Is solid-state dead?

Re: Is solid-state dead?

Yeah. I really want to try out the thrasher. Lots of neat features. Dimebag had to run a paramic eq through the rg to get his sound out of it. Though Alex Skolnick swore by the mode four even after it was discontinued.
 
Re: Is solid-state dead?

When I owned a tube amp I was always pissed off by how much its sound would vary from day to day. Solid state amps aren't nearly as temperamental.
 
Re: Is solid-state dead?

I also use a Fender red knob they were very popular in the 80's with the metal crowd. I got the whole setup for $330 can't beat that for a nice sounding half stack. Mine is my backup amp, a M80 Pro going through 4x12 Fender cab. Great spring reverb, awesome clean tones and surprisingly great high gain distortion (6:00 in the video).

I read a recent article about Greg Howe, he swears by his Fender red knob to this day.

 
Re: Is solid-state dead?

I would say it isnt dead at all!.. Ive just been convinced to to part with cash for a Blackstar ID100 head!!!.... the sound from these is so good and convincing!. I think this product from Blackstar has started something finally with Solid State tech
 
Re: Is solid-state dead?

I'd like to reconsider this. IMO, it could well be that Solid State might be every bit as good as New tube amp, from the standpoint that the last of the great tube plants has closed (Svetlana, and yeah, better start hoarding), and the junk tubes that people put in their high dollar tube amps now makes them a complete joke, and that NOS sets of vintage tubes are way beyond the reach of most people. Yeah, its not begginng to make a ton of difefrence. Is a great tube amp with crummy new tubes THAT much better than a high quality Solid State Amp? maybe not, plus you'll fry your tube amp, maybe take out those crummy modern transformers( even the botique modern Iron can't hold a candle to the old hand would Vintage Transformers) when those cheap tubes go south in short order, and without any warning.Couple with that is that all new tonewoods for modern guitars and production techniques leave a flat one dimensional and bright sound, then what difference does it even make if you have a great sounding new tube amp( and you don't)?
NOS tubes , even at their exhorbitant price, MAY be still the best bargain around. Come 20 years from now, they will be like Platinum.

I was about to mortgage the farm to buy a new Hiwatt Custom 50. Till I saw the joke that was supposed to be something like a old stock Partridge Transformer, and then the cheap Alpha control pots. Now I'll wait till one day I can get an old DR-103.Copuled with the terrible terrible sterile sounding cheap tubes , the new Hiwatts just not an option for me...might as well ahve a "mil-spec" SS amp.
OTOH< Hartly Peavy has taken the SS stuff to its realistic prioduction pinnacle, they call it "Transtube".. and ugh..UGhhh! S.S, at least for guitar amps ,once it gets to a certain point, gets too "Hi-Fi', and sterile, which is great for jazz if you have a five thousand dollar jazz guitar.. thats just the nature of the circuit, and there is no way around that, not for the best botique builder in the world...but it sucks for blues rock guys...who gives a hell what Darrel used, he saturated his gain so high that solid state/tube didn't even matter, excpet for the bright presence and edge of a solid state circuit would take your head off! Thats not good.
 
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Re: Is solid-state dead?

MetalManiac said:
who gives a hell what Darrel used
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stop-right-there.jpg
 
Re: Is solid-state dead?

misterwhizzy said:
I went and reread my original post, and I am not sure I was entirely clear. If I was, then you missed the point entirely.

I'm not talking about amps like the Blackstar ID series. They have knobs to switch between different virtual tube types. And I'm not talking about modeling, which is designed to sound like a tube. I'm talking about amps that unapologetically say, "No, there aren't any tubes in here. It's not supposed to sound like that. You gotta problem? Hit the bricks." And the only amps in the past twenty years or so that I can think of off the top of my head are the ones Randall built.

Now, I don't think there are any, at least not in the main stream.
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I am not aware of amps brands trying to do this, to propose players to use a OD/Dist with a character that comes from solid state based amp distortion. What I have read so far is that tube break slowly as volume goes up and that is transition that the ear of most people like, while transistor break abrupt and not in a musical way, so being that said I guess solid state distortion is only for the guys who like extreme distortion, but maybe not suitable for the people who likes as bluesy overdrive or somting around that kind of sound. Also, there a re generations tons of music recodings based on tube amps that shaped our "amp tone culture" and it is hard to get that out of the way when you try to build your own tone, not because it is bad but because they gave musical birth to songs that got stucked deep in my musical consience.

Being that said, for my personal approach I came to love the Roland Cube clean chanel so much better then my old Peavy that was meant to emulate tubes with solid state circuitry. So I combine the quality clean chanel of my solid state Roland Cube with a nice distortion pedal, if want a better distortion I just get a new pedal and I keep my quality clean chanel.
 
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Re: Is solid-state dead?

If the question is will transistor based amps dominate the market again ... maybe not... but transistor based stuff is very important. I have to laugh at some guitarist's attitude where tube is always better (these are the kinda people that see a mic preamp with a tube in it and think itll be the best as opposed to maybe an SSL or Neve preamp which is solid-state...). I like the sound of SS for certain things, it is tighter and punchier and has a lot more headroom for cost and heat. For guitar I love tube amps like AC30s but also like the sound of solid state distortion on top of valve distortion (fuzz pedals, FET based distortion pedals, diode distortion). For bass I prefer the tightness of Solid State. I actually want to get a solid state power amp and use the post transformer line out on my amp to get a higher wattage and a dry/wet rig (not very practical for gigging though). I more worry about the state of discrete circuits altogether. Outside of the audio world they have a lot less importance and many transistors are going out of production (or have ran out of stock).
 
Re: Is solid-state dead?

I have a Tech21 Trademark 10 that kicks a$$! I wonder how many players would actually be able to tell the difference in a blind taste test. To me the advantage of a tube amp lies in the way the tubes respond when you hit a note and power amp distortion. So many player run their Tube Screamers into their master volume amps that it wouldn't really make a difference what they used.
 
Re: Is solid-state dead?

I just picked up the 1998 Bandit 112 and 112SX Cab a few weeks ago for about $300 both are in excellent condition too. I no longer have any Tube amps I think this amp sounds great for the type of music I play... so for me SS is far from dead!

Here is a little clip of it while I was testing out my new pickups (SD 35th Anniversary JB/Jazz set!

 
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Re: Is solid-state dead?

J.LaGrassa said:
Thanks, the amp is a lot of fun to play and hopefully maintenance free... best thing is there are no tubes to worry about!
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Those USA Peavey Bandits are tone monsters which are built like F'n tanks as well. I love mine and would never part with it.
 
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