It is currently Tue Mar 17, 2020 5:19 am

All times are UTC - 7 hours



Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 69 posts ]  Go to page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5  Next
Go to page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5  Next
Author Message
Post subject: Solid State amp. Guitar's true sound?
Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2013 3:20 pm
Offline
Hobbyist
Hobbyist

Joined: Sat Jan 14, 2012 1:18 pm
Posts: 74
My Strat purchase is getting nearer.
One more thing I need to clear up before I take the plunge.
Currently I have a Peavey Strat clone guitar. I'm using a solid state Roland 40XL Cube amp, it's 40 watts with lots of effects built in.
Talking with a sales guy in my local music store this morning, he asked what amp I was using.
He said with a solid state amp, I'm only hearing a digitally produced sound and not the guitar's true tone.
(Okay now, queue the sound of the needle being pushed off the record)
Thought I had this all figured out.
In essence, am I wasting money on buying an American Standard and playing it through a solid state amp?
If I need to buy a tube amp, it might blow my budget higher than I want to go.
Sorry for the lengthy post, but I need some advice.
Thanks again, all. I appreciate your input.


Top
Profile
Fender Play Winter Sale 2020
Post subject: Re: Solid State amp. Guitar's true sound?
Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2013 3:32 pm
Offline
Rock Icon
Rock Icon
User avatar

Joined: Wed Mar 31, 2010 12:48 am
Posts: 26417
Location: Tombstone Territory
There are plenty of good transistorized amps available and have been for quite some time. In my recent past, I owned a Fender Stage 100 DSP and gigged with it quite often. My Strats sounded like Strats and my Les Pauls sounded like Les Pauls. I think that sales guy should probably be wearing a McHeadset and working the drive-thru window at a local fast-food franchise.

JMOOC......

For the record however, I do prefer all-tube platforms for their organic tone and vibe.

Arjay

_________________
"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Solid State amp. Guitar's true sound?
Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2013 5:17 pm
Offline
Aspiring Musician
Aspiring Musician

Joined: Thu Aug 02, 2012 6:15 am
Posts: 522
Sounds like a sales guy on commission. Sell you everything you don't need, so he can fatten his wallet.

There is nothing wrong with your Roland Cube. Lots of bells and whistles, and some really nice tones. Just get your guitar and get a new amp later. Your Roland will let you find a tone you like in the models it has. Once you have found your tone, then you can look for that type of amp later.

Finding your amp tone is personal. Different amps are available for different styles/types of music, as you well know. Nothing puts you off as getting the wrong amp from the start. It happens to a lot of players.


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Solid State amp. Guitar's true sound?
Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2013 7:14 pm
Offline
Aspiring Musician
Aspiring Musician

Joined: Fri Mar 16, 2012 12:49 pm
Posts: 838
a7e7d7 wrote:
... am I wasting money on buying an American Standard and playing it through a solid state amp? ...
No, you're not. You're spending money on an excellent instrument, one which can be passed down for generations.

Regarding the SS amp:
    Arjay +1
    Snick +1

So no more worries. Go and get that Strat :D

Cheers!
BM

_________________
This is the Blues. Are you listening?


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Solid State amp. Guitar's true sound?
Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2013 8:50 pm
Offline
Rock Icon
Rock Icon
User avatar

Joined: Tue Jun 29, 2010 1:20 pm
Posts: 9640
Location: Indiana
An instrument amplifier produces/creates sound, it doesn't reproduce sound. That's why each amp sounds different, each creates it's own sound. I suppose that if you wanted to hear the guitar's so-called "true sound", plug it into a hi-fi amp (which can blow the amp). :lol:

_________________
---> "The amp should be SWITCHED OFF AND UNPLUGGED before you do this!" <---

Por favor, disculpe mi español, no se llega a la práctica con mucha frecuencia.


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Solid State amp. Guitar's true sound?
Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2013 9:19 pm
Offline
Professional Musician
Professional Musician
User avatar

Joined: Sun Jun 28, 2009 6:57 pm
Posts: 1868
Location: Kansas City Mo
I like those cubes alot they sound great! I got one I play all the time in my living room.

Trust us all you need that strat ;)

_________________
https://www.facebook.com/groups/fenderguitarandamp/


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Solid State amp. Guitar's true sound?
Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2013 9:52 pm
Offline
Aspiring Musician
Aspiring Musician
User avatar

Joined: Sat Mar 20, 2010 2:30 pm
Posts: 792
Location: A Land Downunder
+1 to what the others have said.

So according to the guy in the store, having eliminated the Solid State amp, if you then played the guitar through a Marshall tube amp, then a Fender Tweed tube amp, then a Fender Blackface tube amp, then a Matchless tube amp it would sound very different through each one, so in his opinion which one is the "true sound" of the guitar?


Snowy


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Solid State amp. Guitar's true sound?
Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2013 11:52 pm
Offline
Rock Icon
Rock Icon
User avatar

Joined: Wed Jul 29, 2009 10:03 am
Posts: 9449
Location: NL Canada
That salesman and others of his ilk are exactly what's wrong with most huge chain music stores these days and consequently people who wrongly believe that the salesmen must be knowledgable in order to be working there, often leave the store with something that is completely wrong for them.Roland SS amps are among the better ones of the non-tube type and can be even better sounding than some tube amps.

_________________
'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.


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Solid State amp. Guitar's true sound?
Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2013 3:38 am
Offline
Hobbyist
Hobbyist
User avatar

Joined: Thu Nov 15, 2012 1:22 pm
Posts: 69
He just wanted to get more bucks out of you...
Indeed sounds different, but try a simple frontman series (25, 65, 100) on clean channel, it will sound great. No whriling that a tube amp will ofer, but still a very good and useful sound.


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Solid State amp. Guitar's true sound?
Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2013 3:50 am
Offline
Aspiring Musician
Aspiring Musician
User avatar

Joined: Sun Jul 24, 2011 1:59 am
Posts: 492
Tell him to go tell BB King that his guitar doesn't sound like it should, and that he really should ditch his solid state amps. :lol:


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Solid State amp. Guitar's true sound?
Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2013 4:50 am
Offline
Hobbyist
Hobbyist

Joined: Sat Jan 14, 2012 1:18 pm
Posts: 74
Vulpinity wrote:
Tell him to go tell BB King that his guitar doesn't sound like it should, and that he really should ditch his solid state amps. :lol:

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Solid State amp. Guitar's true sound?
Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2013 5:44 am
Offline
Aspiring Musician
Aspiring Musician

Joined: Fri Mar 16, 2012 12:49 pm
Posts: 838
Vulpinity wrote:
Tell him to go tell BB King that his guitar doesn't sound like it should, and that he really should ditch his solid state amps. :lol:
I was thinking the exact same thing! Indeed, who would ever tell BB that his Lab 5 doesn't reproduce Lucille's "true tone".

I came across this You Tube Video recorded several years ago - perhaps mid '90s? - where B.B. King talks about his amps. He mentions the Lab 5 has been "out of print for a while" and that he "bought up about five or six of them" and he also gives a thumbs up to the Fender Twin. What I found most enlightening is what B.B. said at about the amps he uses when traveling abroad.

    Quote:
    "We just carry our instruments and we use whatever amp that's there. A lot of times, two thirds of the time when I'm travelling, especially abroad, I never see the amplifier before I go on stage."

So go and get that Strat a7e7d7 and don't worry about the amp for now. If whatever's available is good enough for B.B. then it should be good enough for all of us. :wink:

Cheers!
BM

_________________
This is the Blues. Are you listening?


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Solid State amp. Guitar's true sound?
Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2013 11:19 am
Offline
Professional Musician
Professional Musician

Joined: Wed May 25, 2011 12:45 pm
Posts: 1169
Solid state most certainly does NOT mean digitally produced. That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard.

The original signal source (fingers vibrating wire) is analog...always!

Tube and Solid state power amp stages are analog components....always! If they were not then you would here nothing but noise through your speakers (which are also analog components).

Between the signal source and power amp stage both tube and solid state amps can have digital signal processing components. However, it is more common in solid state amps.

_________________
In my opinion Leo Fender had essentially perfected the guitar amplifier by 1964.


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Solid State amp. Guitar's true sound?
Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2013 3:47 pm
Offline
Professional Musician
Professional Musician
User avatar

Joined: Wed Feb 08, 2012 1:33 am
Posts: 1247
Well, in fact, the seller is right!

But it depends on the solid state amp.

In the early days of modeling solid state amps, there was the so called "truth factor".
Early ones were just like described by your salesman.

In the meantime these modeling amps have improved a lot and you get really great sounds out of them.

Get the strat, get a decent tube amp later!

I played modeling amps for 20 years. I had a Line6 Spider 2 (stereo, 40 Watts) and later a Fender Cyber Twin (the best what you can get in the modeling sector!).

I just recently bought a couple of tube amps and sold the modeling amps.

You can do NOTHING wrong with buying the strat now!

_________________
Kindest regards from Germany, Dee
My recordings --> http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_mu ... dID=564337
STRATS ROCK!!! but Teles and Firebirds, too!


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Solid State amp. Guitar's true sound?
Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2013 6:46 pm
Offline
Rock Star
Rock Star
User avatar

Joined: Sat Jul 26, 2008 9:56 pm
Posts: 3941
Location: Great White North, EH!
There is no "true" sound of an Electric guitar.

There is only the sound of the guitar in combination with amplification, and/or effects.

There only stuff you like and stuff you don't (to varying degrees.)

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

Image


Top
Profile
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 69 posts ]  Go to page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5  Next
Go to page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5  Next

All times are UTC - 7 hours

Fender Play Winter Sale 2020

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: stratele52 and 2 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum

Search for:
Jump to: