Alwaysstrat, can you tell me what it is exactly that you don't like about tube amps? Just wondering. Thanks my friend.

never said i didnt like tube amps
i have 2 1982 jcm 100 watt marshalls.
what i am saying is that i also own a few none
tube and a valvetronix amps that are simply
brilliant. the amp tech the past 5 to 6 years is
just brillint. i run a 2005 CRATE GT1200H full stack
with my jcm marshalls and you would never know the differnce.
i you would have to play out of one here what i'm saying.
with the amp tech the valve/tube power amps are not the begining
or end when it come to power/sound/tone.

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sombody get me a doctor!

I hear you alwaysstrat. Thanks!

"dont run away fhopkins. you realy think this is
a post of facts or opinions? i would say that this
is someones opinion"

Can I answer for Hopkins ? I think Hopkins has a pretty good idea what facts and opinion is all about. I also think he knows what I'm all about and what my history in the business is.

And son, I don't have to spew my opinions here. I've lived long enough and seen and heard even more regarding amps and guitars that I have a trunk load of facts to share. I didn't ask for this information in my life... I never dreamed this road would lead me to have this type of direction.
It just happened. I'm not arrogant enough to claim all answers to everything, and wow, there truuly are some very informed people here as well...but yes these are facts! I might be off by one year or so on some amps ( I'm getting older!!), but can I give you one silly example?

I know what was used to record the guitar parts for " Little Sister" and "Suspicious Minds" ( Dwight Yokum) because Pete Anderson who played the parts and produced the recording told me . I have to trust that he knows these things. It becomes a fact to me, and not an opinion. Sometimes we get lucky enough when people share with us, don't you think?

Cheers, Pete

fair enough pete.

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sombody get me a doctor!

all this valve vs transistor stuff is just turning into another variation on the made in mongolia vs made in antarctica thing. Its true that the majority of classic recorded guitar sounds are valve amp based. Its also true that transistor/modeling technology has improved expodentialy since 1988. I can see modeling one day surpassing valve sounds. Still guitarists will hanker after valve amps. Why? For the same reason that a VG strat will never replace a les paul. It may well do les paul sounds perfectly but its just not the article itself. A darkfire may do strat sounds, but its not a strat.

I'm of a similar opinion to Alwaysstrat. I love my valve amps, to the point that i have been known to just sit and look at the valves glowing. When i was gigging 7 nights a week and living in a van it was a marshall valvestate power amp and POD that came with me. Just because of its reliability and room acoustics aside it never needed tweaking.

On a side note a friend of mine designs amps for carlsbro, their new range of modelers is well worth checking out. As is the 50 top. I may drag a few amps with me so he can clone em.

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No no and no

Hey There Fenderheads-

Always some good info being passed around in the forum-

I am nobody famous...and I dont know anybody famous..but I do know what I like.

Hybrid amps ...to me ...always sound like they are missing something. Not as rounded out and full. I am sure that someone with more experience can adjust the setting to get a more full sound...I just haven't heard it yet.

I like the richness of the Fender tube amps...Its like butter (Buttah)-

The Freeze

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There's Always Room For MELLOW !!!!

2000 MIM Stratocaster, Midnight Wine W/Texas Specials
2000 Fender Hot Rod Deluxe
1969 Fender Vibro Champ

I believe that Modellers/Hybrids have a good place in life. They are lightweight, easy to transport, and have some nice effects and versatility to them. And they are getting better all the time. I own one, and like Ninja said...sometimes you have to be economical with space and time and they just fit the bill. There's nothing wrong with that at all!

But certainly if I'm doing something more serious, a recording session or something like that...then maybe my old blackface gets the call. The superiority of tone is something I can't deny in real world application, so why would I deny it here?

Kampf mit immer ist es nicht wert.

I cant compare the difference between high watt Full Stacks because to be honest I have not needed to play through one since I dont no when. My neighbors sure would not like it if I did because to make them sound good you have to crank it. A Combo at the open mic night does good enough now days for me. Maybe if I get to play at the local Stadium I will hook to a a high watt full stack. Or just mic a combo or a low half stack!

Wir alle haben nicht eine Million Instrumente wie immer.

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The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Thomas Jefferson

Tubes are a technically inconsistent power supply from an engineering perspective. but it is exactly that inconsistency that provides our sonic nirvana. tube modellers use an algorithm to try replicate this, but in the end they are always just a model, not the real thing.

That said when i also was gigging and living in a van, I too used a solid state amp.My Deluxe Reverb was too important to me to risk it on the road. Most bars I didn't worry about having perfect tone, just good tone, and I got a really really good sound out of my ole solid state amp.(And it never started on fire like my old marshall head!!) Oh and it was way lighter, and not having a roadie, i cared about that too

never got a pod til after I settled down. I will say though, oyu can really tell the difference between its 'fender champ' and a real one. But the POD served me well, when I lived in a place I couldn't make noise. reasonable tones at low volumes.

Now i have a reissue Champion 600 in the living room, I can play it and get some sweet sounds at a reasonable volume. the POD cannot sound even close to as good.

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I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

With all due respect, i don't buy into the rectifier as the main reason for sag unless the amp is a clean amp who's drive only comes from cranking it.Yet my preamp driven distortion sags great and has a ton of dynamics, and a tube rectifier has no effect on that over ss rectification. I built my current amps, and they aren't kits or copies. I designed then from common designs but have completely altered every part of the circuits to what i felt worked best. My latest and main amp took me almost a year before i got it to where it is now, and it has boatloads of sag, but it is SS rectified ! And the kicker is that i built it with a tube rectifier and eventually put a switch in to be able to switch between them. If it tells you anything, i ended up removing the switch and leaving it with diode rectification, and trust me, it lost no sag. granted, a different rectifier tube type may have added some sag, but so will a series resistor in the PSU right after rectification. But the amp sounded TOO saggy with any more than it has now, and i like sag s much as anyone. So can a tube rectifier add sag? yes. Is that always what give you that feel and dynamics? No. it can contribute, or it may not. in mine it didn't even slightly, and being able to A/B it instantly with a switch made it very apparent that it didn't need the tube to sag, and in fact it made no obvious difference.

Now, that said, a non master amp will sag more with a tube rectifier as i eluded to earlier. But a amp that gets a lot of it's drive from the pre won't. thats what i built, but my pre has sag and feel closer to a cranked output section than most. that was a big part of my goal when designing it and also why it took me a year to nail it. but what i was talking about before is more than just sag. There are lots of things going on in a tube power section besides sag. Sag is related to dynamics, but you can have a ton of dynamics w/o sag. And dynamics are what is missing from amps with a solid state PA. Rectification by tube or not, my main point was that the magic lies in a tube output section, and tube rectified or not if the design is great it will have the magic no SS PA will ever have unless they crack the code someday.

^ now I know how my wife feels when I talk computer stuff to her!

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http://www.bluesrepublic.org/

2008 Fender American Stratocaster
2008 Fender Deluxe Telecaster
Fender Power Jazz Bass Special 1987 (MIJ)
Egnater Renegade Head
Egnater Tourmaster 2x12 cab

Makes sense to me! I guess?