Aren't solid state amps brilliant

mbe

No more waiting for the valves to heat up and cool runnings in hot weather in the practice room/studio.
No expensive valves to buy or fiddly bias adjustments.

Yes, I have valve amps that sound magnificentl but I keep coming back to transistor amps. I remember the first stirrings of solid state amps like HH and Roland JC. They were out of my price range, but valve amps could be had for a pittance in the late 70s.

mr-mac

Lab series Gibson's did a couple of artists rather well.  Roland JC probs a high number of pro's.  In fact surprising actually how many pros have a solid state amp. Ok majority still valves but i bet if we could get a% it would surprise us

mr-mac

Sure Dr Feelgood was wem solid state stuff 

richardhomer

mr-mac said:

Sure Dr Feelgood was wem solid state stuff 

HH IIRC

Fishboy7

BB King's Lab Series

meltedbuzzbox

They serve a very functional purpose but they wouldn't be my first port of call. 

I do like how light they can be though!

Phil_aka_Pip

IIRC Andy Latimer went through a phase of using HH tranny amps back in the mid 70s. I think you can tell which amps he was using because the sound is a bit, er, grainy is the best word I can think of to describe it. Not a bit like the AC30s he was otherwise known for using.

Creed_Clicks

I'm using a Quilter mini 101 head, and have no problems with it. I wouldn't mind a H&H head. I had one years ago.

digitalscream

meltedbuzzbox said:

They serve a very functional purpose but they wouldn't be my first port of call. 

I do like how light they can be though!

Valve amps can also be pretty light - I had an R&R SOLO 2 channel, 50W rack amp that weighed about 5-6kg. My current Tubemeister 18 is only a bit north of that.

ICBM

digitalscream said:

Valve amps can also be pretty light - I had an R&R SOLO 2 channel, 50W rack amp that weighed about 5-6kg.

Do you want it back?

Lebarque

No

Grunfeld

I think easier to lunk around has got to be right up there with me.
And obviously I think they can sound great too.

guitarhippy

Never played a good one!!!!

digitalscream

ICBM said:

digitalscream said:

Valve amps can also be pretty light - I had an R&R SOLO 2 channel, 50W rack amp that weighed about 5-6kg.

Do you want it back?

Not got the funds

I thought it'd been sold already?

ICBM

digitalscream said:

Not got the funds

I thought it'd been sold already?

Yes, but the chap who bought it now wants to sell it...

Voxman

I bought a first generation Mk1 Marshall Valvestate 8080 when they were launched in the early 90's and I still have it. Great little amp that still sounds good...the originals were the best. To this day I think it was Marshall's best selling amp of all time, and with good reason.  Light, reliable, loud, good cleans and good Marshall crunch, 2 channels, 2 options on each, fx loop and an ECC83 in the gain channel. 

digitalscream

ICBM said:

digitalscream said:

Not got the funds

I thought it'd been sold already?

Yes, but the chap who bought it now wants to sell it...

Gawd, that poor amp. If I'd known that a month or so ago, I'd have bought it back in a heartbeat

FX_Munkee

Voxman said:

I bought a first generation Mk1 Marshall Valvestate 8080 when they were launched in the early 90's and I still have it. Great little amp that still sounds good...the originals were the best. To this day I think it was Marshall's best selling amp of all time, and with good reason.  Light, reliable, loud, good cleans and good Marshall crunch, 2 channels, 2 options on each, fx loop and an ECC83 in the gain channel. 

Agree with most of that, I've still got mine. I wouldn't say the cleans were good though, it makes a fairly good "Marshall" sound but that's about it. It's also not very light despite having very little in it, I'd hazzard a guess that the carcass is made out of that indestructible wood they use for pallets.

ICBM

FX_Munkee said:

I'd hazzard a guess that the carcass is made out of that indestructible wood they use for pallets.

MDF.

That’s one of the reasons I’ve never been able to bring myself to buy one despite quite liking the sound. If only they’d given it a ply cabinet and a less flimsy chassis and PCB, I would be tempted. Obviously that would have made them more expensive though... but probably also would have sounded better.

menamestom

mbe said:

No more waiting for the valves to heat up and cool runnings in hot weather in the practice room/studio.
No expensive valves to buy or fiddly bias adjustments.

I’ve never had to do any of that in 20 years of valve ownership, except change valves two or 3 times.
As for biasing, takes about 5 minutes in my current amp.

That said, I do like a nice quality SS amps.

BornFromAJackal

I love my Orange Crush Pro 120 head. It can easily keep up with my band mates Rockerverb 100 and weighs 10kg less!