Gartone Bluesman 20 - anyone have one or played one?

guitarpolo

The Bluesman 20 is a variation of the 5e3 circuit with independent channels, more clean headroom and volume, so I hear. Sounds appealing and the previous Bluesman 18 was great. Has anyone got one or tried one and would offer their thoughts...? Ta.

Ossyrocks

No, but I have two of the standard models. Tbh, I don’t want a louder version, I gigged mine in a classic rock band with a hard hitting drummer and they complained I was too loud!

Rob

guitarpolo

Haha I know what you mean - the 18 is loud for a 5e3, especially with a Celestion Blue. For me, a tad more clean headroom would be good sometimes, although I would still want the tweed character.

Ossyrocks

guitarpolo said:

Haha I know what you mean - the 18 is loud for a 5e3, especially with a Celestion Blue. For me, a tad more clean headroom would be good sometimes, although I would still want the tweed character.

It depends on your settings and your guitar. I run mine fairly high up, maybe 9 on the Bright channel. But with a reissue LP with Custombuckers I can roll back the guitar volume and they clean up really well. Higher output pickups might be harder to do this with. If you want spanking clean, you don't want a small tweed. I have run mine alongside a BF Deluxe Reverb and switched between them via an A/B/Y, which is another great option.

TheMarlin

@Dominic has one. To say he likes it would be an understatement. Judging by the exotica that’s passed through his hands, it’s gotta be damn good to have the staying power it’s had. 

Lebarque

Not played a Gartone, but have heard people on here saying they're better than Lazy J. My Lazy J is amazing, so that's some claim.

Ossyrocks

Martin Garton is a local lad here, I've known him for about 25 years. Lots of players locally use his amps and even the great Mike Walker has ditched his beloved Boogie in favour of a Gartone. Martin does not "do marketing", it's just not him. He does build very very fine amplifiers though.
Whilst I too have never tried a Lazy J, a good friend of mine and Gartone user has done, and he reckoned it wasn't better than the Gartones.

Rob

Marshall

Ossyrocks said:

I gigged mine in a classic rock band with a hard hitting drummer and they complained I was too loud!

Rob

FFS, drummers complaining about guitarists sounding too loud again!  

Ossyrocks

Marshall said:

Ossyrocks said:

I gigged mine in a classic rock band with a hard hitting drummer and they complained I was too loud!

Rob

FFS, drummers complaining about guitarists sounding too loud again!  

I know! We're NEVER too loud !

markj

I’ve got the standard version like Ossyrocks. Fantastic amp would never part with it.

IainGr

Has anyone tried the newer Gartone Bluesman 20 model-it seems everyone on this thread had the original Bluesman 18 model.

guitarpolo

I’ve not played one but I know it’s a similar circuit to the 5e3 but with 2 independent channels, and more volume and headroom.

IainGr

Thanks. Would be interesting to compare to the new Rift Americana which has the advantage of reverb and ability to bypass one output valve to half output power/volume. 

Lebarque

I keep gazing at the Bluesman 10. If only there was a Guitar Show, so we could try them out.

IainGr

That would certainly help! The lower wattage would certainly be good to get overdriven sounds at home, but I wonder how much you might lose in headroom for pedals, and also the different tone from the absence of a second channel. Martin at Gartone said that options to tame down the 20 are a different pre-amp valve or a lower powered transformer. At least with the pre-amp valve you can adjust it back, but if you opt for the lower power transformer you are somewhat stuck with it.

RickLucas

Morning all. Yes, I've played one of these and in short, it's fantastic. It retains the 5E3 character, but does not collapse when turned right up, like a 5E3 does. It remains tight and articulate, without the sloppy bottom that you might experience with humbuckers, for example. And we all love a tight bottom, right? I wouldn't say it was louder, but that it has greater clean headroom. I think the first channel on my Pentosonic is the same as on the Bluesman 20. Don't dismiss the Bluesman 10 either.

IainGr

Thanks very much for the feedback. How would you describe the 10 vs the 20?

RickLucas

IainGr said:

Thanks very much for the feedback. How would you describe the 10 vs the 20?

Similar to the 20 but with just one channel. Really responsive.

Lebarque

Do the Bluesmen have that 3D, rich, big warm clean sound like Lazy J, or are they more like standard 5e3? @RickLucas ;

Ossyrocks

Lebarque said:

Do the Bluesmen have that 3D, rich, big warm clean sound like Lazy J, or are they more like standard 5e3? @RickLucas ;

Rick and I are big fans of the Gartone tweeds. I’ve had quite a few 5E3’s including an original ‘59, and they are the best I’ve ever had. There are people on here who rate them higher than the Lazy J. I can’t comment on that because I’ve never had one, but they are spectacular.

bloomer

I asked Martin at Gartone recently about the feasibility of making a bluesman 10 with power scaling and he said its possible:

"The power scaling gives progressive reduction from full power down to approx 1/10th of one watt. In a 45w amp fitted with it, the amp could be scaled down to below conversation level, similar to a TV at a lowish volume. It does this without changing the sound or feel of the amp. It consists of two controls, both of which are scaled in unison to maintain a consistent sound, and it only acts on the power tube voltages with no effect on the guitar signal path."

Given the power scaling is apparently so effective I'm torn between the bluesman 10 and 20. I think @Dominic might be a fan of Gartone and has compared it to a Lazy J?