'60s Gibson GA-8 Repair

July 2020

Here is a vintage Gibson GA-8 'Gibsonette' that we worked on. This is from the early 1960s, but we have been unable to determine the exact build date.

Gibson GA-8 - Front

Gibson GA-8 - Back

Gibson GA-8 - Panel - Before Cleaning

Gibson GA-8 - Power Transformer

The customer had inherited this, along with a Fender Deluxe from roughly the same vintage, and asked me to check them out. Both looked to be in pretty decent shape, other than both having a two prong, non-polarized, power cable. We first checked the tubes on the Gibson, and, like the Deluxe, they were functional, but showing signs of getting weak, with some grid leakage. We left them in for the initial test. The amp actually powered up and sounded reasonably healthy.

We pulled the chassis to take a look, and it also looked to be in good shape. Everything looked to be original, with the exception that the filter caps had been replaced. While the chassis was out, we swapped out the old 2 prong power cord with a 3 prong grounded power cable. This amp did not have a 'ground' switch, though there was a resistor installed between one leg of the 2 prong power cord and ground, which we eliminated after installing the 3 prong grounded power cable.

Gibson GA-8 - Chassis

Gibson GA-8 - Original Speaker

While the chassis was out of the cab, we cleaned the Tolex up with some mild soap and water and a good scrub brush, and then gave it a light coat of Armorall. We also removed the knobs from the chassis, and cleaned them and the chassis face. Once everything was fairly clean, we reassembled the chassis into the cab, and replaced the tubes with a new set of JJs. This little amp sounds great as well!

Gibson GA-8 - Front, Cleaned Up a Bit

Gibson GA-8 - Panel

Gibson GA-8 - Panel - After Cleaning

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