It was at that moment that I remembered that Gibson had purchased Trace Elliot in the 90's and for a brief period rebadged and made some nice tube guitar amps. I remembered looking at them and they were super expensive so I refrained. They quickly disappeared as they sold off the effort to Kaman, I think. Whatever happened they went away and I cannot ever remember seeing one in the wild in a band. I saw some new ones back then at a few stores but the price was too high for me. So I did a search for Gibson Goldtone amps and several came up. I quickly figured out the the GA15RV had everything I was looking for. Made in America, 15W, manageable weight and size, Celestion V30, tank reverb and even more. It is switchable between triode or low output and pentode high output. It also has a bright / normal switch in addition to the tone control.
It just arrived and I put it through the gears. It is the comparable in size and weight of a C30. There is a stark difference in power with triode and pentode switch. Same for the bright/normal switch. I actually sounds a lot like a C30 with more of a Vox edge to the chime, especially in the bright mode. Not enough that is sounds so good but it just drips mojo vibe. It looks awesome and so vintage. The gold grill and corners pop. I could not be happier. I bought it from a guy in Nashville. It was priced under $1000, I made an offer well under the asking and he took it. This just may be my Holy Grail amp.
