The Return of Gibson Amps: Falcon 5 & Falcon 20 - Full Demo

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JohnnyGtar

JohnnyGtar

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Gibson is making new amps designed by Mesa/Boogie founder Randy Smith.

They're being made at the Mesa/Boogie factory in Petaluma, California.

Jensen ALNICO speakers. Power scaling.

They sound really good.

YouTube demo is in the link ---> https://www.gibson.com/en-US/amps
 
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They do sound pretty good. Like that big open sound at 2 on the MV for the rock sound. The Fuzz thing is sort of cool opened up but not all that usable beyond that sound. How will they price them?

Power scaling is a fantastic idea. No brainer and i wish more amps would do that. I want it all on board.
 
Nice! They do sound very Gibson-ish. The heavy breakup was pretty farty sounding but that kind of follows the formula. Some of the old Gibsons have edge of breakup and mid level OD tones that are almost unrivaled. The new amps even appear to even have exacting replicas of those early 60's Gibson/Maestro knobs.

Then I checked the price on that Falcon 20. 1800 bucks! Oof. That's basically almost vintage Gibson Les Paul GA-40 amp pricing territory. And if you get familiar with some of the better models you can find original Gibson amps for less money than that. Might pay to look at some Maestro branded amps as well. I have a reverb echo deluxe and the amp kills but built-like-Fender-tough it is definitely not. My recording amp, but it needs work and my tech refused to take it on.
 
VonBonfire said:
Nice! They do sound very Gibson-ish. The heavy breakup was pretty farty sounding but that kind of follows the formula. Some of the old Gibsons have edge of breakup and mid level OD tones that are almost unrivaled. The new amps even appear to even have exacting replicas of those early 60's Gibson/Maestro knobs.

Then I checked the price on that Falcon 20. 1800 bucks! Oof. That's basically almost vintage Gibson Les Paul GA-40 amp pricing territory. And if you get familiar with some of the better models you can find original Gibson amps for less money than that. Might pay to look at some Maestro branded amps as well. I have a reverb echo deluxe and the amp kills but built-like-Fender-tough it is definitely not. My recording amp, but it needs work and my tech refused to take it on.
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I changed my first post to send people to the Gibson website which includes their YouTube demo that I originally posted here by itself.

Concerning the price, I hear ya, brother. Oof! It ain't cheap, but the sad reality is that these days $1800 ain't too bad for an amp carrying the Gibson name designed by Mesa/Boogie founder Randy Smith, made in the United States at the Mesa/Boogie factory in Petaluma, California with a Jensen Alnico speaker and Power Scaling. It's not an amp I would normally use but I can definitely see the appeal.

I hope these amps are not a nightmare to service or mod, because Mesa/Boogie products often make amp techs pull their hair out.
 
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Great demo of both amps from Long and McQuade Music in Canada. Don't let the title of the video scare you off. LOL

 
JohnnyGtar said:
I hope these amps are not a nightmare to service or mod, because Mesa/Boogie products often make amp techs pull their hair out.
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Even my old Maestro is a pretty messy rat's nest jammed somewhat tightly in there so maybe Mesa kept it true to the originals, lol. My tech wouldn't service it and wanted to put it into a different chassis. This is after I custom built a cab (it was just in some cobbled together head) from Mahogany and ebony with a pine baffle and told him "money isn't the concern" in terms of the repair. It's the first amp I ever played so it not only sounds killer but is sentimental. No dice with that tech. I guess I need to take it up to Austin.

The real downside to the old Gibsosn is they just weren't built road tough like a Fender. Not even close. The chassis isn't very thick or tough, it's a complete pain to get in and out of the cab. I don't think people foresaw huge round the world tours chucking gear in and out of cargo holds and trailers every day.

Johnny, I hope you are doing well brother.
 
What a farty mess.

I heard more tone from that transistor 9-volt battery powered amp
 
I thought Doug Doppler made a really good vid of this
 
Buy a vintage Gibson amp send it to Jeff Bakos in Atlanta. Done

Bakos Amp Works
 
VonBonfire said:
Even my old Maestro is a pretty messy rat's nest jammed somewhat tightly in there so maybe Mesa kept it true to the originals, lol. My tech wouldn't service it and wanted to put it into a different chassis. This is after I custom built a cab (it was just in some cobbled together head) from Mahogany and ebony with a pine baffle and told him "money isn't the concern" in terms of the repair. It's the first amp I ever played so it not only sounds killer but is sentimental. No dice with that tech. I guess I need to take it up to Austin.

The real downside to the old Gibsosn is they just weren't built road tough like a Fender. Not even close. The chassis isn't very thick or tough, it's a complete pain to get in and out of the cab. I don't think people foresaw huge round the world tours chucking gear in and out of cargo holds and trailers every day.

Johnny, I hope you are doing well brother.
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Hey, man! Thank for the good wishes. Life is good, and I hope the same for you.

Owning the first amp you ever played is awesome! I'm in my 60's, and I started playing in my first band when I was 15. One of the guitar players in my first band (same age as me) had a Gibson amp and a 63 or 64 ES-335! That's the only time I've played with someone that was using a Gibson amp. I've never heard one in person that impressed me.

I'll take an old banged up Silverface Fender Twin any day because the sounds coming from those amps make me smile...crystalline, versatile, and packed to the gills with punch. They're also American made, with quality parts, affordable, very easy to service/repair/mod/de-mod, and built like tanks. Hard to beat those qualities.
 
i had a falcon rvt-19 i think was the model number. when i was teaching myself how to do amp repair stuff in the early 2000's, i recapped, and repaired one of these. Those were great sounding amps that no one really seemed to care about, and they always went cheap....until now probably.
heres a vid i made after i fixed it.
 
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JohnnyGtar said:
Hey, man! Thank for the good wishes. Life is good, and I hope the same for you.

Owning the first amp you ever played is awesome! I'm in my 60's, and I started playing in my first band when I was 15. One of the guitar players in my first band (same age as me) had a Gibson amp and a 63 or 64 ES-335! That's the only time I've played with someone that was using a Gibson amp. I've never heard one in person that impressed me.

I'll take an old banged up Silverface Fender Twin any day because the sounds coming from those amps make me smile...crystalline, versatile, and packed to the gills with punch. They're also American made, with quality parts, affordable, very easy to service/repair/mod/de-mod, and built like tanks. Hard to beat those qualities.
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I'm doing well Johnny thanks for asking. Just trying to stay warm in this cold weather..

Funny you mentioned Twins.....my only other amps are a 69 and a 72 SF Twin. Been using those since 2015.

My Maestro has two channels but if you plug into channel 1 the channel 2 tone knob will still affect the sound and vice versa so you have to play around with all the controls. It doesn't really have a pure clean sound, but it really cooks for singing blues/rock leads when paired with a humbucker. It also sounds great with single coils but it's the only amp I'v ever owned where a JBL did not improve the sound. My old man gave it to me. It was broken and in a very crappy homemade looking head cabinet, as the original cab had bit the dust in the 60's before he got it. I got tired of hauling it around the country broken so when I had an exotic wood place nearby I went and grabbed the stuff I wanted and used a Kreg jig to make a cab for it.

I think a lot of early Freddie King was his P-90 LP through the GA-40 Les Paul amp. It's a great sound but old Gibsons are definitely not a metal head amp. Be well Johnny.
 
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