone that's going to its 12" Bigtone spkr. You can't do better than the convenience of the "Sennheiser Mic element mounted (inside the grill cloth) in the perfect close-Mic position for the provided element and speaker marriage." No need to set up and position an outboard mic. Just snap a mic cable into the "hlb" jack on the rear panel and you have the quality of your favorite amp mic headed for the FOH board. I absolutely LOVE this feature!!! Each channel has 3 controls: level, tone, gain. The channel A tone control involves the gain structure and the amp picks up more gain in the treble range as you turn it clockwise, yielding a progressively more ???English??? tone along the way. The tone control on channel B is a post gain type, and serves as a treble gate to the power amp, it has no effect on the gain structure. (unlike A). In addition there are two 4-position controls that apply to the power amp and are effective when the amp is being pushed. FOCUS will tighten up the distortion and sounds like it's rolling off mids to do so. Slope rolls off the high end, like a presence control. I thought I'd miss the traditional treble, middle, bass, but I don't at all. There's also a very handy CUT control. You can run the output at 100%, 50%, 10% and off (for line out w/no spkr output) I gave it a 9 for versatility because I'd prefer a parallel effects loop so I can add verb without sending the whole signal through an outboard unit and back again.

To qualify a bit, I started playing when I saw the Beatles on Ed Sullivan. I was 9. First band in the sixth grade and have been in at least on steadily working band ever since. I'll let you do the math. With this amp I've used a Les Paul and an ESP Strat w/EMG's. At this point I've used the GT20 on around 150 gigs plus rehearsals. I wanted to wait to write this until I had something real to say. The A channel is just great. If I had to gig with only channel A I'd be plenty happy. For Blues, it's a beautiful thing from clean to nasty grit. Ideally, I could use more clean headroom. For R&B on a loud stage with a kicking drummer and horns, I'm wishing I had more. I can hear it fine but others not so much. (Hopefully the sound guys are paying attention!) But when the material calls for a bit of crunch right up through a nice rockin solo tone with clarity and sustain, channel A shines - with no pedals. Add an OD (Fulltone OCD in my case) for that little extra, and I'm sounding like a tone genius! BTW, on this kind of gig, I run it wide open and push the bleep out of it...and it kicks butt! Like any tube amp, the sweet spot is somewhere in the neighborhood of being pushed hard. So then there are times when I have to use channel B for more serious distortion and that works just fine as well. It'll take you to the the threshold of metal, but not beyond. I've been very happy with the GT20 since I learned how to get the most out of it on my gigs. Gave it an 8 here for the lack of clean headroom. Guytron says they're developing a GT40 for this very reason.

This thing travels 90% of the time with roadies in a road case. In the truck during New England winters and hot summers. No problems at all so far!

GDS Amplification LLC bought the company and are bringing Guytron products back to the market, according to the website. I did email about the new GT40 and got a quick and pleasant response. Not much else to report.

Very pleased with this amp. I'd buy another but probably the 40W instead of the 20W, ONLY for live clean headroom. The recording I've done with it sound perfect. With the focus/slope controls the character can be tweaked in some useful ways when the amp is crankin, the kind of changes that would be less practical to be making when playing live.

The Guytron GT-20 is a two-channel, 20-watt, all-tube combo sporting one of Guytron???s 12-inch ???Big Tone??? speakers. It???s also got two effects-loops, two direct-outs (one driven by a built-in microphone positioned strategically in front of the speaker) and a very unique tone-shaping section designed to balance highs, lows and mids. It???s also got a power-cut switch for it???s output section.

Make sure you go to www.guytron.com for the straight dope on this one. This amp is pretty sophisticated and can be used in a number of different settings. Once you read the GT-20???s description, it should be a piece of cake figuring out if this is an amp you should check out.

The previous reviewer did a great job listing the pros and cons of the amp so I don???t have a lot to add. However, I did want to add some perspective from the humbucker side of the house. You know: we???re the players who haven???t figured out how to use Strats yet! :-)

If you???re familiar with Guytron, you know that Guy Hedricks and company have some pretty unique ideas about how amps are supposed to sound and function. Having said that, if you???ve never used one, prepare to spend some time wrapping your brain around their concepts. In other words: While there are some useable tones that can be quickly attained with the GT-20, it was a little challenging for me to learn how to get the most out of the amp.

For example, the clean channel is nowhere near as loud as the overdrive channel. That was true for the both the GT-100 and is still the case for the GT-20. For a guy like me who depends on clean tones for most solos, that was a little frustrating. That was until I realized that Guy comes from the school of players who use their guitars??? volume knob to adjust both volume and gain. You know: turn down for clean and turn up for dirty.

Once I understood that, I started using the clean channel for rhythm and the dirty channel for solos, the latter of which can dial in a fairly loud and clean tone with the guitar???s volume knob at around 5. With the volume knob at 10, you can get a nice, hairy overdrive.

This technique always has been problematic for me depending on the amp because neck humbuckers can sound muddy once you roll off the volume. And if you???re dealing with a loud amp, then you wind up honking off bar owners, patrons and sound guys when you jump to the volume required to make the amp bark.

GT-20s are built to counter this drawback. Volume and gain tapers are very smooth with very little tone degradation as you turn up or down. Before I figured this out, I thought the amp could occasionally sound too bright. Once I figured out the volume-knob thing, it became clear that Guy set the amp up this way to avoid the entire issue of mud.

The other reviewer mentioned how overdrive distortion pedals don???t get along with the GT-20 and I know what he means. If you???re running either channel with gain levels much past the halfway point, adding more gain can make your guitar sound overly compressed and thin.

However, after playing with it for a little while, I found a solution that worked for me. I keep the amp???s gain lower than the volume and then use pedals. This is still a bit of a balancing act, but I can live with it. Besides: the amp???s dirty channel can get relatively loud with your guitar???s volume knob about halfway down and the amp???s volume at about 3 o???clock and the gain at about 12 or 1 o???clock. This setting works fine if you want to use your favorite stomp box to really turn up the heat and not make ears bleed.

The GT-20 is my second Guytron product, purchased in part because of the reliability experience I had with my Guytron GT-100 head. I???d purchased the GT-100 when it was about four years old and had seen a lot of work on the road with its previous owner. Aside from a much-needed tube change, the amp always performed. I expect similar results from the GT-20.

Mick, Kraig and Guy always have extended me every courtesy, including answering some of my crazier questions. They stand behind their products. Besides, the Guytron shop is about a 25-minute drive from my house, so it???s not like they can run and hide!

Let???s see: I???m a Michigan-born and bred kinda guy who plays a bunch of gear originating from his home state, including Heritage and Reverend Instruments and of course, Guytron. Note to self and others: Don???t try this at home! I never knew there were so many folks in the Great Lakes State who made gear. It gets expensive really fast!

My one problem with many of these boutique amp reviews is that they???re a lot like asking folks ???Do you like your kids???? Most folks aren???t gonna say their kids suck, because ultimately that???s a reflection on them. Likewise, nobody???s going to admit that they???ve didn???t like their newest foo-foo, shee-shee acquisition because they???d look silly admitting they bought an expensive piece of dookie.

I bought the GT-20 because I was looking for a moderate-volume amp to use at church and occasional bar gigs that was lightweight and could be run through a PA if I needed more volume. I got what I wanted right off the bat with GT-20. But after a few months with it, I???ve realized it can deliver a lot more and I???m thinking that there are still a few nice surprises in this puppy. That makes me glad I bought it.

Details available at www.guytron.com. I'm not going to list them all here. All the controls and features are fully functional, useful, and practical. The most subtle are the Focus and Slope controls. The power section has to be working pretty good for these to be effective. I've only found use for these controls at gigs where I've got the amp turned up. I find the Slope control very useful for getting the amp to cut thru the mix in different ways. It's like it makes the amp jump out in the mix to various degrees.

The single control is amazing. Every sound I need in 1 freaking knob. Smooth jazz tones all the way thru bright country spank twang. The gain controls are fab as well. Ultra clean thru serious raunch on channel A, and low gain grind thru stadium rock on channel B.

The built in mic is a great feature. It is rock solid. I've used it live and to record. It so easy it's ridiculous. Plug in it, set eq and volume. That's it. It delivers the true sound of the amp without screwing around.

Then the there's the Cut. A built in attenuator. I use this at home to record and not piss off the wife. Despite the fact the amp can be played quietly without the Cut control, it is still useful. I use it to crank channel A and then bring it down to a nice recording level at home. Still gives me the cranked sound but no where near as loud.

The lights are very cool looking and do serve a practical purpose on dark stages. The control panel is easily visible even in low light environments.

There's an efx loop but I haven't used it.

I wish the amp had more power. I'd like them to bump it to 40w. I've contacted Guytron about increasing the power so we'll see what happens. I'd like 40w because on stage sometimes I'm not able to be close to the amp and having the extra power would get more sound on stage. I don't always have monitors so having the extra power would be great for outdoor gigs or large stages and rooms. This is the ONLY thing I would change about this amp.

See clips at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSu0ci-W7t8

I use a custom Tele, a Strat, and a Brian Moore DC1 (les paul style).
I play funk, motown, and rock. GT20 takes all my guitars well and excels at all my styles.

This is the best sounding amp I've ever owned. I like better than the FV I used to own. The clean channel sounds pretty much just like the FV head. Which is the best clean sound available for my taste. It is so true and uncolored. No icepicks, no boominess, just smooth even tone. It is very flexible too and with only 3 controls. I especially like that this amp is not a knockoff of some other legendary amp or circuit. I've haven't played another amp that sounds like Guytrons.

Channel B is what separates this amp from the FV for my taste. I find channel B to be more aggressive on the GT20 than on the FV. The GT20 has more attitude on the OD channel. I was supremely surprised by this when I demoed the amp at the store. I was sold at that point. The OD channel killed all my OD pedals. Made them useless. I can get any sound I need with the 3 knob setup of the GT20 channel B-and all of them are great. The Guytrons don't seem to like OD pedals all that much anyways. I find they're not necassary with these amps because of the attenuator in the GT20 and the power amp design of the FV. Non-OD pedals work great though.

See clips at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSu0ci-W7t8

I have no worries about reliability on this amp. None. I've owned it since it became available about a month ago. I have no concerns. Never had a problem with my FV either. Never heard of any Guytron owners having any problems. I consistently to it to gigs with no backup.

I have spoken with Guytron. They are cool dudes. They've been prompt in responding to me with info about the FV and the GT20. I've dealt with 3-4 different people over there and they all had the same level of customer service. They're good peeps. Not arrogant like some bastards I've dealt with.

This is the best amp for me. I'd dreamed that they'd make a combo after I gave up trying to lug my FV head to gigs. My dream has come true. This amp is an absolute joy to play. If lost or stolen I'd order another one without even leaving my house or looking online for something else- that's how happy I am. It is the only amp I own (except a Peavey backup). I can't afford a room full of $2000 amps. So for me to keep an amp and rave about it as I've done here you know it really means that much to me. See clips at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSu0ci-W7t8