Are There Any REALLY Good Solid-State Amps (Don't Pass Over Just b/c of the "SS"!)

[markesquire]

I started on a low-end solid state amp modeled on a blackface sound. When I played my first tube amp, I was an immediate convert; it sounded so much more warm and REAL.

Although there's something great about traditional tube circuits, I see no reason why someone couldn't create a REALLY good solid state amp that replicates the tube warmth. Although it seems like every SS amp CLAIMS to sound the same, most don't.

Is it even possible? It would be awesome to retain the EXACT sound of my PRRI, but be entirely noiseless AND have the option of Twin Reverb headroom if I needed it.

[Ivan]

Although I've never played one, alot of people tend to praise the Roland JC120 as being one of the best clean ss amps.

I'm not sure how tube-like it is though.... the youtube clips I've seen in the past make them sound very sterile.

[Slow Reflexes]

I don't see how you could create "real tube warmth" without a tube when the only reason we know what that is comes from the fact that we can't create it without a tube.

That's not to say there can't be a really excellent solid state amp - I'm absolutely certain that there are some. It just depends on what sound you're going for. I have no doubt that you can easily get a cleaner clean from solid state than from most classic tube amps - but that's also not the same as the tube amp. Duplicating the tube dirt doesn't seem a reasonable goal to me, either. It'd be a lot easier to just use the tube.

[Mike Eskimo]

+1 for Roland Jazz Chorus

A lot of jazz players swear by the Polytone Mini-Brute but I've never played through one.

[tele12]

Someone could create a SS amp that sounds as good as a tube amp. It is done all the time in high end audio. The catch is these amps cost as much as tube amps. The best SS guitar amps, Roland JC, Polytone etc., cost as much as tube amps. The problem with most SS amps is the manufacturer tries to put in a dozen different amp models and a dozen different effects and runs it through a cheap speaker.

[xjazzy]

My Tech 21 Trademark 60 is a great SS amp.

[scoots]

it seems to me a tube amp tends to "spread" out your sound more as you crank it up while a ss amp keeps it's "tightness" as you turn up. both are cool effects in my opinion. i run a tube amp now but with this me-50 i can run some effects in stereo and for the other side of this i'd love to find a good deal on an old (ss) peavey session 500. really good solid state amp? in my opinion, i would consider the session 500 a really good ss amp.

[PostoronnimV]

+10 on Roland JC. It doesn't sound "tube", IMHO, but it sound great and that's what matters.

[e-merlin]

Go play a Peavey Vypyr, any one but the tube ones, an tell me what you think. Make sure to shut off the effects and try a few of the amp models, both clean and dirty.

Oh, and try the tube Vypyrs as well.

[moparmutt]

I liked my Fender stage 112se

[strat a various]

Best sounding SS amp ever: 80s Dean Markley K-150, with "drive control dip switches" on the back. It has fooled everybody that's heard it- engineers, well known players, tube amp builders.

[bingy]

This is my little workhorse...I am very pleased with it.

[tiktok]

Tech21 stuff sounds really good.
I like the Pearce Amps too.

You'll never find that SS amp that sounds EXACTLY like a PR with a TR headroom option. Or if you do, you'll never be able to convince anyone else that's what it is.

[bosstone]

I have gone through over 60 tube amps and generally prefer them for most uses but there several ss or hybrids I have come across over the years that are worth mentioning. In the hybrid category, most if not all the Music Man hybrids sound very good, primarily for the Fender black face sounds. Notable users have been Eric Clapton and Mark Knophler. The Marshall Artist is a very versatile amp that has decent cleans and truly surprisingly good Marshall JCM 800 types of distortion. Both the Music Man and Marshalls mentioned use SS preamplification and either EL34 or 6L6 driven.

In addition to the ubiquitous Rolland Jazz Chorus that has a well deserved reputation, of all things I bought 2 Marshal Pacer amps for $100.00 just to get the speakers. One had a Boogie Black Shadow 90 watt Celestion an the other had my favorite speaker the Celestion G12-65! To my surprise I really like the clean sound and it's reverb and the lead channel is very good within a very narrow range. At 45 watts, in a lightish weight package, I thing it is very good amp. I know some of the ratings for them on Harmony Central are lowish but I think it is mostly because I can see where the distortion wouldn't be all that great for some uses. I also have a Marshall G15R CD, 15 watt practice amp that is amazing and sounds bigger than any amp anywhere near it's size. Roland Cubes are a bargain for what they do too.

[bosstone]

Originally Posted by Ivan

Although I've never played one, alot of people tend to praise the Roland JC120 as being one of the best clean ss amps.

I'm not sure how tube-like it is though.... the youtube clips I've seen in the past make them sound very sterile.

They don't sound sterile at all.

[mistermullens]

As far as I'm concerned, the best SS amp I've ever played is a Vox Pathfinder 15R. Don't get me started!

[songofthewind]

I have a Roland Blues Cube 60 with 3x10"" speakers. I love it, it's got a real brown sound. Weighs an absolute ton.

[Vker]

Originally Posted by moparmutt

I liked my Fender stage 112se

I also have recently been using a (borrowed) Stage 112se. It has a couple of tricks to learn- one of them is to have the volume on the gain channel down upon powering down, as mine clicks over to it for a second right before shutting off- and it can make a huge noise if gain is up. Pretty bright amp also- cut some treble and add some bass. Great Fenderish characteristics- clean & reverb, and plenty of punch.

I also own a Roland JC-90, and a Roland BluesCube-60.

[EZchair Picker]

The last Peavey transtube line up (the ones with the red stripe) offered a 2x12 special something or other. For being a SS amp, I was really impressed with the way that thing sounded.

[trag-o-caster]

We have laying around here, an old Roland Cube 60. Not the digital modeling model, but the old, ugly, orange monstrosity. I yanked its speaker, and loaded in a Weber ceramic Calif, and this thing KILLS now. The reverb's dead, but it's plenty loud, and has a good clean channel that distorts in a very pleasant way as you turn up the volume. We've been using it on our Tuesday open jam nights as the guest amp, and everyone seems to love it.

I'm also fond of SS Peavey amps. GREAT clean channel, and if you don't like the dirt channel, just stay on the clean and use a pedal. For a while I used an old Bandit 65 with a Morley JD-10, and it blew all of my tube amps away at that time.

[BB]

Originally Posted by songofthewind

I have a Roland Blues Cube 60 with 3x10"" speakers. I love it, it's got a real brown sound. Weighs an absolute ton.

Great amps! Love the Roland BC series. I've had a BC-60 for darn near 15 years now and it still pumps it out.

A big plus 3 on the Tech 21 TM60 amp too. Dig em. The old Lab series amps kill. Lots of love for the late 70's, early 80's Randall stuff. The RG80 is a real sleeper.

I like Peaveys too. From the old Classics to the Bandits to the Special 130's. They sound great clean, have a lot of headroom and take pedals well.

I also have a couple of Dean Markley amps from the 80s that have a 12AX7 in the pre. Nice fat clean tones and the 80 watter just screams """BLUES""" on the overdrive channel.

[rhh7]

It is interesting how my taste has changed as I have grown older. When I was young, I loved humbuckers through tube amps. Now I love single coils through solid state amps. Give me lots of clean headroom, no fancy effects. YMMV.

My Christmas present to myself was a new Traynor DynaGain 30DG, with a 12-inch Celestion speaker. If I were younger, and played out, I would have gotten the same amp in the 60-watt version.

[JonyB]

Evans amps are great SS amps....pricey tho!

[Warm Gums]

I think the whole concept of looking for an amp that sounds like something or someone else is a exercise in futility. (there are a bunch of technical reasons for this but I will forgo them..) What you are really looking for is the amp that sounds good to you, (ie makes you want to play) is suitable for your situation, and within your budget..really it shouldn't matter what technology it uses..plenty of great music has been made with all sorts of instruments. The same way that great art has been created with hundreds of different materials.

[Nub]

Originally Posted by songofthewind

I have a Roland Blues Cube 60 with 3x10"" speakers. I love it, it's got a real brown sound. Weighs an absolute ton.

Originally Posted by BB

Great amps! Love the Roland BC series. I've had a BC-60 for darn near 15 years now and it still pumps it out.

Another vote for the BC-60... I bought one for my son a couple of years ago, the 1x12 version, when they were being discontinued. It sounds fantastic, and every time I hear him play through it, I wish I had bought two of 'em!

[bluesfordan]

I had a Roland GSX-405, along with the matching 4x5 extension cab. That was a fun little mini-stack. I also had a Tech 21 Trademark 10, which sounded good by itself and really good through a 4x12.

Never had a Polytone Mini-brute but I've heard some players getting killing tone with them.

[Scrap_Iron]

Strictly for Marshall tone, their AVT and MG series are quite acceptable. They are both designed to mimic their valve big brothers, and are quite versatile in that vein. They are decidedly Not modeling amps...it's all aimed at variations of the Marshall tone.

The AVT series uses a tube pre-amp. As the gain is increased, there is actual tube saturation. The power amp stage is designed to emulate tube distortion as the volume is turned up; there is a noticeable difference in tone but not a ss distortion.

The MG's are all solid state, and achieve gain saturation with diodes. The power stage is clean all the way up, but Marshall has a push-button effect called Frequency Dependant Damping to emulate power tube distortion and interaction with the speakers.

Changing the speakers can have large benefits. I've run an AVT50 into a 15" JBL D130, and a MG100DFX into a pair of Celestion Classic Lead 80s with good results. On my MG15, the 8" speaker is harsh with little bass...but with a decent pair of headphones it is really good. At least for those times I can't crank up the JCM2000 DSL!

[OldManAP]

We all love certain sounds, and it just makes things much more interesting that there are so many amplifiers out there for us to make those sounds with. No SS amp is going to sound exactly like a BF DR or a Plexi or whatnot. At the same time, no tube amp is going to do what a JC120 can do. And there's ABSOLUTELY NOTHING wrong with that. I still routinely gig with a BOSS GT-6 running amp modeling through an ancient Peavey SS amp. It's not my ideal tone, but it gets the job done, cheaply and efficiently (ie. less worry about theft of high-priced irreplacable gear). Try to get a good tone, but worry far more about what you are saying than the gear you are saying it through. In the end, other guitarists are the only people who give a darn about what equipment you're using. Play great notes through lousy gear, if necessary...and perhaps we'll all be choosing the same lousy gear to try and duplicate YOUR tone...

[castpolymer]

I have a Vox Valvetronix AD30VT. It is a nice little amp that allows me to practice with earphones on.

[franchelB]

I've always liked my Fender M-80. I just regretted selling it a few years ago...

[Manolian]

The Yamaha DG 60 and DG 80 series are excellent.

[CharlieO]

Let me place another vote for the Roland Blues Cube.

I own one, and I'll never need anything more than this. When the Blues Cube series was new, there were plenty of naysayers who swore that the amps couldn't be any good, and they bad-rapped them in this forum and elsewhere on the internet. This interesting thing about their criticism was that most of these vocal critics had never even tried the amps.

For several years, the Roland BC amps were available both new and used at ridiculously cheap prices. If you check completed sales on eBay, it appears that those days are over, for good reason.

[porto leone]

any opinions for the Kustom Quad series (head, combo) or the Traynor DG-60r?

[JohnS]

+1 on the Fender M-80. Light, easy to carry, pretty bullet-proof.

[toadman]

Randall RG-80

[Al Watsky]

Pritchard. Is the best, most musical sounding SS amp IMO.
I've had most of the others, the Pritchard is just better.

[Tim Armstrong]

Originally Posted by JohnS

+1 on the Fender M-80. Light, easy to carry, pretty bullet-proof.

I remember in the late 80s/early 90s seeing those things everywhere!

But now I can't remember the last time I saw one!

Tim

[Shiro]

I used an early Line6 Flextone Plus for quite some time years ago. It sounded pretty darn good. I never really set it up to sound like anything else so I had nothing to complain about. I set up channel one for the cleanest sound and each channel in line, a bit dirtier.I suppose the effects where the best part of that amp.It could keep you entertained (and confused) for days.

[petebradt]

in my opinion, for anything but Jazz or Pedal Steel, there are no good solid state amps. And even Jazz and Steel sound better through the right tube amp.

[tiktok]

Originally Posted by Tim Armstrong

I remember in the late 80s/early 90s seeing those things everywhere!

But now I can't remember the last time I saw one!

I don't consider myself "Gear Vain", but if that amp was the best sounding thing I'd ever plugged into, I'd still look into replacing the cab with something else. Anything else. Yech.