“A just-right balance between pure, unadulterated vintage tube tone and modern conveniences”: Gibson Falcon 20 review

Gibson’s tube amps from the ’50s and ’60s used to be one of the best-kept secrets and bargains on the vintage amp market, although eventually players and collectors caught on and prices and demand went up.

One of the more coveted vintage Gibson amp models is the rare GA-19 RVT from 1961 with a top-facing control panel (like a ’50s tweed Fender amp) that was produced only that year before it got a new makeover that included a revised circuit and modernized appearance with front-facing panel as part of the new Crestline series. 

The ’61 GA-19 RVT is the inspiration for Gibson’s new Falcon 20 combo, the company’s first Gibson-branded amp produced with Randall Smith and the Mesa/Boogie design team.

Prime examples of early ’60s Gibson amps are aggressive little beasts (Ted Nugent often used a similar Gibson-made Bell 15RV that shares similar DNA to the GA-19 RVT in the studio for Cat Scratch Fever and other albums), and new Falcon 20 carries on that tradition. 

It’s a simple, vintage-style amp with a 12-watt Class A circuit that employs a pair of 6V6 power tubes and four 12AX7 tubes for the preamp, reverb, phase inverter, etc. and features a single 12-inch Jensen Jet series speaker in an open-back cabinet. The 6V6 tubes can be swapped to 6L6s without bias readjustment to boost the output to 15 watts and increase the amp’s clean headroom.

The new Falcon 20 combines classic simplicity with a handful of modern upgrades that expand its versatility and applications. Like the original GA-19 RVT it offers very sweet-sounding reverb and tremolo effects with a dry/wet blend control for reverb and depth and frequency controls for tremolo.

New additions include a power select switch with full, half and low power settings, footswitch control of reverb and tremolo on/off (the footswitch is included), 8/4/4-ohm speaker output jacks and a monitor output jack for sending a line-out signal of the preamp and power amp output to an external power amp or an audio interface for direct recording or re-amping. 

With only a single volume and tone control for shaping your guitar’s sound, the Falcon 20 is truly vintage-voiced, but that’s perfect for players who want big, fat tones that preserve their instruments’ natural character and dynamics. Want to switch between clean and overdrive? Use the guitar’s volume knob.

With humbuckers the amp delivers glorious fuzz-like sag on the bass notes, with the amp’s volume cranked up past 3 o’clock. The overdrive at levels just below that delivers crunchy chords and sweet singing sustain, and the clean tones further down ooze tantalizing sparkle and spank.

Specs

• PRICE: $1,799 / £1,999
• TYPE: Tube amp combo
• POWER: 12-watts (switchable to approx 5W, 1W with stock 6V6 tubes)
• CONTROLS: Volume, Tone, Reverb, Tremolo Depth and Frequency, 3-way power selector (full, half, low)
• TUBES: 4x 12AX7 preamp tubes, 2x 6V6 (can be switched our for 6L6s), power tubes
• SPEAKER OUTPUTS: 1x 8 Ohm, 2x 4 Ohm
• SPEAKER: 8 Ohm Jensen Blackbird ALNICO 40 
• CABINET: Marine grade Baltic birch, Cream Bronco Vinyl with Oxblood Grille
• WEIGHT: 31 lbs
• CONTACT: Gibson