Do You Gig With Solid State Amps?

[markinlondon]

I've used SS Fenders, Peaveys and Marshalls in the past. My TM60 works just fine for me but it works better using a pedal into the "clean" channel rather than the amp's overdrive.

[garytelecastor]

I alternate between a Fender Twin, Peavey Classic 50, and a Cube 60.

[Dacious]

Yes, we have Mackie powered speakers and a QSC M900 monitor amp. Oh, you mean with guitar? No. Unless you count amping the acoustic through the PA.

[IceGator8]

For a long time I ran a Fender Ultimate Chorus as the wet part of a stereo rig. The other amp varied between a Ampeg Reverberocket and a Matchless DC30. I would run into a wah, compressor, and tube screamer then split the signal. The dry end would go straight to the tube amp and the other would go into a couple of delays, a volume pedal (used for bringing up the wet up to taste), and then into the Ultimate Chorus. The Ultimate Chorus was always run clean. The Tube Screamer would dirt it up a bit for leads.

Let me tell you, it was one lush sounding rig.

I also played through a Jazz Chorus during my high school band years. A couple of DOD and BOSS distortion boxes and effects was the sound of many eighties bands.

I thought the Peavey Studio Chorus and Stereo Chorus 400 were incredible sounding clean amps as well.

[Tremo]

SS? Never.

[Steve G]

Yes!
I make a point of using every bit of gear Ive got live! Ive even used my two watt microcube, 1980's 5 watt torque practise amp and Champion 110 Fender practise amp in gigs, the latter very often.
Now its Vox Pathfinder 15r and Roland Cube 60.
OP said it right, your audience doesnt care. I have no budget and SS does the trick for me. Maybe one day!

[tuuur]

Yes! This Kustom 150.

[blacklove]

I've had to play SS amps on several occasions when I had to gig without my own tube amp. I think one was a Deluxe 85 and the other was something similar. I remember red knobs. These were "clean tone" situations, mind you.

Did the audience know or care? Probably not. My musician buddies in the audience could tell. I definitely could tell. It just wasn't what I was used to, though. The volume and dynamics of playing were just a completely different algorithm entirely. I'm used to nice round plucky notes and I just didn't get that.

The way I look at it, though, is it was my challenge as a player to use that amp as best I could. I'd rather play through a SS than not play at all!

[nosuch]

Originally Posted by blacklove

Did the audience know or care? Probably not. My musician buddies in the audience could tell. I definitely could tell. It just wasn't what I was used to, though. The volume and dynamics of playing were just a completely different algorithm entirely.

that pretty much nails the difference. playing with a clean sound it's mostly in the dynamics, in the feel. tube amps seem to interact more with the player, while solid state tend to amlify the dynamic very true. it's a matter of taste, though.
IMO solid state is good for clean and real overdriven sounds, while the tones in between are pretty exclusive a tube domain.
there are exeptions, though. I bought my polytone for loud and clean (real clean!) amplification of my archtop and never thought about using the drive. it sounded like **** with the archtop, totally muddy. when i tried it with my tele, I wass stunned. very warm blues tone, not muddy at all, good control with the volume control of the guitar. another instance to drop prejudices was playing through that valvetronix last saturday. my experiences with digital amps was always that they sounded kind of fake and never felt right because of the latency. so i was not happy to use it. the owner was so nice to take a minute to explain the controls to me. but this little vox felt actually good. i think the setting I used was a bassman mimic. for blues i like a semi clean tone and control it all with playing dynamics and the controls from my guitar. and this actually worked. I wouldn't say it sounded like a real bassman, it only had one speaker, but it kind of showed the same characteristics. I really think I'll get myself one for home use - it's very rare to make a tube amp sound good at home level.

[kp8]

if i am playing clean the whole set, i sometimes gig with a roland.

[Tony474]

Well over forty years of gigging have led me to agree with the school of thought that says that the technology (i.e. tube or SS) employed by an amp is less important than how well the designer has done his job in applying it.

I've owned and used many tube, hybrid and solid-state amps and right now my no. 1 gigging amp is a Tech 21 Trademark 60, though I often use a Roland Blues Cube BC60 and sometimes one of the newer Cube 60s instead - depends on the gig, which guitars I'm taking and my whim on the day. I also have a number of other SS amps, all giggable.

In the past, all-tube amps I've owned have included a Sound City Concord (nice), a Rivera-period Fender Concert 2x10EV (pretty horrid), a red-knob Fender Super 60 and a Carvin Nomad. These last two both sounded great at lower levels but lacked clean headroom. The Nomad's pre-amp tubes rattled too. Changing the Super 60's knobs for black ones didn't make a lot of difference, while its overdriven channel was just plain dreadful. Hybrids have included a first-model Peavey Mace and a couple of Music Mans, one of which I still own and love, a 112RP-100-EV.

For the very varied work that I do, however, not a single one of those with the glowing bottles has provided any better a range of tonalities than my present solid-state line-up. I tend to use mostly clean sounds with any overdriven tones coming from outboards. On the odd very rare occasion when my amp's not loud enough by itself I can simply slave it up through the PA. Sorted. I'm happy, my audiences seem happy and so do the people I work with.

Let me throw in a couple of other observations, mainly with the admittedly somewhat immature object of pi55ing off the bigots (you know who you are!) ...One item that gets a great deal of good press here and elsewhere is Stewart Ward's JD10 stomp-box pre-amp. Well, that's solid-state, isn't it? Also, and in all modesty, I have been pleased and gratified to earn the high praise, when we worked together, of an experienced and knowledgeable fellow TDPRI member for my tone. What was I using? A Music Man Silhouette with the Kinman AVn-Blues set of noiseless pickups through a Gallien-Krueger 206MLE solid-state 2 x 6" combo, all by itself. Just saying...

[Durtdog]

I don't gig with SS amps, but I have in the past.

Many ago years I borrowed a Peavey SS of some type while my Music Man was in the shop. I gigged that PV 6 nights a week for 3 weeks or so...it was miserable...a backline Roland JC120 (a popular standard years back) was a nightmare for me as well.

I owned a Lab Series L-5 for a couple of years that I enjoyed playing live very much. It was on of very few SS amps I've enjoyed.

[timgreene]

i would if I was a gigging musician.

[Steve G]

Yes. I love em!

Seriously, Im broke and care less what I play through than what I play.

[Beerts]

I've been playing through an ancient Ampeg Gemini 1 that still has some original tubes in it (can't really afford replacements) and have been considering trying to go back to my old '82 Peavey Citation half stack. either one is insanely loud (the Citation is 160 watts) and for quite a while I was not really enjoying playing through it as much as the Ampeg, but I keep wondering when a tube is going to die or other trouble is coming down the line.. so I'll experiment with my old Citation and my current line-up of pedals and see what happens.

[Tele-phone man]

I'm with Tony474.

It all depends on how you use your amps. For many guitarists, their tone and style of music is dependent on a tube amp turned up to that magic point where everything comes together. However, for many of us in professional situations, we have to be able to play perfectly clean at low volumes, and also at high volumes. Additionally, I often have to play a fully saturated sound at low, medium, and high volumes (sometimes during the same set). Unfortunately, I've found very few tube amps that give me the ability to do all this with one amp. Therefore, I've been using my amps perfectly clean and using a combination of overdrive pedals into a volume pedal into the amp. This allows me to keep my tone consistent at every volume from a whisper to a roar, and at every increment of saturation, without having to reach back and adjust my amp at all. Therefore, my solid-state amps have worked very well for me.

Although my current gigging amp is a Fender HRDeVille 410, that's more because I wanted the 4 10's than it was for the tubes. Before that, my main gigging amp for the last several years is an old Yamaha G100112 series 3. This amp has a warm sound at low volumes, huge headroom for loud clean when needed, and NEVER breaks down. Does it sound as good as the best tube clean sounds? No, but the difference is too small to matter for most gigs. 90% of my overall tone comes from my guitars, pedals and hands. I still use this Yamaha amp, but the 1-12 cannot compete with the 4-10 for openness and clarity and overall volume.

As I said, it all depends in how you use your amps and what your particular sound requires. For me, solid-state is perfectly fine if the amp is well built, has abundant headroom, and can achieve a warm, clear and clean sound.

I've been playing professionally for over 20 years.

[WrapAround]

I used a Pearce G2X/QSC poweramp setup on a full time basis at one point for a few years. I replaced a 2 amp (Fender Rivera Deluxe II and Concert) and a small rack (6 spaces) setup with the Pearce/QSC and it was much less for me to carry and the sound remained the same from gig-to-gig/rehearsal-to-rehearsal.

I'm back to gigging with tubes amps but I still have the Pearce and think it's one of the best sounding amps I've had.

[rand z]

for traveling gigs i sometimes use a fender studio 85. its dependable and, on clean settings, sounds great. any overdrive from the amps overdrive or from pedals, and things start getting "square wave" sketchy. at least to my ear.

but for purely clean settings at lower volumes, its a very nice small amp.

imho.


rand z tropicalsoul.net

[Ricko79]

Yes, two of them:


this is my rig for big gigs, for smaller gigs I only take the RolandJC.
I need a pure, clean sound from the amp because all my colouring I do it with stompboxes and also I need to be able to gig loud and stay clean and tight. so the Jazz chorus range is the best for that

[Michaell]

no

I have a Fender Frontman I leave in the car as a back up

never had to use it