In the neck of woods I grew up I got to practice at some point on a bass power amp bought really cheap. Had no idea what a proper guitar SS amp would sound like, let alone a real tube amp. Come to think of it, we didn't even have MTV at the time, the only western pieces of gear we had in our house were 2 tape cassette recorders, a Swiss made Standard - extremely well built, but so obscure now no search engine knows about it - and a Japan made Sharp. Everything else was made in the Eastern European communist block.