Solid state or Tube

Buck, AC30 solidstate?I thought they were tube class A..Not that I'm possitive..Did they make a AC30 solidstate besides the tube model?He also used a small Standle {tube} and Tele w/ Echoplex to hammer the input I belive on the first record..whoops I've fallen of the track ;)
 
Buck62 said:
Have you ever played at "club level" at a decent sized venue?

There's no way around getting that buzz, hum and hiss when you have to turn up the volume to fill out the place.
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Yes, I have played clubs and the like around here. I don't have any problems with humming or buzzing whatsoever. Unless I'm playing my Universe. I swear to you, Dimarzio Blaze pickups are some of the worst pickups ever invented. I only have hum problems with them, and even then it's rather slight and I can control it with the volume knob on my guitar. As far as all of my other guitars go, I don't even have to mess with the volume knob on them. They're quiet on their own.

Maybe I'm just blessed. :D
 
Yeah tubes can do some things solid state can't and solid state can do some things tubes can't. I play REAL clean for the most part and prefer solid state. I find tube amps to be inconsistent, unreliable, and high maintenence. I admit that most old style solid state amps (like the 80's peavy and fender models) are some of the most useless pieces of shit ever devised. However Roland JCs are brilliant pieces of equipment.
 
I can't understand when you all say that tube amps are high maintenance. I have 2 tube amps, a Marshall and a Fender. I have had one for 8 years and the other for 15 years and I have never touched either of them. Just my opinion here, but I call that fairly low maintenance. What are you guys doing to these poor amps?
 
Buck62 said:
And you've got the pictures to prove it, right?
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From a Rickenbacker amp tribute page:

"While these amplifiers' trapezoidal shape, tutti frutti colors, varnished woods, and high technology made at first a thrilling impression, it is clear the elective affinity with these young Brits didn't last very long. Pictures of the Jeff Beck Group 1969 US tour show a wall of Kustoms - yes, other solid-state amplifiers with off-the-wall enclosures - and Led Zeppelin simply left their amplifiers behind on their trip back to England. By the way, these very Transonics were picked up by a certain Tom Petersson (of Cheap Trick) who refurbished them, changing the power amplifier and the speakers - he still plays them to this day."

OK, OK, so they weren't even good for wheel chocks.... :D



I read an article as recent as '97- he still has the Vox.

And Zep I, all recorded on a tiny 12 watt tube Supro.

Tube, solid state, whatever.

Turn it up and fuckin' rawk!
 
Buck62 said:
Have you ever played at "club level" at a decent sized venue?

There's no way around getting that buzz, hum and hiss when you have to turn up the volume to fill out the place.
Click to expand...

I play at "club level" decent size venues 3-5 nights a week and have been playing that much and more for 35 years and I have never noticed a problem with tube amps humming or hissing more than solid state and I've used plenty of both.
Hummm and other noises are far more likely to be related to whatever is plugged into the amp rather than the amp itself.

That being said ........... whatever works for the guy that's playing it is all that matters. I've gotten good sound out of both types of amps and I've had amps that sucked of both types also.
I recently had a Fender Vibro-King that is a big money custom shop amp and I didn't like it at all; and another one I had that sucked was a fender Pro-Sonic which is another expensive amp. But it just didn't have a decent sound. Now the guy that bought my Vibro-King loves it. To me, that means he just doesn't have the ears yet to hear the subleties that make such a difference to me, but if it works for him ......... hey, that's why they make so many different types of amps.
 
An AC30 solidstate? what???


Cmon' guys, lets stop arguing about tube and solid state, let's just leave it at this : Tube amps are better :D



I like debating these issues. But I still don't understand, other then reliability, and cost, why a solid state amp could be nearly as good as a tube amp. And I do believe that if the right gear was in guitar centers, and if tube amps were the same price, then they would beat the crap out of solid state amps.

In the low price range, what solid state amp could sound better then a Peavey Classic 30? In the higher range, what solid state amp could come close to touching a Bogner, Matchless, or Soldano? none.

By the way, how are these tube modeling amps? Any good? How expensive? I'm interested in this.
 
Buck62 said:
Have you ever played at "club level" at a decent sized venue?

There's no way around getting that buzz, hum and hiss when you have to turn up the volume to fill out the place.
Click to expand...


Most professional bands use tube amps, so there must be a way around the noise. My line 6 piece of crap makes 10 X the amount of noise that my friend's Marshall JMP1 does, so I don't think that noise is the issue.

Many metal bands play through Mesa Boogies, Peavey 5150 II, or Bogners, and I've never noticed anything but a very minor noise coming out of these shows.
 
Listen

Listen to the tone SRV gets on "The Sky is Crying" it's a 1964 40 watt Fender Vibroverb with a K130 JBL 15" speaker. Case Closed. :)
 
All of the classic blues/rock artists - B.B. King, SRV, Jimmy Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy,

All of the classic metal artists - Rhoads, Zakk Wylde, Van Halen,

Jazz, of course - Scofield, Metheny, Scott Henderson, Mclaughlin,

the list goes on and on

Oh and if anyone knows of one good blues/jazz tone from a live recording with a solid state amp, please tell me.
 
Sorry, dude, I'm with ya on the tube thing but Metheny and Mclaughlin are in no way tube-heads. Metheny played a solid-state Acoustic amp, only giving it up when it finally died after tweny straight years. For a bunch of years McLaughlin didn't even use an amp live, just went straight into the PA from his effects rack.

Also Allan Holdsworth, Andy Summers, Adrian Belew, Dime Bag Darrell, and Frank Gambale are all solid-state guys.

Like I said, I'm a tube guy, but let's not go overboard :D .
 
boingoman said:
Also Allan Holdsworth, Andy Summers, Adrian Belew, Dime Bag Darrell, and Frank Gambale are all solid-state guys.
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Frank Gambale was using a Marshall JMP-1 tube preamp the last three times I saw him play (in 2001, 2002, and 2003). I know he has a signature preamp that Carvin is selling, I assume he is now using that.
 
Wide Awake said:
Frank Gambale was using a Marshall JMP-1 tube preamp the last three times I saw him play (in 2001, 2002, and 2003). I know he has a signature preamp that Carvin is selling, I assume he is now using that.
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Yeah, the reviews are pretty sick. No tube, though.
 
boingoman said:
Sorry, dude, I'm with ya on the tube thing but Metheny and Mclaughlin are in no way tube-heads. Metheny played a solid-state Acoustic amp, only giving it up when it finally died after tweny straight years. For a bunch of years McLaughlin didn't even use an amp live, just went straight into the PA from his effects rack.

Also Allan Holdsworth, Andy Summers, Adrian Belew, Dime Bag Darrell, and Frank Gambale are all solid-state guys.

Like I said, I'm a tube guy, but let's not go overboard :D .
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Heh ok, but Mclaughlin has probably used a bunch of random stuff, hasn't he?

I love Dime Bag's playing, but I hate his tone. I am sort of surprised that Allan uses a solid state. Does he use it live? Do any of these guys use combos? I think that solid state combos are so much worse then running a POD through a P.A.

When I saw Metheny at a jazz clinic in Connecticut, he was using a tube amp.
 
musicsdarkangel said:
Heh ok, but Mclaughlin has probably used a bunch of random stuff, hasn't he?
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Yeah, I'm sure- after all, when he started playing, all there were were tube amps. All of these guys probably used a combination of tube and solid-state gear over the years. It's just about what you like, and IMHO tone is in the hands. Any of these guys could play through anything and it would sound great(except I agree with the Dime Bag thing-bleck) and it would also sound like them. Their "signature sound" comes from them, not necessarily their amps. If SRV had played through Roland JC-120's you can bet every one of his fans would be praising it's glories, and they'd be flying off the shelves as people went in search of "that SRV sound". The same if Dime Bag played a Marshall.

Find your own voice- have your own sound, any way you want.
 
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