"I give up!" .....<well, not really>

[VintageToneGuy]

I did yard work all day yesterday and came home 'beat to death'. I took a shower and sat down at 6:45 only to receive a phone call that we were practicing tonight

I said a few choice words to myself, threw on some clothes and grabbed my strat, ad-9 and cs-3 and headed out. I refused to take my Blues Jr and decided to just plug into our PA which is a Fender Passport 250 (of all things). The reason for this is, I didn't want my sound to be good. Maybe they'd just ask me to go home!

About the 4th song I began to realize that 'it actually sounded good' playing through a cheap, solid state sound system! No tubes, no special design speaker; just a cheap solid state sound system!

Why did it sound so good? Have I wasted alot of money and time in tube amps for all these many years?

~vtg~

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: &quot;I give up!&quot; .....&lt;well, not really&gt;

Define "good"?!

[Kam]

Re: &quot;I give up!&quot; .....&lt;well, not really&gt;

Tone's in the fingers?

I think it's a lot easier to get away with worse sound in a band situation, there's too much other noise to pick up on all the little things wrong with your tone. Try jamming through that thing on your own for a while and I bet you'll be much less happy with it. Better still, try recording it and getting it to sound good in a decent mix. Then you'll be glad you have your tubes.

[marvar]

Re: &quot;I give up!&quot; .....&lt;well, not really&gt;

I've done some recordings straight out of my Boss ME-50, and people that hear that tape ask me what amp I'm using! It does have a spkr sem output.
Another night, my amp went down, we plugged the ME=50 straight into the board, it sounded pretty good, and got me through the night.
This seems to be all the rage around here, more and more bands are showing up that are all electric, no amps, electric drums. Most using the line6 stuff. I suppose they do have more control, but I don't care for it.
I can't say that's the way my band will go!- I guess we are dinosaurs!

[ImmortalSix]

Re: &quot;I give up!&quot; .....&lt;well, not really&gt;

I have done that a lot.

I had a Blackheart tube head and a custom birch 1x12 with a Weber Blue Dog in it, and then I would gig out with my Fender Ultimate Chorus 2x12 (big solid state JC-120ish amp), because I was playing bass mostly (sounded oddly great through that Fender U.C.) ---
the one song I played guitar on, sounded amazing.

I figure it was mostly that I had been playing out so much that I was on time, in tune, tight, and working the tone and volume perfectly.

Basically, I was tight, not the amp.

that's what I figure.

[B Bent]

Re: &quot;I give up!&quot; .....&lt;well, not really&gt;

I second Rid's question.

[bungalowbill]

Re: &quot;I give up!&quot; .....&lt;well, not really&gt;

How loud were you playing? At low volume the difference isn't that great....at higher volume is where the magic of tubes becomes present.

Turn up a tube amp and it will start to overdrive, compress and add sustain...you can get a clean tone by picking lightly or make it bark when you give the strings a good smack....cleans up with the volume knob.


Turn up a solid state amp and it just gets louder.

There is no right or wrong, good or bad, it is all personal preference.

[Chickenwings]

Re: &quot;I give up!&quot; .....&lt;well, not really&gt;

You might have just discovered that the most important thing is playing the right notes at the right time. All the rest is just icing.