Yamaha G50-112

I bought this in around 1976-77 for $100 when I was playing six nights a week in clubs and lounges for ten years - got tired of lugging a Fender Twin around. Stuck a JBL D-120 in it. As stated by others, it delivers clean solid state sound, period. One channel with two inputs - high & low. Three channel EQ plus a bright switch. Distortion (which was terrible) and reverb (which was good). Used it for Top 40 of the day, and also for occasional country, blues & jazz gigs. Plenty of volume. I'm giving it a 5 in this category, as it is a pretty basic, feature-wise, but good at what it does.

It's not a warm tube sound, but I've always used a variety of stomp boxes to modify the sounds anyway, and when I've wanted a clean sound it's got it. Not noisy at all. Lots of variation in the tone controls. I currently use it in the church band, in two separate services - a Traditional service where I use a pretty much clean, unprocessed sound (including voume pedal steel guitar -like swells) and a modern service which is more rock flavored and where I use more chorus, Tube Screamer, occasional flange, etc. I play a motley assortment of guitars through it, including a couple of "Frankenstrats", an Electra X-720 Outlaw, a "The Paul". I'll rate it an "8" because I wish it had a bit more warmth.

Here's where it shines. Bounced around in the Bandmobile across the country for about ten years, and have used it regularly as a practice amp since, and now as a church band amp. I called it the Road Warrior - never a problem. As for backup - we never had no stinkin' backup - no room in the van! This was "back in the day" - the late 60's, 70's, and early-mid 80's.

Never needed service.

"How long have you been playing? What other gear do you own?" - professionally since 1962 - guitar since 1967.

"If it were stolen or lost, would you buy it again or get something else?" I leave it at the church and churches get broken into sometimes. I have a Music Man RD-112 50 that I also like a lot, but don't want to leave at the church. I also have a Roland Cube 30 which I had originally planned to use at the church, but frankly didn't get what I was used to out of it as much as the Yamaha. So yes, I'd probably get another one off Ebay where I see them often and cheap.

"Did you compare it to other products? Why did you choose this one?" Bought it used and it was more portable than my Twin Reverb.

"what do you love about it?" - the volume and reliability and clean, malleable sound.
"What do you hate?" - the distortion - world's worst.

Basic solid state 1-12/50 watt combo. Onboard distortion and reverb are footswitchable, but no channel switching or anything. If you view it as a simple amp, then it has what you would expect.

Used with a number of guitars (generally with humbuckers). Loud, but very solid state sound; fair clean, not so good with overdrive. It amazes me that people are giving this amp very high ratings for sound quality. Yamaha made some respectable amps after this, but this is sort of typical mediocre 70's solid state. Nothing to get nostolgic about, and certainly no overlooked vintage prize.

I owned it for about 10 years. As soon as I got something better, I used it only as an extension speaker cabinet and bypassed the amp.

Mine developed a crack on the pc board and would make horrible noises at times. I eventually managed to stick something inside the amp case that would keep some pressure on the pc board so that it wouldn't make these awful sounds. However, mine was probably not typical, and as a simple solid state amp, it *should* normally be problem free, so I will give it a 7.

I didn't deal with them.

As a beginner amp, it might be ok: it's loud and portable, and if used an outboard setup for sound (like one of these Boss multi-effect pedal boards, for instance) so that all it had to do was make a decent sound louder, it would probably be acceptable. I wouldn't look to it to *create* a good sound though, the way one might with tube gear, solid state gear like the Roland JC-120, or even digital modeling devices like the Pod.

Used a G50-112 since 1980. Great sound for most country applications.

Used with a Steinberger 3-pickup Strat sounding guitar. Distortion channel is not the greatest, but I had outboard effects anyway.

Reverb spring broke and speaker crapped out after about 15 years.
No other problems. This amp rode in the luggage bay of a country music star's bus for 3 years, so the reverb spring really took a beating.

Never had to.

It's a nice compromise of light weight, decent sound and troublefree service. If it was stolen, I would try to find another one used.
Used one's are undervalued, IMO.

I purchased this amp new in 1976. It is about the size of a Fender Deluxe Reverb. As the model states it is a 50 watt amp with a 12" Yamaha Special Design Speaker. There is only 1 channel. It has a 2 inputs, one high and one low. One volume control, treble, middle, bass and bright knobs. Instead of having a second gain channel this has a distortion control that can be turned on and off by a footswitch. The sound of this is more of a fuzztone than an overdriven amp. It also has a reverb control. Very nice reverb similar to the old Fenders except the pan is mounted on the underside of the amp chassis instead of the floor of the amp cabinet. It is a solid state amplifier however it has quite a lot of tone and headroom.

I have used this amplifier for years. I started out in the 70's playing Christian Music first with a band and then on my own. I have used it as a self contained PA with my Ovation Classical Electric and a microphone with a mini mixer in the high channel. It worked very well. I usually like a clean tone and that is what this amp was made for. In the band I used the distortion on about half way. It made the amp a little bit louder, but sounded more like a tube amp just starting to break up. Too much on the distortion sounds like a crappy 60's fuzztone. It is plenty loud to fill a large club or coffeehouse.

I have had this amp for 23 years (Lord I am getting old!) and the only problem I have ever had was that the speaker leads were clamped onto the speaker too loose and tended to fall off and short out the fuse. I easily fixed that. There are two user accessable fuses on the back. It is a very well made amplifier and is signed on the back by the person that made it.

I have never had to deal with Yamaha. I have tons of their equipment, mostly synths and effects for my home studio.

I have been playing since 1966. I own 6 amplifiers including a Pignose G40V and a SF Vibrochamp. The Yamaha G50 is a wonderful amp and I would put it alongside of any tube amp.