Kalamazoo Model One

This is a 1967 model one according to the volume pot inside the amp.
Features hi and lo inputs, volume, tone with on/off built in tone sw.
10" CTS Alnico speaker just like most of the Gibsons. This was made
by Gibson at their Kalamazoo factory at a lower cost. Tubes are
6x4,12ax7,6bq5 (mine were good RCA's).

This is nice and clean up to about 7 on the volume, then it is like
ZZtop came to visit on 8.5,more tube distortion past that. I tried
it with regular pickups and humbuckers but to me everything sounds
better with humbuckers. Both sounded good. This is a lot louder than
my Silvertone 1481 with the 6 inch speaker. This also has a real
nice growl to it cranked up. I think this is much better than a
Fender champ amp. You can spend $300+ for a blackface champ. You can
get these all day long on Ebay for $100 in good condition and have a
bigger speaker too. Heck these are ALL blackface cosmetically,
probably circuitry wise also!

Looking at the cicuitry you wonder how something so simple can work.
Just 3 tubes, some caps, resistors a few bits of wire. If you can
changed spark plugs you can work on this amp. About 30 years past
warranty I expect. Mine has a slight hum, but that will not take
much to fix. Heck you could rebuild the whole thing in an hour.

I don't expect much support here, but I hear they are good at
sending out schematics. Mine is stapled inside from the factory.
Thanks Gibson.

I have just really messed around with guitars on and off for 20 years.
No expert just like to tinker with old amps lately.

My very first amplifier. Bought new in 1967 from Hilton's Music in Albany NY to go with my first electric guitar (a Harmony 2 pickup solid body). At the time it was the nuts! Way louder than my friends' amps- a tiny Magnatone and some noname amp with a tiny 4" speaker. The model 1 had enough features for 14 year old me so it was cool. And as I recall it was a 10" speaker, not an 8" as stated by another reviewer and it was probably 8 to 10 screamin' watts. Wish I'd kept it, although I'm sure it isn't as good as I remember. Give it a 9 for nostalgia.

I used a 2 pickup Harmony solid body electric with DeArmond pickups and a neck like a tree trunk. It sounded fine and was a great 1st amp. Only one channel with 2 inputs but I used them both! Ran 2 guitars and still kicked butt! Was clean until you turned it up too loud. I honestly don't remember it all that well.

Only had it for about a year and traded up to a Blackface Deluxe Reverb (talk about an amp I should have kept). It took everything a bunch of beginning guitarists could throw at it for that year so I guess it was pretty reliable. Never gigged with it I could barely play a chord back then.

NA

That was my first amp 33 years ago. I guess it must have been pretty good as I kept on playing until I got better. I didn't compare it to anything, my father paid for it and I don't know what it cost. I see them from time to time at vintage guitar shows but I'm really not tempted to buy another one. I guess you really can't go back.

Probably made sometime in the sixties, this amp has only a volume and tone knob; just a basic practice amp. the 8" speaker still sounds good. i use this amp for playing at low volumes (because it doesn't get loud) and testing tubes when i don't want to put them in my BV-120. i find that replacing the 12ax7a tube with another 12ax7 that distorts quicker can give you some nice crunch and still be quiet enough to not wake the neighbors. with a less distortable tube it works for ska, regae, etc... the rca tube i am using now souds like a thick blues drive. one channel. no outputs.

I use only fender strats, so i can tell you that they still sound like strats. sure it's noisy.. it's all original from the sixties. i turn both the volume and tone all the way up and i get a nice bluesey drive... i personally am thinking of using it in a recording. it's classic. the only real modifier of the overall sound would be changing tube types; and then only so much different.

the tubes have never worn out as long as i've had it (a few years) and i think that my dad never had to replace more than one tube when he used it. there were some problems with it a while ago, but i've resoldiered the connections where my uncle had spliced the speaker wires long ago. it is dependable enough... i've put it through hell - used it as a moniter for my 90W guitar amp and my 200W pa head AT THE SAME TIME... sounded horrible and way too loud for the speaker, but the speaker never gave me any trouble. i probably would not use this on stage by it's self because of volume levels, but i might use it with a bigger, louder amp.

no... i doubt that the "chicago musical instrument company" even exists anymore.

this amp is kind of fun to play around with tubes and wiring... it's more of a project than a useful part of my setup. my guitar rig now is a BV-120 and BV412 cab. i might try to rig it up to work on my effects loop, but that's about it. i just wish it had an output or a phone jack.

This little practice amp (10 watts, maybe?) was made by Gibson back in the 60s (or earlier). It's the most basic practice amp, with volume and tone controls. The tone knob also handles the on/off switch, and the fuse is also replaceable from the front panel.
I have rigged up connectors in the speaker circuit for line out and headphones (danger, will robinson, no circuitry mods!).
It uses a 6X4 (rectifier), 12AX7 (preamp) and 6BQ5 (power).

It's been used with everything from Strats to Les Pauls to custom guitars to acoustics. The only real problem was with some wimpy, original Hagstrom pickups - then the volume wouldn't go very high.
It's has a bit of hum, but the tubes and power capacitor are the originals! If you can drive it hard enough, the distortion is OK. I sometimes use it to overdrive a big amp, a trick I learned from the lead guitarist of Cat Mountain in Atlanta.

It's never fried a tube or blown a fuse, despite the abuse (I use the homemade line out as input to another tube amp, for insane fuzz, sometimes). There's a ground problem somewhere...

This is really tempting. I wonder what Gibson would do if I called them up and complained that there was a grounding problem in this thing...

A friend gave this to me. It's a practice amp, and it works. My son has it now. It would be great if it had reverb, tremolo, and four band EQ, but then it wouldn't be a free practice amp, now would it?
I once bought a Stage 25 to use instead of this. It was boring, I sold or traded it for something (or gave it away), and stuck with the Kalamazoo.
It's probably irreplaceable...