Yamaha G100 and Yamaha G50 amps

**bobr666** · 08-06-2019, 11:43 AM

They made heads...

**Jim Bastian** · 08-06-2019, 11:45 AM

I experienced the quilter the same way and sold it after a few weeks. It weighed nothing which was nice, but really a mushy sterile tone when clean.
The tone must come from the heavy transformer in the yamaha.

**Jim Bastian** · 08-06-2019, 12:28 PM

The g100 head is alot longer than the electronics in the g100-112. The g100 has 2 independent channels like a fender twin, so is longer. So i have ended up with a smaller package.
The g100 head as in the uk sounds awesome too.

**gitman** · 08-06-2019, 07:52 PM

When playing with STUFF and The Paul Simon Band Eric Gale pretty much exclusively used a MusicMan amp , the model with the built-in phasor effect.
The smaller Yamaha amp in front of the drum-riser is used by Mr. Simon, the large cab is the bass amp for Tony Levin.

**benrosow** · 08-07-2019, 02:27 AM

I gigged with a g50 for a while and, yes, it is a nice sounding amp, light and well built. Probably the best buy ever for a gigging rig. If it gets stolen, don't cry, just buy another.

That said, I sold mine because when I shared the stage with guys playing good tube amps, I heard the difference in spades.

So I now gig with a musician RD50 112, probably the best around town amp there is.

**Cavalier** · 08-08-2019, 10:19 AM

Pretty funny since that is another solid state preamp. I use series 1 50s and 100s often with a Twin or vintage Ampegs and their clean sound is different but as good. Tube amp distortion is another thing entirely but that is not what these amps are for. The series 2 parametric preamp has a lot of flexibility but for a well balanced good sounding instrument I like the 4 band eq of the 1.

For a inexpensive vintage solid state amp with realistic grit and a mellower jazz channel you can't go wrong with a old Randall RG like the Commander. While metal heads will need more gain the amp alone without pedals can do hard rock, country, blues or jazz. Since these are unlikely to become Grail amps the prices are low.

**Jim Bastian** · 08-29-2019, 11:31 AM

I have several donor amps in reserve. But Have not needed to do much on the 2 that i gig with. The g100 112 has a plywood cabinet. The g50 has particle board which adds weight. I cut my g100 112 in half and made a portable head out of it. That worked great.

Originally Posted by Cavalier

Easy to repair if you get a parts amp......and double what they cost in the states. Pretty easy to take nuts off the pots, a deep socket might help, but then you really won't need to very often. Most of the extra weight is in the particle board cabinet. Not many amps will go clean all the way up these days.

**wildschwein** · 08-29-2019, 06:05 PM

Originally Posted by John A.

I guess I'll play the role of contrarian here (and absorb the resultant flames) ... At least in my memory, those Yamaha amps sounded terrible. It was very difficult to dial out their basic "icepick in the ear" tone; there's a very unpleasant grittiness in the high end at even a hint of distortion; the built in overdrive was useless. Back then (early 80s), Fenders were plentiful and cheap (even pre-CBS ones), and the Yamahas really didn't make it as an alternative to a Twin or Super Reverb. A couple of friends of mine had Yamahas, which I borrowed; I never had any desire to own one. Yes, Mike Stern likes them and gets a great tone (or at least a great Mike Stern tone), but really the basis of his tone is playing in Stereo with the Pearce, olus OD pedals, delay, reverb and chorus, not the amp itself.

By some accounts, RF used Yamahas on and off in the early Yellowjackets days, but he also used various Fenders, Marshalls, Mesa/Boogies, etc, and I'd guess this recording is a Fender or a Boogie rather than a Yamaha. If you're thinking that it might also be a Zendrive, it couldn't be; those didn't exist until 2003 or so. But, yes, you probably would benefit from a Zendrive. They are very good for getting that sort of tone through a variety of amps.

John

He was using the Yamahas on this occasion:

Here he is with the proto-Yellowjackets (and Mike Landau) in '79 playing material off his first solo LP. He had two Boogies on this day. Probably Mk IIAs but possibly late Mk Is:

Boogies visible in this track at 3:50ish:

6. While playing with the Yellowjackets, Ford’s gear was in flux.
“The years I spent in the Yellowjackets were a strange period for me. I used a lot of different guitars and amps and was never really comfortable. Yamaha was giving everyone free gear, and it was a lot of trial and error. I finally found my sound with the Dumble Overdrive and the Fender Robben Ford model.” (from: 10 Things We Learned from Robben Ford | Premier Guitar)

I think for a player like Ford the gear is only a very small percentage of the sum and he sounds pretty much like him through whatever he's playing.

**lawson-stone** · 08-29-2019, 08:21 PM

Joshua Breakstone uses a 50 Yamaha of this family of amps and has a very nice tone with his 70s L5ces

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

**ItsBlusey** · 05-03-2022, 09:29 PM

Bumping this old thread...

Just picked up one of these hidden gems. Couple minor cosmetic issues like tape residue and a small chip in the emblem... otherwise a closet queen I'm guessing. Pots were scratchy and needed a little twisting and the reverb jacks needed a couple plug twists, then all was good. I'll hit them with the contact cleaner soon to finish them up.

G50-112 III - This Series III 50 watt model uses shared EQ for the A/B 'channels'. Has the Parametric EQ like Series II along with Presence and Pull Mid-boost. Series III 50 has Effects loop (non-adjustable I/O), Direct Out, Ext Speaker, Phones Jack.

Glorious cleans. Wish I could turn it up more where I am... it will have to go out for a playdate to make some real noise. I did give it a loud run at the seller's place (industrial area :-).

Between the EQ, the Parametric EQ, pull Mid-Boost on each channel... and feeding it from a flexible modeling pedal, I can get whatever EQ/tone I need. I might try a more efficient/brighter speaker in it to see what happens (I have a one hanging around looking for a home. May or may not be better).

One oddity: The Headphone jack doesn't disconnect the speaker. Makes the phone jack useless for late night playing. That's the design per the schematics. No idea what they were thinking on that one. I'll be making a mod to fix that.

**Jonathan0996** · 05-07-2022, 12:43 AM

I used to own one. It’s a very nice amp and the speakers are very good. You won’t need to upgrade them. I wouldn’t say they sound like Twin Reverbs. There are similarities, but each has its own sound.

Of course, these amps are getting pretty old now, so it’s good to have a good amp tech available. It’s hard to go too far wrong; you can buy them pretty cheaply these days. But having been down this road a couple times, I’ve come the conclusion that old amps can be more trouble than they’re worth. There’s something to say for having all those newer components and clean contacts. Certainly there are newer amps out there that sound just as good.

**Cavalier** · 05-07-2022, 11:34 AM

I'd say the opposite of Jonathan, the newer the amp the more tech time needed. I use the Yamahas daily and the only thing I've ever had to do is replace a spring reverb on one which is a wear item anyway. It gets down to the component quality and build level. I've had more problems with newer gear with solder starved joints and component failure, mini pots mounted to the circuit board etc.. How gear has been used is a factor though, if it is really beat up find a nicer one.

**wzpgsr** · 05-07-2022, 03:00 PM

Some of the parts used in these amps are kind of oddballs. Especially the push-pull, and if I recall, an inner-outer ring stacked pot. My tech found a replacement, but it was not original spec and poked out from the face plate about a half inch. I preferred the G 50 mark two to the G 100 mark two.

**vintagelove** · 05-07-2022, 03:59 PM

The real unsung hero in these are the speakers. The ones in the III series are fantastic. I have them in a rare 4x12, and it's perhaps the only cabinet that gives me fender'y cleans, while also sounding great with a Marshall. It's just right.

The series 2 are different, but from what I've heard, great as well. I forget who was involved in the design, but they said the engineers went to great lengths to make them like old speakers. JA3066?

**wzpgsr** · 05-07-2022, 06:22 PM

Originally Posted by vintagelove

The real unsung hero in these are the speakers. The ones in the III series are fantastic. I have them in a rare 4x12, and it's perhaps the only cabinet that gives me fender'y cleans, while also sounding great with a Marshall. It's just right.

The series 2 are different, but from what I've heard, great as well. I forget who was involved in the design, but they said the engineers went to great lengths to make them like old speakers. JA3066?

Paul Rivera is credited with the design of the mkII series. I agree re: the speakers. Any substitutions I tried for the stock speakers were always lacking.

**ItsBlusey** · 05-07-2022, 09:55 PM

I agree in the build quality. These things are, in general built like tanks. Everything is quality with a couple exceptions. Components on huge heat-sinks. Lots of room on the PC board. quality components. Heavy duty terminals and molex connectors. Over-engineered mounts and even quality screws. Even the foil shield on the cab is thick and durable, as opposed to the foil "tape" they use today that gets damaged the first time you pull the chassis.

The PC board is thick and one-sided. You could work on it if needed. Contrast that to most of today's double sided boards... tech's tend to cut leads and solder to those whenever possible because the traces lift on newer boards if you heat them.

My only complaint would be with board mounted pots and the plastic jacks. I know they use the plastic jacks for ground isolation purposes but they are a weak point. Board mounted pots are a cost savings manufacturers can't resist. But both are found on all non-upscale modern amps too.

At this point some of the older components are hard to source. But the amps don't cost so much that it's a real risk. If you're paying a tech, there's not much room for repair anyway vs. amp replacement cost.

**ItsBlusey** · 05-07-2022, 10:11 PM

Originally Posted by Jonathan0996

I used to own one. It’s a very nice amp and the speakers are very good. You won’t need to upgrade them. I wouldn’t say they sound like Twin Reverbs. There are similarities, but each has its own sound.

Of course, these amps are getting pretty old now, so it’s good to have a good amp tech available. It’s hard to go too far wrong; you can buy them pretty cheaply these days. But having been down this road a couple times, I’ve come the conclusion that old amps can be more trouble than they’re worth. There’s something to say for having all those newer components and clean contacts. Certainly there are newer amps out there that sound just as good.

It's hard to find amps that are newer and have the full cleans IME. Also, most of them include DSP processing now, and that doesn't work well with modeling pedals from what I've found. The ones with some sort of digital amp modeling built in are the most temperamental to front-end, even if I shut it off on the amp and effect modeling. I like these old school analog amps.

Originally Posted by vintagelove

The real unsung hero in these are the speakers. The ones in the III series are fantastic. I have them in a rare 4x12, and it's perhaps the only cabinet that gives me fender'y cleans, while also sounding great with a Marshall. It's just right.

The series 2 are different, but from what I've heard, great as well. I forget who was involved in the design, but they said the engineers went to great lengths to make them like old speakers. JA3066?

Originally Posted by wzpgsr

Paul Rivera is credited with the design of the mkII series. I agree re: the speakers. Any substitutions I tried for the stock speakers were always lacking.

The parametric EQ was his design and that's also in the Series III. That's what makes this amp hard to beat in my book. EQ-able for any guitar I've tried. Plays very well with my modeling pedal. But I think they managed to preserve the best with the Series III. Really enjoying the sound.

Interesting observation on the speakers by all three of you! I'll do any testing back to back A/B as best I can to see what shakes out. It already does have an awesome sound. Thick and deep cleans. Maybe it's already perfection.

**Cavalier** · 05-08-2022, 04:02 AM

The speakers were part of the original design brief, Rivera added the parametric EQ etc... They did model them on the classics but different models got power ratings to suit the combinations. A 4 12 cab would have lower power rated speakers than a 2 12 etc...for the same wattage so some speaker breakup would occur at high volume. The 1 15 versions had a different target audience and had a clean speaker rated for Bass and PA originally.

**ItsBlusey** · 05-12-2022, 10:52 PM

Originally Posted by Cavalier

The speakers were part of the original design brief, Rivera added the parametric EQ etc... They did model them on the classics but different models got power ratings to suit the combinations. A 4 12 cab would have lower power rated speakers than a 2 12 etc...for the same wattage so some speaker breakup would occur at high volume. The 1 15 versions had a different target audience and had a clean speaker rated for Bass and PA originally.

Did some side by side comparison with one of my favorite speakers, The Wizard by Eminence: British voice; 102db SPL; bright, jangly, loud. It's an awesome, well defined speaker.

The stock Yamaha speaker was a very equal comparison. That's a first for me when comparing The Wizard speaker to any stock speaker. Usually the Wizard blows them away. Kudos to the Yamaha. I had to set them up on an A/B switch and flip back and forth repeatedly to hear any differences. Very minor tone diff's at selected volume levels with no clear "better" speaker. Both great. I didn't get to run it up loud - need a different venue for that.

I also think that the Yahama speaker might be underrated for SPL (96). It was keeping up with the Wizard, 1:1, at 102db. But my Wizard is 16 ohms, vs. 8 for the Yamaha, which might level things back out. I'll need to do some SPL measurement the next time I have a chance.

All in all, the Yamaha speaker is a winner. For the record, running them both in parallel via separate cabs was glorious.