Do guitarists still view buying a solid state amp as something best avoided ?

DulcetJones

I've used both kinds and don't really have a problem with SS.  I do admit tubes sound better but I've never had anyone at a gig tell me they didn't like my sound when using SS.  I use a "tube sound" distortion pedal that's all SS that gets compliments all the time, almost every soundman included.  It's a DIY from a Craig Anderton book, "electronic projects for musicians".

alalalkasar

*I have a TUAC 50watt head holding up yet more junk in my spare bedroom. Free to any experimenter that want to collect it! Uses just such a class A driver

I've got a TUAC head knocking about that I played bass though for years, sounded great.

Anyhow (playing at home) I find my SS vox pathfinder 15r sounds good enough that I'm not bothered about valves any more.

Sassafras

If you really can't live without the 'valve sound' get any old solid state amp and stick a VHT Valvulator in front of it. You'll never know the difference.
  

ICBM

Bygone_Tones said:

Out of interest do you know what the power output is on them? Cant find much info on them. Is it 120w? and do you know if the reverb tank is the same as the one found on the standalone 'carlsbro reverb unit'?

I think it's 100W on the old unlabelled ones. I'll measure mine if I can get around to it.

The reverb tank is a little 9" one if I remember rightly, it's years since I looked inside though!

Bygone_Tones said:

I also picked up a carlsbro cobra head too, it is not a "cobra 90" model. It is basically the same but smaller in size and has no reverb. Cant even find a pic of one the same as mine on google, never mind the spec. 

Any info appreciated.

Don't know - might be 60W at a guess. They did a Cobra bass combo that was 60W at around that time or a bit later, before the 90W ones.

Alnico

I've just bought (Traded) a 5005 Marshall Lead 12 !

MagicPigDetective

I am very happy with my Orange CR60, Also have a mk1 Marshall 8040, still sounds great. 

Voxman

fendergibson said:

I had an 8080, it was great till I realised I couldn't hear myself over our Larry Mullen type drummer. No headroom whatsoever.  If I were gigging now I'd be seriously looking into the micro amp scene, failing that - looking for a Twin....and someone to lift it for me, preferably the drummer   

No headroom (by which I assume you mean insufficient volume) - are you serious? My 8080 was my main gigging amp for a couple of years and the only problem I had was being asked to turn it down!  It's really loud & very punchy, and I never had any problems cutting through the mix even with a loud drummer.  

I just don't understand that - I can only think something was not quite right somewhere.  Perhaps it needed a replacement 12AX7 in the gain stage, or dirty pots were impacting on volume, or maybe the speaker had been changed (it should have had the G12T75 fitted as stock) or for some reason not working efficiently.  I bought mine in 1995, and it is still belting it out 22 years on.  I realise the tone from a SS amp differs from a valve amp, but regardless of personal tone taste, volume is one thing the 8080 has in spades.  

If ever you're in North London, you've an open invite to come by and try mine out!    

professorben

Depends what you want, I think my new set up delivers the best of everything I like. 

Valve Preamp for amazing gain tones.
Digital multi fx for flexibility and switching 
SS power amp for clarity and no power amp compression to the sound. 
Big Cab to handle the low end. 

Over the years I think those are the elements that I prefer. 

Telejester

I just looked on Andertons at the price of the blues cube artist which I think sounds lovely in online clips, £789.00 WTF !!!, priced far too close to plenty of tube amps, at that price I wouldn't part with the cash if I'm being honest.

cbilly22

MagicPigDetective said:

I am very happy with my Orange CR60, Also have a mk1 Marshall 8040, still sounds great. 

My old one? Fantastic amp.
I went from gigging that to a Bandit so I certainly find merit in solid state amps. I agree that some (and only some) valve amps sound incredible but throwing a couple of pedals in front of a decent ss amp is often a bloody sight easier than tweaking a valve amp venue to venue.

ThePrettyDamned

The boss katana is making people think at the moment - digital as opposed to standard solid state, but when tgp starts melting down because it sounds and feels really great... 

I don't mind. To be honest, I have seen a lot of bands that use valve amps and regularly put a muff type pedal in front. 

What's the point? So long as it has the bass and a robust sounding power section, that muff will sound the same through anything. 

Flanging_Fred

Telejester said:

I just looked on Andertons at the price of the blues cube artist which I think sounds lovely in online clips, £789.00 WTF !!!, priced far too close to plenty of tube amps, at that price I wouldn't part with the cash if I'm being honest.

This is the attitude that some people are questioning though.  If a. SS amp sounds just as good as a valve amp, is more reliable, lighter, more versatile and more consistent, why shouldn't it cost as much as valve amp? There is no written rule that says SS should be significantly cheaper, it's just perception bourne out of previous experience.

ICBM

Telejester said:

I just looked on Andertons at the price of the blues cube artist which I think sounds lovely in online clips, £789.00 WTF !!!, priced far too close to plenty of tube amps, at that price I wouldn't part with the cash if I'm being honest.

This is the problem in a nutshell - you're still thinking of solid-state as inherently inferior. Why should it *not* be nearly the same price as a valve amp?

It costs just as much for a good cabinet, speaker, chassis, circuit boards etc to build a solid-state amp of the same quality as a valve amp - the only significant difference is the cost of the output transformer and the valves themselves in a valve amp, and that's actually fairly minor.

If it sounds as good as a valve amp then it's worth as much as a valve amp.

If we can't break this false logic that a solid-state amp can't be as good as a valve amp and hence can't cost as much, it's no wonder manufacturers won't put the money into making good ones.

olafgarten

Flanging_Fred said:

Telejester said:

I just looked on Andertons at the price of the blues cube artist which I think sounds lovely in online clips, £789.00 WTF !!!, priced far too close to plenty of tube amps, at that price I wouldn't part with the cash if I'm being honest.

This is the attitude that some people are questioning though.  If a. SS amp sounds just as good as a valve amp, is more reliable, lighter, more versatile and more consistent, why shouldn't it cost as much as valve amp? There is no written rule that says SS should be significantly cheaper, it's just perception bourne out of previous experience.

While I understand this, they would sell way more at a lower price, and I know for a fact that the markup is higher than a normal tube amp. 

ICBM

olafgarten said:

While I understand this, they would sell way more at a lower price, and I know for a fact that the markup is higher than a normal tube amp. 

Do you mean the retail markup? Mesa and their distributors do that as well, which is why they're so expensive.

fendergibson

Voxman said:

fendergibson said:

I had an 8080, it was great till I realised I couldn't hear myself over our Larry Mullen type drummer. No headroom whatsoever.  If I were gigging now I'd be seriously looking into the micro amp scene, failing that - looking for a Twin....and someone to lift it for me, preferably the drummer   

No headroom (by which I assume you mean insufficient volume) - are you serious? My 8080 was my main gigging amp for a couple of years and the only problem I had was being asked to turn it down!  It's really loud & very punchy, and I never had any problems cutting through the mix even with a loud drummer.  

I just don't understand that - I can only think something was not quite right somewhere.  Perhaps it needed a replacement 12AX7 in the gain stage, or dirty pots were impacting on volume, or maybe the speaker had been changed (it should have had the G12T75 fitted as stock) or for some reason not working efficiently.  I bought mine in 1995, and it is still belting it out 22 years on.  I realise the tone from a SS amp differs from a valve amp, but regardless of personal tone taste, volume is one thing the 8080 has in spades.  

If ever you're in North London, you've an open invite to come by and try mine out!    

As soon as the cymbals got hit all the top end used to dissapear. 

Must admit though, I had that amp years and these were early days for me, b4 I knew how to set up an amp properly for live. I probably had all the mids scooped out etc. 

Sold it to Soundsgreat in favour of some Fender amp....which in hindsight, wasn't a great move.

ICBM

fendergibson said:

Voxman said:

or maybe the speaker had been changed (it should have had the G12T75 fitted as stock) or for some reason not working efficiently.

As soon as the cymbals got hit all the top end used to dissapear. 

Must admit though, I had that amp years and these were early days for me, b4 I knew how to set up an amp properly for live. I probably had all the mids scooped out etc.

Just for what it's worth, a lot of those came with an inferior 'Marshall Gold Back' speaker which at the time was made by Eminence and was quite muddy-sounding.

It does seem to be a common complaint that solid-state amps don't 'cut through' as well when playing live. Valve amps have a natural tendency to compress their tone into the midrange when they're overdriven, due to the output transformer - that makes them sound loud and present in the mix. Solid-state amps don't do that, and if anything if you push them hard enough for the power section to overdrive the opposite happens - with no OT and the transistors connected straight to the speaker you get flatulent bottom-end and harsh top, and lose midrange and volume.

The solution of course is just to have enough power so the output section never overdrives - and can be deliberately limited to stop it if necessary - which is very easy to do with solid state. But again that costs more, and (with some exceptions) manufacturers are trying to squeeze as much power out of a 'cheap' solid-state power section as they can to keep the price down... so we're back where we started again.

menamestom

ICBM said:

Telejester said:

I just looked on Andertons at the price of the blues cube artist which I think sounds lovely in online clips, £789.00 WTF !!!, priced far too close to plenty of tube amps, at that price I wouldn't part with the cash if I'm being honest.

This is the problem in a nutshell - you're still thinking of solid-state as inherently inferior. Why should it *not* be nearly the same price as a valve amp?

It costs just as much for a good cabinet, speaker, chassis, circuit boards etc to build a solid-state amp of the same quality as a valve amp - the only significant difference is the cost of the output transformer and the valves themselves in a valve amp, and that's actually fairly minor.

If it sounds as good as a valve amp then it's worth as much as a valve amp.

If we can't break this false logic that a solid-state amp can't be as good as a valve amp and hence can't cost as much, it's no wonder manufacturers won't put the money into making good ones.

Well Roland have and it's around £100 more expensive that the Hot Rod Deluxe.   Forgetting the price, (I agree that quality solid state amps should not need to be cheaper than valve amps), does it sound as good or better and is it more reliable?   It's about 4.5kg lighter so that's a good thing.  I think the thing is with Roland, the amp is not just marketed as solid state, it's marketed as a solid state valve amp replacement and is more expensive than the benchmark amp, so it's only right to question the price even if it is proven to be worth it in the long run.   Another thing to consider, the 'tone capsules', obviously using valves as the inspiration but you could buy about 5 nos 12ax7's for the price of one of those!

Telejester

menamestom said:

ICBM said:

Telejester said:

I just looked on Andertons at the price of the blues cube artist which I think sounds lovely in online clips, £789.00 WTF !!!, priced far too close to plenty of tube amps, at that price I wouldn't part with the cash if I'm being honest.

This is the problem in a nutshell - you're still thinking of solid-state as inherently inferior. Why should it *not* be nearly the same price as a valve amp?

It costs just as much for a good cabinet, speaker, chassis, circuit boards etc to build a solid-state amp of the same quality as a valve amp - the only significant difference is the cost of the output transformer and the valves themselves in a valve amp, and that's actually fairly minor.

If it sounds as good as a valve amp then it's worth as much as a valve amp.

If we can't break this false logic that a solid-state amp can't be as good as a valve amp and hence can't cost as much, it's no wonder manufacturers won't put the money into making good ones.

Well Roland have and it's around £100 more expensive that the Hot Rod Deluxe.   Forgetting the price, (I agree that quality solid state amps should not need to be cheaper than valve amps), does it sound as good or better and is it more reliable?   It's about 4.5kg lighter so that's a good thing.  I think the thing is with Roland, the amp is not just marketed as solid state, it's marketed as a solid state valve amp replacement and is more expensive than the benchmark amp, so it's only right to question the price even if it is proven to be worth it in the long run.   Another thing to consider, the 'tone capsules', obviously using valves as the inspiration but you could buy about 5 nos 12ax7's for the price of one of those!

The tone capsules thing is a joke, you should see Shane diorio demo the Eric Johnson one, even he couldn't believe how farty and shit it sounded.

ICBM

I must admit I think the 'tone capsule' thing is a marketing gimmick.