'Imitation' Tube amp ?

[anthonyshawnr]

Re: 'Imitation' Tube amp ?

Id say any of the roland cube series or any of the vox valvetronix they have a new series coming out. I just got the vox vt20+ and I think it'd be right up your alley

[devastone]

Re: 'Imitation' Tube amp ?

The new Yamaha THR100H and THR100HD are great modelers, Yamaha seems to have the best modeling I've played. Not sure if they qualify as relatively cheap though, relative to a Bogner, they are cheap, relative to a used Peavey Bandit, they aren't...

[Sleepy]

Re: 'Imitation' Tube amp ?

for budget medium gain stuff ive liked the new vox valvetronix (VTX or something) series

but nowadays theres so many tube amps for nearly as cheap ("at least 20 watts" makes me think its for more than bedroom practice)

[El Dunco]

Re: 'Imitation' Tube amp ?

Kind of a weird approach to sound. I don't have a Mesa because it has tubes in it, I use it because it sounds huge and when I want it to, really sweet and mellow. I don't use my Marshall because it has tubes but because it sounds awesome. I have many different amplifiers, some with tubes, some without and they sound different for different reasons. I would take a Randall RG100 over a cheap, MIC no name tube amp that doesn't sound very good.

[GuitarStv]

Re: 'Imitation' Tube amp ?

My experience has been that there aren't really too many 'do it all' type amps. If an amp is great and quiet, bedroom volumes . . . it's not that good at gigging volumes. If an amp is great at gigging volumes, you usually can't get it to sound awesome at very quiet practice volumes. Tubes can sound great, but are kinda a pain in the ass . . . they have to be replaced, they're expensive, they're temperamental. Typically tube amps don't sound all that great at very low volumes.

TLDR - buy any wattage cheap solid state practice amp that sounds good to you for now, then later get a loud gigging tube amp that sounds good to you when you're regularly playing with a group and need it.