Roland GA-50

This was the first amp I ever owned.
It was probably mad in the beginning of the 80's.
I bought it in 1983. Long gone, never missed.

Not many features to speak off.
You plug in and play.

I was 13-14 years old when I bought this amp
and did not have a clue how what a guitar amp
was or how it should sound. My price range
was very limited, I had probably saved up
money working extra to buy this amp.

So how did it sound. We'll from what I can remember
it really sounded like CRAP. The clean channel sounded
like a cheap solid state out of this era in this price range.
That is a bit on the cold side and a bit sterile.

The amp had some kind of distortion mode. I think it was
a push pull knob. Help! When the distortion mode was set
you had better plug your ears. It was the sound of terror.
Just a buzzing cold metalic sound added to the amps original sound.

With a distortion pedal the amp still sounded like crap.
I used MXR's, Tube Screamers, Boss HM-2 etc. Nothing really
improved the sound, it was just bad noise really.

Well the amp lasted me for atleast three years.
I even put in a Celestion speaker in hope of
improving the sound. Did not work much, but
I guess it might have iproved the tone a notch or two.

I pulled this amp through snow and rain to get to rehearsals
and it never failed me, so I guess it had one good thing
about it. A tube amp would not have handled my abuse.

Never dealt with 'em.

Stay away!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This solid state amp was probably made in the 70's or 80's but i have no way of telling for sure. But the design kinda says 80's. This amp has two channels, but the "overdrive" is not even close to useable. It sounds like the clean channel, but with a bit of added noise. And slightly lower in volume. It has a footswitch channel switch option, but i have never even considered getting a footswitch. It has a headphone jack, but it doesn't sound very good, so i rarely use it. Except for when my little brother's sleeping, wouldn't wanna wake him up, would we? It doesn't have effects loop, and i don't care, i onlt ever use one effect, my ProCo Rat II, and i plug that one in between the guitar and the amp. The amp sounds really good, when played clean, and leaving it clean and turning on the rat, i get a great distortion sound too. I always use the "low" input because the "high" tends to compress heavily. And i keep the volume low on my rat to avoid compression on the "low" channel. I'm thinking of getting myself a tubedriven effect pedal that i could use when i wanted a just a bit of overdrive, cause neither the amp or the rat does that very well. I play rock and funk, actually a lot of danish music, check out www.carparknorth.dk, we play one of their songs, that kind of music. And my setup far from suits my needs, but i can't expect much being a poor student and all. But it's plenty loud for gigging, given it's solid-stated-ness it doesn't distort when you don't want it.

I play it with an Ibanez (very low-end), that i've modified a bit myself, never changed the pickups though, stock humbuckers (feed easily) I've only got the one guitar, and i dont like it that much. But i'll get by. The amp suits me fine, along with my rat, that gives me two channels, that fine for now. The amp's not noisy, never. It doesnt hum, never. Gotta give it that much credit, it's the quietest amp i've ever heard. It does'nt have much variety, the amp. Though, if you turn up the (poor) distortion, max out the treble and kill the bass and turn the tone-knob on your guitar all the way down, you almost get the Incubus "summer romance"-intro sound. But otherwise, it only does clean. The clean channel never distorts, but it compresses at too high an input volume. The distortion is not worth mentioning(tough i think i did that a couple of times already) oh yeah, and the reverb sucks too. But for me, being a singer and a rhythm player, the clean channel and the pedal-overdrive is enough right now.

This is where this amp shines! It has never, ever let me down. I even left it outside over night a couple of times, it simply doesn't care. I use to gig with without backup all the time. This is a ten, no doubt about it. Tough little thing.

Do you honestly think that I, living in Denmark, would even try to contact Roland? I would never need to, but honestly?

I've been playing for 5 years, and all my gear has been listed above, except for a nylonstring, and a danelectro Cool cat chorus that i never use. If my amp was lost i wouldn't know what to do, i can't afford a new one. But if i could i wouldn't have much choice but to buy one kinda like it. I like it's clean sounds, and i dislike the lack of a "hot" channel, but i found a way around that problem, so it's not a problem anymore. This was the only amp i could afford at the time, and in a way, it was a good deal. I can only recommend buying it if you're ready to go out and get your distortion/overdrive elsewhere. I don't think i will be keeping this amp if selling it means i can afford something better. 80's solid states are crappy, and that's a fact, but i've managed to make the best of this one. I guess it's alright for me.