When I worked for EMG back in the 80's, every single pickup was bench tested through a Gorilla TC35 hooked to an oscilloscope. They had a number of these testing stations, all with this same Gorilla amp. I asked Rob Turner about it one time and he told me the amps as cheap as they were, actually had a very true signal that worked well for testing purposes.
Funny you say that because I still own my first Gorilla amp that my dad also purchased with a Dean that had stock EMG selects. It is a perfect example of pure tone.
I found a gorilla TC35 at a pawn shop for $10. I cleaned up the pots, as they were very scratchy with some dead spot. I then recovered it with some faux, blue, snake-skin so, now it looks cool and sounds just fine for what it is. What makes these little amps cool is that they have a distortion knob so you can get distortion at low volume. You don't need to crank it up so it's great for bedroom playing.
Yess i use this one for all my distortion and metal licks and is great for my Personal use and I've had mine for 4 years and its not given me any problems and I got it from a pawn shop.
Eagles of Death Metal recorded their entire debut album on one of these and that’s a fantastic album. Great drive to fuzz like tones they got out of them. People just get stuck up on everything has to sound like a fender reverb and are afraid to get something cool and different.
I started out on a Gorilla TC-15 but mine was a 15 watt or thereabouts from mid-80's and I have fond memories of that little amp practicing scales, chords & hearing my neighbor lady in the next door apartment bang on the wall to "Turn that damn thing down!"
Hi Johan, I love the way you defend the honor of good solid state amps! Yeah, and your playing too ... You made your point very well when you hooked the good old Marshall Lead 12 Head to a 4 x 12 Greenback cabinet. I think your mission would be incomplete, If you didn't do the same thing for the Gorilla. I converted my Gorilla to a mini head and hooked it to a decent budget Greenback clone (Jensen C12Q, 8 Ohms) - and ... Yeah! One year ago Richard Myers in this thread pointed out that the circuitry of the Gorilla's preamp was identical to the one of the Marshall Lead 12 (he wrote "mini stack", but he can't possibly mean these sonic mosquitos - can he?) - and, yeah, he might be right. And one more funny thing - the "tube stack" switch (I used to think " how ridiculous! calling this device 'tube stack' ... ) really kicks! Sounds like a ... tube stack! Still responding to the three band eq section before (!) the preamp .. So please - give the Gorilla and his tube stack switch a chance with the same old 4 x 12 Greenback cabinet you used for the Lead 12 ... I'm sure you will enjoy it! And so would I ... My regards, keep on rockin' ...
Everything sounds better when someone skilled is playing. That said, I've noticed a lot of these "terrible" practice amps actually have great tone for certain riffs, they just take more time to tweak. Thanks for another great video and another amp to consider buying!
Same reason Peavey amps (before the 5150) and Crate struggle with their reputation. People owned them when they were just learning to play and definitely didn't know how to set the controls for a good sound, so they associate the amp with sounding awful . Never mind that they'd have sounded awful plugging into their favorite star's touring rig at the time, especially if allowed to adjust the controls.
@@kevinjokipii4260Yeah. Beginners dial out tone when it's unforgiving. I thought that the gorilla amp sounded good back in the day. It was just regarded as a budget amp with a small speaker.
IIRC, the preamp circuit is the same as the Marshall mini stack available around the same time. The only difference is the power amps. The tc35s power amp is a HiFi IC chip where the mini stack was based on discrete transistors. The gain knob is actually a filter that boosts the treble when you increase gain. If that wasn't bright enough, the 8 inch has whizzer cone. I've spent a lot of time with this amp as it was my first one. It's also the amp I learned to mod on😉
Ahhhhhh! My first amp was a Gorilla Tube Stack. $99 in 1984. I knew a little about stomp boxes back then and bought a combo pedal that was Distortion and delay. It was a killer rig. Helped me learn all the 80s metal I could hear. I play by ear. Loved it.
I'd heard he used an old Peavey with 8-inch speaker. Not saying I'm correct, but my source was a music store that was selling said Peavey for $200 for that very reason.
One of the big secrets of the 80s was there where a lot of musicians that secretly used these miced up as their guitar sound on albums. I remember doing stage hand at one touring show in the 90s (I *think* it was Meatload) and backstage someone had miced up a gorilla amp. Apparently the guitarist liked the tone for one of his songs so the secretly would mic one up backstage, and the audience just thought it was the giant backrow of Marshalls they where listening to lol.
Like my dad used to say when dropping a moose from 200 yards with a beat up old military surplus Lee-Enfield .303, "It ain't the gun son. It's the gunner." Thanks again Johan. 👍
Hunting ain’t bad how do you think we got meat original and I think it’s a lot better better to live your live free to roam then be hunted ,than to be stuck on some of the disgusted corporate farms that are disease filled just my preference 😁
Hi, Johan! I remember Gorrila was the work amp of my teacher, in 92, when I turned myself to classic guitar. I remember it as kind of the normal combo. For classics the only matter is "Sounds OK". So, I dont remember somebody hate them. They was very rare. Realy nostalgy amp! C.U! 1000 likes! Zigfrid
This guy seems like a really nice fellow. But he is absolutely one of the roughest guitar players I have ever heard in my life! And believe me I have heard a lot of players.
Can we have a half hour of just you riffing out all by yourself playing whatever ? Maybe through the vintage original fender bass man ? I would listen to that all day
I had one of those amps for a while ,got it at a garage sale, it sounded Ok to me. I gave it to a friend's daughter that was learning how to play. I think it got a bad rap from just that. Some learning players buy a new piece of Gear and it's supposed to transform them into the next guitar God. It all in the Hands and what you feel inside.
I think you've successfully proven that the weakest link in the chain of anyone's rig, is them. Honestly, every single amp you play sounds nearly identical, nearly every time. Some variation sure, but overall, mostly sounds the same. I'm certain that in less capable hands, like my own, one could make a case for it being a shit amp;-)
@@DMSProduktions I wasn't tossing shade at the Gorilla! I didn't know you had such a close relationship to the Gorilla brand 🤣 What I was saying is Johan is the key factor in all this tonal goodness. Look at some of his older videos where he takes a freebie starter amp and makes it sound good. Uncanny ability....it's the Johan Way 😎🎸👍
His playing is consistent and so is his mic'ing technique, I believe. He uses a close mic and a room mic, so all in all, he usually captures the most frequency range he possibly can from the amp. He made a video on that technique which is very good
This was my first amp, like so many from my generation. I don’t remember what happened to it, but I kinda wish I still had it. I had forgotten about these altogether, until I saw that Aion Effects has a PCB project called the Positron, which is the preamp from the Gorilla TC-35 adapted into a pedal. I’m strongly considering building one.
Nice. I have gobs of vintage Marshalls, and a Kemper - but I still have my very first guitar amp, a Gorilla GC-25. I think I got it in 1985. I can remember Ed from Maschinot Music in Newport KY demoing it for me, using a green Kramer Focus with a shiny chrome Floyd. He cranked the gain, and I was sold, and then he turned on the Tube Stack switch and played the intro to Crazy Train, and did a dive bomb. 15. Year. Old. Mind. Blown. Funny thing, it's the amp in my most watched YT video. LOL Thanks Brad Paisley!
I have a TC-35 that I bought in the late 1980s and is still like new. It's still all I use. People throw hate on it because people tend to be herd animals.
My first (non cardboard) amp Johan! The 'cut' tones were the first to be offered back at a time where Peavey owned the lower end market. If you were to compare this to a small $69 of the Peavey of the day (the bandit was a different league at $399 I think..), you'll see why Gorilla was the leader for 10 year old bedroom metal players. Thanks as always for your great channel!
Well done Johan! Great to give some love to budget gear! We Americans can be snobbish and Brand haters when it comes to status and Pride! Thanks for sharing brother!
@@guitarocd9984 I'm glad you're Not! My comment was about how we Americans Can be influenced by ads and hype that tell us the more expensive one is better!(I'm American and Union employed and buy American!) Thanks for sharing brother!
No hate for Gorilla here. I have a GG-110 combo: 12" 80 watt speaker, footswitchable Tube Stack lead channel & spring reverb, Lo/Hi inputs, line out, preamp out, power amp in, & a chunky power transformer that looks like it belongs on a tube amp. From clean to mean, I can get plenty of good tones out of it. Also gets pretty damn LOUD. Not the world's Best amp, but far from the Worst. Plus, it says 'Nothing Screams Like a Gorilla' on the back of the speaker, so it must be badass !!!
It might be a cheap practice amp, but I think the tube stack channel sounds great. A Boss SD1 tops it off and gives you a thin, raspy overdrive that you cannot find anywhere else. These are so underrated, I wish they took pedals better. I've blown up three GG-25's because I was hot-headed with my pedals and pushed the amps way too far into overdrive. But in all fairness, they sounded incredible before they blew up.
Thank you Johan! Wow - this brings back memories as my first amp was a Gorilla. Forget the model, but I think it had an 8 inch speaker and a rocker switch labeled "Tube Stack", which gave the amp a bit more over drive. Wasn't a bad amp as I was just starting out on guitar. Funny, I can't remember what happened to it. It didn't break at all, I just moved towards bigger amps so I could play (i.e., be heard) in a band. Cheers!
Yea these rip I owned a blues Jr black face and the tweed with the jenson speaker and I found my self playing the gorilla that I bought with a Strat copy bundle used of Craigslist the tone was killer my uncle came over (blues guitarist in a couple bands) playing for 30 years at least couldn’t believe the tone. These are killer amps that’s why I searched to see if anyone else knew as they have a bad rap
Spanky McCallister I have the red one too. I just got my guitar today but I don’t know how to make it sound ROCKY. Yknow? Like I don’t know what settings, if you do
Great work Johan I liked this. I was surprised at the clean sounds you got from this amp they were far better than I expected them to be. I have always said this, a good musician can make anything sound good which is the case here. I think you have to look at something as whether it fills a need and I think this does. This is a cool little practice amp and it has good cleans and mildly driven overtones were pretty good as well. This would not be your main gigging amp but I think there are some sounds here that you could record with. Thanks for the look at these amps I have never played one.
I have a 70 watt GG version and used the 70 watt GK or GB "bass/keyboard' version for bass guitar with an external 15" cabinet and kept up with a 100 watt half stack in band room at high volume levels.
These were great! They were what they were! To my mind, they weren't even usually thought of as recording/studio amps, but just practice/bedroom amps. At the time, they were great for that purpose, and they were cheap. Nice video, thank you.
Hope we'll see more videos with that Amos V! I ordered one after your video the other day (and reading the positive comments). Can't wait to try it!! I'm glad I got my Lead 12 (5005), otherwise I think the ebay prices on these are about to go up and I'd probably want one :). Lead 12 combo vs Gorilla vs Peavey video coming??
I recently picked up a GG-25 Tube Stack. It soulds great, but I'm gonna put a Peavy Blue Marvel speaker in it and it will be off the chain. Yep, these deserve some love. Many older rockers first amps.
I still have my GB-30 Bass 50 watt. Date sticker marked 1986. After the theft of my 69 Gibson SG custom shop and a wood Marshall amp, I picked up the Gorilla used from a friend. I also bought a Washburn Blue Crackle G-5V new. I still play them both. Until recently I was using a DOD Distortion FX55 with a DOD Stereo Flanger FX75-B. Sothern Rock and Hair Band sounds great even at lower volume. After the FX55 fried I replaced it with a Boss Distortion DS-1 and still looking for that sweet spot with it. I have to say the amp has taken alot over the years and still sounds great. I wish I could afford a Marshall again but it is what it is.
I used a gorilla bass amp for a while when my crate was down And it actually had a good midrange sound and i was pumping rackmount effects through it..
Oh great. Another johan video rubbing it in that i didnt need to upgrade my old gorilla/peavey/lead12 years ago and that all that time spent at guitar center would've been better used in the woodshed.
Because people are brainwashed into believing Tube Amps are the only way to go..Alot of us dont fall for that Bunk anymore..solid state Amp technology especially the past 30 years has become incredible the Marshall MG 100 Watt series Amps are a perfect example..No such thing anymore you need a Tube Amp to achieve hard rocking to sweet warm tones..the solid State does it all and some..great demo Johan
Not really. I prefer tube amps, because i've owned solid state amps. Once i got a proper tube amp it was like, goodbye to all that. I hate solid state for leads. For cleans it can be good, if you need that sound. For riffs it can be great, but i still prefer tubes generally across the board. They aren't the same thing and both have their uses, but if i were stuck with only a ss amp, i would just be looking for a tube amp ever single time. Every time i ever tried an axe fx, or vst or any old boss cosm crap, i just go back to a tube pre amp.
Better or superior is in the eye of the beholder. I prefer tubes. SS sucks in comparison. There is a very noticeable difference in feel and nuance between SS and tube amps. Tube amps have a bloom, a sag, a compression and a push pull feel, bends can "howl" as i call it, where the mid range sort of modulates, i love that, and those are the types of things i want. They aren't the same thing at all. As far as digital, even today, while pretty damn good, even usable, still not better than a real tube amp. I had an Axe Fx Ultra when they came out, i sold it and kept my modded tube pre, even though the Axe was good and all, my 25 year old modded Mp1 through a Freyette 50/2/50 absolutely destroyed it no contest, and the rest of my band was also in full agreement on that.
@@chickenbeek hmmm i think you should do more investigating before you say anything Solid State Sucks? Thats not what im hearing from other guitarist thats for sure..i use to think Tube Amp were the only way until 2009 when i played through a Marshall MG 100FX 2X12 stock Celestion Speakers..
I mean. I been playing for 33 years. There might be some SS amp out there i would say, yeah that;s nice. But i already know what i like. My tone search is essentially over and has been for a long time. If there is a choice, i chose tubes.
This was my 1st amp in 1989, and I thought it was the coolest thing on the planet. It sounded like crap in 89, but I also sounded like crap in 89. Would love to try one today!
I took music lessons for 6 years and there was a Gorilla amp for sale sitting in the corner of the music shop the entire time. I wonder if it's still there. Great video as always.
Great nostalgic stuff going on here! My first puppy (gg-20r actually) Take a look inside. Bet this one has the same IC as my gg-20r. Than take a little time to look it up on ebay - you’ll be pleasantly surprised;)). These IC are considered the holy grail among vintage tube screamer enthusiasts/collectors, claiming to give you ‘that’ TS tone. Since this is a late 80s amp, the IC is the golden choice. I stumbled upon prices rising over 200(!) bucks...
I bought a Gorilla bass practice amp new in the mid-80s, and still use it. It’s just as good as any other amp it’s size. It sounds great as far as I’m concerned, and it’s thirty five years old! I also have an Ampeg BA210v2.
Johan!! Long time subscriber, love what ya do!! I picked up a 25c and tried it with a 12' celestian 70 modern and it sounded great!... Then a 4x12 with mg crap, and it sounded amazing!!!... The 25 watt version, coincidentally, is also the only version I can find so far that has a line out... And into a valvestate Marshall into 2 2x12 cabs on clean (with the combo loading the 4x12's), it is Jimmy page "since I been loving you" tone!!! 😃😃😃
In 1984 a poor kid could get one so I did. I got mine in a package deal for a used Electra LP copy, in a real gibson case, with a Jim Dunlop starter pack that had a strap, a cord, a string winder, and some crappy pics all for $125. Easy for snoots to look back on it and call it a crap amp, but in the 80's everything cheap was crap. I still have a Gorilla that I mess with every now and then.
Who has "hate" for these glorious amps? Back in the mid 80s there was ABSOLUTELY nothing that came close for "price/performance". Nowadays, sure, there are dozens of very decent small amps at the bargain end of the market, but back then there was precisely nothing. The Gorilla was a total game changer.
Funny but this is such a flash back for me. I started on steel string acoustic then got my first electric and amp. Its was this amp and an Ibanez flying Vee in 84’ lol
Haha... Remember back in the day when you borrowed a rehearsal space from someone, and you walked in and realized that the guitar rig was a Gorilla on a chair... Always made you wanna cry :D Especially if you found a Neville strat plugged into it.
this was my first amp and i have gone on to have several high end amps in my life but i miss the distortion on that old gorilla. Korn recorded life's peachy with a gorilla practice amp mic'd up in the studio.
My wife's parents dropped off a GB30 at my place the other day. They saw it at a garage sale for 50 cents and got it for me. They figured it was worth the 50 cents. I googled the amp and I too saw the hate Johan was talking about. I need to see how it sounds with a tubescreamer upfront before I decide if it is worth keeping or not.
These were the first guitar amps I ever saw as a young teenager. I remember how “cool” I thought they were not even knowing how to appreciate tone yet. Now as I take a listen 40+ years later I realize they really sounded pretty good for the money.
I bought a GG20 around the year 2000,i dont know how many had it before me but it sounds very beautiful.Its major problem was the tube stack potentiometer with on/off switch was scratching and cut off in some settings but the pot opened and cleaned up and after that goes excellent.If something has quality and very low price the merchants dont want to sell it because leaves no good profit.Also no one famous guitar player will promote ever a cheap no name amplifier no matter if it still sounds very good.
Had a GG80, my first amp. I loved that thing. It was loud as f*** compared to my buddies' more expensive fender amps. The reverb was amazing. But I understand it has a very rough sound, not for everybody. At one point, I started playing bass on it. It lasted quite a bit but then something went wrong and it broke. Not the cone though. Anyway, it's still in my parents attic. I might have it fixed if it's worth it.
Sounds decent to me, and I say that as the proud owner of several tweed amps from the 50s. I suspect the dislike many express has to do with the misleading number in the name. I have a GG-25. It uses the same TDA2030 power amp chip used in so many other practice amps. And while the model name hints that it has 25 head-splitting watts of output power, given the supply voltage and current, it is doubtful the circuit provides even as much as 10W of power. The rest of the circuit is "boilerplate" as some would say. I don't know if the decent sound I hear in your video is largely the responsibility of the guitar and its pickups, the speaker, or the mic used to record it. But there is certainly nothing distinctive about the circuit of the amp itself. I am trying to locate a schematic for the GG-25 to repair and improve it. Haven't found one yet, but it was suggested to try Pignose, who apparently bought up the Gorilla assets.
Fuck the haters. I loved my Gorilla amp when I got mine in the 80’s. It was my first amp I got when I first started playing and I have fond memories of all the practice time I put in through that amp.
I had one of these as my first amp some 30 years ago. I don't know if there was something wrong with it... But man it was LOUD for the size. I have lately been looking for one similar, I already found my first guitar again, but still missing the amp
That was the first amp I bought back in about '89! It was great for what it was, and inexpensive. Everything changed the first time I played a classic Marshall tube amp. No looking back.
We all need the “Boss Johan Segeborn Tone Pedal “ for our amps. 😁🔈🔥🎵 Let’s really do the “ tone is in your hands “ argument and get 4 other guitarists along with Johan to play through this lousy amp. I’m learning that quality equipment doesn’t hold you back like bargain basement/ garage sale junk does. The ability to utilize the tone, harmonics, the grunt, the bark, and sustain of good pickups, amp gain structure, and speaker all help you play what you hear and feel.
Thanks for the great demo - it sounded awesome compared to it's rather bad reputation. I wonder what your riffs may sound like through my grandpa's old Sokol radio 😂 Can't wait to listen to your 2nd album in its entirety 🤘
There was a massive wave of these sold late 70s early 80s in US, they were basically sold to anyone buying a beginner guitar and they sold a lot and I'm sure some were thrown in as packages. At the time, there were already so many other better sounding amps that were just a bit more expensive at your fingertips there was no need to get stuck with a gorilla unless you were like year one guitar player and didn't give a crap. I don't think they were horrible, they did their job.
I just bought the GG-20 (1985) from a pawn shop.. looks almost new, probably packed up for years in someone's room, too.. I can return it, I think I'll keep..
It was.my.first bass amp! I played it until blew the speaker then ra the head into a 2x10 until I ugraded . Ive picked up a few in the 40$ range this year. Mostly for nostalgia..They needed deoxit on the pots. I swapped one speaker for a 40$ jensen. Sounds pretty ok to me . Honestly I think.they a buit as good a peavey. I couldnt ger the fromt grill apart. Its glued as well as screwed together
Give me 3 minutes, a dash of verb from a pedal, and my Telly. I'll dial that amp in. Just like this guy demonstrated. A good guitarist will make it happen. Funny thing though, if one were to play that demo as he just did, and told everyone it was a vintage tweed champ, people would be saying it is a perfect sound. Too many folks hear with their eyes and wallets.
Those tones sound pretty good. I'll never know if either of the two Gorilla amps I had could sound like that because neither one lasted longer than two days--the first one stopped working after only playing through it for about two hours. The price was right, I think they went for about $50 in the mid-late 1980s, but the quality was nonexistent.
This was my first amp, got it given to me by a family friend played the shit out of it. Only thing was once in a while I would get shocked through the guitar when I touched the strings.. got it good a couple times..
When I worked for EMG back in the 80's, every single pickup was bench tested through a Gorilla TC35 hooked to an oscilloscope. They had a number of these testing stations, all with this same Gorilla amp. I asked Rob Turner about it one time and he told me the amps as cheap as they were, actually had a very true signal that worked well for testing purposes.
Hmmm. interesting !
Funny you say that because I still own my first Gorilla amp that my dad also purchased with a Dean that had stock EMG selects. It is a perfect example of pure tone.
Ya don’t say? Interesting.
You always test your song's mix on the lowest common denominator system too.
A strong argument for the tone-is-in-the-fingers claim.
I found a gorilla TC35 at a pawn shop for $10. I cleaned up the pots, as they were very scratchy with some dead spot. I then recovered it with some faux, blue, snake-skin so, now it looks cool and sounds just fine for what it is. What makes these little amps cool is that they have a distortion knob so you can get distortion at low volume. You don't need to crank it up so it's great for bedroom playing.
Yess i use this one for all my distortion and metal licks and is great for my Personal use and I've had mine for 4 years and its not given me any problems and I got it from a pawn shop.
I just one at Goodwill for $20. I plan to use it on vacations.
I got mine for $5 because well the pots need love but it's playable just a struggle to make the pots all happy 😂
I love these amps :)
In the music scene in Miami a lot of noise/noise rock artists use them as a preamp and get a lot gnarly sounds outta them
Eagles of Death Metal recorded their entire debut album on one of these and that’s a fantastic album. Great drive to fuzz like tones they got out of them. People just get stuck up on everything has to sound like a fender reverb and are afraid to get something cool and different.
I started out on a Gorilla TC-15 but mine was a 15 watt or thereabouts from mid-80's and I have fond memories of that little amp practicing scales, chords & hearing my neighbor lady in the next door apartment bang on the wall to "Turn that damn thing down!"
My exact memory of Gorilla amp and neighbour lady..ah. The 80s..
I think we're all waiting not only for the album but for the JS hybrid amp and signature guitar!
Hi Johan,
I love the way you defend the honor of good solid state amps! Yeah, and your playing too ...
You made your point very well when you hooked the good old Marshall Lead 12 Head to a 4 x 12 Greenback cabinet. I think your mission would be incomplete, If you didn't do the same thing for the Gorilla.
I converted my Gorilla to a mini head and hooked it to a decent budget Greenback clone (Jensen C12Q, 8 Ohms) - and ... Yeah! One year ago Richard Myers in this thread pointed out that the circuitry of the Gorilla's preamp was identical to the one of the Marshall Lead 12 (he wrote "mini stack", but he can't possibly mean these sonic mosquitos - can he?) - and, yeah, he might be right. And one more funny thing - the "tube stack" switch (I used to think " how ridiculous! calling this device 'tube stack' ... ) really kicks! Sounds like a ... tube stack! Still responding to the three band eq section before (!) the preamp .. So please - give the Gorilla and his tube stack switch a chance with the same old 4 x 12 Greenback cabinet you used for the Lead 12 ... I'm sure you will enjoy it! And so would I ...
My regards, keep on rockin' ...
Ah, the Gorilla. My first amp ever. Many o Slayer and Judas Priest riffs learned upon that in the mid 80's. \m/\m/
EXACTLY what I remember about these amps, great to see some 80's metal heads still around. \m/ \m/ \m/
Bro me too I loved my amp
Do another video running it through a vintage Celestion cab!!!
I agree. Often, those amps WERE let down by the crappy speaker!
@@DMSProduktions The weakest link especially with Line 6 Spiders before V Mark 2 where you can't turn the tweeter off
@@junkawakami3193 Ok!
My first amp was a Gorilla GG-20. I loved the tone and breakup of that little beast!
Everything sounds better when someone skilled is playing. That said, I've noticed a lot of these "terrible" practice amps actually have great tone for certain riffs, they just take more time to tweak. Thanks for another great video and another amp to consider buying!
They can sound good. But these were encountered by a generation of players who hadn’t gotten good yet.
Yup just like most of those goth rockers who play line 6 spyder amps back in early 2000s who havent gotten better in 2020 lol
Same reason Peavey amps (before the 5150) and Crate struggle with their reputation. People owned them when they were just learning to play and definitely didn't know how to set the controls for a good sound, so they associate the amp with sounding awful . Never mind that they'd have sounded awful plugging into their favorite star's touring rig at the time, especially if allowed to adjust the controls.
@@kevinjokipii4260 Wish I still had my Peavy Bandit 65.
@@Hunters_Laptop I’ve been trying to think of the name of that Peavy model. Thanks!
@@kevinjokipii4260Yeah. Beginners dial out tone when it's unforgiving. I thought that the gorilla amp sounded good back in the day. It was just regarded as a budget amp with a small speaker.
IIRC, the preamp circuit is the same as the Marshall mini stack available around the same time. The only difference is the power amps. The tc35s power amp is a HiFi IC chip where the mini stack was based on discrete transistors. The gain knob is actually a filter that boosts the treble when you increase gain. If that wasn't bright enough, the 8 inch has whizzer cone. I've spent a lot of time with this amp as it was my first one. It's also the amp I learned to mod on😉
Richard Myers thanks for the additional insight!!! I'm gonna buy one this week now. Craigslist is flooded with them
@@thetremonts335 Be prepared. It has a lot of highs.
@@thetremonts335 watch them quadruple in price on Reverb.com , that would be funny.
Whizzer cone? Like a coaxial?
Ahhhhhh! My first amp was a Gorilla Tube Stack. $99 in 1984. I knew a little about stomp boxes back then and bought a combo pedal that was Distortion and delay. It was a killer rig. Helped me learn all the 80s metal I could hear. I play by ear. Loved it.
I had one of these amps in the late 1980s! I remember it wasn't very expensive and I loved the dirty sound! Keep up the great work, Johan! \m/
I had one in mid 80s great little beginner amp
Bought mine in 84’. They had great distortion for such a tiny cheap amp.
I read that this is Josh Homme's (Queens of the stone age) favorite guitar amp.
It was a peavey decade.
ruclips.net/video/TFLP4-5lIhQ/видео.html
I'd heard he used an old Peavey with 8-inch speaker. Not saying I'm correct, but my source was a music store that was selling said Peavey for $200 for that very reason.
@tjborekvideo Yes, he also used a Peavy Decade, which is the amp you're talking about. Cheers
One of the big secrets of the 80s was there where a lot of musicians that secretly used these miced up as their guitar sound on albums. I remember doing stage hand at one touring show in the 90s (I *think* it was Meatload) and backstage someone had miced up a gorilla amp. Apparently the guitarist liked the tone for one of his songs so the secretly would mic one up backstage, and the audience just thought it was the giant backrow of Marshalls they where listening to lol.
Like my dad used to say when dropping a moose from 200 yards with a beat up old military surplus Lee-Enfield .303, "It ain't the gun son. It's the gunner."
Thanks again Johan. 👍
@dusthaze TRIGGERED
@dusthaze lol
Hunting ain’t bad how do you think we got meat original and I think it’s a lot better better to live your live free to roam then be hunted ,than to be stuck on some of the disgusted corporate farms that are disease filled just my preference 😁
We need Ted Nugent here he'll straighten this out.
Why is eveyone getting butt-hurt over the comment? I think its absolutely appropriate....
Thats amazing. You get killer tone out of everything!!
there is a secret to it - he cranks everything up to 11! anything will sound better cranked especially in a big open room
Hi, Johan!
I remember Gorrila was the work amp of my teacher, in 92, when I turned myself to classic guitar. I remember it as kind of the normal combo. For classics the only matter is "Sounds OK". So, I dont remember somebody hate them. They was very rare. Realy nostalgy amp! C.U! 1000 likes!
Zigfrid
This guy seems like a really nice fellow. But he is absolutely one of the roughest guitar players I have ever heard in my life! And believe me I have heard a lot of players.
Can we have a half hour of just you riffing out all by yourself playing whatever ? Maybe through the vintage original fender bass man ? I would listen to that all day
I had one of those amps for a while ,got it at a garage sale, it sounded
Ok to me. I gave it to a friend's daughter that was learning how to play.
I think it got a bad rap from just that. Some learning players buy a new piece of
Gear and it's supposed to transform them into the next guitar God. It all in the
Hands and what you feel inside.
I had this amp- the distortion sounded very artificial, and the lack of reverb made it sound like an AM radio. It was awful.
I think you've successfully proven that the weakest link in the chain of anyone's rig, is them. Honestly, every single amp you play sounds nearly identical, nearly every time. Some variation sure, but overall, mostly sounds the same. I'm certain that in less capable hands, like my own, one could make a case for it being a shit amp;-)
WTF you on about. Gorillas were GREAT amps! (Still are!)
@@DMSProduktions I wasn't tossing shade at the Gorilla! I didn't know you had such a close relationship to the Gorilla brand 🤣 What I was saying is Johan is the key factor in all this tonal goodness. Look at some of his older videos where he takes a freebie starter amp and makes it sound good. Uncanny ability....it's the Johan Way 😎🎸👍
You can throw trees???
His playing is consistent and so is his mic'ing technique, I believe. He uses a close mic and a room mic, so all in all, he usually captures the most frequency range he possibly can from the amp. He made a video on that technique which is very good
Yes!
This was my first amp, like so many from my generation. I don’t remember what happened to it, but I kinda wish I still had it. I had forgotten about these altogether, until I saw that Aion Effects has a PCB project called the Positron, which is the preamp from the Gorilla TC-35 adapted into a pedal. I’m strongly considering building one.
My very first amp too. Back in ‘86. I’ll never know what happened to it but it was loud enough to annoy my dad hahaha
I remember those as a teen, never played one. damn good sound ! I'll have to keep an eye out - thanks
Nice. I have gobs of vintage Marshalls, and a Kemper - but I still have my very first guitar amp, a Gorilla GC-25. I think I got it in 1985. I can remember Ed from Maschinot Music in Newport KY demoing it for me, using a green Kramer Focus with a shiny chrome Floyd. He cranked the gain, and I was sold, and then he turned on the Tube Stack switch and played the intro to Crazy Train, and did a dive bomb. 15. Year. Old. Mind. Blown. Funny thing, it's the amp in my most watched YT video. LOL Thanks Brad Paisley!
I have a TC-35 that I bought in the late 1980s and is still like new. It's still all I use. People throw hate on it because people tend to be herd animals.
My first (non cardboard) amp Johan! The 'cut' tones were the first to be offered back at a time where Peavey owned the lower end market. If you were to compare this to a small $69 of the Peavey of the day (the bandit was a different league at $399 I think..), you'll see why Gorilla was the leader for 10 year old bedroom metal players. Thanks as always for your great channel!
Well done Johan! Great to give some love to budget gear! We Americans can be snobbish and Brand haters when it comes to status and Pride! Thanks for sharing brother!
I am American I'm not a snob. What's that all about.
@@guitarocd9984 I'm glad you're Not! My comment was about how we Americans Can be influenced by ads and hype that tell us the more expensive one is better!(I'm American and Union employed and buy American!) Thanks for sharing brother!
everyone can... that's a generalization that can be accurately made about every nationality in the world
Sounds better than a line 6 I have one away
No hate for Gorilla here. I have a GG-110 combo: 12" 80 watt speaker, footswitchable Tube Stack lead channel & spring reverb, Lo/Hi inputs, line out, preamp out, power amp in, & a chunky power transformer that looks like it belongs on a tube amp. From clean to mean, I can get plenty of good tones out of it. Also gets pretty damn LOUD. Not the world's Best amp, but far from the Worst. Plus, it says 'Nothing Screams Like a Gorilla' on the back of the speaker, so it must be badass !!!
An electric mistress and a cheap old analog DoD delay pedal worked great on those little amps. Instant Himmy Jendrix.
It might be a cheap practice amp, but I think the tube stack channel sounds great. A Boss SD1 tops it off and gives you a thin, raspy overdrive that you cannot find anywhere else. These are so underrated, I wish they took pedals better. I've blown up three GG-25's because I was hot-headed with my pedals and pushed the amps way too far into overdrive. But in all fairness, they sounded incredible before they blew up.
You really manage to bring out the very best in all amps! Fantastic work, Johan!
Thank you Johan! Wow - this brings back memories as my first amp was a Gorilla. Forget the model, but I think it had an 8 inch speaker and a rocker switch labeled "Tube Stack", which gave the amp a bit more over drive. Wasn't a bad amp as I was just starting out on guitar. Funny, I can't remember what happened to it. It didn't break at all, I just moved towards bigger amps so I could play (i.e., be heard) in a band. Cheers!
Tc35?
GG-20… the beast!
if you played guitar in the 80's then you must have owned this amp = a classic!
This is the ultimate video that proves gear doesn't matter, talent is what matters
My First Guitar Amp...I remembered it sounding Awesome! Thank you for posting this!
I still own one, it's the gg-20c, I think it's 20 watt with chorus, I really like the chorus on it. Cool little amps. Awesome video.
Yea these rip I owned a blues Jr black face and the tweed with the jenson speaker and I found my self playing the gorilla that I bought with a Strat copy bundle used of Craigslist the tone was killer my uncle came over (blues guitarist in a couple bands) playing for 30 years at least couldn’t believe the tone. These are killer amps that’s why I searched to see if anyone else knew as they have a bad rap
I still have a red one that sounds great! They are also built like tanks.
Spanky McCallister I have the red one too. I just got my guitar today but I don’t know how to make it sound ROCKY. Yknow? Like I don’t know what settings, if you do
Great work Johan I liked this. I was surprised at the clean sounds you got from this amp they were far better than I expected them to be. I have always said this, a good musician can make anything sound good which is the case here. I think you have to look at something as whether it fills a need and I think this does. This is a cool little practice amp and it has good cleans and mildly driven overtones were pretty good as well. This would not be your main gigging amp but I think there are some sounds here that you could record with. Thanks for the look at these amps I have never played one.
I have a 70 watt GG version and used the 70 watt GK or GB "bass/keyboard' version for bass guitar with an external 15" cabinet and kept up with a 100 watt half stack in band room at high volume levels.
There was a gorilla in the band room at my high school and I really liked it
These were great! They were what they were! To my mind, they weren't even usually thought of as recording/studio amps, but just practice/bedroom amps. At the time, they were great for that purpose, and they were cheap. Nice video, thank you.
Hope we'll see more videos with that Amos V! I ordered one after your video the other day (and reading the positive comments). Can't wait to try it!! I'm glad I got my Lead 12 (5005), otherwise I think the ebay prices on these are about to go up and I'd probably want one :). Lead 12 combo vs Gorilla vs Peavey video coming??
I still have mine.It had a built in chorus switch that sounded so good
I have the same one and still use it today. reminds me of a fender tone amp
Wow that actually sounds pretty great! Also, that last riff you played was so good!!! Made me think of Dio
I recently picked up a GG-25 Tube Stack. It soulds great, but I'm gonna put a Peavy Blue Marvel speaker in it and it will be off the chain. Yep, these deserve some love. Many older rockers first amps.
I still have my GB-30 Bass 50 watt. Date sticker marked 1986. After the theft of my 69 Gibson SG custom shop and a wood Marshall amp, I picked up the Gorilla used from a friend. I also bought a Washburn Blue Crackle G-5V new. I still play them both. Until recently I was using a DOD Distortion FX55 with a DOD Stereo Flanger FX75-B. Sothern Rock and Hair Band sounds great even at lower volume. After the FX55 fried I replaced it with a Boss Distortion DS-1 and still looking for that sweet spot with it. I have to say the amp has taken alot over the years and still sounds great. I wish I could afford a Marshall again but it is what it is.
I used a gorilla bass amp for a while when my crate was down
And it actually had a good midrange sound and i was pumping rackmount effects through it..
Oh great. Another johan video rubbing it in that i didnt need to upgrade my old gorilla/peavey/lead12 years ago and that all that time spent at guitar center would've been better used in the woodshed.
Was my first guitar amp and loved it, I did however blow it up! 😜
I’m still playing 30+years later
Because people are brainwashed into believing Tube Amps are the only way to go..Alot of us dont fall for that Bunk anymore..solid state Amp technology especially the past 30 years has become incredible the Marshall MG 100 Watt series Amps are a perfect example..No such thing anymore you need a Tube Amp to achieve hard rocking to sweet warm tones..the solid State does it all and some..great demo Johan
Not really. I prefer tube amps, because i've owned solid state amps. Once i got a proper tube amp it was like, goodbye to all that. I hate solid state for leads. For cleans it can be good, if you need that sound. For riffs it can be great, but i still prefer tubes generally across the board. They aren't the same thing and both have their uses, but if i were stuck with only a ss amp, i would just be looking for a tube amp ever single time. Every time i ever tried an axe fx, or vst or any old boss cosm crap, i just go back to a tube pre amp.
@@chickenbeek proper tube Amp? And no Tube Amps are not better or superior to solid State Amps especially the past 25 30 years
Better or superior is in the eye of the beholder. I prefer tubes. SS sucks in comparison. There is a very noticeable difference in feel and nuance between SS and tube amps. Tube amps have a bloom, a sag, a compression and a push pull feel, bends can "howl" as i call it, where the mid range sort of modulates, i love that, and those are the types of things i want. They aren't the same thing at all. As far as digital, even today, while pretty damn good, even usable, still not better than a real tube amp. I had an Axe Fx Ultra when they came out, i sold it and kept my modded tube pre, even though the Axe was good and all, my 25 year old modded Mp1 through a Freyette 50/2/50 absolutely destroyed it no contest, and the rest of my band was also in full agreement on that.
@@chickenbeek hmmm i think you should do more investigating before you say anything Solid State Sucks? Thats not what im hearing from other guitarist thats for sure..i use to think Tube Amp were the only way until 2009 when i played through a Marshall MG 100FX 2X12 stock Celestion Speakers..
I mean. I been playing for 33 years. There might be some SS amp out there i would say, yeah that;s nice. But i already know what i like. My tone search is essentially over and has been for a long time. If there is a choice, i chose tubes.
This was my 1st amp in 1989, and I thought it was the coolest thing on the planet. It sounded like crap in 89, but I also sounded like crap in 89. Would love to try one today!
Saw this one back in a days, i was a teenager and just started to play guitar. It was really amazing sound to my ears these days.
I took music lessons for 6 years and there was a Gorilla amp for sale sitting in the corner of the music shop the entire time. I wonder if it's still there. Great video as always.
Picked one up at a yard sale for $10. Sprayed out the pots with some contact cleaner and it works fine.
Great nostalgic stuff going on here! My first puppy (gg-20r actually) Take a look inside. Bet this one has the same IC as my gg-20r. Than take a little time to look it up on ebay - you’ll be pleasantly surprised;)). These IC are considered the holy grail among vintage tube screamer enthusiasts/collectors, claiming to give you ‘that’ TS tone. Since this is a late 80s amp, the IC is the golden choice. I stumbled upon prices rising over 200(!) bucks...
I got one on EBay for £30 Just looked again there's loads on there for 25-50 pound about 30 to 60 odd bucks great value amp.
I bought a Gorilla bass practice amp new in the mid-80s, and still use it. It’s just as good as any other amp it’s size. It sounds great as far as I’m concerned, and it’s thirty five years old! I also have an Ampeg BA210v2.
Johan!! Long time subscriber, love what ya do!! I picked up a 25c and tried it with a 12' celestian 70 modern and it sounded great!... Then a 4x12 with mg crap, and it sounded amazing!!!... The 25 watt version, coincidentally, is also the only version I can find so far that has a line out... And into a valvestate Marshall into 2 2x12 cabs on clean (with the combo loading the 4x12's), it is Jimmy page "since I been loving you" tone!!! 😃😃😃
In 1984 a poor kid could get one so I did. I got mine in a package deal for a used Electra LP copy, in a real gibson case, with a Jim Dunlop starter pack that had a strap, a cord, a string winder, and some crappy pics all for $125. Easy for snoots to look back on it and call it a crap amp, but in the 80's everything cheap was crap. I still have a Gorilla that I mess with every now and then.
Who has "hate" for these glorious amps? Back in the mid 80s there was ABSOLUTELY nothing that came close for "price/performance". Nowadays, sure, there are dozens of very decent small amps at the bargain end of the market, but back then there was precisely nothing. The Gorilla was a total game changer.
Wtf that tone at 2:15 is godly
I had a Gorilla bass amp in the 80's. I was a broke high school student, it was a gift, and it got the job done. I never had any complaints about it.
I'm surprised. Many very useful tones you have recorded here. Wow.
I love my Gorilla Amp and Vox AD30VT Amp
Funny but this is such a flash back for me. I started on steel string acoustic then got my first electric and amp. Its was this amp and an Ibanez flying Vee in 84’ lol
Haha... Remember back in the day when you borrowed a rehearsal space from someone, and you walked in and realized that the guitar rig was a Gorilla on a chair... Always made you wanna cry :D Especially if you found a Neville strat plugged into it.
this was my first amp and i have gone on to have several high end amps in my life but i miss the distortion on that old gorilla. Korn recorded life's peachy with a gorilla practice amp mic'd up in the studio.
I had 1 of these back in the day(my first amp) long gone, went out in a skip about 20 years ago
My wife's parents dropped off a GB30 at my place the other day. They saw it at a garage sale for 50 cents and got it for me. They figured it was worth the 50 cents. I googled the amp and I too saw the hate Johan was talking about. I need to see how it sounds with a tubescreamer upfront before I decide if it is worth keeping or not.
These were the first guitar amps I ever saw as a young teenager. I remember how “cool” I thought they were not even knowing how to appreciate tone yet. Now as I take a listen 40+ years later I realize they really sounded pretty good for the money.
I bought a GG20 around the year 2000,i dont know how many had it before me but it sounds very beautiful.Its major problem was the tube stack potentiometer with on/off switch was scratching and cut off in some settings but the pot opened and cleaned up and after that goes excellent.If something has quality and very low price the merchants dont want to sell it because leaves no good profit.Also no one famous guitar player will promote ever a cheap no name amplifier no matter if it still sounds very good.
The riff at 03:58 and onwards is just super nice. You make everything sound amazing
Knut Simonsen I really dig that riff too - reminds me of a riff that Simon plays in some of Johan's videos.
I fixed up a few of these years ago.... For what they were, they were fine. Reliable small amplifiers.
Had a GG80, my first amp. I loved that thing. It was loud as f*** compared to my buddies' more expensive fender amps. The reverb was amazing. But I understand it has a very rough sound, not for everybody. At one point, I started playing bass on it. It lasted quite a bit but then something went wrong and it broke. Not the cone though. Anyway, it's still in my parents attic. I might have it fixed if it's worth it.
this was my first amp! I miss it. wish I still had it.
Sounds decent to me, and I say that as the proud owner of several tweed amps from the 50s. I suspect the dislike many express has to do with the misleading number in the name. I have a GG-25. It uses the same TDA2030 power amp chip used in so many other practice amps. And while the model name hints that it has 25 head-splitting watts of output power, given the supply voltage and current, it is doubtful the circuit provides even as much as 10W of power. The rest of the circuit is "boilerplate" as some would say. I don't know if the decent sound I hear in your video is largely the responsibility of the guitar and its pickups, the speaker, or the mic used to record it. But there is certainly nothing distinctive about the circuit of the amp itself.
I am trying to locate a schematic for the GG-25 to repair and improve it. Haven't found one yet, but it was suggested to try Pignose, who apparently bought up the Gorilla assets.
Fuck the haters. I loved my Gorilla amp when I got mine in the 80’s. It was my first amp I got when I first started playing and I have fond memories of all the practice time I put in through that amp.
I had one of these as my first amp some 30 years ago. I don't know if there was something wrong with it... But man it was LOUD for the size. I have lately been looking for one similar, I already found my first guitar again, but still missing the amp
Eagles of Death Metal used these on their first two albums!
That was the first amp I bought back in about '89! It was great for what it was, and inexpensive.
Everything changed the first time I played a classic Marshall tube amp. No looking back.
We all need the “Boss Johan Segeborn Tone Pedal “ for our amps. 😁🔈🔥🎵
Let’s really do the “ tone is in your hands “ argument and get 4 other guitarists along with Johan to play through this lousy amp.
I’m learning that quality equipment doesn’t hold you back like bargain basement/ garage sale junk does. The ability to utilize the tone, harmonics, the grunt, the bark, and sustain of good pickups, amp gain structure, and speaker all help you play what you hear and feel.
Thanks for the great demo - it sounded awesome compared to it's rather bad reputation.
I wonder what your riffs may sound like through my grandpa's old Sokol radio 😂
Can't wait to listen to your 2nd album in its entirety 🤘
There was a massive wave of these sold late 70s early 80s in US, they were basically sold to anyone buying a beginner guitar and they sold a lot and I'm sure some were thrown in as packages. At the time, there were already so many other better sounding amps that were just a bit more expensive at your fingertips there was no need to get stuck with a gorilla unless you were like year one guitar player and didn't give a crap. I don't think they were horrible, they did their job.
Was my first Amp from Denmark st London when I was 16. The GG-20. It’s still in my room :)
I just bought the GG-20 (1985) from a pawn shop.. looks almost new, probably packed up for years in someone's room, too..
I can return it, I think I'll keep..
It was.my.first bass amp! I played it until blew the speaker then ra the head into a 2x10 until I ugraded . Ive picked up a few in the 40$ range this year. Mostly for nostalgia..They needed deoxit on the pots. I swapped one speaker for a 40$ jensen. Sounds pretty ok to me . Honestly I think.they a buit as good a peavey. I couldnt ger the fromt grill apart. Its glued as well as screwed together
Give me 3 minutes, a dash of verb from a pedal, and my Telly. I'll dial that amp in. Just like this guy demonstrated. A good guitarist will make it happen. Funny thing though, if one were to play that demo as he just did, and told everyone it was a vintage tweed champ, people would be saying it is a perfect sound. Too many folks hear with their eyes and wallets.
I still have mine from the 80s.
Those tones sound pretty good. I'll never know if either of the two Gorilla amps I had could sound like that because neither one lasted longer than two days--the first one stopped working after only playing through it for about two hours. The price was right, I think they went for about $50 in the mid-late 1980s, but the quality was nonexistent.
This was my first amp, got it given to me by a family friend played the shit out of it. Only thing was once in a while I would get shocked through the guitar when I touched the strings..
got it good a couple times..
Daron Malakian from System Of A Down first ever amp was a Gorilla.
It's not in the amp - it's in the Johan!
This was my first amp.
Excellent "Rock and Roll" cleans. Nice dynamic playing. I like it!
My first amp! Ha! With a DOD FX-55B SupraDistortion.
I don't remember it sounding that good.