I honestly can't hear a difference between tube and solid state amps.

[brookdalebill]

33 pages!
Cool!

 

[wabashslim]

My personal experience with SS amps is that I can get decent to great cleans, but, with almost all of them, the distortion channels sound like an elephantine gaseous indiscretion, jumbo size. This was true of the Yamaha G 100 112 I used for years and the Roland JC amps I used later on.

I had one of those Yamahas. Using the parametric eq it was possible to find one or two usable semi-sweet spots on the distortion channel but both of those amps' distortions were only a gimmick to make them seem hip, not at all intended for use as real r&r amps. Those amps had other, better uses.

 

[El Tele Lobo]

One thing I don't really understand is why, in most tube vs solid state discussions, the quality of a solid state amplifier is measured by its ability to sound like a tube amplifier.

Isn't that funny?

That aside, it is my impression that the amount of processing effects - analog or digital - many players have in their signal chain influence the sound a lot more than the single parameter of amplification technology.

I imagine that’s why most of us have had that “a-ha” moment when we bypass our pedalboard and plug straight into an amplifier…

 

[King Fan]

OK, this thread's title keeps reminding me of the old joke about two Texans bragging up their ranches.

Rancher A: "My ranch is so big, it takes me all day to drive across it."

Rancher B: "Yeah, I had a truck like that once."

 

[schenkadere]

I have to say that your reference to the Yamaha G100-112 caught my eye.

Allan Holdsworth used Yamaha DG80-112 amps (and probably a DG1000 preamp) for the tracks on The Sixteen Men of Tain, and I think his lead sound on that album is possibly the warmest and smoothest of all, at least of the more recent ones.

While the DG series isn't as old as stuff like the G100, I think it's still worth mentioning that Allan recorded The Sixteen Men of Tain in the late 90s. Point being that it's good sounding SS gear that utilized technology that's now over two decades old.

He does have some nice tone on that album, but it's a difficult listen all the way through.

I wanted one of those DG amps in the worst way on the used market...they sounded amazing. I never found the right deal.

They also did a stomp box version.

 

[11 Gauge]

He does have some nice tone on that album, but it's a difficult listen all the way through.

Agreed on that. I mainly just listen on Spotify now, so it makes it easy to jump around. I can't really listen to any of his albums all the way through, in all honesty. That's probably due to the fact that I only listen to jazz maybe like 10% of the time, and actually probably just prefer mostly traditional stuff (mostly w/o guitar). Having said that, traditional jazz guitar with that dry neck pickup tone kind of gets old for me too, so Holdsworth and Scofield are kind of nice departures...in moderation.

Also, as cool as Holdsworth's lead tone is on The Sixteen Men of Tain, I also really like his clean tone, too. It doesn't really sound like chorus to me, so it was interesting to discover that he actually used a bunch of delays in series, and that's how he got that depth and richness to it. And somewhat specific to that album is that his clean sound is sort of like a Strat with bridge and middle pickups in parallel, but most of his guitars just had a bridge humbucker, and I don't recall ever seeing a switch for series/parallel, or anything like that. I've personally never been able to get a bridge humbucker to sound anything close that that!

I wanted one of those DG amps in the worst way on the used market...they sounded amazing. I never found the right deal.

They also did a stomp box version.

There's another forumite on here who mentioned going to some trouble to acquire multiple ones used. Given the fondness, it definitely piqued my curiosity, so there was a period when I would look out for used ones, hoping to luck into something that wasn't priced crazy. I never found anything, either.

I haven't really looked into the DG Stomp at much depth, assuming (possibly wrongly) that it would be missing all the bells and whistles that the amps had.

 

[schenkadere]

Agreed on that. I mainly just listen on Spotify now, so it makes it easy to jump around. I can't really listen to any of his albums all the way through, in all honesty. That's probably due to the fact that I only listen to jazz maybe like 10% of the time, and actually probably just prefer mostly traditional stuff (mostly w/o guitar). Having said that, traditional jazz guitar with that dry neck pickup tone kind of gets old for me too, so Holdsworth and Scofield are kind of nice departures...in moderation.

Also, as cool as Holdsworth's lead tone is on The Sixteen Men of Tain, I also really like his clean tone, too. It doesn't really sound like chorus to me, so it was interesting to discover that he actually used a bunch of delays in series, and that's how he got that depth and richness to it. And somewhat specific to that album is that his clean sound is sort of like a Strat with bridge and middle pickups in parallel, but most of his guitars just had a bridge humbucker, and I don't recall ever seeing a switch for series/parallel, or anything like that. I've personally never been able to get a bridge humbucker to sound anything close that that!



There's another forumite on here who mentioned going to some trouble to acquire multiple ones used. Given the fondness, it definitely piqued my curiosity, so there was a period when I would look out for used ones, hoping to luck into something that wasn't priced crazy. I never found anything, either.

I haven't really looked into the DG Stomp at much depth, assuming (possibly wrongly) that it would be missing all the bells and whistles that the amps had.

Yeah, the stomp didn't hold the same appeal for me. I really liked the 60 with the knobbies more than the 80 with the digital interface.

 

[brown2bob]

During the cold winter months, I can definitely feel more "warmth" created by my tube amp over my SS amp.

 

[summer_69]

During the cold winter months, I can definitely feel more "warmth" created by my tube amp over my SS amp.

Even more so with recent class D power stages.

 

[summer_69]

I imagine that’s why most of us have had that “a-ha” moment when we bypass our pedalboard and plug straight into an amplifier…

Yes.

 

[printer2]

Just to stir things up a little.

 

[brookdalebill]

Just to stir things up a little.

So, tone is in the tail?

 

[brown2bob]

So, tone is in the tail?

I need a tail now! Does Sweetwater carry them?

 

[Mr Perch]

I imagine that’s why most of us have had that “a-ha” moment when we bypass our pedalboard and plug straight into an amplifier…

 

[Bass Butcher]

Dang! I was prepared to concede that the actual tube amp sounded better. But the one I thought was the tube amp was the Tonemaster (digital).

You are not hearing the amps. You are hearing the amps through your digital audio processor after they have been digitally recorded (good-bye analog warmth), and then digitally reconfigured by youtube's audio processing bot. The actual sound of the amps (bastardized in the case of the analog amp), has been modified not once, but three times by the time the signal hit the speakers...

 

[Bass Butcher]

The underappreciated Joyo Bantamps have been doing that for a while now. 20 watts analog Class D with a 12ax7 in the preamp. In the photo, I'm sending it to a couple EL 84s but it's own power amp sounds great.
View attachment 1041779

I am a Joyo fan. Great bang for your buck.

 

[Bass Butcher]

He does have some nice tone on that album, but it's a difficult listen all the way through.

I wanted one of those DG amps in the worst way on the used market...they sounded amazing. I never found the right deal.

They also did a stomp box version.

Agreed on that. I mainly just listen on Spotify now, so it makes it easy to jump around. I can't really listen to any of his albums all the way through, in all honesty. That's probably due to the fact that I only listen to jazz maybe like 10% of the time, and actually probably just prefer mostly traditional stuff (mostly w/o guitar). Having said that, traditional jazz guitar with that dry neck pickup tone kind of gets old for me too, so Holdsworth and Scofield are kind of nice departures...in moderation.

Also, as cool as Holdsworth's lead tone is on The Sixteen Men of Tain, I also really like his clean tone, too. It doesn't really sound like chorus to me, so it was interesting to discover that he actually used a bunch of delays in series, and that's how he got that depth and richness to it. And somewhat specific to that album is that his clean sound is sort of like a Strat with bridge and middle pickups in parallel, but most of his guitars just had a bridge humbucker, and I don't recall ever seeing a switch for series/parallel, or anything like that. I've personally never been able to get a bridge humbucker to sound anything close that that!



There's another forumite on here who mentioned going to some trouble to acquire multiple ones used. Given the fondness, it definitely piqued my curiosity, so there was a period when I would look out for used ones, hoping to luck into something that wasn't priced crazy. I never found anything, either.

I haven't really looked into the DG Stomp at much depth, assuming (possibly wrongly) that it would be missing all the bells and whistles that the amps had.

The DG Stomp (the granddaddy of all DSP preamps and effects units), predates the amp versions and has all of the same "bells and whistles" as the DG-80 amp, quite a bit more than the DG-60.
The effects are world class, the preamps are noticeably ss and take some effort to squeeze some warmth out of, so I generally disable the pre section and just use the effects. Well worth the average used price though, if the internal battery is still good.
Holdsworth used up to four of them simultaneously for recording and performing live. He had a stand made for them for easier access to the controls instead of putting them on the floor.
He is using two on this gig, they are just to his left...

 

[Bass Butcher]

I have no difficulty at all hearing the 'difference' between these two amps, even though the ss one is touring quality and about as good as ss gets, including the drive/saturation.

 

[Bucster752]

A good explanation of some of the differences........Tubes v. Transistors

 

[printer2]

A good explanation of some of the differences........Tubes v. Transistors

Says the seller of tubes.