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Post subject: Solid State Amps
Posted: Sun Oct 18, 2009 8:29 am
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I am curious if I am the only one who really likes solid state amps? I do appreciate tube amps and their sonic differences from solid states...but for some reason with the pedal I use (Digitech RP355) I am able to attain the really nice warm tones that I am looking for...am I alone??


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Posted: Sun Oct 18, 2009 8:56 am
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funnily enough m8. was thinking that last night. i put my digitech screamin blues pedal (which is pretty rubbish) through my frontman 25r, and it sounded really nice and warm. but when i put it through my bj nos it sounds not so nice. wierd!

so no your not alone.


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Posted: Sun Oct 18, 2009 12:02 pm
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Hello Airbornestrat,

I like Solid state amps and the Frontman 25r
was a super little box for the 11 trouble free
years I owned it. Years back I had a poly tone
brute that was fantastic. The tube driven Blues Jr.
is my #1 these days and for me it' got "the" sound.

One of these days I'm gonna get another Frontman 25r.

Cheers.


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Posted: Sun Oct 18, 2009 12:24 pm
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Jazz players love them. Nothing wrong with them if you like them. They're really reliable too.


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Posted: Sun Oct 18, 2009 12:36 pm
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Depending on your music style they may make a lot of sense. I'll take a really good solid state amp over a low quality tube amp. Often times guys will say they have to have a valve amp which is fine but the players hands are what really determines how good you sound. It's hard to beat the clean channel of the Frontman amps but you aren't going to get that natural breakup that you can get from a cranked tube amp. Some great tracks have been laid down by guys that like solid sate. Albert King loved em and take a listen to how good he sounds. For him it was in the hands.


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Posted: Sun Oct 18, 2009 12:39 pm
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I actually just switched from a Hot Rod Deluxe to a Frontman 212r because of the clean sound I was after. I have pedals to do the rest: Metal Zone, Chorus, Autowah and Delay and I can get all the sounds I need.


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Posted: Sun Oct 18, 2009 1:10 pm
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hsk120 wrote:
I actually just switched from a Hot Rod Deluxe to a Frontman 212r because of the clean sound I was after. I have pedals to do the rest: Metal Zone, Chorus, Autowah and Delay and I can get all the sounds I need.


Reliability wise, you're a lot better off. The Frontman 212r I tried had really nice cleans. They're also really affordable. It just depends on what style music you play. There is no right or wrong.


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Posted: Sun Oct 18, 2009 5:06 pm
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I used to have tube amps. I have the Cyber Twins. Also have a Roland JC-120.

SS versus tube amps, there are no fixed rules, there are lot of funny perceptions and myths. First, tone, it's there or it's not, it depends on the amp and what music you are playing - most ears cannot tell the diff in blind tests. Second, tube amps tend to be one trick ponies, SS like Cyber Twins have all sorts of capability. Lastly, tube amps have always been finiky - it depends on the tubes, manufacturer, biasing, and the mechanical state-of-health (tube sockets looseness, leaky capacitors, ground and shielding, "analog signal processing" - scratchy pots, good high voltage lines, good low voltage lines, etc...), solid state tend to be more much resilient.

Today's ss amps sound pretty darn good. The good ss amps are not cheap, you get what you pay for. But dollar for dollar, the ss amps are bargains compared to tube amps.

ciao,
johnny.


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Posted: Sun Oct 18, 2009 9:18 pm
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While everyone praises tube amps they do have their troubles. Unlike an SS amp they need to be maintained. With an SS you just plug in and play. Generally, with an SS amp what goes in is what comes out so when you run your pedals through it you get exactly what you put into it. With tube amps this is not always true. But then, you also learn to adjust the tube amps setting to attain what you are seeking. I've had tube amps and loved them, but now only have SS amps. All Fender. My favourite is my Stage 160 DSP. But if I am going to play with my pedals a lot I prefer my 212R. I also have an Automatic GT, 25R, 15R, 15G, 15DSP, and a Starcaster 15G that I take with me when we go camping in our trailer. It's so small it's easy to cary along. But what I am getting at is that I like the SS amps so much that all of my present amps are SS. And best of all, I never need to be servicing them or setting them up. I just use them. But for every one of us S lovers there will be a tube amp lover with valid reasons for using them instead. Both are great, it is all up to the individual and what they want out of thier equipment. Me, I just want to play and not work on them all the time.

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Posted: Sun Oct 18, 2009 11:37 pm
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I gigged exclusively for a couple of years with a Peavey Bandit 65. I don't think any other amp has fueled the careers of more professional musicians: it sounds great, it's reliable, durable and loud. I still have mine, but I discovered tubes a year or so ago and don't play it very much anymore. I think the tube amps sound a little better, particularly when overdriven. That's about my only reason for playing tubes over SS -- or vice versa.


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Posted: Mon Oct 19, 2009 6:52 am
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I love my tube amps, no doubt about that.

But if I'm going to record clean guitar sounds, they stay switched off and I bring out my old solid state Hughes & Kettner Edition Blue 30watt with a 10" Jensen. Absolutely the best low level clean sounds for me. Total clarity and crystalline sounding.

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Posted: Wed Oct 21, 2009 7:18 pm
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I think there are just some solid state amps that work really well especially with a pedal to dial in specific tones. I dont own a completely solid state amp anymore. The closest thing I have now is a Marshall Valvestate AVT 50 which is solid state in the power section, but has a tube in the preamp. I once had a Peavey Revolution solid state amp and it was great with a little zoom multi effects pedal. In particular it would nail some Van Halen tones as well as some A/C D/C and some others. I still have that pedal, but without that amp I just cant get those tones to sound quite the same.

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Posted: Wed Oct 21, 2009 9:31 pm
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Yeah, solid state amps can be great sounding, especially in a band mix. How about BB King, with Lucille and Lab Series amps. Played a 410 sixty-five Music Man for years in a blues band, although it was a hybrid, it was a great amp. ART

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Posted: Thu Oct 22, 2009 10:16 am
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I have both types.
I prefer my Strat through the tube amp, and my acoustic through the Roland SS.
Personal preferences :)

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Posted: Thu Oct 22, 2009 6:48 pm
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I play through a Deluxe 85 red knob and I love it.


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