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Well, I went to Guitar Center today to pick up some stuff that I needed and I was playing around with a Music Man SUB1 and a Mesa Boogie Lonestar 2x12 combo. Wow, that was amazing. I didn't even have the volume up too high and the tone was great. But my favorite of the trip was playing an Epiphone Dot Studio(which felt more solid than I expected) through this little Gibson 5 watt tube amp with a 12" speaker. Now that was a joy to play and holy crap did that amp get loud for its 5 watts. Definitely going to have to get a tube combo with an effects loop for my pedal. Then I'll be able to just use it for effects. Very informative trip for me.
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nice...
yeah...that amp is probably a Gibson Goldtone...5 watts Class A...from what i understand they're really great bluesy amps...and yeah 5 watts can crank.
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Originally Posted by thesteve and yeah 5 watts can crank.

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Yeah, it was a Goldtone GA-5. I loved that thing. I could actually see myself using that amp in a band setting because it's so loud. I'm really liking the sound of Gibson amps lately.
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Originally Posted by guitarfreak217 Yeah, it was a Goldtone GA-5. I loved that thing. I could actually see myself using that amp in a band setting because it's so loud. I'm really liking the sound of Gibson amps lately.
people far over-estimate the number of watts they need for an amp. i've got an old, vintage kalamazoo (5 watt, class A) running a 10" speaker. i havn't had the time or extra money to fix it up yet. right now, i really don't care for the tone at low (pre-distortion) volumes. too 'boutique'-like... at least for electric. my acoustic sounded great through it though. distortion sounds much like an AC15... very nice. but at that point, the (original) speaker is getting a workout... so... speaker upgrade, fix grounding problem, and attentuator are what need replaced next.
the only problem you'll usually have with little amps like these is: 1) very minimal features- 2 inputs, 1 volume, 1 tone control, 1 red light on the kazoo; 2) possibly not enough clean headroom; 3) usually one-trick ponies... maybe two... but what they do, they do well.
btw, kalamazoo was one of the sub-brands of gibson during the mid-late 60's... maybe early 70's. i'm guessing that the G. goldtone and the K. model 1 are very similar.
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5watts by yourself will seem like alot...
but you'll find that with everything else going on you're going to lack headroom. if you're going for a dirty blues sound it'd be great...but probably not so great for anything else.
i do think that more of these amps should be in churches though...my dream church and bedroom amp is a Fender Champ (6watts tube) because everything at church is run through the sounds system anyway.
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Yeah, if I was going to be using that amp in a live situation it'd be only for a crunch/bluesy tone.