I know this is an endless debate. I've always been a tube amp guy. When I think of ss, I have a prejudice of thinking harsh, buzzy tone. However, I just keep seeing ss amps that look cool, and seem to get good reviews. So I'd really like to get past this in my head if it's not true.. and open up my world to a whole new side of amps. So who here uses SS successfully? What are some of the universal differences in tone? Does anyone here actually prefer ss to tube? It seems like all the ad campaigns focus on SS amps trying to sound like tube amps. Is this just the trendy market dictating this? Or are ss amps catagorically inferior tube amp wannabe's? Or are they their own thing that pros with good tone have used? I know that this seems like a silly post. But I'm a babe in the woods when it comes to ss amps. My first few amps were ss when I was a kid. I hated them.. but then again they were cheap beginner amps and I didn't know how to dial in a tone anway. Would it have made a difference?
There are some very high end SS amps out there and some relatively cheap ones that sound good. Cant remember the name of the high end one but there was a long thread mostly about it here not too long ago.... Recenly I was in a store and plugged into a Peavey Bandit. Their "transtube" stuff sounds pretty decent! I coaxed some nice low gain classic rock sounds out of it-really. I have a love affair with tubes that transends rational thinking though and so SS is out of the question. lol! Bob
That's where I'm at, but I'd like to change that. I've never had problems getting cool tones from SS in the studio or practice. But for live situations I've never been able to make it happen for some reason. I'd like to know if I'm just doing it wrong, have had the wrong amps, or just don't like the way SS sounds.
I got a wild hair a couple of years ago, and bought a Crate SS stack... The more "gain" I dialed in, the better it sounded. I absolutely think that Crate makes a great amp for the money. The only problem for me was that I prefer that '70's NMV Marshall amp sound, and consequently, I sold the Crate Stack at a huge loss a few months ago - it took up too much space! I think that SS amps are really getting lots better sounding as time goes by...
SS amps do sound good.....(Not the bad ones.) Test them with good speakers. Same with tube amps. Lots of good ss amps have been around for years. The tone depends on the application. Some do not overdrive graciously so the whole lot of them have been given a bad rap. A good ss amp, run clean, will match a tube amp's performance becasue they sound almost identical. I can hook up the 2 types and A/B them. They both sound fine. They both take pedals well, even digital modelling amps take pedals well if you have them set for basic clean emulation, why wouldn't they? You are just amplifying the signal. But, rationality does not always win the gear opinon war.
I use a MOSFET for the CF after the 3rd-1/2 stage in my amps. It saves me an extra triode, and runs very well in this configuration. Seems to drive the tonestack very cleanly, and, IIRC, has an even lower Zout than the 12AX7, although I could be wrong on that. I think Aiken was the one that posted the original circuit, although it could've been Keen. rooster.
First of all, if you think SS are always harsh and buzzy, try out a Polytone...they are the jazz amp, and they are anything but harsh or buzzy... I think the fact that a lot of builders are using SS rectifiers and such should say something as well.
I have several nice tube amps but I also have a Tech 21 Trademark 60 with a Eminence Wizard speaker and is kicks butt!!!
