jp_nyc
Kick Henry Jackassowski
This Ampeg GVT5-110 combo arrived Wednesday afternoon, I didn’t play it until Thursday because it arrived cold and needed a long time to warm up. Normally $399, I picked it up on Musicians’ Friend for $175—thanks to the deals thread.
I dig it. It’s a vintagey low to medium gain practice amp. This is the first low-volume amp I’ve tried that actually works well at low volume. The volume pot has a totally smooth curve, unlike the annoying spikey pots common on little amps. On full power with the volume cranked it’s loud enough to be uncomfortable with classic-rock distortion. At loud TV volumes I get a lush and tremulous edge-of-breakup tone. Tt sounds big—this cabinet avoids the boxy sound curse so common with little amps. The speaker is a Celestion Tube 10, which is fine with the volume up. It has a truckload of bass played loud, but that’s lost at low volumes. I’ll probably replace it with an Eminence Ragin’ Cagin for playing at night.
Tonally this has a cool restrained/mellow American sound—it’s like a Fender’s urbane cousin. It can get sparkly, but never icepicky or twangy. The baxandall EQ is something I always wished my amps had. The tone knobs don’t interact, they just affect what they say they affect. If I want a huge low end I just roll up the bass and the mids and treble stay the same. If I want sparkle I just roll up the treble. It’s just like old hi-fi stereo knobs. I might end up buying one the bigger GVT amps to get this EQ with a mid knob.
This amp does great with a fuzz pedal. Bring the volume just to the edge of breakup, push the fuzz a little past unity gain, and it sounds like it’s melting down. With the mini humbuckers in my Les Paul I get raucous indie tones without any shrillness. And I’m getting huge doom sounds with a fuzz and my baritone. I want to get a fuzz that can push this a lot harder—anybody have a recommendation for a doom/drone fuzz from Devi Ever? I’m thinking that her Aenima would pair well with this mellow American amp.
All that said, I totally understand why Musicians’ Friend is blowing these out at half price. It’s a great small amp, but it’s just not going to move many people at $400. For this to compete at $400 it needs a much better speaker and a mid knob.
