Solid State or Tube ??

Maybe this isn't too silly of a question, but does anyone prefer solid state over tube amps? If so, why?

I remember inthe 80's - 90's it seems everybody wanted solid state and as many watts as possible. You almost couldn't GIVE a tube amp away to most folks back then.

Of course, now things have swung back the other way and tubes are once again king...

But some folks I'm sure are still die hard solid state players. It'd be interesting to hear your stories.

They each have their benefits. You really cant beat the portability and convenience of a solid state amp, but tube amps just produce sounds like no other. They both have their benefits that shine through at different times. I for one always want to have at least one of each.

I second at least one of each.

Yeah, me too...I was just wondering why those who prefer solid state over tube, do so.

Solid states work great at low volume. I have a 90's Princeton Chorus (USA made pre-DSP) that has great tones. They are also generally cheaper and you don't have to mess with tubes.

The problem these days, is most companies are putting their ss resources into digital modeling solutions. Good pure analog ss amps are still out there like the Pathfinder but they are few and far between compared to the 80s.

Edit: and I do have one of both. Just picked up a Classic 30 to go with my Princeton. :mrgreen:

i really like the sound of the fender champion 110 ss amp, 25 watts, 10" speaker. some time back they changed the name of this model to frontman, but it's the same amp.

gets really great fender clean tones. light and portable. fender spring reverb. 3-band eq, bass, middle, treble. very inexpensive, can be had for less than $125, sometimes on sale for $99. i use an overdrive pedal that gets a great drive/tube tone when i want it.

i acknowledge there are specific tones or sounds that only a specific model of tube amp can get. but i don't want to buy a marshall stack for that one marshall sound, and a vox ac30 for that one vox sound, and a fender bassman for that one bassman sound, etc.

for me the champion 110 ss plus my overdrive pedal covers a whole lot of bases, and covers them really well. rather than collect a bunch of different tube amps that each get a single signature sound, i prefer one light, affordable, great sounding ss amp that does a whole lot of different things well depending on which guitar i use, whether i use the overdrive, how i set the amp, etc.

i'm thinking of getting a second ss amp, a vox pathfinder. same premise as the fender champion 110: light, portable, affordable, killer sound and works great across a wide range of styles.

so yeah, i prefer ss amps. small, low-power ss amps, to boot.

If there were a tube amp that sounded like a Polytone Mini-Brute...

There are a lot of good SS amps available today such as the Peavey Bandit 112TT and even it's little brother, the Envoy 110.

While I love the tone and dimension of a professional tube amplifier, sometimes good things can be had with SS. Heck, the Roland Jazz Chorus is one SS amp I'd choose over many tube amps. If you're a clean freak like me, sometimes SS is the right choice when weighing the costs.

I'm not a die hard player of either SS or Tube. I like having one of each... and a hybrid. Solid State doesn't inherently sound good or bad to me, but a bad one can sound horrible. The same holds true for tube amps. There have been some that just don't sound as good as a decent solid state amp.

Cost, reliability and portability weigh heavy in favor of solid state and if it weren't for those factors I would only use hand wired tube amps.

I'll be the first to admit it...I personally PREFER solid state amps.
I've tried tubes, I've owned tubes, and I just prefer the sparking cleans I can get with a low noise, less hissy, maintenence free, cheaper, lighter solid state..

there. I said it.

They sound good at low volume, and high volume. My main amp is a older Fender Dynatouch series. The Princeton 650. It's a 65w with a closed back and a 12" celestian speaker.
Sounds good with several flavors of clean. Sounds good with my hollowbodies for fingerpicking, sounds good with my tele for clean Honky Tonk kinda' sound, sounds good with my Pedal Steel. Very versatile eq system. The DX effects...are 'eh? But the Reverbs aren't bad.

Also have an older solid State Kustom 30 watt with a 10" speaker that's a killer.

Like I said, I tried Tubes, and for clean sparkle spanky..'eh? Not for me.

If I want dirt, I got boxes for that. It's easy to make a good clean amp dirty...try getting good cleans out of an amp that has a good dirt sound...not as easy.

I'm also old enough to remember when Lots of players wanted solid state..

JMO.

solid state for me-- i need clean, as loud as i have to play, and i like small and light.

I use both. Different tools for different jobs.

I like SS sometimes if I need to be really loud, and really clean. Tube amps can't compete with SS in the headroom to size/weight ratio department.

I also like a good SS amp for it's consistency. When you turn up a tube amp, everything changes. Even with a high headroom amp like a Twin Reverb, when you crank it, the tone changes and it compresses. With a good SS amp, my tone stays the same, no matter what my volume needs to do.

I also like SS amps for the clean and punchy low end they are capable of. I have never found a tube amp that will do low end like a high wattage SS amp will. The lows always fall apart at high voumes. I hate the fart and splat.


All of that said, I like tube amps too. Sometimes nothing else will do. If I want an amp to naturally break-up, some SS'ers will do it pretty well, but not like a good tube amp. And in a situation where you want an amp to break up and compress at low to moderate volumes, you need a good tube amp.

I have some of each, and use them both regularly. All depends on the gig.

I even use one modeling amp- A Roland Cube-80X. Funny thing, I use it because it's kind of a best of both worlds compromise. I can set it to "Tweed", and use the seperate gain and master to get a nice warm overdrive that cleans up when I back off, like a tube amp, at pretty low volumes for small gigs. But, unlike using a tube amp that would be small enough to do those gigs, I get a nice full thick sound from utilizing 80 watts of power and a 12" speaker. Any tube amp that would get the overdrive I get out of this amp at restaurant gig volumes would be very low wattage and have a tiny speaker. It would sound thin and crappy to me. It certainly wouldn't have adequate low end for what I like. The Roland allows me to get big amp tone (or close enough) at low volumes. No tube amp could do what it does.

On the other hand, none of my SS amps will do what my Marshall does when I get onto a big stage. And I'm not aware of any I could buy that would.

I'll be the first to admit it...I personally PREFER solid state amps.
I've tried tubes, I've owned tubes, and I just prefer the sparking cleans I can get with a low noise, less hissy, maintenence free, cheaper, lighter solid state..

there. I said it.

They sound good at low volume, and high volume. My main amp is a older Fender Dynatouch series. The Princeton 650. It's a 65w with a closed back and a 12" celestian speaker.
Sounds good with several flavors of clean. Sounds good with my hollowbodies for fingerpicking, sounds good with my tele for clean Honky Tonk kinda' sound, sounds good with my Pedal Steel. Very versatile eq system. The DX effects...are 'eh? But the Reverbs aren't bad.

Also have an older solid State Kustom 30 watt with a 10" speaker that's a killer.

Like I said, I tried Tubes, and for clean sparkle spanky..'eh? Not for me.

If I want dirt, I got boxes for that. It's easy to make a good clean amp dirty...try getting good cleans out of an amp that has a good dirt sound...not as easy.

I'm also old enough to remember when Lots of players wanted solid state..

JMO.

solid state for me-- i need clean, as loud as i have to play, and i like small and light.

I knew you guys were out there somewhere :grin:

I'm a tube fan and I own, as well as have access to, several models but I grew up mainly with SS because that's what was "available" (except for the old faithful Fender 75 black face I used to own).

Lately I've been wondering about my tone. I've tweaked a lot of different things (from guitar caps, to tubes, to pedals, strings, etc...) and while there are some tones I love in my tube + Tele combinations, I'm starting to think I don't love all of it.

I almost hate to say this but there does seem to be something "safe" or "consistent" about playing through a solid state. So, I may look into some sort of SS amp to add to my arsenal...I don't know. (The ones I have now are old and have been thru the ringer and don't fare too well)

Thanks for all your input(s) and any other input or opinions would sure be welcomed!

Although I prefer the sound of tube amps I often find solid states much more pracitcal...

Depends on what day of the week you ask me!

To a great degree, I prefer the higher headroom clean tones of solid state amps. Especially considering the vast majority of the time I'm playing at bedroom levels which would require a stomp box for grit on a tube amp anyway.

That being said, there is a charm in the compression of tube amps on the verge of breaking up which IMHO is the only area at which a tube amps kill ss amps. Once you move into the higher gain realm, it's back to my ss pedals to a great degree (though I've been loving the limited time cranking up the special 6 to the max). And IMHO, if you're feeding ss pedals into a tube amp (unless used as a boost only to break up the your tube amp) you're really playing a hybridized setup relying heavily on ss tone anyway...

I'm also old enough to remember when tube supply was scarce before the big shift to Chinese and Russian tubes when a ton of players were playing solid state stuff. Likely the pendulum will swing back again. Many of the youth of today are listening to bands like Muse, Radiohead, and Phoenix who aren't creating traditional guitar tones. the next generation may seek something much more progressive tonally than us...

Yeah, hybrid amps muddy the water :lol:

And these days most hybrid amps have a single preamp tube, while back in the '80s the hybrid story was a SS preamp and power tubes. Go figger.

I have both tube and SS amps, but I use them all the same way: clean. I get all my dirt from pedals. I use the SS amps because they are inexpensive, easily replaceable, reliable, and sound good. I use the tube amps that I have for basically the same reasons. I just like the 410 HRDeVille for its particular vibe, or the Peavey Classic 30 for its inherent mojo.

Not just any SS will do. I have a Peavey Bandit 75 with an EV Force 12 that is my primary gigging amp, a Yamaha G100112III (GREAT jazz amp) at the rehearsal space, and a Transtube Bandit at the church. This reduces amp haul and back pain.

I play SS amps, not by choice but because of the cost. There's a huge contrast-- with tube amps being so popular these days and with a big DIY community that will buy up old ones for restoration, modification, or even parts, there's no such thing as a dirt cheap tube amp. Forget about a cheap tube amp with some power. Solid state amps? You can get something that works and puts out as much power as you need for next to nothing, if needed toss an equally next-to-nothing level pedal in front of it... passable tone, hopefully, for cheap.

Now I understand the popularity, especially within DIY restoration and custom building circles. I've experimented with making smaller tube effects boxes and that kind of thing, and I love the sounds you can get out of them. On top of that I love the tweak-ability-- no computer circuits in there, and most tube amps use relatively simple circuits. Trying different transistors and cap values in a solid state amp? Nope! But with tubes, there is usually potential for great sound and always a way to tweak it to make it your own.

Having said all that... the cost is just prohibitive to me and many others. I speculate that owning a tube amp would drive me crazy, as well, without the potential for consistent tone at any volume you choose. My playing goes from my room to a slightly bigger basement, to a little bit bigger living room, to occasionally a stage in a small-ish venue-- neither a tube amp that was a dedicated low power/low volume design nor powerful enough to play a mid-sized show would really fit my needs. Getting more than one tube amp for gigs vs. bedroom level volume brings up the issue of cost again and of course size and weight.
I love tube amps... but I don't play through one. Some day I will because I love really good tone as much as the next guy, but at this time the cost and lack of versatility makes those benefits not worth it.

people who play solid state because of the cost tend not to like them. people who play solid state because they need what they can do will tell you "from my cold, dead, hands..."

I've said it before so here I go sayin' it again..Of course I havn't played through EVERY ss amp ever built but of the ones that I have the Peavey Session 500 and the Roland Jazz Chorus are the only ones that have impressed me.I have a small Peavey ss amp that I use on my bench for testing my guitar work.It stays in my work room and as soon as I'm done with a guitar I take it into my studio and plug it in to a TUBE amp.[nuff said]..

For tone... tubes.

For practice, portability, or variety... transistors.

The guitarist for Black Flag, Greg Ginn, thought that tubes gave a more rounded tone, but what he wanted was a sharp, angular, abrasive tone, so he played solid state. Plays, for all I know.

I have an amp. I can't afford another. I'm happy with what I have.

My solid state Princeton 112 doesn't sound great in a lot of places, but in other places it does. It depends on the room, I guess. I was ready to buy a tube amp after many years without one, then I where I started playing made my old SS sound real good!! I don't see any need to buy the Deluxe, Princeton tube amp or Blues Jr. I'd been thinking about. I'd still love to have one, but as long as I'm playing this room, no need.....weird.

I think it depends wholly on what type of tone you're after. SS does 'clean' a whole lot better than valve does, especially LOUD clean. SS also does abrupt, in-your-face, attacking metal tones extremely well. If those types of tones are what you're after, then SS is definitely the way to go, as while valves can be made to produce those tones, the resulting amps would be big, heavy and extremely expensive.

An example would be BigDaddyLH's dream of a valve powered equivalent to a Polytone Mini Brute. It would be fairly easy to build a valve amp that sounded virtually identical to a MB. A suitable preamp design feeding into a power amp consisting of 6x KT88's into a suitable hi-fi spec ultra-linear output transformer. Power it with a well regulated power supply, about 700v on the plates, SS rectified. Easy. The only problem comes when you realise that each of the transformers weigh roughly twice what the polytone does, and for that matter are roughly the same size as the polytone. Oh, and transformers for this sort of thing? Almost certain that they would have to be custom ordered, and would most definitely not be cheap...

BUT.

If you're after any form of rootsy "rock" tone, that greasy, just on the edge of breakup, not-quite-clean-but-not-really-dirty tone heard on a million records from the '50s onwards, then that's what valves are for.

Without going into a dissertation on (1)the mechanics of valve distortion dynamics Vs transistor distortion dynamics, (2)valve rectifiers and their interaction with the amplifiers they power, and (3)the interaction of (1)+(2) as percieved by the human ear and brain, I'll just say that for certain tones, there is nothing that has (yet) been developed that can adequately replace a valve amp. Likewise, there are also tones that can only be had from a solid-state amp, tones that no valve amp would be capable of producing. I have no doubt that there are (or at least will be) tones that can only be produced by digital manipulation and recording direct to computer memory.

It's horses for courses. Some want/need tones best produced by SS. Others want/need tones best produced by valves. Each to their own, there is no right or wrong...

... G

EDIT:- On further thought, there already is a pretty similar amp to the one described above. It's the Ampeg SVT.:wink:

it seems to me that i when i play a solid state amp for a while i become used to the tone...after a couple months i start thinkin "hmm...this is a decent tone!"

then i go home...plug into my old tube amps and i remember...now THATS good!!

SS amps are consistent, clean, sterile...predictable.

tube amps are alive...warm...slightly unpredictable (i play silvertones almost exclusively), but most of all they are flexible and repairable.

Solid states are hard and expensive to fix and they have one sound. if you want another sound you need another SS amp. somethin fries in a tube amp, and any competent tech can fix it...you want a different sound...swap the tubes.

ill never part with tubes.

plus...look how cool they look!!

http://ropeadope.com/images/uploads/news_images/ab_tube_amp.jpg

compared to...

http://blog.makezine.com/lm3886AudioAmp.jpg

bleah!

ss but not alot of digital stuff

I think it depends wholly on what type of tone you're after...

...It's horses for courses. Some want/need tones best produced by SS. Others want/need tones best produced by valves. Each to their own, there is no right or wrong...

:

And we have a winner!

I know I'm a big proponent of SS here on this board, but without resorting to any "this is better than that," I always shake my head when people say things like "I had a 15 watt crate solid state amp, and it sucked, tubes are where it's at!"

And we have a winner!

I know I'm a big proponent of SS here on this board, but without resorting to any "this is better than that," I always shake my head when people say things like "I had a 15 watt crate solid state amp, and it sucked, tubes are where it's at!"

Agreed. If you're gonna compare tube w/ ss, then get this guy into the mix and watch the clean freaks drool...

http://www.fender.com/themes/products/images/prod_images/amplifiers/2277000000_md.jpg

SS amps are consistent, clean, sterile...predictable.

consistent and predicatable, perhaps. clean and sterile, as a rule, all the time? dunno about that. maybe some ss amps are always only clean and sterile. i've found that to be true on ss amps of 35 watts and up. there's just too much clean headroom, you can never get the speaker to drive before it gets too loud to tolerate. but some ss amps can sound warm and drive just fine. get a low-watt ss amp and you can drive the speaker hard just like a tube amp. the speaker doesn't know whether the driving force is coming from tubes or chips. lots of tube guys say that much of the warmth of their sound comes from driving the speaker hard, which you can do with a ss amp. i acknowledge that tubes are inherently warmer, do the sag and compression thing, etc. i'm just saying it's not 100% correct to say that every ss amp is only clean and sterile. a low-watt ss amp can get nice and warm and growly when driven hard. and speaker choice can help add warmth and drive to a ss amp.

Solid states... have one sound. if you want another sound you need another SS amp... in a tube amp... you want a different sound...swap the tubes.

i dunno about this assertion, either. you want a different sound from a ss amp, change guitars. my champion 110 sparkles, chimes and twangs when i set the tone controls one way and play my tele, but it drives and gets darker and growls warmly when i set the tone controls another way and play my p90 gibson lp jr. want to change sound some more? change the speaker. as noted above, choosing an appropriate speaker is a good way to add warmth, early breakup and growl/drive to a ss amp. or you can choose a speaker to accentuate tight, clean tones if that's what you like. plus you can always add a drive or eq pedal. i find a low-watt ss amp with the right speaker to be capable of a wide range of tones from clean to dirty, sparkly to growly.

I was also one of those people who preferred the less traditional sound of the solid state amps in the late 80's early 90's. I was very much into Robert Fripp's more "electronic" clean guitar sounds and distortions that sounded like they were coming from a synthesizer. I got these tones in spades from my Peavey Special and a slew of pedals. Interestingly, to me anyway, it wasn't until I decided I needed my delays, choruses and harmonizers to be running in stereo that I ended up with a tube amp. While shopping for a second combo amp for my stereo rig I stumbled across a Twin Reverb II 105W with JBL E-120s. Possible the perfect tube amp counter part to my 130W peavey. Clean, loud and fairly inert.

I bought the Twin that day (Well, my girlfriend bought for me) and I left it at the shop for the tech to bias and clean it up for me. The day I went to pick it up they had just received in a Yamaha G100 212. I played the Yamaha for quite sometime while they finished up paper work on the Twin. I can honestly say that had the Yamaha been in the shop the day I bought the Twin, I would be playing through the Yamaha today. Either way, my back would still hurt.

...want to change sound some more? change the speaker. as noted above, choosing an appropriate speaker is a good way to add warmth, early breakup and growl/drive to a ss amp. or you can choose a speaker to accentuate tight, clean tones if that's what you like...

Well put. I've had a JBL E-120, a Celestion G12T and the original Scorpion speaker in my Peavey 130 and it sounds like 3 different amplifiers. The g12 is a 75 watt and gets tasty break up on the clean channel when pushed. I don't push it much for fear of blowing the speaker, but it sounds very "tuby" when I do and it LOVES a Rat pedal. The JBL was insane clean and loud as the Almighty and there was no 'pushing' that speaker at all. Very big clean country twang until you couldn't stand it. The Scorpion was a rock and roll speaker. Not as clean as the JBL, not as dirty as the G12. It liked pedals more than the other 2 speakers through this amp. Sadly the Scorpion bit the dust many moons ago.

My question (and not a provocation) is that whenever I've used SS amps (Fenders and Roland) live, they'd start out a set sounding fine, but after a hour or so of hard playing, they'd get harsh and brittle sounding, while my tube amps always got better as the set wore on. Has anyone else noticed this? Is this a cooling issue?

consistent and predicatable, perhaps. clean and sterile, as a rule, all the time? dunno about that. maybe some ss amps are always only clean and sterile. i've found that to be true on ss amps of 35 watts and up. there's just too much clean headroom, you can never get the speaker to drive before it gets too loud to tolerate. but some ss amps can sound warm and drive just fine. get a low-watt ss amp and you can drive the speaker hard just like a tube amp.

i dunno about this assertion, either. you want a different sound from a ss amp, change guitars. my champion 110 sparkles, chimes and twangs when i set the tone controls one way and play my tele, but it drives and gets darker and growls warmly when i set the tone controls another way and play my p90 gibson lp jr. want to change sound some more? change the speaker. as noted above, choosing an appropriate speaker is a good way to add warmth, early breakup and growl/drive to a ss amp. or you can choose a speaker to accentuate tight, clean tones if that's what you like. plus you can always add a drive or eq pedal. i find a low-watt ss amp with the right speaker to be capable of a wide range of tones from clean to dirty, sparkly to growly.


Agreed on these points.

I got my hands on a new Peavey Bandit 112TT which sounded fantastic at non-household volumes but trying to control it late at night was nearly impossible. 80 watts, pretty solid driver and an oversized cabinet and that thing was LOUD. At gig volumes, I'd take one all day but at home, trying to get it under control, it was tough. However, for the price of the great Blues Jr., you could get a Bandit and an Envoy. One for home and one for gigs. Both with very similar voicings.

On the 2nd point, I also agree. I don't think SS amps are sterile unless they're designed to be. For the past 40+ years, manufacturers have been designing a lot of different, unique SS circuits that have lots of character. And again, in most cases if your desire is big cleans, I feel they're the way to go. (and now I'm GASsing.... thanks)

How about both?
My Fender super champ xd sounds alot like an old musicman amp I used to own. :smile: Great clean tones!

I have an old Sears Silvertone Solid State 150 that sounds great for clean tones, has two channels, four inputs, reverb and trem, and SIX Ten inch Jensens that still sound great. I did rebuild the cab years ago and made two speaker cabs out of Poplar. I like tube amps, too, but this works works great with effects and you can get any Twang you want! Keep Twangin'!!!!!

I like tubes but Ive heard some great solid state amps!

BTW I dont recall in the 90s when everyone wanted solid state...I must have been asleep when that happened. I remember everyone wanting jcm 800s to play teh punk rocks or jcm 900 or mesa boogies for teh brootz

I have both. For punchy cleans and for leaving it at the rehearsal place I use a Carvin SX200H head through and old 112 cabinet and a tubescreamer. But nothing beats the tone out of my 1965 Fender Blackface Princeton or '59 Bassman Reissue. There is an organic warmth to the Princeton that just speaks to me in a very musical way. But the Carvin is light and sounds good for what it is. Old Fender tube amps have been the most dependable amps I have ever used working night after night on the road even when dropped out of the back of trucks. I have had some solid state amps stop working though. Good quality tubes do affect the sound of a tube amp though and are worth the slightly higher price. They do not have to be NOS. Most of the sound is in the hands but a good amp can really help inspire the player. I prefer tubes but would not turn down a good SS amp either. Both are quite valid for what we do. Have fun, Wayne

The guitarist for Black Flag, Greg Ginn, thought that tubes gave a more rounded tone, but what he wanted was a sharp, angular, abrasive tone, so he played solid state. Plays, for all I know.

I have an amp. I can't afford another. I'm happy with what I have.

from what i can gather, he still does. and no effects, either.

one of his long time techs/friends posted something to another board recently about his setup.

greg ginn's tone is pretty amazing.

It all boils down to tone and what sounds best to YOU.

I've heard some SS amps that sound very natural and warm. Plus, SS amps don't have the associated recurring cost of new tubes and are generally lighter in weight.

On the other hand, it's difficult to duplicate the musical sound of power tube saturation.

consistent and predicatable, perhaps. clean and sterile, as a rule, all the time? dunno about that. maybe some ss amps are always only clean and sterile. i've found that to be true on ss amps of 35 watts and up. there's just too much clean headroom, you can never get the speaker to drive before it gets too loud to tolerate. but some ss amps can sound warm and drive just fine. get a low-watt ss amp and you can drive the speaker hard just like a tube amp. the speaker doesn't know whether the driving force is coming from tubes or chips. lots of tube guys say that much of the warmth of their sound comes from driving the speaker hard, which you can do with a ss amp. i acknowledge that tubes are inherently warmer, do the sag and compression thing, etc. i'm just saying it's not 100% correct to say that every ss amp is only clean and sterile. a low-watt ss amp can get nice and warm and growly when driven hard. and speaker choice can help add warmth and drive to a ss amp.

obviously...this is completely opinionated, so im not going to convince you. but a lot of the sound of a driven tube amp (to me) is power tube saturation. thats where the real warm "tube" sound comes from. for instance...one of my favorite sounds is my silvertone 1483 thru a 1x12 cab loaded with a weber california (JBL d120 clone). now that 20 watt amp will not drive that speaker hard enough to distort...but at 10 i get the best overdrive ive ever heard. thats the tube sound.

i dunno about this assertion, either. you want a different sound from a ss amp, change guitars. my champion 110 sparkles, chimes and twangs when i set the tone controls one way and play my tele, but it drives and gets darker and growls warmly when i set the tone controls another way and play my p90 gibson lp jr. want to change sound some more? change the speaker. as noted above, choosing an appropriate speaker is a good way to add warmth, early breakup and growl/drive to a ss amp. or you can choose a speaker to accentuate tight, clean tones if that's what you like. plus you can always add a drive or eq pedal. i find a low-watt ss amp with the right speaker to be capable of a wide range of tones from clean to dirty, sparkly to growly.

i didnt mean to imply that you couldnt use other guitars...or use pedals...but when i think of the tone equation (guitar+ pedals + amp) i view them as separate entities. if someone was arguing about single coils vs. humbuckers i wouldn't say "change your amp!"

and if you change the speaker in a tube amp...id argue that the tone changes even more. the dynamics of tubes are more versatile...and it will bring out more of the speakers character

ive said my piece...ill never go back to solid state, but diffrnt strokes.

and so on, and so on, and scooby dooby dooby.

ive said my piece...ill never go back to solid state, but diffrnt strokes.


exactly!

You won't go back to Solid State because solid state isn't good at getting the tone you need.

If I tried to pound in a nail with a screwdriver, I bet I'd be dissapointed.

obviously...this is completely opinionated, so im not going to convince you.

of course it's opinionated. the OP didn't ask people to debate the topic, he wanted to hear from folks who prefer ss amps. i merely complied and stated why i prefer ss. what is there to convince me of? i never said ss was better or right, i never said tubes were worse or wrong.

a lot of the sound of a driven tube amp (to me) is power tube saturation.

that's completely opinionated, too. you even include "to me" as an indicator that it's your opinion. nothing wrong with that. heck, i agree with you. i also prefer ss. of COURSE we're dealing with personal opinions here. nothing wrong with that.

one of my favorite sounds is my silvertone 1483 thru a 1x12 cab...

again, your opinion, which you express as "one of MY favorite sounds is MY silvertone." nothing wrong with that. one of my favorite sounds is my ss champion 110. let's both go home tonight, play 'em real loud and smile.

ive said my piece...ill never go back to solid state

nor did anyone ask you to. it was never a debate. no one has been trying to convince anyone of anything.

the OP wanted to hear what ss folks think is so good about ss. several folks offered their opinions. nothing wrong with that.

dang....didn't mean to get a ruckus started :oops: you'd think I came on here and said "rasslin' is fake!!!" :grin:

Thanks for all the input though...

tube vs. solid state invariably starts something, no matter how clearly you word it in your OP that it'snot about "what's better."

for the record, your OP was pretty damn clear.:mrgreen:

sorry i got carried away folks...

...i need to save my rants for the relics vs. non-relic threads

:wink:

FWIW, no sweat JB, I really didn't think your post was too out of line...like I said, your tone needs tubes. I don't think there's anything wrong with coming to the conclusion that something's just "right" or "wrong" for you personally.

here, I'll say it--semi hollow guitars do nothing for me. If you gave me a minty fresh 335 tomorrow, I'd hock it on ebay and look for a 330. That's just me...the world keeps turning:mrgreen:

like you said, different strokes!

I gotta tell ya;
I recently decided to sell my USA (SS) Princeton Chorus,for cheap. It was in the classifieds and no one bit. I was going to use the $ from the sale towards a new Mesa Express Combo or Rivera Chubster.

After reading the thread this morning, I took my trusty AV52Thin Skin upstairs, plugged into the PC, dimed the volume, treb,mid and bass and played for about an hour.
Went back and grabbed my 335 and repeated said task.

Bottom line, I am keeping the PC, gonna add a Blues Jr or Classic 30 and use the rest of my cash for a new Strat or Tele.

Thanks for the wake up call

Solid State - practice. Tube - recording.

Solid State - practice. Tube - recording.

Thats the way it works around my house.

"rasslin' is fake!!!" ...

oh you dun dun it now talkin bout rasslin!

That was hilarious, I will be creating situations to use that line tomorrow. Thanks for the laugh. :lol::lol::lol:

Can't get loud cleans with a tube amp? Mic it.

I suppose it depends on how you define clean.

Two Words = Tube Rattle

I just got sick of it. Prior to buying a ss amp, my last 3 amps were tube amps (including two boutique amp builders) and all had horrible rattles that could not be tamed. The Swart was so bad it could be heard while recording. I took it back to swap it and the other store model was also a mess. That was kind of the last straw.

I tried a few ss amps from Polytone to Peavey and found that if the reverb is good, they generally get very nice and full clean tones. That is pretty much what I want. A good, reliable, amp with a 12" speaker and nice reverb is about all I need. SS fits that bill to a T.

I gotta tell ya;
I recently decided to sell my USA (SS) Princeton Chorus,for cheap. It was in the classifieds and no one bit. I was going to use the $ from the sale towards a new Mesa Express Combo or Rivera Chubster.

After reading the thread this morning, I took my trusty AV52Thin Skin upstairs, plugged into the PC, dimed the volume, treb,mid and bass and played for about an hour.
Went back and grabbed my 335 and repeated said task.

Bottom line, I am keeping the PC, gonna add a Blues Jr or Classic 30 and use the rest of my cash for a new Strat or Tele.

Thanks for the wake up call

I was in the same boat. But I have also found a new fondness for my PC as well.

However, I couldn't fight the GAS and have a Classic 30 sitting beside it now. :smile:

Solid State - practice. Tube - recording.



Recording vs. practice (or even gigging) is a good acid test for which side of the fence we fall on in tubes vs. ss.

When it come to recording what I consider to be MY sound, when volume, weight and maintenance are all taken out of the equation - its tubes for me. At home, I try to practice with my Twin Reverb II as much as I can get away with. I just don't take it to gigs or band practice most of the time because of the weight.

Can't get loud cleans with a tube amp? Mic it.

I suppose it depends on how you define clean.


Not always practical. I won't be lugging a PA on the subway to my next martini bar gig. I'll have a solid state amp in a shoulder bag.

Like I said, there's just things that solid state amps are better for, and things tubes are better for...

how about another metaphor? Ever come home from work on a warm day wanting a beer, and you open the fridge and there's nothing but orange juice?

Or open a fridge on a Sunday morning to find out you're out of OJ, but there's plenty of beer?

okay, bad metaphor, beer's always good...

Solid Steak or Tube Steak?

I do prefer solid state amps because I don't like the "sponginess" of a tube amp. Ss amps have a much sharper attack, wich I like.
I must add that, in my experience, if you add pedals like compressor and overdrive to the signal chain the differences between the two thin out a lot.

Solid Steak or Tube Steak?
Cheese.

Not always practical. I won't be lugging a PA on the subway to my next martini bar gig. I'll have a solid state amp in a shoulder bag.

Like I said, there's just things that solid state amps are better for, and things tubes are better for...

how about another metaphor? Ever come home from work on a warm day wanting a beer, and you open the fridge and there's nothing but orange juice?

Or open a fridge on a Sunday morning to find out you're out of OJ, but there's plenty of beer?

okay, bad metaphor, beer's always good...


My beer's always gone by Sunday morning.

I play through a 59 bassman ltd, and have always used tube amps..I tried a Carvin and a Roland, and didn't like them...I wanted to get another medium sized amp as a back up, but I didn't want to maintain another tube amp..I heard a lot of good things about the bandit so I bought one..300.00..I must say that I'm really liking it...Loaded with features...I have found in the past that where S.S. amps were lacking was not in the overdrive mode but in the transition mode where it just starts to clip a little..Well to me the Bandit sounds pretty good and I was a diehard tube guy...It's still only used in my living room but it's there if I need it at a gig..

Two Words = Tube Rattle

I just got sick of it. Prior to buying a ss amp, my last 3 amps were tube amps (including two boutique amp builders) and all had horrible rattles that could not be tamed. The Swart was so bad it could be heard while recording. I took it back to swap it and the other store model was also a mess. That was kind of the last straw.

I tried a few ss amps from Polytone to Peavey and found that if the reverb is good, they generally get very nice and full clean tones. That is pretty much what I want. A good, reliable, amp with a 12" speaker and nice reverb is about all I need. SS fits that bill to a T.

+1

I do like the clean channel of SS amps. But when I had my Fender M-80, I found myself using many pedals so I can get that "tube" sound, i.e. compressor, eq, overdrive, etc.

I've hardly used any of these pedals since I've had my Peavey Delta Blues that I bought 5 years ago.

I think that SS covers alot of clean ground maybe better than tube .Jazz is often much more soulful and deeper and still clean with SS because a tube amp tends to start breaking up quicker .Its really blues and rock where that tube sound is just not there on SS ,It may sound good in ss but not as good as great tube breakup .
Well thats that problem sorted ,but now to sort out British politics ???????.any questions?

A big part of it is retro/ trendy, snob appeal. I will say, for a clean sound some SS amps sound great. There are quite a few Peaveys out there for well under $200 that get excellent clean tones.
But nothing beats a good tube amp turned up to 6-8.

The "classic" tube amps are classics for a reason. You don't hear Univox mentioned in the same context as Marshall and Fender. The old stuff is the good stuff, they sound great and they last forever. A tube backline comes out of the roadcases ready to roll gig after gig. The stuff that breaks on tube amps is generally repairable.

Analog SS is generally not built as rugged as it should be. A lot of guitar amps get beat. If you can't beat it you probably shouldn't depend on it.

Digital i.e. modeling amps have planned obsolesence built in. Sure, you can download updates as long as that platform is supported. It's easy to fix an old tube amp from a defunct manufacturer, let's see what happens if some of these modeling companies go belly up. The answer to that one is obvious to anyonbe who works on vintage keyboards.

The "classic" tube amps are classics for a reason. You don't hear Univox mentioned in the same context as Marshall and Fender. The old stuff is the good stuff, they sound great and they last forever. A tube backline comes out of the roadcases ready to roll gig after gig. The stuff that breaks on tube amps is generally repairable.

Analog SS is generally not built as rugged as it should be. A lot of guitar amps get beat. If you can't beat it you probably shouldn't depend on it.

Digital i.e. modeling amps have planned obsolesence built in. Sure, you can download updates as long as that platform is supported. It's easy to fix an old tube amp from a defunct manufacturer, let's see what happens if some of these modeling companies go belly up. The answer to that one is obvious to anyonbe who works on vintage keyboards.

Agreed. However, for better or for worse, those modelling amps are designed to be replaceable and built to a price point that makes them in some cases almost disposable.

I'm just now back from a gig in a local pub where I used my Roland Cube 60. It's a guitar duo with my partner playing acoustic and singing and me on a 335. Everything from country to blues to surf to folk to rock and roll. I have 2 small tube amps (blues junior and a fame gta-15) which work fantastic in a full band but for this little duo I find my Cube 60 works way better. I can get an excellent plug-in-and-play tone on the blackface setting and use it at any reasonable volume.

I've also used the Cube 60 for a few low volume full band gigs and it was fine there as well. Just a lead straight into the amp and I was happy all night.

But I find with the Cube 60...and other tranny amps I've used...that at higher volumes they don't 'feel' good and they get sort of rough sounding. Tube amps seem to get better when you push 'em. Tranny amps just sound like they are struggling.


So IMO it's a good tranny for low volume cleans, and tubes if I want to dig in and wail with a band.

^yep, it totally depends on the gig. On a small, low volume gig, SS is the better option a lot of times. I have a couple tube amps I'll use on a blues, rock or more rockin country gig, but I've found myself using my yamaha SS amp for all my loud and clean gigs. It just sounds really, really good for funk and R&B.

^yep, it totally depends on the gig. On a small, low volume gig, SS is the better option a lot of times. I have a couple tube amps I'll use on a blues, rock or more rockin country gig, but I've found myself using my yamaha SS amp for all my loud and clean gigs. It just sounds really, really good for funk and R&B.

What Yamaha SS amp is that?

^yep, it totally depends on the gig. On a small, low volume gig, SS is the better option a lot of times. I have a couple tube amps I'll use on a blues, rock or more rockin country gig, but I've found myself using my yamaha SS amp for all my loud and clean gigs. It just sounds really, really good for funk and R&B.

I've had the same experience over the years with my Yamaha G50112II, G100212II, G100112II, G100212III and G100112III. I still have the G100112III, and it still sounds like new. Loads of clean, warm headroom (much more than a Roland JC120), very flexible EQ, rock-solid construction, NEVER breaks or fails in any way, never deteriorates in tone. I sold all the others off many years ago, but I often still wish I had them. The only downside is that to get the solid construction, Yamaha made them heavy.

I have the G100 head and a little 2x10 cab. Even the head is heavy. I'm not saving any weight going with solid state, but this thing sounds better for my casino dance band than my matchless I used to have! Different amps for different purposes, I guess.

the roland jazz chorus makes some very, very pretty clean tones. it was definitely not for me the last time i played through one, but i respect it. it's just kind of big, heavy, and expensive for how much i'd actually use it.

if you want to sound like new order, that'd be a great go to amp.

Maybe this isn't too silly of a question, but does anyone prefer solid state over tube amps? If so, why?

It depends on the context. In a big band jazz setting, I prefer to use an SS amp. In a blues jam setting, I'll use a tube amp. We need to remember that the amp is just another tool that we use, and we need to learn when and where to use the tools that work best for us.