[jules]

Over here in the UK there are very few (60s) Gibson amplifiers. Not sure why really, I guess they never really got imported.

Shame really, and i'd love to try a few out. I want to hear what the Gibson guys heard in the fifties and sixties when they first plugged in all those lovely ES and Les Paul guitars. I assume they used their own amps.

Any of you guys got opinions on old Gibson valve amps? Why did Fender corner that part of the market?

[Oldbluzguy]

My understanding is that the early Gibson amps had very low input impedence,and sounded good clean with Gibson's pickups but needed to be modified slightly for guitars like Fender. Fender amps had a higher input impedence suitable for Fender guitars. The seeming mismatch with Gibsons created a new sound, Gibson guitar/Fender amp. Gibson amps then didn't sell as well as Fender. I have heard several that have had resistors replaced on the input jacks(I believe that's the mod) and the sounded fine with Fender guitars and gave a nice growl with a Gibson.

[jules]

ahhh that's very interesting thanks

Gibson spent years creating (and endorsing) clean sounds from clean sounding players, failing to accept that a lot of people people like rough edges.

I have a low impedence Les Paul bass, and i've been after the corresponding Les Paul LP12 amp for some time. I've bid a few times without winning. From what you say (and the Gibson blurb at the time) I guess this would be super clean.

I would still like to try one though, out of interest if nothing else.

[George Porter]

I have a small collection of about ten Gibson amps from the sixtys & they do all sound cleaner than most Fenders did at the time. They seem to fall into the jazz catagory. I limited myself to amps from the 1966 catalog, just to avoid going overboard, which is easy to do, with the exception of the LP-12. I think the coolest amp I have is the GA-77RETL, with the Tel-Ray oil can reverb. This is the only one I've seen from this era & it has the JBL also which makes it even a bit more rare. There is still one on eBay in the earlier Crestline series. I purchased a book on Gibson amps, "Gibson Amplifiers 1933 -2008 75 Years of the Gold Tone", by Wallace Marx Jr. I believe it is a recent release. My LP-12 is pictured in the center colored picture section. It was submitted by the previous owner whom I contacted after seeing his name in the credits.

[Repairman77]

Hi George,
Interesting info on Gibson valve amps; I repair valve amps but have never seen a Gibson one over here in the UK.
One thing that puzzles me is your reference to 'Tel-Ray oil can reverb'.
All the ones here in that era had spring reverb trays.
What does the Tel-Ray look like and how does it work; any pics available?
Most of the reverbs these days over here are built-in digital ones, Urgggh; horrible.
Mike.

[George Porter]

I found the Oil Can Reverb to be an interesting effect. Gibson produced it in a stand alone head also, a GA-4RE, which I'll include in the pictures. The Tel-Ray oilcan was more of an early delay than a reverb. It would record the sound using a film of oil on a rotating disk. It had several rubber like wipers that could be interchanged in the bolt hole pattern to increase or decrease the delay time. I believe one is write, two were reads & one is an erase. I'll send along a few pictures, but there is a web sight dedicated to Oil Can enthusiasts. Many manufacurers used the Tel-Ray Oilcan & it's variants in their products. Tel-Ray also produced units under their own name. My GA-77RET had been repaired with a much larger electric motor, it was vibrating next to the JBL. I bought a Fender Dimension IV for parts off eBay to bring it back to origional condition. The two gut pictures I sent were from that repair. Here is the web sight, http://www.geocities.com/tel_ray/ .

[Repairman77]

Many thanks for the info George; I've never seen anything like that over here in the UK but I now understand the principle. A strange invention indeed!

I also found this page which also explains it if anyone else reading this forum is interested.
http://www.geofex.com/Article_Folder...can_delays.htm

I guess it's a similar principle to the tape loop echo units we had here made by Watkins and Vox except using different media. I have a transistorised Watkins one myself.

Good job they are finding a different oil from the original PCB type which was commonly used in transformers in the early days.

Mike.