Beckemer GC-50R

Solid State Transistor amp designed in Quebec by now Defunct Company Beckemer.

50 watt 1x12 eminence speaker in an MDF cabinet.

2 channels (Clean and Overdrive)

Both Channels have full Equalization and a "bright" or "boost".

There is also a send/receive for effects and absolutely excellent reverb built into the amp.


UTILIZATION

This in my opinion is the poor mans Roland JC120.

While it's not a twin, the sound (I played them side by side) is indeed as close as can be without swapping out the eminence for a celestion. The reverb is really out of this world.

These amps were designed when Quebec had a huge Metal scene thriving and thus the distortion this amp delivers is very 90s, very good and very clean.

The amp delivers clean, quality sound that one would expect to pay around 800-1200 for new.

Some have complained of "unwanted sounds" from the amp when playing loud, however with extremely clean sounding amplification you have to remember that how you fret your strings, how you pick, how you play will be even clearer as well! It's not a fault in the amp but rather the player.

SOUNDS

I ran a Charvel DS1-FR through a BOSS-DS1 and two DD3s.

This delivered a very atmospheric but hard hitting distorted sound similar to bands like Alexisonfire.

The sustain on my leads and the sound of my dive bombs where absolutely fantastic!

I also tried out my looper with 2 DD3s and started to play some shoegaze, the clean channel which is often written off by others on this amp delivered absolutely crystal clear and bright sounds that I can only compare to the JC120, what a DEAL.

Lastly I played it just straight clean, decided to just play "Cortez the Killer" to see how it handled the backing guitar on a loop and then get to the lead playing in that song and wow, again I was impressed, very impressed. In fact I'm going to try and find 3 more of these and build a stack of them similar to what Bob Mould did in the 80s with Rolands

OVERALL OPINION

Pros:
-Absolutely amazing tone, pretty much the closest amp to a Roland JC120 I've ever played.
-If metal is your thing, the distorted channel rivals my DS-1
-The built in Reverb is out of this world.
-Handmade in Canada, limited number of these beasts around.

Cons:
-Pots get dirty super fast
-Hard to find
-No more support (company is out of business)