Re: Am I the only one?
I used to be in the "well, it's not like I'm Joe Satriani or anything, so I don't really need to go tube" camp. The problem was the Crate GT-1200 I was using couldn't stand up to my lead players' Dual Rec during shows, and it didn't cut through the mix unless I practically dimed the mids, which is something I hate to do. Also the more I played through the Mesa the more I started to realize the shortcomings of the Crate, and consequently whenever I was practicing by myself I'd always use the Mesa, since my friend was cool with me using it and it just sat at our practice space anyway. I'm not even a big fan of Mesas but the good tube heads seem to have this "alive" quality that makes it so much more fun to play and listen to. Anyway, I solved my problem on the cheap by picking up an old (92) Peavey Ultra head (forerunner to the Triple X) for $325- figure in another $200 for a cap job and a new set of tubes and I'm still under $600 for an amp that, even before the caps and tubes which I haven't gotten yet, sounds good enough that I'm no longer looking to the Mesa during solo practice and no longer getting dominated by it in band playing. So if money's the main reason for not going tube, buying an older one cheap and getting it fixed is one route you could go down.
Tonally, I have to admit the "in your face"-ness of SS can be very cool in certain applications, but it seems to me like every time I dial in a great tone on any SS amp it winds up being totally unusable when playing with a band. I will say, though, that SS amps seem to get along a lot better with pedals in general. Whatever floats it for ya.
I gigged with it a month ago, with a SM57 in front of it... in all modesty, another guy lugged his Crate Blue Voodoo with matching 4x12 cab to the stage, and my tone was much better than his.
