GA-400

Rick Alexander · From: Florida, USA, R.I.P.

I have literally been looking for one of these for over 40 years.
I've only ever seen 2 of them, and that was in 1963.
The first time I saw one was Robbie Robertson with Ronnie Hawkins and The Hawks in 1962 (several years before they moved to Woodstock and became THE BAND).
He was playing a Telecaster, and I'd never heard anything quite like it.
I remember they were considered the holy grail of guitar amps by guitar players and they were quite rare - even back then.

Gibson only shipped 396 of these amps between 1957 and 1961.
A couple of weeks ago I was playing a show on Hollywood Beach and I got a call from my friend Andy the Amp Dude.
There was a GA-400 on eBay with 40 minutes left on the auction.
We decided on a last minute max bid - since I couldn't be in 2 places at once, he was the bidder.
He called me back within the hour with the good news.
It's a '59 - SN 385.

He brought it over yesterday, and it's an amazing sounding amp. 60 watts, 2 12s, 3 channels.

It has a great saturated sound, but every chord is still well defined. It sounds wonderful with no FX at all . .

Those are JBLs in it right now and they sound beautiful, but Andy has been collecting NOS amp parts for years and he just happened to have 2 of the exact model of Jensen special design speakers that originally came in it.
We'll install them in a few days . .
_________________

BIG STEEL

J Fletcher · From: London,Ont,Canada

Well it's a small world after all! About 20 years ago, a guitar player I worked with asked me if I could have a look at his old Gibson amp. He brought it over, and then told me how it had been Robbie Robertson's old Gibson 400. Was a lot rougher looking than yours, but the same amp. The owner was a big Robbie Robertson fan, back in the early 60's, and had a few stories to tell about seeing the Hawks in those days.They were a big deal around where I live, London Ontario. Got the amp up and running. I still have a few of the old parts from that amp, in a jar in my basement...Jerry

Rick Alexander · From: Florida, USA, R.I.P.

and here they are:

and there's that GA-400 on a chair . .

this is a better pic of The Band - taken at The Brass Rail Tavern in London Ont circa 1963:

You can see the amp back behind Levon's drums.

Those were the daze!

The first time I saw them was in 1962 at the Port Elgin Casino.
I was never quite the same after that.
They were the hardest rocking band I ever heard, before or since - nothing like the music they recorded in later years as The Band.

J Fletcher · From: London,Ont,Canada

So Rick, did you live around Port Elgin back then? A friend of mine did, and played in a band at the time. I missed all the excitement by 3 or 4 years, though lot's of people around here have stories.

Rick Alexander · From: Florida, USA, R.I.P.

I lived in London and we had a summer cottage just outside of Port Elgin.
The only band I knew from PE back then was Gordon Rhodes and The Comets (not very original).
They opened for Hawkins at the PE Casino gig.
Terry Cotterill was in that band and later moved to London . .

Mike Winter · From: Portland, OR

Don't mean to hijack this thread, but I grew up in Toronto and the Hawks/Band have always been big musical heroes of mine. Please keep stories/pics coming...or I'll start another thread in "Music." Either way, I'd love to read accounts of people that saw them as the Hawks in the early sixties. Smile

Rick Alexander · From: Florida, USA, R.I.P.

Well, I remember Ronnie Hawkins used to drop his pants a lot.
He was always the life of the party - probably the most outrageous guy I've ever known.
He'd say anything to anybody, he didn't give a . .

He used to do things like - he'd get some girl up on stage and dance around with her for a minute then he'd take her out the backstage entrance. Then about 30 seconds later he would re-emerge pulling up his pants.
He would do backflips on stage, and he was doing the moonwalk 30 years before Michael Jackson.
He's one of the funniest people on the planet, he has a quip for everything.

Here's another pic from The Brass Rail:

You can see Levon and Garth in this one, and you can see the GA-400 peeking out from behind the drums (just to keep it on topic).

J Fletcher · From: London,Ont,Canada

Hmmm, I know Terry Cotrill well, also Serge Daniloff, Joe Dangler, Billy Hilton, and Chuck Grover, who has the "400" amp. Very interesting, to me at least!

Rick Alexander · From: Florida, USA, R.I.P.

I knew it would be Chuck Grover who got that amp!!
He's always been a huge RR fan and he lusted after GA-400s for years, just like me.

Here are a couple more pics:

Mike Winter · From: Portland, OR

Ha! Check out Rick Danko's Fender VI in the pics above. Here's some more info: http://theband.hiof.no/articles/fender_bass_vi.html

It's on the same stage as the Gibson amp...just to keep it on topic.. Smile

Dave Zirbel · From: Sebastopol, CA USA

One of my all time favorite Telecaster tones was The Hawks recorded version of Who Do You Love from the new box set. I wonder if he used the GA 400 in the studio.

Rick Alexander · From: Florida, USA, R.I.P.

Yes he did.
That GA-400 was the only amp he used back then.
The sound he got with that amp and his Telecaster inspired a generation of Canadian guitar players in the 60s.
Nobody ever asked: "Robbie who?"

Dave Zirbel · From: Sebastopol, CA USA

Jesse Ed Davis was one I believe. Robbie is one of my all time favorites! Guess I better keep an eye out for a GA 400!!

Rick Alexander · From: Florida, USA, R.I.P.

Well, it took me 43 years to find this one - I hope it doesn't take you that long! Smile

Dave Mudgett · From: Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee

Yeah, that's quite a score. They're great amps. I've played one once - it was at a vintage guitar store, and I shoulda bought it - I don't know what I was thinking. It wasn't cheap, but these are very hard to come by.

Myself, I love Gibson amps. I've owned most of the line at one time or another, back to a '37 or '38 EH-150. But not a GA-400. My main small tweed amp right now is a '59 GA-20T Ranger - it kills.

I agree on Teles through these cool Gibson amps. For a tweed amp, they are the ride of choice for a Tele, to me. Even better - shudder you Fender fans - than the much vaunted 5F6A '59 Bassman or 5E3 Deluxe. JMHO, no need to defend their honor. Wink

Rick Alexander · From: Florida, USA, R.I.P.

Yeah, Fender amps tend to be bright and sparkly while Gibsons are generally fat and creamy.
So it stands to reason that a Fender guitar would sound good with a Gibson amp - and vice-versa (my ES 335 kicks major butt through my 53 Deluxe)

This GA-400 really brings out the best in my ol' Strat, and my Tele.
I remember the first time I heard Robbie, I went around the back of the stage to see if he had any FX such as a Fuzz Tone (that's about all there was back then) - and he didn't. Just a cord from the Tele to the GA-400.
I tried it with a Holy Grail verb pedal and a Tube Screamer - both fine pedals - but they just covered up the beautiful tone of the amp. You can get all the effects you need naturally. Most rooms have reverberation, and this amp has plenty of overdrive.
It even has a built in tube compressor, probably the first of its kind in production.

Dave Mudgett · From: Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee

David Mason · From: Cambridge, MD, USA

Why would you want to waste your money on that tore-up, worn-out greasy old stuff when you can buy a brand-new Indonesian guitar and a Chinese amp for less than $400 total? Razz

(you could donate the leftover money to the Pentagon so they could buy some $120 screws & $800 hammers & $7,000 toilets....)

Tim Kowalski · From: Illinois, USA

Would it be un-cooth to ask how much this little gem ended up selling for? Just in case one of us stumbles onto one it would be good to have an idea of the value. Whoa!

_________________
Bad wine is better than no wine.

Rick Alexander · From: Florida, USA, R.I.P.

$1900 plus shipping.
The Vintage Guitar blue book says that's what it's worth.
But how do you put a value on something that can't be found?
They were rare even in the 60s.
I finally got lucky, and if it weren't for the vigilance of my friend Andy the Amp Dude I would have missed it.
Out of the 396 GA-400s that were shipped between 1957 and 1961, how many do you think are still in service?

I know of 3 now, counting mine.

GA-400 Trivia:
1. Scotty Moore had one for a while, but traded it in on a Fender.
2. Johnny Cucci had one for a while, but traded it in on a Fender.

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