Yamaha G20-110 III

This amp has been one of my gigging workhorses on and off for the past 20 years. I haven't used the gain stage all that much, because it's the clean channel which really shines. There's not a style of music for which it doesn't work well.

It also has a reasonably good spring reverb for those that want it, although I took mine out a few years ago and haven't put it back in since.

It has a ground lift switch on the back as well to keep you from getting shocks from your microphone, or your bass player, or your keyboard (etc.) if you happen to be on different grounds. Wish I'd known about that 10 years ago, it would have saved a bit of discomfort.

It was a stroke of genius for Yamaha to throw a parametric EQ in there. I don't know why more manufacturers didn't pick up on that. You can do so much with it that it really puts it in a class of its own. Whether you want to scoop out the midrange for some metal, put a little boost in to cut through for solos, or cut some unwanted frequency -- you can do it easily. Tone-a-licious!

Just stick a mic in front of it for larger spaces and you're ready to rock.

This has a great clean sound. Seriously, I haven't heard another solid state amp which sounded this nice, and the parametric EQ is so sweet and tasty.

The gain stage is no great shakes, and when cranked it can get a little muddy, but when you're in the sweet spot it's really sweet.

For drive you can put your pedal of choice into it and it will faithfully reproduce every nuance. I really didn't appreciate this amp when I first got it but after years of looking around and trying other amps this still stands out as the champion of solid state.

Never broken down. The input jack has become a little wonky and can buzz when you plug in, jiggle it and it's good and as long as you don't mess with it it tends to behave.

There's a user serviceable fuse on the back which I have never changed as well as a few of the "fuses they never tell you about but are happy to change for a fee" on the inside.

Yamaha doesn't make amps anymore, so best of luck getting anything out of them. You can find manuals for this amp series on the web if you're looking for them, but other than that you are on your own.

This baby is "Secret Weapon X," an undercover stealthtastic tone machine.

If it were stolen or lost I would always miss it, and try to find another. It's a very special amp and like the man says "those kinds of cars don't pass u every day."

If you can find one used you probably won't spend much, and you won't regret it at all.

I bought my amp new back in 1982. I am a casual player and found it adequet for what I do. I have a Telecaster and Stratocaster (single coils) along with an Ibanez AS-50 and several others. The overdrive distortion is weak compared to what it could be. It has two channels, a footswitch that controls the channel and on/off for the EQ, a decent parametric equalizer, reverb, mid-boost, and presence controls. I can get a pretty wide variety of sound out of this little guy. I live in an apartment and can't turn it up past 3 (out of 10) before I start getting the neighbors angry.
Additionally it has an extension speaker output as well as a Direct Out, Preamp out, and Poweramp in. It also has a built in AC outlet.

This amp has a pretty clean sound. If you want heavy distortion, then this is not the model you want - but it is decent. The difference between a single and double coil pickup is huge in my book. I haven't really cranked the volume up on mine in years for two reasons: 1) I would be kicked out of my apartment and 2) I don't want to test it's limits after 24 years.

After 24 years I have only recently started to have a couple of issues. One is the reverb sometimes cuts off. Since it is a spring reverb I think that there was a corroded connection. For the first time since I bought it, I disassembled it and cleaned all the connections and blew-out all the dust (very little) that got into the circuitry. The reverb has been working ever since. The second problem may relate to the old cables that I am using as the volumne (rarely) fades in and out. I need to check into why this is occuring.

Never had to contact customer support as the product is so reliable.

This is a fun little amp. I have a VOX Valvetronics AD50VT that is a more professional grade. It is twice as large and three times heavier as my Yamaha - making my Yamaha more portable. I like it and plan on keeping it until it disentigrates.

Dont know exactly when its from...sometime in the early 90s. This was my first amp, and I loved it until I blew it out. I used it for band practice a few times, and it was surprisingly loud, just not loud enough. Great features. The parametric eq on it is godlike.

Im into heavy metal/thrash/death metal style playing that requires a lot of gain that you cannot get out of this amp. This amp is definatly not meant for high gain styles, and has an incredible clean channel with much control. It sounds good to just keep it on clean and send a distortion pedal through if you wanna go heavy.

I blew this baby out at band practice, so in reliability I cant really give it much, but it is contructed like a tank and can take a beating. Just dont run effects through while cranking it!

never dealt. still havent gotten it fixed.

As I said, Im into high gain style, but i can really appreciate the clean on this amp every time i take a break from my god of distortion randall head. If your into clean, this is a good cheap choice.

1985 Yamaha g20 1x10 yamaha speaker,two channel, 20 watt solid state,1-10inch speaker,paremetric eq,pull mid boost, spring reverb,line in and out,effects loop,phone jack etc.

First the distortion is down right horrible,never! have used it!i always have used stomp boxes.I play a Fender Tele (American) and a 1965 Silvertone hollowbody through it.This amp has a real nice clean sound and has been my practice and back up amp since i purchased it.I play mostly blues and with the parametric eq you can dial in some real nice sounds and the reverb is a little thin but not too bad,stay clear of the dirty channel it is absolutely horrible but could be used i guess if you were looking for an industrial brittle horrible sound.This little(heavy)20 watter is surprisingly loud and stays clean all the way up,which is real nice as when i add my Dano Daddy o pedal to it i get a real nice crunchy clean overdriven sound which is hard to do with my main amp a 2x12 hot rod deville,actually my hot rod blew on me while gigging a couple of years ago and i plugged in to the little old yamaha and finished the show only to have people approach me afterwards saying they thought i sounded better through the little 20,ha ha!i dont know about that but with the right stomp box you can get about any tone you desire out of the little sucker!

Totaly reliable!!!!almost to good to be true but then its a yamaha and yamaha really does put out some great products.This amp has seen it all;cold, wet, damp, extreme heat you name it and it has never!! failed, i have never even blown a fuse and its as rock solid as the day i bought it,its solidly constructed, real tough! and i can forsee these amps becoming collectibles as they never die,i cant kill mine and i have gone through a few Fenders in my day.

I have never had to deal with Yamaha because ive never had a problem!which makes me wonder if Yamaha only have a handfull of people answering the phones as this amp simply refuses to die.

I love this little amp and will never part with it!id pawn my Fender before id part with my g20,its been a super little amp and ive done everything with it,recorded, gigged and logged countless hours practicing with it,my only beef has always been that the distortion is the worst ive ever heard and hopefully Yamaha have better distortion these days,my amps distortion is terribly brittle and just plain crap! other than that if you want a cheap(get em now while they still are)good clean, unbelievably tough little amp find a G20 3 series.

Amp purchased new in 1984.
Two channel solid state combo, shared eq, reverb, parametric eq,
presence, preout/pwrin, lineout, footswitch(channel, para eq)

Volume A (pull midboost), Pre B (pull midboost), Post B, Bass/mid/treble, Para Freq/Q/+0-, Reverb, Presence, headphone jack

1 10" no-name speaker

Clean and surprisingly loud for a little guy. The distortion was certainly nothing to write home about - very flat and gritty sounding, with no real sustain or body to it (typical solid-state sound from the early 80s). The parametric eq was almost as good as having another couple of channels. You could dial in radically different sounds and keep 'em just a stomp away. That was nice. The reverb was a bit thin sounding compared to the Fenders of the time, but then the reverb tank was a tiny little thing.

The 10" speaker hampered it a bit; it didn't have the tight, deep bottom it could have had with a 12". I thought about butching it into a head and getting a 1x12 or 2x12 cab, but it gave up the ghost before I got around to it, so I passed on that idea.

In all fairness, I thought it sounded great (and only $250 new in 1984) when I bought it, but my tastes have changed over the (egad!) years since then. I'm less hard-and-grunge, and more smooth-singing-soulful now, and this amp just didn't have that character in the distortion. Clean it was very nice, apart from the aforementioned weakness in the bass from the 10" speaker.

For 15 years this was my only guitar amp. It went everywhere with me. I've played regularly for nearly 10 years now, and only in the last month has it been acting up, blowing fuses and badly fuzzing out and dying, usually right before church. Pretty good track record, actually. I've certainly got my money out of it.

Never dealt with Yamaha, and never even dealt with the dealer after I bought it. Don't even recall what the warranty was.

I've been playing for about 20 years now, most of 'em thru this amp. It's never been lost or stolen, but I don't know squat about Yamaha's product lineup nowadays. I replaced the now dying amp with a Fender Roc Pro 1000 Combo (see the review I posted, among others). It's a good, clean little amp, but I was ready for something with some more bottom end, more oompfh, and better distortion.