noiseportrait
New member
I have never liked solid state amps for guitar. I like solid state stuff for many other things just fine, mic pres, stereo amps, bass amps, etc. I often even prefer a good solid state amp for these things, but I have never liked the sound of a guitar run through solid state electronics. Tonight I changed my mind. For some reason I just decided to run my strat through my solid state ampeg bass rig. I don't know why I had never tried this before or why I did it this time, but I did... and I like it a lot. Ampeg makes some arguably pretty sweet solid state bass amps, and honestly I think I've just never heard a guitar through a quality solid state amp until now. Most of the solid state guitar amps on the market are targeting a lower price bracket and therefor I have probably just always heard cheaper solid state guitar rigs which just gave me the impression that a guitar amp had to be tube to be good. I now take that back and I apologize for all the times I said you need a good tube amp for your guitar to sound good. I was wrong. But in defense of the tube amps, I have to say that if you want that thick creamy guitar sound a real tube amp is the only thing I know of that will get you there. The ampeg sounded very different. It was fast, clear and focused; not the guitar sound I am used to but it didn't sound thin or brittle or have the lack of balls that I usually associate with stuff like peavy, crate or even fender solid state stuff. It sounded very, very cool and I think I could really get used to it. I learn something new every day.