Falcon is finally done! HUGE plug for Tubesville.

BigAlTheBird

BigAlTheBird

Guest
I bought a 1962 Gibson Falcon on eBay in May, and it was supposed to be in perfect working shape. Well, it wasn't. Speaker cone busted, one tube was completely broken, wiring messed up, transformers blown, etc. The reverb tank and the grill cloth were the only things really that were fine, which actually is the important part. :)

Well I asked on tgp where to take it, and they suggest Blackie Pagano, tubesville.com. Pretty famous for his work on amps. Moved from NY to LA this year, but he is/was the amp service-man for many big names in music.

Anyways, I dropped it off with him about 4 weeks ago and he's done finally (there was a lot of work to do). He got all NOS tubes from the 60's from his dealer (7 NOS tubes from the 60's isn't cheap - on eBay these tubes would've costed between $200-$300). He got the speaker (which in and of itself is worth about $200-$300 he told me) reconed by his buddy. And he rewired the entire amp pretty much, all new transformers/caps/resistors (in spots)/connectors and all new wiring going to the speaker/reverb tank, etc.

Total damage? Only $350! That's a good deal for the amount of work he did, plus the tubes and recone (which was $80 inc. shipping). He told me that this thing sounds phenomenal, he was very pleased with how it turns out. I'm going to pick it up tomorrow after work (he's busy today).

This man is an artist, and I cannot wait to hear the amp, especially since it got his approval. So I'm stoked! The Minuteman might be slightly more intensive than the Falcon, sadly.

Just a plug - you should check out the "custom builds" page on his website.
http://www.tubesville.com/

Like this is just ridiculous:

resized_build.JPG
 
Re: Falcon is finally done! HUGE plug for Tubesville.

lol I'll tell you tomorrow.

But it's coming home to a nice family. When it left, the Gibbo had no pickups, and the Green Buddy had no good pickups. Now it's coming back to Pearly Gates, and TV Jones, and a brand new Melody Maker, and some OD pedals, etc.!

I'm going to have a very fun month.
 
Re: Falcon is finally done! HUGE plug for Tubesville.

New gear is always awesome, and vintage Gibsons were great amps. My friend's got one with inputs for vocals, guitar and bass, and they share volume and tone knobs. I think the idea was to have the whole band plug into it but...way too dirty for that.
 
Re: Falcon is finally done! HUGE plug for Tubesville.

Sounds cool. Take pictures of it when you get it. I'm curious about how much you got the amp for, originally?

The bottom line is it says Gibson on it, is old, and sounds optimal. Those are nice amps to keep around, because you can enjoy them and they retain their value.
 
Re: Falcon is finally done! HUGE plug for Tubesville.

Gear: $240, inc. shipping. Since then, I've seen tons go as low as $350 and as high as $800. Naturally the later models go cheapr, and the 61's are the expensive ones. Here are two expensive ones that just ended:

http://cgi.ebay.com/1961-Tweed-Gibs...ryZ10171QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
http://cgi.ebay.com/RARE-GIBSON-FAL...ryZ10171QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Keep in mind though, two things: First, mine has been completely overhauled which would add to the price of any of the ones you buy on eBay. Even if you bought one 'working' for $350 or $400, it wouldn't sound half as good as mine. Second, the speaker in mine is (like I said) a 1962 AlNiCo Jensen, and it's not the stock one. Blackie estimated it worth between $200 and $300, just for the speaker.

So I'm extremely happy at the deal I got. For $590 (thereabouts) I've got an incresaingly rare amp, with a speaker worth 1/3 or 1/2 of that, and 7 tubes from the 60's (which would easily be $150+). I'm very happy!

Cream, please check out his other custom amps. The man is, like I said, an artist.
 
Re: Falcon is finally done! HUGE plug for Tubesville.

Got it home, I'll keep this short but I've never played through something this good. I'm shaking right now thinking of it, that's how good it is.

You all, or most of you, have been around the black and 90% of you have been to this place before - where you play an amp that completely reinvents things for you. And you all have played better amps than me, I don't argue that one bit. This amp may not compare with your Matchless' and stuff. I won't even try to compare it to amps, because I don't think I could do it justice.

I'll just say that, short of some of the huge big ticket Fenders, I think this amp might be in the top 10% in terms of pure, twangy or warm, clean tone.

It's quiet though! And I LOVE that! I can sit right in front of it when it's at 10, and I don't feel uncomfy. The friggin things sounds better as it gets louder (another new thing for me in the tube amp world). It doesn't even start to crack up at 10, I wish I could see how far this thing could have. Just the deepest cleanest tone you can imagine.

Last thing, the reverb and tremolo. Well, among certain people these seem to hold legendary status and I can understand why. At 10, the reverb is kinda wonky but up to 8 (anywhere up to 8) it's beautiful (about 40 times better than my Blues Junior) and the tremolo is un-Godly great. I don't know if tremolo can get much better - I'm sure it can, but it'd be hard.

In short, I liked my Blues Jr. It was a cool amp. And it was more powerful than this, with the same speaker. But I'll be darned if this Falcon doesn't sound about 50 times better than that. I'm literally blown away by this (if not speechless :)).

Even Blackie had a smile while playing his Tele through it, it just makes you smile.


I'll be doing Brian Setzer proud for the next few hours if you all need me. :D
 
Re: Falcon is finally done! HUGE plug for Tubesville.

I've got a date, so I won't be playing for a long ass time, but geez it blew my socks off. I played out on the deck, with an OD pedal, and this thing smokes. I played rockabilly riffs and stuff checking it out (which was **** near perfect for me). THen I brought my OD pedal out, and this thing really lets loose. I didn't get it too loud, but where it was at, this does punk type distortion really well, or at least better than I thought.

Anyways, later guys. Thanks Golden!
 
Re: Falcon is finally done! HUGE plug for Tubesville.

I bought an old late 50's gibson a while back. Arrived not in working order. the seller eventually refunded 200 of the 400 price. Unfortunately, I've still not had a chance to fix it yet. But, I'm looking forward to it.
 
Re: Falcon is finally done! HUGE plug for Tubesville.

Here's a few pics of my Les Paul and the amp together I just snapped. It's dark outside, so the lighting is not optimal:

Notice the logo missing? I found a company that makes reproductions, and I'm gonna buy one very soon. That'll make it look about 10 times better.

1000792fw4.jpg


1000796ut5.jpg


1000800au8.jpg
 
Re: Falcon is finally done! HUGE plug for Tubesville.

that looks pretty rad man. You just need to put a Fender and your Blue's Jr. next to it, to make it look like you've gotta well-rounded collection.
 
Re: Falcon is finally done! HUGE plug for Tubesville.

Ah I sold the Blues Jr. Thought it was kinda lame. It wasn't that bad, it sounded 'good,' but it wasn't for me. I need treble!

Thanks though dude.
 
Re: Falcon is finally done! HUGE plug for Tubesville.

Those amps were going for next to nothing until Vintage Guitar mag did a bit on them.

Happens all the time with that rag....they do an article on something and you can't touch them for years after.
 
Re: Falcon is finally done! HUGE plug for Tubesville.

I was wondering what caused the sudden spike. Thank God I found them before the spike, or at least lucked out.

When was the article, you know?
 
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