Gibson Amps are Back! Can They Compete With Fender? Gibson Falcon 5 Review and Demo 

The same people that would buy a Swart Atomiic Jr. like me.

Totally agree. Think I’ll stick with my Blues Junior

The thousands of home players who never gig.

@@markmcdonald5711 I would rather buy a swart than this.

It is built like crap. Looks pretty, sounds decent, but overpriced and built like shit. Gibson fanboys and brand snobs everywhere will snatch there up and ultimately be sorry. Mounting tubes horizontally directly into a circuit board, won't last.

Don't do it. It's poorly constructed crap in a pretty box.

The upside with the Falcon 5 is that it’s cathode biased and can also take a 6L6GC. Downside is no tremolo/vibrato.

The Fender is very similarly built, put a decent alnico 10" in it and it is a better buy. The Falcon 5 watt sounds great but a pain to service so the Fender wins cos it's very similar and much more budget friendly.

Over on this side of the planet €1860 for the F.D.R € 2100 for the falcon 20 I think Both are overpriced

I was about to comment, for half the prize you can get a blues junior, and from what I heard when you pair it with a les Paul it sounds amazing, I was expecting the prize to be around the same $800 give or take a few, but 1.5k, I agree with you, extremely overpriced.

@@leandroferrini641 an amp tech has something up about them on you tube .. they have PCB mounted valves.. I think that would turn a lot of people off 'em ..

I absolutely love my Fender Blues jr. $600 bucks😅

I too play a Les Paul special with P90s and I would have probably bought this 5 watt amp except it looks difficult to service as the small valves are PCB mounted which is a pain to work on I think the Fender 68 vibro-champ with an alnico 10" will be a better buy ? Great tone though.

@@giulioluzzardi7632 Don't buy it. It's crap. Poorly contracted inside that pretty box. Please do your homework.

And hopefully it will be built better than this crap amp. Good sounding, in a pretty box, built like shit.

These are pretty limited in what they can do for the money. Check out the Harmony 6 series amps made by Heritage (former Gibson worker-owned company in the Kalamazoo plant) in the USA. Seem like great all-tube amps with power scaling down to 0.1W (and 0W for silent practice) for much less money. That H620 looks like a sweet deal at $650 with a TMB tone stack, and foot switchable Boost, Tremolo, Loop & Reverb. At only 20W max with two 6L6 tubes, I assume it's "near class A" cathode-biased like a Vox AC. So, mostly even-order amp section harmonics. Should be sweet. Heck, you could replace the stock Jensen Falcon speaker with an AlNiCo P12Q (for smoother highs and better 4kHz+ chime) and still save a fortune over one of these overpriced Gibsons.

Sorry. The amp is crap. Looks and sounds great, but built like crap. Do some homework.

@@trevorwilkins1796 im rich i dont care

So your expected price was $500 and $800. Where are you finding brand new American made amps at that price especially with these features? I’m not criticizing foreign made gear by any means. Something being American made definitely doesn’t automatically make it good, but it does make more expensive.

@@charlesbolton8471 No - you went the wrong way - I was expecting a much steeper $2,500+ Since I mentioned the JB 59 Twin, I suggest that you look into it's pricing (American Made, hand-wired) to understand where I was coming from.

@@RocktCityTim I just misread your comment. I thought it said “under estimated ”, but clearly you said over estimated. Most people were criticizing the price just like they do with everything Gibson does. That JB Tweed Twin is one fine amp and the rarity of them will ensure that they not only maintain their value but will likely increase in value. I wish I could have gotten one. I love Tweed Fender amps real ones, Fender Reissues, and clones from other companies especially Victoria.

I was kind of thinking that honestly

They had a Falcon model amp in the 60s so I think the suits will fail.

I have 63 FALCON , gretsch aint got a falcon amp

How so? I don't know about TK, but I don't recall Gretsch stepping on anything proprietary of Gibson's.

Fantastic review fella’s !! I know I want one too !!

The Falcons are straight crap. Four tubes hidden inside, mounted horizontally straight into a circuit board. Made by Mesa Boogie, famous for problems when the boards go conductive, yeah, it sounds good enough, looks good on the outside, but the "vibe" is hand-wired boutique, but it's made like crap.

@@trevorwilkins1796 the more I watch amp reviews I've realised they are not full reviews .. most unfortunately only talk about the sound.. which obviously is what an amp is all about .. but they should as they say " look under the hood " before recommending it as a great amp ..

Never had one problem with any of my amps with board mounted tubes. It’s amazing how there are so many people online running around screaming “look inside” like their head is on fire. 🙄 Y’all sound like a broken record.

ahhhh yeah sorry to inform .....

These are hand wired why wouldn’t they be good?

@@charlesbolton8471 1) I have not been able to find a place where Gibson uses the term ‘hand wired’. 2) Hand wired is only as good as the circuit design, component selection, and skill of the operator doing the assembly.

⁠@@randallsmith7885 It is on the back of the amp (can be seen in pictures on Gibson’s website). I agree with your second point that it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s good, but considering who designed it I think it’s safe to say it is probably at least a good design using at least mediocre components. Conceivably it could be a great design using above average components. At least both models sound appealing to me in the videos I’ve seen so far. I also think it’s a fair price for American made amps with these particular features and if it is in fact hand wired that just adds to the value in my opinion. I can’t wait to play through one.

Apparently the valves are mounted on the PCB board ... ​@@charlesbolton8471

Good question!

yeah, a lil rediculous.

The Falcons are straight crap. Four tubes hidden inside, mounted horizontally straight into a circuit board. Made by Mesa Boogie, famous for problems when the boards go conductive, yeah, it sounds good enough, looks good on the outside, but the "vibe" is hand-wired boutique, but it's made like crap.

The Falcons are straight crap. Four tubes hidden inside, mounted horizontally straight into a circuit board. Made by Mesa Boogie, famous for problems when the boards go conductive, yeah, it sounds good enough, looks good on the outside, but the "vibe" is hand-wired boutique, but it's made like crap.

i'll buy you one, and give it to you for 2200 plus shipping american

Yes!

Buy a boogie

The Falcons are straight crap. Four tubes hidden inside, mounted horizontally straight into a circuit board. Made by Mesa Boogie, famous for problems when the boards go conductive, yeah, it sounds good enough, looks good on the outside, but the "vibe" is hand-wired boutique, but it's made like crap.

Probably because they know it's an overpriced piece of crap.

That guys a tool. 🙄

@@allend3127 Perhaps. Still doesn't make him wrong topically on influencers not giving the complete picture of the wares their promoting.

@allend3127 It makes sense corporate shills would call non shills tools. Otherwise people would actually be able to tell Gibson products just aren’t worth their prices.

Until Ceriatone and Wangs increase their prices, p2p amps aren’t going up in price. Those are too well built for their current price tags.

They won’t. They don’t care. These are the very definition of influencers that these company use for marketing. Yes there is money in it indirectly.

I think they are just recording a commerical. Obvously they will spend the least research time as possible, since their job is just to praise it anyways

The Falcons are straight crap. Four tubes hidden inside, mounted horizontally straight into a circuit board. Made by Mesa Boogie, famous for problems when the boards go conductive, yeah, it sounds good enough, looks good on the outside, but the "vibe" is hand-wired boutique, but it's made like crap.

The Falcons are straight crap. Four tubes hidden inside, mounted horizontally straight into a circuit board. Made by Mesa Boogie, famous for problems when the boards go conductive, yeah, it sounds good enough, looks good on the outside, but the "vibe" is hand-wired boutique, but it's made like crap.

The Falcons are straight crap. Four tubes hidden inside, mounted horizontally straight into a circuit board. Made by Mesa Boogie, famous for problems when the boards go conductive, yeah, it sounds good enough, looks good on the outside, but the "vibe" is hand-wired boutique, but it's made like crap.

@@trevorwilkins1796 Amen to that!

@@trevorwilkins1796 Really making the most out of that copy and paste there. If you’re going to run around screaming about this amp, at least be original, or put some creativity into it.

.@@allend3127 Here's something original and creative for you. This amp is not what it seems. Gibson continues to produce overpriced products for guitar (and now amp) snobs who care more about the logo than the actual performance of said product. I was recently in a well established music store, employed by musicians and luthiers with decades of experience, who concurred that the horizontal mounting of tubes directly to a circuit board is a recipe for disaster, and not longevity. Gibson fanboys, like yourself, just look at the pretty cabinet with the vintage vibe, and don't bother to check out the innards, and mislead a lot of people, who will waste their hard earned money that would be better spent on a Boss Katana, or even a used Peavey Bandit. You put yourself out there like you know what you're talking about, but you're blinded by the light of the Gibson logo. Hoodwinked. Bamboozled. I would love if it were cool, and worth the money, but it is overpriced, even if it was good quality for what it is, and poorly constructed. People who get all gaga over a cool, "boutique" looking amp, with out checking it out thoroughly, are doing a disservice to the community. Do you homework. Investigate a little further than the grill cloth. I could take that cloth from the Gibson and put it on a Katana and you would piss your pants over it. Do your due diligence. Stop disseminating bad information. There. Cogent enough for you? Understand now?

🙄

I agree. Sounds great. What would you recommend for the price point?

It's an old term in the amp world.

@@AlamoMusic I know, I'm 63, but a word best avoided now

These ain’t Mesa boogie amps by no stretch of the imagination. Be not fooled.

The Falcons are straight crap. Four tubes hidden inside, mounted horizontally straight into a circuit board. Made by Mesa Boogie, famous for problems when the boards go conductive, yeah, it sounds good enough, looks good on the outside, but the "vibe" is hand-wired boutique, but it's made like crap.

Not the hand wired ones.