Jim

Thank you so much for the time you took to write me this extensive reply to my amp quest. I so appreciate it and I am very grateful of all your suggestions.
You are so right, this amp thing was becoming an obsession so why continue doing this to myself.
I will stick to the little Roland Micro Cube RX and play on pickup 2,4. Its a good little amp for my living room to play at a reasonnalbe level for my neigboors, its portable and works with batteries so I can go to the park and have fun in the sun with it.
Yes I am new to the electric world, you re so right I had gotten a Godin LG Signature and it did have the humbucker pickup, but I didnt quite like the sound of these. Thats why I exchanged it for the Fender strat, more what I want to play.... So yes, I do have to live with the humm of the single coils pickup.
I will stop stressing over the amp and start have fun with my guitar now. Thanks man, you somehow brought peace to my soul.
Peace Jim, take care

Aw, jeez, don't do that! You'd be wasting 3/5 of the guitar! C'mon the noise isn't really that bad is it? It's never bothered me at all. You only hear it when you're not playing anyway. No more bothersome than the sound of someone's gentle breathing.

i have a vox vt30 its great with a strat and its cheap 300-400 bucks

Hey DG,
I'm happy that I could be of service . You may find that once you get that little Roland home, the noise may not be as bad as it was in the store and either way in time you will learn ways to combat this problem...it's something most of us Strat players deal with and there are lots of work arounds. BTW...personally I love those little battery powered amps. I have an old Peavey Companion myself (amongst others of course) and that portability thing is truly wonderful. I've taken mine up to the beach on occasion just to "jam in the sand". I've also been a long time fan of Pignose amps as well...electric and portable really does rock .

The one last little thing I will toss out your way....just remember you can always have more than one amp or guitar! A great many people, including myself do have more than just one electric and/or one acoustic and that one perfect amp. Granted this is a bit of an extreme example but personally I'm up to 8 amps and somewhere around 24 guitars (this is of course after 25+ years of playing). I have certain amps that I use for sitting around the living room and jamming/practicing on, then I have other amps I use for band practice and gigs where I need more volume then I have different amps still that I use for recording. The point being always hang on to your Strat and that little Roland, even when you think you've "out grown them"...you'll be happy you did.

Anyways, enjoy your new axe and amp and again I'm glad I could help!

Peace,
Jim

the Vox 100 VT XL'S
simply owesome!

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sombody get me a doctor!

dany girl I am glad you decided to stick with your Micro cube for your apartment. There are many nice amps that you can try in the future, if you want a tube amp look at the many 5 watt amps avalable or even the new Vox AC4TV which I just had the pleasure of trying out one and all I can say is not bad 4watt / 1watt / 1/4watt power very Vox. And remember a bazzilian watts are worthless most cases now days with micing and monitors and such. I have a 100watt head that I have not used in years most times I play on a 30watt or lower amp. The last venue gig I was asked to stand in at I miced a Blues Jr. they had.

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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

does anyone have an opinion on the "transtube" amps (at least i think thats what they're called) from Peavey and maybe there are other manufacturers doing the same thing. the next bit of dough i can get is earmarked for a better amp, and i was going to have a listen to one of these. PS i only play in the living room these days so that's all it has to do.

patrick
auckland nz

To paraphrase Cvilleira.

Its a good thing to keep the microcube. Theres not a lot of difference in standards between all the big name amp manufacturers. Particularly in the 4-30 watt modeling tech range. Your far better off to spend those extra pennies on something else as differences are small and can be worked around. Hum/buzz/noise isnt nice, there are things that can be done about it though. Martian (who's advice on pickups i take as gospel) doesnt like shielding and says it produces minimal results. I however sheilded my rhythm guitarist's mex strat and got spectacular results. In truth the noise shouldnt be that bad, and shouldnt be audiable when your playing.

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No no and no

I think that like this discussion in general, you'll get a number of different opinions on "transtube" technology. Personally I think that Peavey has made a mistake with this in that I feel they are trying to "pander to the masses" as it were. With all of the modeling and digital tech that's out there today I think that most folks feel most "digital tubes" regardless of their moniker don't really sound like real tubes. Personally I liked the older Peavey's from the late 70's/early 80's. Ok...they weren't "pristine" sounding amps by any means but they were decent sounding and they got the job done night after night. My little old Peavey Backstage Plus has probably seen more jam time than my vintage Bandmaster and my Lab put together....it's loud enough to use at an average band practice, I'ver certainly used it at a few smaller gigs, it sounds decent for what it is and after well over 20 years of use, it still works night after night. If only the guys in my band were that reliable! LOL!!! The same is true of my old Peavey TKO 65 bass amp...sure, she's not an Ampeg, but she does the job night after night and she does it VERY well.

It seems to me that a lot of these newer low end amps...the models that are targeted towards budget minded folks like myself...just really aren't as decent as the budget amps of 20-30 years ago. The guitars have gotten much better over the years but the amps really seem to be lacking compared with their older counter-parts. They are trying to be "everything to everyone" and that simply never works. I recently tried out a few Raven amps...I thought they were just horrible and the same thing is true of the new Peaveys as well. To me at least, it's not really a matter of "tube vs. solid state" as I have several older ss amps that I'm quite happy with. Many of these new amps just sound....well....cheap. This is as always just my opinion but to me they really sound like squawky little distortion boxes designed for brain dead little shredders who have absolutely no sense of tone or dynamics at all.

With that, my opinion is simply this...if you want a tube amp, then buy a tube amp. Forget about modeling amps and don't worry about these hybrid amps that use a tube in the pre section. If you really think you want or need a tube amp, you'll never be happy with anything less. If you're not a tube purist though, I really think you can do better by getting an older used ss amp instead of one of these newer models. Older Peaveys are still very plentiful, I've seen a number of older Labs on the Market and certainly a number of older Marshall ss's, older Roland amps such as the JC-120's just rock and I still see the occasional Dean Markley or JMF pop up from time to time. In many cases these amps can be had for well under $400 and they'll serve you a lot better than some of this new junk that's out there.

Again and as always, these are just my own personal opinions. Amps and tone are again a very subjective thing and what sounds great (or horrible) to my ears may sound totally different to yours. The -only- way to know if a given amp is right for you is to take your axe to the music store and play thru it then let your ears, heart and wallet decide what's right for you.

Peace,
Jim

Hey Jim

thanks for your post and comments, which I found really interesting. the reason i was curious about the transtube amp was i had an old tube amp when i used to play way back and i liked the sound. but the modern tubes are pretty expensive and reading the experiences of some of the guys on the forum, the quality aint so hot. i was thinking maybe the transtube could be a good compromise solution for my needs.

My financial reality at the moment means my choices are pretty limited as far as new gear goes, but what I think I'll do is as you suggest, listen to a few and see what I can get for my buck.

patrick

Just a quick word on quality since you mentioned it. Honestly I don't think the quality of tube amps has really gone done over the years...if anything, it's gotten better (at least better than it was in the 70's). The thing to remember about tube amps is that they are simply "fussy" to begin with. Tube amp design hasn't really changed all that much over the years so you are basically still talking about a device that for all intensive purposes is very inefficient. Let's face it, most of the power a tube amp uses is lost on HEAT...heating those tubes up so that the electrons will flow. So first and foremost you have a device that gets really hot, then gets cold (when you turn it off), then gets really hot...that puts a good deal of physical stress and wear on any device. In the case of Fender tube amps, you also have issues such as having the tubes biases correctly and such. In other words, I don't think most newer tube amps are really of any lesser quality than the earlier models as much as again it's simply the nature of the beast.

Interestingly enough, I also think that it's this inefficiency that is the reason tube amps sound the way they do and I also think it's why it's hard to replicate their sound with transistors or digital modeling. I've actually owned a couple of different "digital modeling devices" now...I currently own two Digitech pedals, I've played with Behringer V-Amps and Line 6 Pods and I've put their "vintage Fender Silverface" models against my '73 Bandmaster...those supposedly meticulously crafted models really sound nothing at all like the real McCoy. That's not to say that they sound "bad"...I actually do like my Digi pedals for their convenience but they just don't sound like a "real" tube amp. In the case of transtubes, I think the idea was to create a transistor that behaves the way a tube does...but again, they just don't sound right to me (and most of them sound pretty bad to my ears). So again I think that the reason those old glowing chunks of glass sound the way they do is simply because they are so inefficient.

Now the whole budget thing...that I certainly do understand. The best advice I can offer there is simply patience. There -are- bargains out there to be had if you are willing to look for them and are willing to wait for them. I actually got my Lab L5 at a guitar show for $45. Yes, it needed some repair and yes, it needed new speakers but with a total investment of $160 I got a wonderful vintage SS amp that just rocks! From time to time I've seen amps like the older Peavey Special 112's going for around $100 and those old Peavey Chorus amps going for around $200. Obviously do check out the newer amps...there could be something there that you like but honestly, don't be in a rush either...if you look around you could find a really sweet deal on a used amp instead.

Peace and good luck,
Jim

there are pleanty of nice tube amps for about 350 to 400. try them all.

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"look mummy there's an airplane up in the sky"

See if you can find a used peavey classic thirty. This all tube amp sounds great and can get as loud or quite as you need.

the Fender Super Champ is a sweet little amp. Play one at a music shop and I bet you buy it.

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"Life is like eating jalapenos. What you do today may burn your arse tomorrow"

thanks for all the comments guys. with any luck i'll be able to report back next few weeks on what i got.