Las Vegas Steve

Great topic and great video but I have NO idea why you are hung up on tube amps. I use two widely-available Fender amps, the Mustang LT-25 and the Mustang GTX 50 for practice at home. The LT-25 is extremely small, single 8" and has full modeling capabilities that will give you any tube amp sound you want. The GTX 50 is even more versatile and has about twice the capabilities and a 12" speaker. Both have full Fender Tone (cloud app available from Fender) capabilities, both include great built-in tuners, USB, editable effects and the larger unit includes a looper if you get the footswitch. I'm old and I just love tubes, but the sound out of these two amplifiers, the light weight, and compact size all won me over. The GTX 50 can definitely be used for live performance as well unless you are into loud heavy metal. The LT-25 makes a great little jazz amp, and will fit nicely into a small carry-on suitcase for air travel, as I did before the damn pandemic ruined everything.

I have an Epiphone ES-175 Premium Pro. I don't believe it is currently in production. I bought it about 4 years ago. The finish is literally peeling off in two places, and cracking in others. This started about two years ago. I can see bare wood where the neck joins the body and back. I sent photos of what is happening to Gibson Service. Three times before I got an answer, and then the answer was, "Sorry, we don't see that as a defect." I should mention that the guitar rarely leaves the house, is kept in a climate controlled case, has never been shipped or dropped. Now, Epiphone has a very nice label that says, "Lifetime Warranty against manufacturing defects." The guitar sounds fantastic, and I have no intention of trading it in, but I am extremely bothered by the response from Gibson. Has anyone had a similar experience with Gibson, and/or does anyone have a contact that might actually help me? I have been a good Epi customer, have owned six of them, but now I have a really bad taste in my mouth. Advice, anyone?

Sorry to see an event like this get cancelled. Does this mean Guitar Gathering 2020 will suffer the same fate?

I should be on the list, registered some time ago. Steve Romeo Las Vegas

Asheville as in North Carolina?

My Bad! I confused the Orange Mini you mention with the next bigger one. My Fender did not cost anywhere near the $199 someone quoted above --- I got mine for $109 from Sam Ash.

Actually, you should take a serious look at the Fender Mustang LT-25 or maybe its big brother the LT-40. Both are killer modeling amps, well built, sound fantastic and cost much less than the Orange. I bought an LT-25 and could not believe how loud and clear such a small amp gets.