A Falcon Gets its Wings - 1964 Gibson GA19RVT Repair 

Stuff used in this video: Capacitor Tester: goo.gl/EB9MXL Gibson Amplifiers 1933-2008: 75 Years of the Gold Tone Book: amzn.to/2BP310E

Hey Brad, gotta tell ya, the playroom TV crapped out. I pulled it down and checked power and it was wrong, just looking I could see what I thought was three expanded electrolytic caps, the rest looked fine. I pulled the offenders and tested them with my little tester. Mine is like yours but doesn’t have the clear lexan but works fine. One was fine, two were OFF THE CHARTS... I actually had the replacements except they might be cheapies but they worked, TV working great and is back on the wall. I couldn’t of done it without you, I wouldn’t have had the balls to get it off the wall and open it up. No freaking way... Thank you Brad.

I just worked on a GA19RVT for my friend. I increased the V1 coupling cap from .001 to a .022. and then cut out the brown 3 leg RC network and connected the .022 to the volume pot,added a 500 pf to the tone control for more high end when the tone is up.I cut out the .002 cap that is connected across the power tube plates.I also moved the reverb footswitch to the reverb pan output. My friend Glen left a happy camper.

Great job Brad! She sounded so sweet after you'd finished with her! A dizzyingly nice reverb too! Thumbs up!

Hey everyone, our favorite internet uncle is back! Uncle Doug has returned for a new amp series! There’s bad news unfortunately, Rusty the Wonder Dog went on to Good Boy Heaven. His hard work and intellect will be missed!❤️🐕😇

I've owned every kind of amp. The '63 Gibson Falcon was the absolute best I ever owned! (GA-19RVT Rawks!).

Better than anything Hollywood is putting out Brad

Glad to see you verify the truth on the brown "turd" caps. They tested perfect as every one from my '71 Deluxe Reverb does. I suspect we will come to revere those chocolate beauties some day.

Man, Amp sounds good. Resto'd right! Actually had me right away because of the Gibson lap steel amp i should have bought in the early '70s then my first car was a '67 Falcon (170 3 speed 2dr, 1975). Would also like to thank you for the Gibson book rec'. I've bought alot of books like this over the years, starting with American Guitars and The Guitar Book bought in the early '80s both written by former Guitar Player magazine editor Tom Wheeler. Sadly, he passed away earlier this month. RIP, TW.

You're a damn fine guitar player too Brad.

The Guitologist i used to be in a band when i was kid with a guy whos dad had one of these and thought it was one of the greatest amps ever made. at the time i remember hating the sound of the thing but my idea of a great guitar sound at the time was a dry solid state and a fuzz box - i have much more respect for the sounds it can make now i really dug getting a look inside of this forbidden amp of my youth lol and wow i need one of those cap testers? seriously wish i had time to watch all of your output good sir

I repaired a ‘63-64 Falcon a couple years back. I also ditched the old weak Jensen and installed a Weber Sig 12f. Wow what a difference....I love me an old C8r but the C12r was too farty in the bass. That Weber totally completed the amp.

Damn that's a cool tone man!

It really shines in the reverb section.

Another good video. Another awesome bed head demo. Thanks Brad!

Another winner Brad, thanks for sharing this. These videos are super informative, and its like a music-guitar-gear time machine... This is what music sounded like in tbe 1960s. So cool

Best spring reverb ever in Falcons. My friend had one once.

Brad, I have the exact amp. but in better (unmolested) original condition although aged. I'm guessing the tubes are original RCA. Bought it for $25.00 yard sale from an old guy that played in a Polka band forever. Has foot pedal, same speaker, exact numbers match to your customer's. Came with an extra set of knobs in a ziplock bag. Mine would need the same once over. Good video for me, thanks again.

really liked that last thing you played

That amp sounds phenomenal! Really soulful and loads of classic tones. I thought your playing reminded me a lot of Rory Gallagher there too. :)

Yikes! Wire nuts and electrical tape belong in light fixtures, but a vintage Gibson amp? Hey, I suppose peeps gotta do what they gotta do, but I think it’s now in the best hands possible. Thanks for the upload Brad, right on man.

I've got a '65 that I paid $65 for about 10 years ago. The guy I got it from said he just had it serviced and it was working great until one day it started freaking out. He opened it up and said he saw it arcing somewhere so he gave up and sold it cheap. I got it home, opened it up and shook it. A ball of solder fell out and it's worked great for me. I'm not sure if it's been modded, but if you turn the reverb off at the footswitch then the reverb knob acts as a gain. Kinda weird to me. The reverb and tremolo on this thing are amazing.

I have had to wait past supper to watch this, as the missus has different nerdy interests of her own. Now, pleasure... :) Gibson could have done with you back in the sixties. AND your playing was delightful. Thanks.

That was some inspired solo at the end. Right where she liked it to sing too.

I saw a Mesa/Boogie Bass 400 in the pile of incoming stuff. Looking forward to seeing a video on that one! :-)

Who says ya can't polish a turd? Another impossible job well done, Brad...

Nice Video Brad! Also Pink floyd in the Background ! :)

The 5Y3 datasheet recommends a 20uF cap, so I think that was correct with the 20 first, after that the 30uF.

I have the exact same amp! Got it in the 90's. It *never* sounded that good, I just thought it was cool, and it was cheap. Wondering if I can afford to have it serviced the same way.

Awesome as usual Brad, Love watching your vids.

These sound great cranked to 10

good video brad...nice playing..the gibson tele combo sounds great..

Sounds like rock and roll to me

You are awesome, man. Great playing.

You are truly amazing dude,, please keep it up,,, one day I would love for you to look at an amp that I have that is working great but always a possibility for better.

Sounds good. I notice your using a pick a lot more recently. And your using a comb a lot less. Both good things. I hope you and yours are all safe after the awful weather down there. I would hate to think of your basement getting flooded with all that great in it. Or whatever your in.

Amp sounds killer!

Nice fix, sounds good.

Head Bangers In Leather!

Probably the original cord became frayed or the plug went bad and they had that 3 pin cord laying around so they used that. I see it quite often.

yep still love this amp so initovative for its year a jazzers wet dream mmmmm

Just got a hold of ‘64 Falcon in really clean condition down here in Nashville. Any chance I could have you take a look at it?

Hello guitoligist. I was going through an old storage building today and found a 1942 Zenith Universal Radio. It's "portable" and has a built in antennae that comes out and can be set up apart from the radio. It can also be connected to an external battery. The tubes look good, but the power cord is rotted and will have to be replaced. Wish me luck. Gonna try to get it working.

Good interesting video, thanks.

It seems you left one old capacitor in the circuit. Wondering why? It's the .22 seen here... @28:51

Dude, Brad! Uncle Doug is back! No Rusty though :(

As I said before when you demo and amp can you please also use a Humbucker also to show the tones you can get. You always use the shit kicking Single coil tone that I love. I have a strat and lespaul. We want to see both sides of the tone. God bless Merry Chrismas fellow musician.

Nicely done and interesting.... Question about serial numbers... why do companies make them so complicated? instead of things like "220342" why don't they simply do the year and week? in example: "1963-42" (42nd week of 1963).. i don't understand why the secrecy and confusion....

Great info here. I have a chance to go look at one of these tomorrow in Nashville. Any thing I should look out for besides the usual? I don't really know much about vintage amps so any info helps!

According to the tester docs it only measures ESR for caps that read 20nF or higher

Hey Brad what is tht thing you are testing the resistors? Capacitors? with? MTester?

Can you give me a list of the values of caps u used and where I can order them from

Did you say "death cap"?

How much does it hurt the value of a classic amp to change the covering and say put casters on other instead of rubber feet that was on it.handle has been replaced also.nothing on the chassis has been modded thou.

Awesome as always mang... Would an 80s Peavey classic 50(4x10) be worth repairing? It worked, then lent it to a friend and now it doesn't work. It always sounded great when it worked. Just wondering if its economically worth the repairs. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Brad, have you tried testing a cap in circuit with the Banggood tester? I ask because of the ESR function of the tester. I have an amp on the bench currently (Peavey JSX) that I suspect is in need of all new caps and probably OT...but If I can test in circuit, it may save me a bunch of time and let the costumer know the bad news.

Ahh, the weekend hairdo is back ! Lol

Hello, I have a fender frontman 65r guitar amp, I purchased it in about 2010, it has low hours of use on it, and today it did a pop, crackle kinda noise and now it's not working so good. So how can I get a hold of you, to talk about having it fixed? (or have you recommend some one to take it to?) Thanks

pink floyd in the background . welcome to the machine

maybe it`s pronounced " Koo play " like the guy that pronounces JC Penny as JC Penn Wah

I'm guessing that you find that there is sufficient flux in rosin core solder so you don't seem to use flux.

Hey, great work and very good playing! But, your lady is right - a hair brush applied would be good. But, then again you could have her look at pictures of Albert Einstein and claim genius eh? You're good in my books Brad.

brad i am down here in BRAZIL i plug my blackstar htclub 40 apm to 220 volts and the amp smoket up now i have no bass no tremble no mids the amp work but braeking up not clean souds loke is in overdrive i have no one wo can work on this amp can you help me please maby i can fix it it look at it the only to be seen was a condencer 2 450 volts looks loke its my have burt up bo not now man HELP ME alan ps love your vidios

Excessive use of moist and musty = FLAGGED!

I think its Pronouced Koooo-Play....ya, ya,.. WIth the Emphasis on the Schwah. And in Old English its that damn gadget. Have a good one.

I still care but ......Uncle Doug is back ..its not you, its me

Don't Sniff Musty Amps ! It could be deadly Mold ! Be careful .

Thats contact paper the one you peel and stick.

Stupid question.. but why the hell don't companies simply put the actual date on hardware instead of using date codes haha? Would sure make life easier wouldn't it? 🙄

just because something has the same spelling and is DIFFERENT does not mean it's not a homonym - we're talking about ENGLISH after all here :)

I guessed that was a 20-amp fuse when I saw the size of the element. That was atrocious.

7802nF is 7.802uF/mf

Wow, thats a paddlin....

OMG get RID of those old caps - ticking time bombs!! new ones are much better and much smaller

M

it's pronounce /ˈkəplɨt/, with a shwa, not like "cooplet"

__Tip: dont forget to discern/observe that your esr-meter sometime measures esr='K'ohms like fex at this videoes playtime 27m03s ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-VaUwQ5xUyco.html . (..myself didnt notice either, until one of your further measurmements on those caps) Thanks for interesting an joyable videoes mrGuitologist. br, from norway.

DON"T pull the Raytheon!! A guided missile will go haywire somewhere!!

Inhale the anthrax deeply...

dudettes don't watch this channell.... lol

Pronounced "Coop-let" or "Cup-let"??? I call them Craplets.

I'm sure you're familiar with Pope's couplet about couplets: "Blessed is he who expects DC leakage, for he shall never be disappointed."

I worked on those back in the 60's and 70's, as a Gibson warranty station. Those were used a lot, at the local music stores, for rental purposes. They weren't super reliable and I repaired many that were only a few years old (plus they were 1/2 the price to rent as a Fender amp). Not my workmanship - I went to NASA soldering school, back in the 60's, to work on the LEM Apollo mission communications packages. I like Mil Spec wraps on solder connections myself. PS I wouldn't be caught dead using a solder gun on ANY piece of electronic equipment. Give me a nice 60W Hexacon any day!Nowadays I have a 250W, 150W, 60W, 25W irons, a temperature controlled Weller soldering station and a Weller SMT soldering/component removal system. For checking caps, I use a digital Sencore capacitor/inductor analyzer. I use oscilloscopes all the time and my favorites are the Tektronix 465B/DM44 series, I have 4 of them! Service tech since 1963!

Nice job.i love the way those Gibsons sustain the big open chords. Also, I really have to thank you I cleaned up my amp and pedals using your techniques and they are dead nuts quiet. Thanks so much for the tips.

Finally someone using an ESR meter! :)

you did a really good job on that amp. it sounds great. plus , your playing is really good. especially towards the end.

Was nice to see you take some time with the old girl at the end of the video. Looks like you were feeling inspired. Great playing dude. Love from Canada :)

Hello, I have the basic knowledge to change components in an amplifier, if anybody could help me track down a problem I'm having with my Ibanez tbx65r amplifier, the clean channel cuts out to really quiet then pops back in, with verying ammounts of distortion, occasionally it sounds clean, I can't change the channel with the buttons on the amp only the pedal as well. It appears some solder points are bridged inside of the amplifier but I'm not sure if that would have been done on purpose.

I'm already naked in the middle of the street, thanks for giving me something to scream!

So I've been working on my Gibson Falcon off and on throughout the past year. Its sounds great, but i am trying to get rid of the white noise thats in the background just like in your video around the 40 minute mark. I've done all new electrolytics, touched up solder joints, replaced all of the carbon comp resistors around V1, changed preamp tubes and it is still there. The volume knob makes it louder and the tone knob changes its pitch but its still white noise. I've been watching your videos, and have you had any of these amps that are dead quiet when you turn up the volume? Not sure if I am just wasting my time trying to attain something that will never happen. Thanks!

Around 1980 my dad retired his Falcon & so it sat for about 20 years until I tried to use it at a practice. While adjusting the controls I felt a small tingle so back into retirement she went. I would like to use it again & wonder if you fix these & how would I go about setting that up? Not sure what tubes he might have changed but to my knowledge everything else would be original. Thanks

Don't smell musty shit. You probably just inhaled mold spores at 1:53. I don't want anything to happen to you. I care about you. Also, I'm drunk! WEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

I had a old Gibson 300 same vintage same knobs,the head was separate and stored in the back of the cabinet had two 12in Jensen speakers in the cabinet that thing weighed a ton When I got it the power capacitors were bad.. I was in high school in 1983 and took it to my electronics class and we change the capacitors for some even bigger ones.it played okay for me for the time that I had it then I traded it for a Harmony 12-string acoustic guitar.six months later the guy was using it on stage in it caught fire and burned to the ground

The schematic with the couplet can be found here: el34world.com/Forum/index.php?topic=25824.0

WHAT IN THE ACTUAL FUCK IS UP WITH THAT WIRING JOB?!?!!

Good playing man. You ain't kidding that amps got some sound ..I need to get some work done on a guitar and an amp possibly two. Thanks great video.

Where did you get that schematic? It's different than any other I've seen online and matches how mine is wired.

Couplet is the word to use the meaning is 2 pieces ond or to put 2 pieces together etc its a french word

A Weber 12a125-A sounds very nice in this amp, too.

Nice bit of work there bro is sounds cool. ATB