Does everyone arrive at tube amps, eventually?
- Thread starter Mad Max
- Start date
Jack_TriPpEr
New member
Re: "does everyone arrive at tube amps eventually?" In my experience, my tone chase started at a tube amp into a 4x12 cabinet, eventually to a floor-based pedalboard into a PA.
Ascension
Well-known member
I'm a Church player also over 60 and can easily go silent stage with a pure tube rig.
This is with a tiny little Mesa 1/10 Subway Rocket at such low stage volume you would know it was there sitting in the front row. Super light quick to set up easy to tweak ect. The amp looking from the camera here is on the floor to my left can you even see it? Playing my KOA Carvin DC 127 with a Alt8 and Sentient only a little Verb and Delay running in the loop here.
devastone
New member
We are all direct now, I was using a tube amp years ago, but then I have to trust the sound guys to know what they are doing to mic and mix, and well, that's best left to pros. I can put the mic on the cab, but with IEMs I have no what it sounds like through the mains, or even what the mix is, which I still struggle with when I'm trying to fade in and out, whatever. With my GT I get to program it and tell them to leave the signal alone and just set the level. No, not as satisfying as a tube head into a cab, but it works for best for me. And, I have a guitar in a gig bag in one hand, and the GT in a gig bag in the other, and that's all I need.
Ascension
Well-known member
Feel you absolutely as my cab here is way off stage in the back so stage is silent. What is in the mix for the stage system (I run closed back phones) is not what it really sounds like out front. Still with my Tube rigs I have super easy quick set up and the feel of a real tube amp. I use few to no effects so it just works for me. I also have a little Ax track iso cab with a built in mic. With a small board mt PRS MT 15 and the AX track its small light easy to carry and set up silent on stage and has the real tube tone and feel I want.
Here is the MT 15 from last Sunday with a miced cab off stage.
BeKindRewind
New member
Depends.. I have what I would call *extremely* bad luck with tube amps. every single one I have has let me down in a big way. I'm tired of it. My first tube amp Ashdown peacemaker 60 blew up during a practice. Paid to have it fixed , took months and thankfully it was my friend's father, so it didn't cost much, but it worked for about 10 minutes before quitting again. It's a rare discontinued amp made in england and nobody wants to work on it. My second tube amp a marshall JCM900 worked great for about 3 months and blew up during a practice. Paid to have that fixed, it took *many* months and cost me about $200 bucks because the guy said he had to re-wire the entire board. He would've charged me more but he felt bad. Got it back and it sounded great, took it to a gig and it lasted about 3 songs before it blew up and left me stranded. had to plug into a crappy bass amp for the rest of the night. My peavey valve king actually lasted for years, but blew up during a gig and doesn't work. I took a risk and bought a whole new set of tubes and that didn't fix it. It's not worth enough to pay someone hundreds of dollars to fix it so I'm not sure what to do. My marshall JVM210H was $2000 and it worked great for about a year before it blew up during a gig. I hadn't even finished paying off the loan yet. This is the one I will probably pay to have fixed eventually and either keep or sell, but right now I just can't afford to.
funny story about my newest tube amp, a traynor YCS, I was looking at financing a new one from my music store as I needed a smaller combo that would fit in my car. The salesman mentioned there was a used one over in the corner for less , so I went to try it out and I loved it. but it blew up, right there in the store as I was playing. They said if I bought it anyway, they would give me a loaner and have it fixed and get it to me as soon as possible. The price was good so I agreed. They fixed it and I got it back, it worked for maybe 5 minutes and quit again. Brought it back, they fixed it again, got it back, worked for 5 minutes again and quit again. Thank god I tested it before bringing it to a gig. WHen I finally got it back this time, they assured me they had bench tested it for hours and it's definitely good to go now, but I haven't really played it a lot yet cause apparently I'm cursed. It's still working now, and I've played a couple of gigs with it but it was scary.
Did I forget one? well the point is, it's happened so many times I'm terrified to place my trust in a tube amp ever again. I think solid state and modelers are what I'm going to have to stick with from now on, especially considering how good they sound now. think i have tube amp PTSD at this point.
funny story about my newest tube amp, a traynor YCS, I was looking at financing a new one from my music store as I needed a smaller combo that would fit in my car. The salesman mentioned there was a used one over in the corner for less , so I went to try it out and I loved it. but it blew up, right there in the store as I was playing. They said if I bought it anyway, they would give me a loaner and have it fixed and get it to me as soon as possible. The price was good so I agreed. They fixed it and I got it back, it worked for maybe 5 minutes and quit again. Brought it back, they fixed it again, got it back, worked for 5 minutes again and quit again. Thank god I tested it before bringing it to a gig. WHen I finally got it back this time, they assured me they had bench tested it for hours and it's definitely good to go now, but I haven't really played it a lot yet cause apparently I'm cursed. It's still working now, and I've played a couple of gigs with it but it was scary.
Did I forget one? well the point is, it's happened so many times I'm terrified to place my trust in a tube amp ever again. I think solid state and modelers are what I'm going to have to stick with from now on, especially considering how good they sound now. think i have tube amp PTSD at this point.
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Wow, that is really bad luck. Good thing there are a lot of choices now!
devastone
New member
I will say to the OP that giving up modeling based on Line 6 Spiders is kind of like giving up driving because of a bad experience in a Civic because a Ferrari beat you off the light. A Civic is good basic transportation, but hardly represents the state of the art in automotive technology (although they have come a long way from my old 80's hatchback).
PFDarkside
of the Forum
To answer the original question, “only those with good tone.”
:chairfall
Usually I don’t try to push people’s buttons.
:chairfallUsually I don’t try to push people’s buttons.
Jack_TriPpEr
New member
The number of occurences is so high, and across various makes and models, it makes me wonder if you were connecting each of these amps up to a speaker cabinet whose impedance rating was too low?
Did you ever look into that, or any of the techs that worked on your amps, have you check into that?
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@BeKindRewind
You must be the unluckiest guitarist I have ever heard of! In 27+ years of playing, I have never once even had an amp break down on me. I have had dozens of amps of all different types even. Aside from regular maintenance, not even once, have I had an issue.
While I won't try and bash your decisions too much, I would say that most of the amps you mentioned are not exactly high-end options. This is kind of why I feel Gibson's acquisition of Mesa is going to be a problem. They will make an amp that is impossible to fix when it breaks, even more prone to breaking.
There is nothing inherently wrong with PCB based amplifiers, except that generally once something goes wrong, the PCB can be damaged enough that repair becomes very hard to do. Hand-wired PTP amps are bulletproof in a way, in that if a component burns up, replacing the faulty parts is all that is usually required. This is why I feel Two-Rock and a few other " Boutique " companies are ripping people off. A PCB based amp that is more or less a copy of some other popular option sold at a price that is bonkers. Sure they are well made and there is nothing wrong with PCB, until shit hits the fan!!! Paying that kind of money for something like a Revv Generator makes sense, there are 3-4 channels, midi control, multiple effects loops, a metric crap-ton of knobs and buttons and yet still the amp is priced lower than some of these " boutique " options with single channels, no effects loop, and a borrowed design....
I would say at this point you are beyond the point of diminishing odds
you can probably buy a $200 tube amp and it will not only sound great, but possibly even last 100 years with any amount of abuse you can give it.
You must be the unluckiest guitarist I have ever heard of! In 27+ years of playing, I have never once even had an amp break down on me. I have had dozens of amps of all different types even. Aside from regular maintenance, not even once, have I had an issue.
While I won't try and bash your decisions too much, I would say that most of the amps you mentioned are not exactly high-end options. This is kind of why I feel Gibson's acquisition of Mesa is going to be a problem. They will make an amp that is impossible to fix when it breaks, even more prone to breaking.
There is nothing inherently wrong with PCB based amplifiers, except that generally once something goes wrong, the PCB can be damaged enough that repair becomes very hard to do. Hand-wired PTP amps are bulletproof in a way, in that if a component burns up, replacing the faulty parts is all that is usually required. This is why I feel Two-Rock and a few other " Boutique " companies are ripping people off. A PCB based amp that is more or less a copy of some other popular option sold at a price that is bonkers. Sure they are well made and there is nothing wrong with PCB, until shit hits the fan!!! Paying that kind of money for something like a Revv Generator makes sense, there are 3-4 channels, midi control, multiple effects loops, a metric crap-ton of knobs and buttons and yet still the amp is priced lower than some of these " boutique " options with single channels, no effects loop, and a borrowed design....
I would say at this point you are beyond the point of diminishing odds
you can probably buy a $200 tube amp and it will not only sound great, but possibly even last 100 years with any amount of abuse you can give it.Agree. They are easy. I can put a Boss SD-1 in front of almost any tube amp, turn the knobs and get my sound. (Some amps dont even need the SD-1).
I play through modelers at home 99% of the time. Ive come to appreciate the "finished" tone as I'm usually playing/practicing against backing tracks playing from my computer. Its nice having everything coming from the studio monitors and finished.
Modelers are here to stay. I think some large% of players in the future will never have owned one.
moshpit817
New member
I have the newer EVH 15 watt Stealth 15 watt head and the 50 watt version as well..and both sound amazing !
Last night I dug out my Peavey Vypyr 75 watt 1-12" combo,the original version,and wow I forgot how great it sounds,and about to plug in and jam here in about 30 minutes.
I will play it for a few more days and then rotate back to the EVH amps..I was always a SS until many years ago I got a Peavey Mace back in the mid 80's..was awesome,and had many more Paeveys,then I found a Marshall Superlead MK ll head in a pawnshop for $100,and was floored at how loud and mean it sounded,but it had to be cranked and had to run a 4-12" with it or it sounded like s**t..but I sold it and went back to Peavey SS amps,and found a Line 6 Spyder 30 watt combo,then the Flextone ll 100 watt 2-12" combo..
I finally wanted to try tubes again and got the original EVH LBX..then a Randall 45 watt Diavlo head,,then Marshall DSL 100H,and many more and now the new EVH amps.
I will enjoy my Vypyr plenty of times from here on out for simplicity..just plug in and play,but wow I love my tube amps too !
Last night I dug out my Peavey Vypyr 75 watt 1-12" combo,the original version,and wow I forgot how great it sounds,and about to plug in and jam here in about 30 minutes.
I will play it for a few more days and then rotate back to the EVH amps..I was always a SS until many years ago I got a Peavey Mace back in the mid 80's..was awesome,and had many more Paeveys,then I found a Marshall Superlead MK ll head in a pawnshop for $100,and was floored at how loud and mean it sounded,but it had to be cranked and had to run a 4-12" with it or it sounded like s**t..but I sold it and went back to Peavey SS amps,and found a Line 6 Spyder 30 watt combo,then the Flextone ll 100 watt 2-12" combo..
I finally wanted to try tubes again and got the original EVH LBX..then a Randall 45 watt Diavlo head,,then Marshall DSL 100H,and many more and now the new EVH amps.
I will enjoy my Vypyr plenty of times from here on out for simplicity..just plug in and play,but wow I love my tube amps too !
jimzucco
New member
For me, it depends on the amp. Tube is not just always better. I have a vintage japanese made solid state yamaha that's just amazing for anything clean or a little dirty. You could play a Randall with amazing drive. It's not always about pushing tubes. It's more about quality build. My favorite amps that I have played are Peavey 6505+ and a Marshal DSL40cr - both tube amps. But I've also played a ton of tube amps that were crap.
Great thing about tube amps is that you can get proper high gain sounds without the fizz that's a solid state staple. For clean sound it's relatively simple, there's no clipping and this is the challenge the modellers are fighting. For an average solid state amp all that's needed is a good cab/speaker and maybe a good EQ pedal. Distorted signal is where it gets complicated
Don't find it pleasant in any context. When playing in the bedroom it's simply annoying and at higher volume it's completely useless. I love high gain and whenever I play I'm trying to place myself in such a way that I hear little to no fizzy highs. And I've found that, when jamming with a band, that fizz is a massive turnoff for everyone, need to actually back off the presence and gain so we can hear each other. Gain without fizz is where it's at for me
Bear in mind I have tinnitus and that fizz is affecting my ability to fully enjoy what I'm listening to, especially at slightly higher volumes.
