Yorkville Stage 100G

As mentioned by another review, Solid state 1x12 85 watt open backed combo with a Celestion G12M-70 speaker. 2 channels, lead and clean. Lead channel has gain, bass, mid, treble, and volume controls and a switchable gain boost. Clean channel has gain, bass, treble, and volume controls and a switchable presence boost. Reverb control is shared by both channels (uses a 3 spring reverb tank). Has two inputs (high and low - for high output/active pickups), effects loop (actually just a preamp out/ power amp in), headphone jack, and provision for a dual footswitch to control channel switching and lead channel gain boost.

I replaced the speaker with a Celestion Vintage 30, and it sounds great with my 1987 made in japan Contemporary Fender Strat. The clean channel is warm, with decent control, although I plan to add a midrange control (a simple mod). I also plan to add a footswitch to turn reverb on and off (also a simple mod). The dirty channel has decent warm distortion, and totally brutal (but usable) distortion with the lead boost on. I like that you can footswitch both channels, and lead boost (one dual footswitch with a stereo jack). Reverb is very decent (more than enough). My reverb does not hum, like another reviewer's. It is not my main amp (I have a Music Man 410-HD One Fifty [150 tube watts into 4 10" speakers], and an AVT50 [50 watts int a 12" Celestion speaker] Marshall combo with a tube in the pre) but I find myself using this amp a lot anyways. Thumbs up!

It is built like a tank, and has good components inside. If I didn't have my Marshall amp for gigging, I would trust this one without a backup without qualms. All of my other Yorkville/Traynor products have stood the test of time, and I'm sure this one will too.

I contacted the company, and they sent me owner's and service manuals right away. Although I service my own equipment, I'm sure they would help. I like that they are located in my area (Toronto) too.

I have been playing for over 20 years, and have owned many amps (mostly tube). You can get away with using this amp without anything else, but it is nice that it has the effects loop for modulated and delay effects. I love the amp for the money. It will definitely go to my cottage with me during the summer. A very decent value.

Solid state 1x12 85 watt open backed combo. Celestion speaker. 2 channels, lead and clean. Lead channel has gain, bass, mid, treble, and volume controls and a switchable gain boost. Clean channel has gain, bass, treble, and volume controls and a switchable presence boost. Reverb control is shared by both channels (uses a 3 spring reverb tank). Has two inputs (high and low - for high output/active pickups), effects loop (actually just a preamp out/ power amp in), headphone jack, and provision for a dual footswitch to control channel switching and lead channel gain boost.
Fairly flexible and versatile. Not bad for a low cost amp. I got mine used for around $200 canadian. I especially like the power amp in feature which I use to connect up my Line6 POD.

For a solid state amp, it is not bad. I play a 1995 Gibson SG standard (humbucker pickups). The lead channel has tons of gain. With the gain boost on and the gain at max it has massive sustain and brutal distortion, but with the gain boost off you can still get some warm distortion/overdrive sounds. The passive tone controls are quite effective (even at maximum gain so you can scoop out the mids or push the bass to get a variety of heavy tones). The clean channel is less impressive as it lacks a midrange tone control which limits its tonal possiblities. Also, it doesn't seem to have much clean volume. When distorted this thing can go loud!! On the lead channel at maximum gain I have never pushed the volume beyond 5 (half) and that was only once and my ears were ringing for quite a while (usually I only need the volume at about 1 to 3). But when clean, I can't get much out of it. I have to keep the gain at about 3 or 4 (any higher and it starts to distort) and with the volume at 10 it is just loud enough to use at my church Sunday mornings (and I usually have the amp mic'd!) At 85 watts you would think you could get a little more clean volume out of it.
The major problem I have is that the amp is extremely noisy on reverb. When you turn up the reverb all you hear is a loud hum. At first I thought that it was just the nature of spring reverb as it picks up interference. But it made the reverb useless and I had to leave it off as the hum was too prominent. Then after hearing reverb on a couple of other amps that were hum free I knew something was up. So I opened up my amp and did some experimenting with it. To keep the story short, the reverb tank is located right next to the power supply transformer and the hum I was hearing was from the transformer. To fix the problem, I moved the reverb tank (it is a self contained unit attached inside the amp with 4 screws so all I did was remove the tank from inside the amp and remounted it in the bottom of the speaker cabinet (as far from the power supply transformer as possible) and as a result I now have clean hum free reverb). Unfortunately, this design flaw forces me to give a poor rating for the sound category. Also, after going to all that trouble, I recently bought a Line6 POD. which sounds amazing. When playing live, however, I plug the POD dircetly into the power amp in anyway so that I don't use the amps sounds or reverb. Used like this the amp sounds great and very clean direct into the power amp.

This thing is built like a tank. I have never had a problem with it and I always use it without a backup. (I have had a problem with the footswitch that I got for it -- which is not included with the amp - it died on me since the actual switches used were poor quality, and I had to replace the switches, but the amp itself has never failed). I have opened up the amp to work on it (to fix the noise problem with the reverb mentioned earlier) and it seems to be solid inside too, built with quality components and built to last.

Never used customer support so I don't know.

Not a bad value. I wouldn't buy one new and definately wouldn't buy another one if lost or stolen. But it is reliable and sounds good with my POD through the power amp in. HOwever, the major design flaw with reverb means I can't give it more than a 6 here.