To reiterate the video description since nobody seems to read it: Note: this is a comedic opinion piece only. Opinions not to be taken internally. If pain persists, please see a qualified medical professional.
Thank god for your Aussie honesty and give-no-fucks opinion. This overpriced p.o.s. needs to be called out. WTF Gibson? Are you deliberately trying to piss us off (again)?
$1,799 US, it's £2k here in the UK... With those PCB insides... Ok... So. Go custom made to order. There's a company here in the UK called Stoneham Amplification who makes bespoke amps, hand wired, made to order, made in a little workshop in the UK. Sleeves, head shells & cabs are commissioned for another UK builder called F.A Guitar Cabs. I bought a custom 150w Sunn Model T clone, KT88, bespoke custom UK made output transformers, hand wired etc., boutique quality. And it's an absolute beast. I paid £1,750 for it a couple of years ago, prices may rise ever so slightly now but the builder keeps the prices realistic and I very much doubt the same amp will go over £2k, if so it won't be by much. Keep in mind older "real" Model Ts and clones by others will cost you way, way in excess of £3k-£4k, I've seen originals go for £5k and some clones costing not much less. Go custom. Support the little guy who works with passion in his little shed and workshop.
Played one today (in the U.S.) , it did sound really good. Power options worked well. Reverb and trem sounded good to me. Maxed the volume , tone, was right up on it and had no oscillation or other issues. I would consider a used one. Considering I’ve never had a major failure with one of my Mesas (have 4 currently) at the end of the day I’ll go with what sounds good and has a feature set that works for me. Finding it at a price I can handle will take some looking. Have played quite a few, built like tanks, hardwired beauties that don’t sound that great or lack a decent feature set and when they’re 2500 to 4K (in the U.S.) 🤷♂️. Marshall Origin and a Studio series are almost virtually identical in construction. We can only let the market know with our dollars I guess and shop accordingly. I’m sure my Tone King Royalist III, at 2500 U.S. might make me sigh if I looked inside, it’s only “assembled” in America, not made in America but boy does it sound fantastic…Eventually I just want to get on with playing and have a smile on my face. An amp cheaply made but with great features and tone, you will only think about the tone after owning it for a while. An amp that has amazing quality but doesn’t quite do it for you on tone or features is bound for trade or sale and no beautiful hand wiring and “custom” wound Transformers will stop you from wanting to get something else.
I see several sets of IDC connectors (insullation displacement connectors) which are probably being used at well above their voltage and current ratings.
Its good to see some people on YT exposing what youd get for +$5K AU. The cab and speaker look the goods. Its a shame the most important piece in ones signal chain looks like absolute garbage.
Thank you. These are everywhere, it seems, but you're the first to pull off the back for me. As I suspected. No surprise at all. Certainly not what I'm after.
1 thing they deserve a medal for is mounting the pots on the chassis( moment of clarity) . It should cost nk more than $900 US and that is really pushing it.
Thanks for the honest opinion. When I first saw these amps, listed as handwired, I was seriously interested. Nowhere could I find an inside shot, to check out the lead dress. How the heck can Gibson sell these as handwired?
I own both tube amps and modeling amps, as well as the most traditional speaker cabinets with Celestion Vintage 30s inside. However, I must say that this whole debate is completely irrelevant because modeling and solid-state technology are the future. Modeling or solid-state amps, even the inventor of Dumble himself (a bit before his death), when asked if transistor amps would ever be as good as tube amps, responded that the question wasn't if it would happen but when. He emphasized that one day someone would make a transistor amp that sounds exactly like a tube amp, and given the way the market is evolving, I believe we are not far from that point. Even without considering that, basic modeling today is already excellent. Take anyone and blindfold them, and no one can tell the difference. Unfortunately, musicians often rely too much on their eyes instead of their ears. ( Most by the way jackoff way to much on gear all the time ( wether it’s new or vintage it’s the same ) instead of really playing guitar but that another debate) In any case, for guitar, the trend is to build things that are always lighter, better, more practical, simpler, and more intuitive. Even the country of origin hardly matters anymore because you can find quality in Europe, Asia, and even China, which wasn't known for quality products, is now able to copy or even surpass some American brands. We must recognize that American quality has significantly degraded, while Japanese quality remains stable at a high level. So, things are changing for the better.
That's some outrageous pricing! The 5-watter looks to be about $4360! In 2010 I bought a little Marshall Class 5, mostly because it was pretty cheap and halfway decent for what it was. UK made, single-ended, $799 AUD retail. I was staff, so I only paid cost for it ($450 or so), but street price was about $600. With all the inflation, if they released something similar today I'd expect it to be about $1100-ish maybe? It's probably a similar level of construction quality to these Gibsons. I wonder how they're justifying the extra $3200? Edit: Just checked Australis (Aus wholesaler) website. 5-watter is $4799 retail! Crazy.
I actually wasn't expecting the insides to look like this. I was expecting PCB construction, but 1970s style with the valve bases fixed to the chassis and wired to the PCB.
Australis Music Group dont mind a decent margin (imagine how little these amps cost at wholesale, probably 1,100 USD?). We have 15% duty plus GST to pay of course, but with freight costs post covid still being high and are forecast to go much higher again with whats happening with the Suez........ We are going to be pretty cooked in Aus! If we want nice import amps itll cost more than ya left nut. Its a great time to make you own small batch amps Brad! I would buy at least one or two quality Aussie made heads at 2.5-3k AUD ea (ill take an AB763 super, and a JTM-45 mod kthx 😁 )
Looks cheap like something from Crate or Fenders cheapies. And trust me the "Hand Wired" was no mistake on either Gibson or Boogies part. In their mind this is up to Gibson snuff and hands at some point did wire some of it. What a joke. These amps were never highly sought after. In fact up until recently you could buy 60's examples for $400 and less. These are geared at lawyers who are buying up the $5k Les Pauls and the 1k pickup sets. Gibson Lifestyle strikes again.
Anyone who relies on an Internet e-commerce business to give an honest review of something that they sell is a fool. Anyone with any sense will Unfollow these people immediately as they don't have the players best interest in mind.
Handwired can literally just mean wired by hand & not necessarily meaning point to point wiring (pre pcd which people mistake for being hand wired), the other option is robots where the entire pcb is populated & soldered by machines and not by hand. Like big name swiss watches people often think that they are getting something entirely hand made, the reality is they are often only getting something machine made & then finished by hand unless its a company that prides itself on being bespoke & hand made.
Gibson has already reached the tipping point w/ Mesa… Corporate conglomerate is trying to steer a once highly successful company, hit their profit numbers to recoup the acquisition cost WHILE paying California labor and taxes. I don’t think this was a surprise for folks… higher prices… lower quality…
Thank you for helping to debunk the myths of these hyped up reissues. This amp was a pos when they first made them and very few wanted them. In my book, Friedman and Suhr make good amps now. There may be others I am not familiar with.
For the price this is pretty much what I expected inside these Gibson amps. Check out Carr amps which are absolutely beautifully built inside but that puts the cost of an amp like it over $3000 USD. On the other end of things the Fender Hot Rod Deluxe is $1000 USD but is built even worse than these Gibsons. At least the pots on the Gibson aren't on the board and from what I have heard in other videos on UA-cam the amp does sound a lot more like a vintage amp than the stiff bright modern sounding Hot Rod. That stuff and a nice cab I guess is what you get for the extra $800 USD.
you’d think these companies would just consult with people who actually know how to do this stuff nicely, like yourself or Psionic, but i guess almost every decision is based on making it cheaper to produce.
I tried to think positive and noticed that those front panel pots are not mounted on the PCB. Perhaps that, according to their interpretation, gives them the right to use the term "hand-wired". 🤓 However, no fake bumblebees this time. 😁
So far, the Vox HW series have been of turret board construction, and actually hand assembled and wired. Great platforms for refinement and improvement.
Curious if the components are soldered to the pcb by hand. U could claim hand wired at that point. But why make it handwired to start with when it’s designed like that? They are ~$2.2k CDN and I think supros are around there. So prob not to outline for that category, no? For the record I’m not defending mesa and gibson prices have just gone completely nuts.
I wish someone would do a deep dive and inside look at the new Supro Delegate and Ambassador Custom amps. They are over 3000 US and Im wonder ing if they are as crappy as the Gibsons
That quality looks like one of the old Tandy or similar kits you could get, shocking for the price. I used to design and layout circuit boards and that is not a great layout, like you say pads are too small and creepage gaps are too close in some areas and yep many rookie mistakes. That amp looks like it would fall apart if taken on the road and thrown in and out of a van. Good honest detailed review you did here.
From a user consideration perspective, I think it’s honestly pretty stupid and unsafe to tuck the preamp tubes away inside the amp chassis, next to components carrying high voltages, and require a metal hand tool to access them. Externally mounted tubes are not included on this very expensive brand name amplifier and I couldn’t be more frustrated.
From a repair tech perspective, you are dead on. This amp is a bogus piece of junk. Absolute highway robbery at that price. True story: I once was a QC manager at an electronics mfg. company here in the USA. Attended a new product review, and in the course of the meeting, I asked a few questions about test access points for production testing, and was rebuffed by the design engineer. Once I got around to insisting he answer my questions, the guy actually got so flustered he bolted from his own design meeting - with his boss, the Dir of Eng, and the President/Owner of the company in the room. Yeah, he was fired immediately. Gibson needs to hire some QC folks with actual balls. I would have destroyed this product before it got out of the prototype stage. It never would have made it to NPI. I also would have beat the living ---- out of the marketing dumbasses for diluting the brand rep with a stupid/ripoff product line.
It's a joke imho. You can buy a fender Deluxe, Deville, Pro reverb, Twin Reverb, Marshall DSL40, Vox AC30, and many others for less with as good or better quality.
Engls are great amps. While I haven't seen the Ironball in person, I've worked on and played many others and I really like their tone and build quality.
Messy Booger "Engineering" strikes again... Brad, I swear, if you and Lyle would agree to tag-team with me and go chew out the Mesa team in person (hell, Fender's in California too, why let them get away unscathed?), I'd pay for BOTH your airfares and food/lodging. Seriously. This has to stop. Tube amp design is a wonderful, respectable form of hybridized art/science... And these people call themselves industry giants....yes, theyre Godzilla, stomping on and breathing fire all over our musical Tokyo.
I always have, and will defend their guitar's. Mine are great,never had a problem one,but this is off the chain. The balls to print handwired right on the amp when all a person has to do is look at it to see that its not.
I watch a couple of other amp repair channels, but I've never seen as detailed a breakdown on how good/bad a circuit design is. I'll keep an eye on Freidmans. Do you have any thoughts on PRS amps? MT15 (most interest), MT100 and the Archon series? What about something like the EVH 5150 Iconics?
I haven't seen any of those amps in the flesh, but I do know Lyle battled with some PRS amps and the verdict was not good. Check out his channel @psionicaudio
Every PRS I’ve played through has a noisy effects loop. I’ve had both the MT15 and Archon MK1 and MK2. The MK1 had the effects loop fix done, MK2 Archon and the MT15 were noisy right out of the box. The 5150 Iconic is what you’d expect, thin PCB with tube sockets mounted to it. It has some of the mini sized surface mount components but it’s for stuff like the digital reverb which I don’t like anyway. Main part of the circuit is standard sized components. But honestly for the price the Iconic isn’t bad, you get a lot of features for $1k or less used (I have the 80w head). Sounds great, quiet effects loop, loud as hell, built in volume boost that’s foot switchable and built in noise gate. Plays well with my Helix when footswitching for the boost and channels. It isn’t built amazingly well but I’ve gigged mine, played it a lot, it hasn’t let me down. I expect it will someday but it looks reasonably serviceable. For the features and relatively cheap price, I can live with that personally. Not sure I would get the combos, same features crammed into a smaller board with less ventilation for the tubes.
None of my amps have backs on them because 1) I'm lazy and 2) I am often swapping out preamp tubes in pursuit of "tone". How long would these PCB tube sockets last before the solder joints crap themselves? Not very long I'm picking. I love my Les Paul but I am embarassed with this latest debacle that Gibson and Mesa have created. Likewise all of the UA-cam channels that are attempting to rip off their customers by saying nothing about these POS amps should be ashamed. Props to you and the Guitologist for speaking out. Cheers from NZ
as a mesa owner for 30 years, and had great trust in them, i'm quickly wondering - WTF am i doing. maybe i should just flog my single rec and go a local brand who gives a sh1t. heard you're going to make amps. I like Friedman, but keen on Ozi stuff. show us what your doing.
For service and repair, sure. You won't find any paid reviews of any kind on this channel. That's why everyone calls me a whinger and negative. Because they're used to the paid glowing reviews on all the shill channels.
@@BradsGuitarGarage a repair was Exactly my sentiment. Judging by how it was built and who built it, maybe you’ll get a bougie pensioner who decides to get one and it breaks down lol
Every paid shill and dealer is raving about those electric turds. I recently spent $2200 on a 1968 Deluxe Reverb with a JBL D120F. Which one would you rather have? I spent $200 on speaker reconing supplies and a JBL D120 Pro kit made by JBL. The F in a D120F is just a wider voice coil gap. I have to add some old greeting cards as shims when I put the voice coil and cone assembly in. Whoopty doo!
I will agree Friedman is probably the bast amps for the money these days , but what can we do as consumers, all the amp companies make mostly cheaper amps, cause they gotta sell stuff to make money
I’ve said it before Brad, you should make and sell replacements for boogies…. Start with the Lonestar Special hahah (and yes I know this isn’t realistic but we can dream)… Have you seen the PRS Hendrix clone, are they crap? The guy shot seems OK for the price to me….
It’s a shame, as I quite like how it sounds. Only Gibson would build a compact amp to Fender Reissue quality standards, and then price it up in Custom Shop territory…
The only new amps I would buy are a Friedman, Suhr , Amplified Nation and Two Rock. Go with a Suhr/Friedman for the absolute best quality v money. Go with the other two if you’re a blues lawyer.
lol, great upload, had me in hysterics. "Just don't buy one" Exactly. Prices are weird here in the UK. For the fist time ever we seem to be paying less than they pay in the States (for some things), despite having heavy import duty and 20% sales tax added. I bought a brand new HSS Fender Player Strat for 525 (Pound sterling), and a brand new Blackstar HT-5 mkii for 269. Was so happy with the amp I bought another as a spare. I checked Andert*ns shop online today and they still have 10+ in stock! Why? They're almost giving them away! I hate to think what you guys are paying in AUS for low-ish end gear like that.
To reiterate the video description since nobody seems to read it:
Note: this is a comedic opinion piece only.
Opinions not to be taken internally.
If pain persists, please see a qualified medical professional.
I love your sense of humour, mate. You crack me up.
Thank god for your Aussie honesty and give-no-fucks opinion. This overpriced p.o.s. needs to be called out. WTF Gibson? Are you deliberately trying to piss us off (again)?
Comedic opinion piece only? You called it out for the overpriced piece of shit it is. Good work!
Glad I read this part! Looks like a cool amp, as for overpriced, everything is right now.
Finally, an amplifier built to the same quality standard as Gibson guitars and priced to match.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Ouch!
Hahahahaha! Too right!
I wanted to come up with something similar. Could not. I am glad you nailed it Bro. What a piece a crap for 1800$.
Ha ha so true
I'm holding off for the Murphy Lab reliced version.
It will relic itself in due time with failed components burning the board. Authentic burnt PCB and wiring smell. It’ll be worth 3x more then.
@@K707OR30
"Smell Authentic."
Cool, the version with scuffs and melted circuit board with a bent speaker frame...so Rock n roll!
I want to start a business when The Relic craze is over. Refinishing all the Reliced guitars there will be Millions
$1,799 US, it's £2k here in the UK... With those PCB insides...
Ok... So. Go custom made to order. There's a company here in the UK called Stoneham Amplification who makes bespoke amps, hand wired, made to order, made in a little workshop in the UK. Sleeves, head shells & cabs are commissioned for another UK builder called F.A Guitar Cabs.
I bought a custom 150w Sunn Model T clone, KT88, bespoke custom UK made output transformers, hand wired etc., boutique quality. And it's an absolute beast. I paid £1,750 for it a couple of years ago, prices may rise ever so slightly now but the builder keeps the prices realistic and I very much doubt the same amp will go over £2k, if so it won't be by much. Keep in mind older "real" Model Ts and clones by others will cost you way, way in excess of £3k-£4k, I've seen originals go for £5k and some clones costing not much less.
Go custom. Support the little guy who works with passion in his little shed and workshop.
You only wrote "bespoke" twice. Are you sure you're English?
"Hand" wired is a gibson acronym for 'highly automated neatening device''
Played one today (in the U.S.) , it did sound really good. Power options worked well. Reverb and trem sounded good to me. Maxed the volume , tone, was right up on it and had no oscillation or other issues. I would consider a used one. Considering I’ve never had a major failure with one of my Mesas (have 4 currently) at the end of the day I’ll go with what sounds good and has a feature set that works for me. Finding it at a price I can handle will take some looking. Have played quite a few, built like tanks, hardwired beauties that don’t sound that great or lack a decent feature set and when they’re 2500 to 4K (in the U.S.) 🤷♂️.
Marshall Origin and a Studio series are almost virtually identical in construction. We can only let the market know with our dollars I guess and shop accordingly. I’m sure my Tone King Royalist III, at 2500 U.S. might make me sigh if I looked inside, it’s only “assembled” in America, not made in America but boy does it sound fantastic…Eventually I just want to get on with playing and have a smile on my face.
An amp cheaply made but with great features and tone, you will only think about the tone after owning it for a while. An amp that has amazing quality but doesn’t quite do it for you on tone or features is bound for trade or sale and no beautiful hand wiring and “custom” wound Transformers will stop you from wanting to get something else.
When I heard Gibson was coming out with a line of guitar amps this is exactly what I expected. A real Mess of Boogers.
“That’s our Gibson!”
Really appreciate this type of review, thank you
as someone who spent way too much time looking at dual rectifier gutshots, this is a Mesa Certified Design. this is going to be fun for techs...
I see several sets of IDC connectors (insullation displacement connectors) which are probably being used at well above their voltage and current ratings.
Would they have it any other way?
It only needs to outlive the warranty.
It was hand packaged
Thank you brad- you were first and made everyone else follow suit. Bravo to a truth seeker
Awesome vid.
I hope you will do the same for the new Magnatone Slash amp.
Would love a deep dive on that one.
I'd LOVE to dive into a Magnatone.
If one ever presents itself, rest assured I'll put it through it's paces!
Its good to see some people on YT exposing what youd get for +$5K AU. The cab and speaker look the goods. Its a shame the most important piece in ones signal chain looks like absolute garbage.
Thank you. These are everywhere, it seems, but you're the first to pull off the back for me.
As I suspected. No surprise at all. Certainly not what I'm after.
Compare the falcon 5watt to the fender bassbreaker 007.
When this was first announced I wanted to see the guts…oh dear Lord it’s about what I feared.
Yeah it's pretty much exactly what I expected when I first heard about the Gibson buyout.
gibson being low quality is an opinion... i guess. but to lie about the wiring? a new low for gibson
Thanks for posting
Yep, reminds me of my old Peavey Classic 30.
1 thing they deserve a medal for is mounting the pots on the chassis( moment of clarity) . It should cost nk more than $900 US and that is really pushing it.
From what other Falcon amp reviews say, this amp has a loud fan like the Trace Elliot Elf and Hartke amps use
Thanks for the honest opinion. When I first saw these amps, listed as handwired, I was seriously interested. Nowhere could I find an inside shot, to check out the lead dress. How the heck can Gibson sell these as handwired?
Why didn’t they just make a GA-5 skylark reissue and be done with it
They did that I have one all premium parts but never sounded good until I had it modded. So for Gibson that was a big fail
love getting shafted here in australia
Tell me about it, mate!
I own both tube amps and modeling amps, as well as the most traditional speaker cabinets with Celestion Vintage 30s inside. However, I must say that this whole debate is completely irrelevant because modeling and solid-state technology are the future.
Modeling or solid-state amps, even the inventor of Dumble himself (a bit before his death), when asked if transistor amps would ever be as good as tube amps, responded that the question wasn't if it would happen but when. He emphasized that one day someone would make a transistor amp that sounds exactly like a tube amp, and given the way the market is evolving, I believe we are not far from that point.
Even without considering that, basic modeling today is already excellent. Take anyone and blindfold them, and no one can tell the difference. Unfortunately, musicians often rely too much on their eyes instead of their ears. ( Most by the way jackoff way to much on gear all the time ( wether it’s new or vintage it’s the same ) instead of really playing guitar but that another debate)
In any case, for guitar, the trend is to build things that are always lighter, better, more practical, simpler, and more intuitive.
Even the country of origin hardly matters anymore because you can find quality in Europe, Asia, and even China, which wasn't known for quality products, is now able to copy or even surpass some American brands. We must recognize that American quality has significantly degraded, while Japanese quality remains stable at a high level.
So, things are changing for the better.
When I saw the inside I figured they will follow later with a hand wired version at a higher price. But I see this one is already "hand wired."
That's some outrageous pricing! The 5-watter looks to be about $4360! In 2010 I bought a little Marshall Class 5, mostly because it was pretty cheap and halfway decent for what it was. UK made, single-ended, $799 AUD retail. I was staff, so I only paid cost for it ($450 or so), but street price was about $600. With all the inflation, if they released something similar today I'd expect it to be about $1100-ish maybe? It's probably a similar level of construction quality to these Gibsons. I wonder how they're justifying the extra $3200?
Edit: Just checked Australis (Aus wholesaler) website. 5-watter is $4799 retail! Crazy.
The JTM 20 watt combo costs about half as much as this and think of all the shit Marshall got for that
Not sure that the hand-wiring is authentic?
This amp sounded amazing at guitar center today with $5,000 dollar Mike Landau 68'. It was probably the Landau I know, but I got compliments.
I'm glad you enjoyed it, mate.
Whatever amp works best for you is the best amp in the world for you.
@BradsGuitarGarage I would never buy one though because of the build quality, but it was nice to play through!
I actually wasn't expecting the insides to look like this. I was expecting PCB construction, but 1970s style with the valve bases fixed to the chassis and wired to the PCB.
Greetings Brad. I’ve seen your messages at Psionic Audio’s video and decided to check you out. I subbed.
Welcome aboard!
If only they used “Hand Assembled” instead of “hand wired” I feel they would be getting a lot less heat 🤣
Absolutely fantastic have a good weekend Brad ❤😊
It’s a Boogie.. quality and pricing as predicted.
Australis Music Group dont mind a decent margin (imagine how little these amps cost at wholesale, probably 1,100 USD?).
We have 15% duty plus GST to pay of course, but with freight costs post covid still being high and are forecast to go much higher again with whats happening with the Suez........ We are going to be pretty cooked in Aus!
If we want nice import amps itll cost more than ya left nut.
Its a great time to make you own small batch amps Brad! I would buy at least one or two quality Aussie made heads at 2.5-3k AUD ea (ill take an AB763 super, and a JTM-45 mod kthx 😁 )
You're in luck, mate. I've got some fun projects cooking as we speak.
As soon you see "Made in Petaluma" I would recommend running out of the store screaming "Get thee behind me!!"
Didn’t know there is a Pentaluma is China as well 😅
@@ratt669 Hahaha. Funny. Of course, as you know, many great products come out of China these days.
@@theguitaramptech Eastman guitars, for ex.
Looks cheap like something from Crate or Fenders cheapies. And trust me the "Hand Wired" was no mistake on either Gibson or Boogies part. In their mind this is up to Gibson snuff and hands at some point did wire some of it. What a joke. These amps were never highly sought after. In fact up until recently you could buy 60's examples for $400 and less. These are geared at lawyers who are buying up the $5k Les Pauls and the 1k pickup sets. Gibson Lifestyle strikes again.
Love the review ya bloody legend!
I’ve been waiting for this!!🍿
Heh me too. I already suspected what the outcome would be. And indeed...
Anyone who relies on an Internet e-commerce business to give an honest review of something that they sell is a fool. Anyone with any sense will Unfollow these people immediately as they don't have the players best interest in mind.
Handwired can literally just mean wired by hand & not necessarily meaning point to point wiring (pre pcd which people mistake for being hand wired), the other option is robots where the entire pcb is populated & soldered by machines and not by hand.
Like big name swiss watches people often think that they are getting something entirely hand made, the reality is they are often only getting something machine made & then finished by hand unless its a company that prides itself on being bespoke & hand made.
Look at Traynor. Great Canadian amps.
Traynor are excellent amps, I've never even seen one in Australia, though.
Gibson has already reached the tipping point w/ Mesa…
Corporate conglomerate is trying to steer a once highly successful company, hit their profit numbers to recoup the acquisition cost WHILE paying California labor and taxes.
I don’t think this was a surprise for folks… higher prices… lower quality…
I've been trying to get a look inside the new Soldano 20 . Or any of them , can't find any .
Thank you for helping to debunk the myths of these hyped up reissues. This amp was a pos when they first made them and very few wanted them. In my book, Friedman and Suhr make good amps now. There may be others I am not familiar with.
Dr.Z
This is why I have a quad cortex
For the price this is pretty much what I expected inside these Gibson amps. Check out Carr amps which are absolutely beautifully built inside but that puts the cost of an amp like it over $3000 USD. On the other end of things the Fender Hot Rod Deluxe is $1000 USD but is built even worse than these Gibsons. At least the pots on the Gibson aren't on the board and from what I have heard in other videos on UA-cam the amp does sound a lot more like a vintage amp than the stiff bright modern sounding Hot Rod. That stuff and a nice cab I guess is what you get for the extra $800 USD.
The picture might be fake, the lack of leather jackets makes me suspect it's not from a authentic gibson amp
you’d think these companies would just consult with people who actually know how to do this stuff nicely, like yourself or Psionic, but i guess almost every decision is based on making it cheaper to produce.
Good call out mate. It’s a $500-$700 amp tops.
On the bright side it looks like that board will come out easy.
Yes, I think it will be much easier to repair than most other Mesas.
whats with the hot snot glue randomly deposited on some components 🙃
Thanks so much for a honest review😁‼
Good to view someone who tell the truth about rip off companies
Thanks for the heads up. Will the Mesa Boogie California amps, be the same crap or are they made better?
I tried to think positive and noticed that those front panel pots are not mounted on the PCB. Perhaps that, according to their interpretation, gives them the right to use the term "hand-wired". 🤓
However, no fake bumblebees this time. 😁
Vox's new "hand wired" series has been released at NAMM 2024. It would be interesting to get your thoughts.
So far, the Vox HW series have been of turret board construction, and actually hand assembled and wired.
Great platforms for refinement and improvement.
@@BradsGuitarGarage It will be interesting to see.
great honest review
you can get a vintage gibson amp for less.
This looks like the inside of a blackstar ht series. Since when did accountants design amps?
When you said the price I yelled "HOLY FUCK!!!"
another brad vid !!! yay Oh you're reviewing pictures. Nice man. I'd love to send you pics of my Tremlord 30 for review. I have thick skin.
Curious if the components are soldered to the pcb by hand. U could claim hand wired at that point. But why make it handwired to start with when it’s designed like that? They are ~$2.2k CDN and I think supros are around there. So prob not to outline for that category, no? For the record I’m not defending mesa and gibson prices have just gone completely nuts.
They got everything delivered, plugged it in, sold it to morons.
I wish someone would do a deep dive and inside look at the new Supro Delegate and Ambassador Custom amps. They are over 3000 US and Im wonder ing if they are as crappy as the Gibsons
I could see the price if they make a super limited amount, and later becomes a collector piece because of gibson name
Have you checked out the Quilter mach 3
Whoa what, hand wired?? ”Play authentic” - I finally get it!
That quality looks like one of the old Tandy or similar kits you could get, shocking for the price. I used to design and layout circuit boards and that is not a great layout, like you say pads are too small and creepage gaps are too close in some areas and yep many rookie mistakes. That amp looks like it would fall apart if taken on the road and thrown in and out of a van. Good honest detailed review you did here.
This is incrediby ridiculous and disappoiting at the same time.
So many great quotes in this video 😂👏👏👏 “That drugged out weirdo signed it” killed me
is he? like are there good stories?
Honestly, those plastic clip PCB standoffs makes me think of a $100 Bluetooth speaker.
From a user consideration perspective, I think it’s honestly pretty stupid and unsafe to tuck the preamp tubes away inside the amp chassis, next to components carrying high voltages, and require a metal hand tool to access them. Externally mounted tubes are not included on this very expensive brand name amplifier and I couldn’t be more frustrated.
From a repair tech perspective, you are dead on. This amp is a bogus piece of junk. Absolute highway robbery at that price. True story: I once was a QC manager at an electronics mfg. company here in the USA. Attended a new product review, and in the course of the meeting, I asked a few questions about test access points for production testing, and was rebuffed by the design engineer. Once I got around to insisting he answer my questions, the guy actually got so flustered he bolted from his own design meeting - with his boss, the Dir of Eng, and the President/Owner of the company in the room. Yeah, he was fired immediately. Gibson needs to hire some QC folks with actual balls. I would have destroyed this product before it got out of the prototype stage. It never would have made it to NPI. I also would have beat the living ---- out of the marketing dumbasses for diluting the brand rep with a stupid/ripoff product line.
Looks like a typical Mesa inside…
It's a joke imho. You can buy a fender Deluxe, Deville, Pro reverb, Twin Reverb, Marshall DSL40, Vox AC30, and many others for less with as good or better quality.
Great amps for the money-Dr.Z,hand wired in Cleveland,Ohio.
Do you like the Engl Ironball SE? My amp, a lot of features, and sounds good made in Ger. What do you think about it? :P
Engls are great amps.
While I haven't seen the Ironball in person, I've worked on and played many others and I really like their tone and build quality.
$5500 AUD WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Messy Booger "Engineering" strikes again... Brad, I swear, if you and Lyle would agree to tag-team with me and go chew out the Mesa team in person (hell, Fender's in California too, why let them get away unscathed?), I'd pay for BOTH your airfares and food/lodging. Seriously. This has to stop. Tube amp design is a wonderful, respectable form of hybridized art/science... And these people call themselves industry giants....yes, theyre Godzilla, stomping on and breathing fire all over our musical Tokyo.
shipping costs are up ?
I always have, and will defend their guitar's. Mine are great,never had a problem one,but this is off the chain. The balls to print handwired right on the amp when all a person has to do is look at it to see that its not.
I watch a couple of other amp repair channels, but I've never seen as detailed a breakdown on how good/bad a circuit design is.
I'll keep an eye on Freidmans.
Do you have any thoughts on PRS amps? MT15 (most interest), MT100 and the Archon series?
What about something like the EVH 5150 Iconics?
I haven't seen any of those amps in the flesh, but I do know Lyle battled with some PRS amps and the verdict was not good. Check out his channel @psionicaudio
Every PRS I’ve played through has a noisy effects loop. I’ve had both the MT15 and Archon MK1 and MK2. The MK1 had the effects loop fix done, MK2 Archon and the MT15 were noisy right out of the box. The 5150 Iconic is what you’d expect, thin PCB with tube sockets mounted to it. It has some of the mini sized surface mount components but it’s for stuff like the digital reverb which I don’t like anyway. Main part of the circuit is standard sized components. But honestly for the price the Iconic isn’t bad, you get a lot of features for $1k or less used (I have the 80w head). Sounds great, quiet effects loop, loud as hell, built in volume boost that’s foot switchable and built in noise gate. Plays well with my Helix when footswitching for the boost and channels. It isn’t built amazingly well but I’ve gigged mine, played it a lot, it hasn’t let me down. I expect it will someday but it looks reasonably serviceable. For the features and relatively cheap price, I can live with that personally. Not sure I would get the combos, same features crammed into a smaller board with less ventilation for the tubes.
None of my amps have backs on them because 1) I'm lazy and 2) I am often swapping out preamp tubes in pursuit of "tone". How long would these PCB tube sockets last before the solder joints crap themselves? Not very long I'm picking. I love my Les Paul but I am embarassed with this latest debacle that Gibson and Mesa have created. Likewise all of the UA-cam channels that are attempting to rip off their customers by saying nothing about these POS amps should be ashamed. Props to you and the Guitologist for speaking out. Cheers from NZ
as a mesa owner for 30 years, and had great trust in them, i'm quickly wondering - WTF am i doing. maybe i should just flog my single rec and go a local brand who gives a sh1t. heard you're going to make amps. I like Friedman, but keen on Ozi stuff. show us what your doing.
Mesas can sound amazing and are built like crap, both statements can be true.
I’m so stoked to hear this thing shredded apart by your expertise lol
I look forward to seeing one in the flesh, that would be a proper review rather than just whatever this is. LOL!
@@BradsGuitarGarage for your sake, I hope you’re seeing it because someone is paying you to be in the same room with it 😂
For service and repair, sure. You won't find any paid reviews of any kind on this channel. That's why everyone calls me a whinger and negative.
Because they're used to the paid glowing reviews on all the shill channels.
@@BradsGuitarGarage a repair was Exactly my sentiment. Judging by how it was built and who built it, maybe you’ll get a bougie pensioner who decides to get one and it breaks down lol
Every paid shill and dealer is raving about those electric turds. I recently spent $2200 on a 1968 Deluxe Reverb with a JBL D120F. Which one would you rather have? I spent $200 on speaker reconing supplies and a JBL D120 Pro kit made by JBL. The F in a D120F is just a wider voice coil gap. I have to add some old greeting cards as shims when I put the voice coil and cone assembly in. Whoopty doo!
Maybe the dealers are the ones adding the 100% profit margin, I have no idea.
I will agree Friedman is probably the bast amps for the money these days , but what can we do as consumers, all the amp companies make mostly cheaper amps, cause they gotta sell stuff to make money
Hey Brad, how much does a fender DR reissue cost in Aus?
2nd hand, around $1200-1500.
New around $2400-2800.
@@BradsGuitarGarage Well, that would seem to be an easy purchasing decision then.
Absolutely.
Sell The Sizzle, Not The Steak.
Gday from Melbourne!
I’ve said it before Brad, you should make and sell replacements for boogies…. Start with the Lonestar Special hahah (and yes I know this isn’t realistic but we can dream)…
Have you seen the PRS Hendrix clone, are they crap? The guy shot seems OK for the price to me….
Jeezus H Christ! $5K for that????
Looks better then most Mesa on the inside
I agree.
I looks like a blues Jr, and should be priced accordingly
Sad to think someone voided their warranty by doing this and taking the pictures because you know they’re gonna need it.
When Gibson bought Mesa we knew what was coming. Mesa amps rebranded as Gibson.
It’s a shame, as I quite like how it sounds. Only Gibson would build a compact amp to Fender Reissue quality standards, and then price it up in Custom Shop territory…
I don't think I've ever clicked on something so fast! ..... lets just say I'm very curious. I'll watch the video now. :)
The only new amps I would buy are a Friedman, Suhr , Amplified Nation and Two Rock. Go with a Suhr/Friedman for the absolute best quality v money. Go with the other two if you’re a blues lawyer.
lol, great upload, had me in hysterics. "Just don't buy one" Exactly.
Prices are weird here in the UK. For the fist time ever we seem to be paying less than they pay in the States (for some things), despite having heavy import duty and 20% sales tax added. I bought a brand new HSS Fender Player Strat for 525 (Pound sterling), and a brand new Blackstar HT-5 mkii for 269. Was so happy with the amp I bought another as a spare. I checked Andert*ns shop online today and they still have 10+ in stock! Why? They're almost giving them away! I hate to think what you guys are paying in AUS for low-ish end gear like that.