The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
  1. #1

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    I bought a used Roland GA-30 guitar amp. [Solid state, transistor amp]
    Made in Japan, introduced in 1977.

    Roland GA-30-dsc_0427_edited-jpg

    The speaker looks weak and sounds like it:

    Roland GA-30-dsc_0428_edited-jpg

    It's, surely, no match for the Polytone Mini-Brute.

    I'll put a new speaker in it and see if it sounds any better:

    Jensen Jet Blackbird 12" / 40 W / 8 Ohm


    The speaker will, hopefully, help.

    There's very little information on this amp on the net.

    It looks like a forerunner of the Roland Jazz Chorus.

    It's, as anticipated, hissy.
    The sound is hissy on the Polytone too, but anything gets hissy when putting several effects through it, which raises the noise floor.

    None of the built-in effects is working.

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  3. #2

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    Update:

    I put in the Jensen speaker.
    I had to bend the mounting screws for it to fit properly. But it worked!

    At first the sound was thin and underwhelming, even with various pedals.

    Then I thought of turning the sound up a bit (barely over 1).
    It transformed the amp!
    Now I'm very pleased with it.

    I still use effects.

    This pedal, certainly, helps:
    Lutsk Deluxe Preamp
    Fender 5E3 preamp in a pedal, with mini tube.

    Roland GA-30-pxl_20240909_164611441-night-jpg