NAD (LONG ga-17rvt review)

[cshsfg]

early 60s-ish gibson ga-17rvt. or it was at one point, then someone decided to pull it out of its cabinet and try to make it into a head...they didn't do a very good job...

 

 

 

 

 

 

i actually got this at music-go-round like a month ago, but technical jargon aside, it died after about an hour. took it back, got it fixed up under warranty, got it back yesterday. i traded in a crate solid state head and a marshall mg412 cab that were basically deadweight and got $200 credit for them, and this had a $180 price tag, so i got it and a $20 check. not too bad.

 

this has a 6eu7 preamp except for the reverb driver which is a 12ax7 for whatever reason...i was under the impression that they were more or less the same tube w/ different heater voltages...

power tubes are 6aq5s, and the recto is a 6ca4, so yeah, it's kind of unconventional all around

 

anyway, this amp is extremely clean, which suprises me somewhat, since it looks like it's got the same splitter as a 5e3 deluxe, and i've always thought that that makes for a dirtier/more compressed sound. even with high-ish output humbuckers through the 1st input (it's a bit higher than the 2nd input), it barely starts breaking up at 7, and on ten it's not a lot more. it's a bit lower-fidelity breakup also, like maybe a fuzz face at a lower setting, and it really doesn't add any sustain at all unless you add a touch of reverb. it's really more of just like a sweet spot or whatever, and it sounds amazing with any guitar's neck pickup.

 

my chief complaint is that this amp is WAAAAAY bright, as in ice-pick bright when i use the bridge pup on the strat, which is a rio grande stelly, so it's more tele-ish. i'm not even going to talk about how bad it is with my rickenbacker...based on the schematic, i'm attributing this to the t-filter that a lot of gibsons from this era have where the signal is sent to the reverb. part of the problem might be that as of right now the only 8 ohm speaker i have in a cabinet is a weber alnico sig 8" in an epi valve junior combo cab, so that can probably be blamed for some of the brightness...i've got a blue dog/silver bell set that i need to make a cabinet for, so i'm trying to get on that as soon as i get the cash for the wood.

 

as for the reverb...i haven't heard a real fender reverb or other spring reverb unit yet, but if it's anything like this, then i can tell why everyone talks about it as the holy grail. it's so rich, full, and flowing that it's hard to believe that it only has 2 springs (or so i've heard...). it never really gets completely washed-out like others do, although it comes close when it's on ten. with the amp cranked or near-cranked, putting the verb around 4-5ish adds a real nice sustain and sweetness that i like using for jazz, blues and soul, and around 8 is great for surf and the like. the only problem is that there's a bit of hum when it's engaged...not so much that you'd notice when you're playing, but you can definitely hear it when you stop. another thing is that gibson decided to take the to-be-reverbed signal and put the reverb knob before the normal volume knob, so it's a bit weird to hear your reverbed guitar going when you have the volume on 0.

 

i highly doubt i'll use the trem much at all. when i do use any, i generally set the intensity pretty low, and the ga-17's trem is sort of fixed at around 5, which is a bit drastic for me. the speed's a bit much as well; this amp on 0 is about the same as a fender trem on maybe 3, and 10 is just ridiculous. there's also a very pronounced low-end throb, which you really can't cut out since there's no tone knob or anything.

 

so...all-in-all, it's a damn good amp, especially if you can find it at the same price point i got it for (they had a ga-15 from the same era for less, but i slept, so there ya go). obviously not quite as desirable as some other vintage amps, but for a senior in high school who makes about $600 a year, it's not bad at all

 

(edit: sorry about the huge pics...)

[Sixtonoize]

That's a pretty major hack-job, but it looks like a cool score!

[cshsfg]

yeah, basically one of the 6aq5s was dead when i got it (i noticed later) so the other one basically overworked itself, and i guess it screwed up the output transformer also because their tech replaced it. probably would've done that myself anyway, because the original was even smaller than the reverb transformer. there was also the usual screwiness, like oozing filter caps, etc.

 

when the shop called me to say it was back, the person was all like "and just to let you know, it would've cost $200, but since you're on warranty, we're covering it."