Thread: Beckemer guitar amplifiers

Well,this thread has shown itself to be a bit of a snoozefest...Sorry.



Anyways,my GC-25RII arrived yesterday and I have to say that I'm quite impressed.The clean channel is fat and warm and the overdrive side has a thick and harmonically rich voice,making it especially good for '80s hair metal soloing.Negatives are the shared 3-band EQ and noise under higher gain settings.Luckily,there is plenty of "quiet" gain on tap with the Drive control set at around half.Lastly,the Bite switch [upper mid boost] is cool for helping riffs and leads to stand out better.Of course,this is basically an entry level/practice amp [albeit a very good one],so such compromises are a given in this class.

So,after my initial positive experience with the GC-25RII,I now would like to find a clean GC-50R,with it's separate EQ sections,more power and ducker/noise gate feature.Unfortunately for me,the couple that I have found so far [Google search] were in Canada and listed in French only.Does anyone here have any personal experience with the GC-50R?


Ed

I have never seen nor heard of these amps. I'll have to google to find out about them. I always like to find out about Canadian music equipment.

Originally Posted by Robert1950

I have never seen nor heard of these amps. I'll have to google to find out about them. I always like to find out about Canadian music equipment.

Praise the lord you never heard of them...let's say they are bottom of the baril kinda amp. SOlid state, VERY standard clean and razor Distortion.

I had one when I was in college but thing stoped wording after 6 months, never knew why!

Originally Posted by Robert1950

I have never seen nor heard of these amps. I'll have to google to find out about them. I always like to find out about Canadian music equipment.

Yeah,there is very little about Beckemer stuff on the net.In fact,a Google search will probably bring up about half of me trying to find one,lol!As for al3d's claim of "razor distortion",it's really in how one EQ's the amp,as the Contour,Low and High controls are highly interactive.In fact,I would like there to be a bit more available high-end on tap.Oh well,different strokes...



One thing that I did was to install a Celestion G12L-35 [a pull from an older Marshall 4-12 cab] to excellent results.The mids are now richer,highs sweeter and the lows more full and much tighter.To my ears,the G12L is much better matched to the GC-25RII than the Jensen Mod 12/35 that the original owner had installed in the amp.



Btw,to maybe show that my ears are not totally shot,I also have an '84 Mesa/Boogie MKIIC+,a Bedrock 621 and a Pinnell Studio 12.Each is all-tube and each sounds simply superb.No,the little Beckemer is not quite up to those high standards.But for what it's intended to be [a good sounding bedroom/jam amp],it is pretty cool.



Ed

They were installed in an industrial building in Longueuil, on the south shore near Monteal. The two owners were struggling to get their amp on the market. They were quite popular in the 90' in the heavy metal scene in quebec.

I don't think you would find a better basic amp for the price. Of course, for vintage sound it was not the best choice. But for VH, eruption style at bedroom practice level, right out of the box.....it was tough to beat !

They used eminence speaker mainly and the cabinet were made with MDF. I have one of their 2x12" cab, with two custom eminence Legend (to Beckemer spec). Good sounding gear. If you can get one of their 4x12"....a lot cheaper than Mars and Boogie but as good (different voicing).

Most of their RnD and design was done by Denys Rozon. He was a popular boutique amp builder in Quebec. He's responsible for the design of Radial tube pedal (tonebone serie).

They were working on their first tube amp when I heard they close the doors.

Sadly.....


That's about what I know....

Cool stuff to know.Thanks!


:smile:



Ed

Originally Posted by EdMan57

Since Beckemer was a Canadian builder of quality solid state amplifiers a few years back,I thought that I would come to the builder's country of origin to hopefully find some info about such.

I recently bought a mint Beckemer GC-25RII from a seller on Ebay and would to know some info and/or opinions about the amp and the other models [GC-50R,GC-100R,GC-103R],as well.Also,anyone know why the company went out of business?






Ed

I recently purchased an old GC50R out of curiosity, while I live in the area where these amps were made they were never abundant anywhere, too many established brand names to compete against limited advertising. This isn't new, a lot of the old amps that are treasured now came from small struggling companies that could only hold on so long against the older established companies.
The amp itself is interesting, very clean design solid cab, decent EQ, fairly standard clean sound, the overdrive channel voiced for heavy metal, which , of course, was in when these amps were being made. The unique "ducker" control creates interesting overtones in the lower frequencies on the gain channel,very thick without muddying the higher ranges. It comes with an Eminence speaker , many peiople don't like the voicing of Eminence but it works well enough, although I prefer many of the heavier range Celestions myself, particularly the Vintage 30, G80 , and the Goldback 100 which I find very versatile for solid state amps.