I love solid state.........again.

  • Thread starter Thread starter mikemorgan
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mikemorgan

mikemorgan

panned out
While I've been a tube snob most of my life, I have dabbled with solid state amps maily because they're so easy to carry. In the late 90's I campaigned a Traynor Bloc100g that had a pretty believable Marshall-esque lead channel. Then I went back to my beloved tubes.

Today it's the Fender Mustang, and I'm really hooked. I bought a Mustang II for Christmas and fell in love with the TONE. This thing can do it all if you know what you're doing. Yesterday I pulled the trigger on it's bigger brother, the Mustang IV. 150w stereo 212.

Now my tube amps can once again age gracefully.
 
While I'm not much of a gear snob (I can't really afford to be.) The only amps I've owned that I really loved were tube amps. But . . . If i'm ever rich, i'll definately end up getting a JC-120. Those things are so amazing!!! (or even the smaller JCs are nice.)
 
I always really liked solid state amps. They had a sound all their own and in the days before amp modelling were immensely more flexible in Tone. I had a Peavey 2x12 that I really loved for years but the band I was in pressured me into replacing it with a Marshall stack (JCM 800). I hated that amp. Lifeless and totally inflexible for the style of music I was playing. Years later I have a Marshall JCM 2000 three-channel valve head and I'm not keen on that, either. :(
 
mikemorgan said:
Today it's the Fender Mustang, and I'm really hooked. I bought a Mustang II for Christmas and fell in love with the TONE. This thing can do it all if you know what you're doing. Yesterday I pulled the trigger on it's bigger brother, the Mustang IV. 150w stereo 212.
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This is a Recording Forum, so let's hear it. :)
 
I usually use a tube amp for gigs, but I recently got a Roland Cube 30 and it's my #1 home practice amp now. It has some nice preset amp sounds-Fender Twin & Tweed, Marshall, and the great clean Jazz Chorus:cool:-but I seem to stay with the Vox AC30 most of the time. I love the Vox presets midrange honk with just about anything I plug into it, Les Pauls, Teles, Melody Maker/w single P-90:D, Strats-and my Epi Sheraton II sounds beautiful on that setting. I'm not so crazy about their on board effects-but the amp sims and some reverb are really all I need!
 
Put a comp pedal in front of a solid state and you can mimic some tube amp tones, especially loud. Without a comp i can't dig SS.
 
I'd never go back to solid state except for my practice amp which is a Roland Cube like someone above mentioned. I've never been huge on trying to mimic other peoples tones though. I have a sound that I want, and I try to make my amp sound like that. Thats not to say I dont have a few stomp boxes to color my tone for different sections of a song, but my tone is my own. Though the argument could be made that I am emulating other people I suppose, lol. But who isnt I guess.
 
I had a Randall RG-80 that was somewhat useful, though it had a nasty buzz when sitting dormant between sets.
I still have a tech21nyc Trademark 60 I use for rehearsals and really small gigs. For a solid state amp, it's VERY cool.
 
I learned the comp into SS trick because when my Princeton was being repaired i was given a loaner. It was some kind of Fender and i wasn't happy at all with the sounds. I would never be happy with SS, but I did my best with what i had at the time.
 
For me, playing bass into a solid state amp is definitely the way to go, especially live. I've watched a few of my friends practically give away their SVT's when they needed new tubes, and I promised I'd never do that. For guitar, it's different, but still I haven't found a solid state amp that sounds great to my ears and takes pedals as well as any of the dozen tube guitar amps I have of all sizes. I've owned SS amps, but they always go when I feel like flipping gear over for a fresh outlook. Tough to beat a JC120 for clean, though. I had a Yamaha G100 years ago that was pretty cool, but just for clean. Does Peavey make anything other than a Nashville 400 worth a crap? Yep, you can do clean no problem. Hell, a POD UX-2 can do clean. But try to find a SS amp that sounds good with overdrive pedals.
 
ranjam said:
But try to find a SS amp that sounds good with overdrive pedals.
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This will be one of those times I would suggest trying one of tech21nyc's Trademark amps. You'd probably get better results from the trademark 30 or Trademark 60 than the smaller Trademark 10. Granted, they're NOT a tube amp, but they're not modeling amps either.

I normally use a Boss GT-8 for live work, but occasionally I run my stompboxes for fun. I've used a variety of pedals with it and was pleased with the sound.
It won't sound as good as a tube amp does, but it will sound loads better than most solid state amps. Believe me.
 
I record with Tech 21 stuff all the time, and I use an RBI for live bass playing lately, especially if the PA is adequate and it has a good sound guy thrown in for free. But I haven't used one of their guitar amps. Interesting idea I'll have to pursue. The YouTube clips don't knock me out, but I see potential. I think with some EQ tweaks it can record great, and be a decent live amp for medium sized rooms. And did mention 14-pounds?
 
IMHO, the clean channel sounds better than the dirty channel on my amp. I mean...the dirty channel sounds cool and all, but anything past a certain point is just mushy on the dirty channel. That being said, when I run the dirty channel with less overdrive ("Drive" control), my TS-9 makes that channel sound awesome!

It's a decent live amp, for sure. The drummer in my current gig was too powerful for the TM 60, so I moved up to the Mesa Mk III. If I ever see another Power Engine 60 on Craigslist, I'll pick it up and use it with the TM 60.

It isn't the be-all-end-all, but it's been a great investment that's never let me down. IMHO, the folks at tech21nyc make useful, quality equipment.
 
I've gone pretty much tubes, too, but I am trying my darnedest to bond with a little Gibson G-10 a friend gave me (he blew up a speaker I loaned him and felt bad about that.) It's got a sweet tremolo, which I love, but the SS tones have not captured my imagination, at least not yet.
 
I picked up a BLOC 50G a couple weeks ago for $50.00--it's an amazing little amp, and it only weighs 20lbs. I have both tube and SS amps, but I don't have a set in stone preference. Different sounds for different applications.
 
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