Good evening, dear sirs!

A question popped into my head while carrying the groceries for my mom.

I have always heard tube amps sound better and louder than solid state amps, which are powered by transistors. After some research, I read a lot of blabbering but couldn't find a real answer other than "Tube amps have the warmth of tone that solid state amps don't".

So I came to the experts here on the forum to ask the following:

1) Are they really louder than solid state amps? Would 15w tube sound the same as 15w solid state?

2) Is the sound produced really better or is that just a myth created? Is it worth it buying one?

3) I have a Roland Cube 80XL. Looking at my needs, I'm close to buying an Ibanez TS9 Tubescreamer. My last question is, would the TS9 do its job in my Roland as well as it does on a tube amp or would I waste my money?

Thank you so much for taking some time to enlight me! Own you guys one!

Cheers,

Rod

A tube amp is much louder than a tranny amp, much louder, don't know why but it's true.

The TS9 along with a Roland tranny amp will in no way match the sound of a real tube amp. But it depends what you want to use it for really.

Everything seems better with a tube amp, picking dynamics, tone, everything, also a TS9 through a tube amp; now that will sound good. Tranny amps can sound good but don't have the output tubes that give the dynamic response we all love from our fave groups.

At the end of the day it's down to you but i'd buy one if you have the money, but make sure you get a good one!!!

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Luck won't do it and ignorance can't

George Van Eps.

In truth it depends on the amp.

If you took a transistor amp, designed it properly and used quality components. It would in every way match a valve amp for sound. It would far surpass it for reliability and size.
It would probably cost more than a valve amp.

As for volume that is more to do with the efficiency of the amplifier. Valve amps are very efficient at turning watts into decibels. Watts do not express volume, they express power. Decibels express the air pressure of volume. So if you get two amps of the same DB rating, they'll sound as loud as each other.

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No no and no

When I first got my Strat I played it through a Marshall 2x12 masterlead ( transistor combo) 1974 30watts I think it was, I thought it was the mutts nuts, however, age along with being parked next to damp wall ( the amp not me ), faultering pots and the wife decorating plans dumped it and bought the AVT 100w Marshall combo not long after that a little Vox AC4 watt tube amp and thats been my go to amp it just has something warm dynamic and satisfying that the Marshall just can't deliver IMO

hi , yes tube amps are louder than ss amps , and yes the sound is so much sweeter than ss amps , go try a few , a nice wee tube amp is an epiphone valve junior , cheap and sound sweet (i have the head version and run it thrugh a marshall 4x12 or an old roost 2x12 but it sounds excellent , 5 watts and it's loud enough for a rehersal with bass and drums there are plenty of other options out there so grab one that suits you'r pocket and enjoy the sounds of a tube amp
cheers
Alan

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They look cool as hell too!

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Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

are you super serial ? (al gore from south park)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9wmczxnT3c , cheers
Alan

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Arrrggghhh.......Stop it!!!! Why oh why wont they make a 240V one and send it here!!!

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Yo Mike,
Is that yours? I've been looking for one just because IMO it looks cool. If you have it what's your impressions of it. I would buy one gut it and put something else in it if it's a tone turd. Seems like it would be a swampy Blues amp with the 15 and only 11 watts.

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Life...... It's sexually transmitted and always fatal

15 watt Solid State = rated max wattage

15w Tube amp = rate max clean, but will distort beyond that with increase in volume.

Or something similar to that.

Acoustically, good tube amps are dynamic and amplify nice overtones. Dynamic in terms of attack and in tone/harmonics/overtones/whatever. It's hard to reproduce that with solid sate hardware without expense becoming a issue as stated already. I once played a 50 watt tube combo with a 15" speaker next to a 100 watt SS Marshall half stack and we were on pretty even ground. We were playing with an entire band. That amp got loaned out to a buddy who liked it better than his 100 watt SS full stack. He was playing out at the time and I wasn't. I bet that thing weighed 150 lbs.

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My ability to spell is in direct proportion to the amount of coffee I've had.

The general rule of thumb with tube amps vs. solid state is that a 15W tube amp will be noticeably louder than a 15 W solid state.Tube amps have a warmer fuller tone than the clinical cleaness of a solid state.In the early 80s Pete Traynor-the mastermind behind Traynor amps-developed a line of solid state amps known as the TS-Series and these amps were very convincingly tubelike in their sound and performance.They had some very novel innovations that no other amps possessed and it's strange that the never gained much more acceptance due to their technical superiority to other S/S amps.Instead of a master volume they had a 3 way rocker switch that acted more or less as an attenuator and on the 15W TS-15 for instance it set the maximum ouput volume at 5,10 and 15 Watts therefore allowing gig-like tone at bedroom volumes.

Some of the new Hybrid amps are really phenomenal at recreating just about every little tonal nuance of the amps that they are modeling.Both the Vox ValveTronix and Marshall Valvestate are superior to most modeling amps on the market and their amp models are very convincing renditions of the amps they are modeling and in some cases the closeness in tone is uncanny.The on-board effects of these amps are also second to none,especially the modulating ones-they are pretty well spot on.

All in all there are some pretty decent S/S and Hybrid substitutes for tube amps but some are almost tinny sounding because they're so clean.Acoustic makes very good S/S amps but if you can ever get your hands on an older Roland Jazz Chorus that's in good shape snap it up and as far as Hybrids go Vox and Marshall are among the best plus they are very solidly built.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

Tube amps just have more character. They add color to the sound and a good tube amp is just as much a musical instrument as the electric guitar itself; they really go hand-in-hand. It's the reason why electric guitars sound like horseshit recorded "direct-in". Solid-state amps always remind me of plugging an electric guitar into a tape deck (if you're old enough to have tried that), too much clarity, not enough warmth. A good solid state amp might be able to make one particular clean tone sound good, but it's always going to seem "flat". It's just missing that dynamic response you get with tubes, where a harder attack will result in more gain, and lighter touch will clean it up.

No, not yet anyway...a friend ordered one and they told him to expect it
by mid April (soon). His justification was the same as yours.
iPad HD 32GB - $600 - Made in China
Excelsior Amp - $300 - Made in China
Point - Amp!

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Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

your ears will tell you everything you need to know.
tube amps just sound so much better to me although i'm having issues with a brand new one i just purchased. they can be finicky. but worth it.