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Anyone here gig with SS or Hybrid amps?


Mr.scary96

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I use an Ampeg VH-140c 2x12 combo, and I pair it with an Avatar 2x12. In super stereo. 

 

Straight up, one of the best amps I've ever used live/best amps I've ever used, period. I also have a Gallien Krueger 250ML that I use on occasion for practices, but it also wires into the Avatar cab and blows doors off. It's very different from the VH, so I use it on occasion. 

 

I had a buddy who had a hybrid Musicman. What a great amp!

 

I think there might be a bit of a push back towards solid state, to be honest. I know a guy who traded in his Laney combo for a JC-120, and he is straight up over the moon about it. I can't disagree with him.

 

One of my bucket list amps is a Sunn Beta Lead.

 

I have to admit I'm tired of folks bagging on solid state, because they've probably only used crap cheap solid state amps. The good stuff is *good*.

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I have a number of amps that cover the gambot and I have no trouble of using any of them live. I often pair them up to give me psudeo stereo sound with stereo chorus and echo pedals and place one cab on each side of the stage, especially playing three piece.

I have vintage Sunn Concert Lead head that uses FETs for a tuble like tone and since it outputs 200w it will easily keep up with a 100W tube head. Its probibly the best SS head I have for tube like tone with a nice solid punch.

I have a Marshall Valvestate 100 which uses a preamp tube for overdrive and it too has Mosfets for the power amp. It gets a very nice tube like tone plus the marshall tone overdrive.

I have a Music Man 65 head that has a solid state Preamp and power tubes for the output. Its likely the first hybrid made back in the 1970's. Its a very cool amp that gives Fender like tones.

I also have a Blackface Fender Bassman I've owned since 1968. It was a year old when I bought it from a friend in high school and have used it all through the years.

I have several others and owned dozens more. There are a few I wouldnt want to use live because they dont get me the tones I want but I been playing long enough where I can usually dial up the tones I need from just about any amp.

 

 

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I just picked up an early 90's/late 80's Crate TD70 for  $40.00. SS power and a tube preamp. I prefer this over any Marshall SS or hybrid. The TD70 certainly can be dialed in to sound quite bad. At first I was just going to flip it and make a few bucks but, once I found the sweet spot I was blown away and there is no humming or hissing while on the gain channel unless you have the gain all the way up but, it sounds like crap with the gain past 50% anyway. . I'm keeping this at least for rehearsal and practice for now to test out its reliablilty. I wouldn't take it alone to a gig. I always have a backup combo anyway just in case.

Crate also made a another hybrid called GXT or something like that and its supposed to be a killer little amp too. I'm keeping my eyes open for a used one. I figure the ones that still work after 20 - 25 years must be the good ones and will probably still run another 20 years or so. Lots of nice amps out there that flew under the radar and people overlooked because of the "beginner status". Also, most kids who bought these never considered running the gain at anything less then 10 which in a lot of cases just sounds harsh, thin, and muddy.

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For smaller gigs I really like my Fender Super Champ XD with a Jensen Neo speaker. Its a hybrid - tube amp with modeling front end. Although I sometimes use a Mesa Boogie V-Twin tube preamp in front of it. But it sounds fine on its own and I like its light weight and portability. Sounds good going through the PA too. Its not as loud or full sounding as my all-tube Mesa Boogie Studio 22+ but its great to have for certain occasions.

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I'm gigging with a Quilter Aviator head - $549 + $59 for the foot controller. I already owned my Mesa Widebody 1x12 cab that I like a lot, so I purchased just the head instead of a combo amp. I am extremely happy with it.

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Sometimes I will play through a Fender Stage 1000 Solid State amp. I also have a Cyber Twin which has a similar SS output circuit as the Stage 1000 as well as a couple of 12AX7s in a digitally configurable preamp.

 

My main amp is a Yamaha DG80 (digital preamp - SS output) and for quiet gigs I may use a Fender Princeton Reverb or a Mesa Boogie Subway Blues (which are both all tube amps).

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Last year , I bought an old Digitech 2112 Rack Processor with two 12AX7 tubes in it. I run a Digitech RP-1 and RP-12 in it. I tried some of the newer toys ( rack units / floor units) and it seems like the tone is lacking in the newer Boss, Digitech Roland and various others.

I can seriously do some extreme tonal variations approximations of amps out there : VHT Pitbull- Deliverance, Carvin X-100 B - V3- Legacy 1, 2 and 3, Marshall JCM 800-900- Plex, Classic Fender tones ,Peavey JSX tones or any mega extreme gain amps ... and some.

I play every thing from Classic Rock , Blues, Thrash, Neo-Classical Metal, Shred, 80's Metal and Speed Metal. I have two VHT ( now Freyette) Valvulator 1's in my signal path to give my floor units some tube tone. Now I can leave my X-100 B, VHT, V3, Marshalls and Fender amps home, while I have them emulated to a tee with my 2112 processor. ;)

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So what's the hype one the Quilter amps? I never seen one so I don't know what it sounds like

 

I own a Quilter Aviator head (gig bag included): $549 + $59 for the foot controller. I use my Mesa 1x12 Widebody cab. It has GREAT tone! I have a close friend who makes some pretty respectable income. He buys gear he is curious about and he owns a Quilter Micro Pro 200 head paired with a Quilter Micro Pro cab, so I got to fiddle around with his at no personal expense. It gets great tone, but the Micro Pro 200 head had too many channel switchy boosty gee-gaw things for my taste. I like simplicity. Since I already owned my Mesa cab, I took the plunge and ordered the more Spartan Aviator head. I LOVE this thing! I highly recommend Quilter. I am considering buying a second Aviator, the 1x12 combo so that I will have a spare. It is well worth the price.

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A tube preamp into a SS power amp can sound really good. You get some of the tube magic but SS tightness. If you want to play super loud though it helps to have tons of power, just don't overload your speakers. I haven't been using it lately but I have an old Peavey Rockmaster preamp and a two channel 800 watt SS power amp, well it's 800 if you have it into an 8 ohm load or two 4 ohm loads anyway.

 

I am not fond of pure SS racks/heads for guitar but I probably haven't heard the right setup yet.

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I used a Johnson JM-250 rig with matching 412 cab years ago. That thing could do all kinds of crazy cool stuff. Was it just like a tube amp. Not quite, but close enough no one could tell.

 

And I now run direct with an 11R. So yes nothing wrong with solid state.

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A buddy sold me a Music Man 65 head for $50. The thing is in mint condition and I replaces the tubes with the 6CA7 reissues instead of the EL34's many of the amps had to be converted to. The amp has a tone very similar to a Fender amp except for the SS preamp which does give it a solid front end.

 

Many like Mike Knopfler, Clapton, Johnny Winter, Blue Oyster Cult and many others have used those amps live and recorded. When I compare it to my Blackface Bassman I'd have to say the Bassman does have better fidelity. The highs are more transparent and the bass has a warmer tone. Harmonics are definitely superior.

 

I do have some other heads like my Marshall Valvestate that uses a preamp tube for gain. I tried out a half dozen different tubes and they really don't make much difference in tone so I suspect the amp uses a low voltage starved tube circuit and it just colors the sound a little for some tube like preamp drive. Its not the same as a High voltage tube overdrive which is a whole lot better sounding because there's more compression, less noise and better highs.

 

I can say a tube preamp SS power amp vs. SS preamp and Power tube does produce different results. I run the Marshall and Music Man together and even with the Marshall on a 4X12 cab and the MM on a 4X10 cab, the 65W Music Man can bury the Marshall which is a 100W head. (so can my Bassman which is rated for 50W)

 

If I had to choose one over the other it would be a tough call. The Mosfets in the Marshall create about the closest thing to power tube tone out there and the tone stacking is superb. I don't use the drive channels much because its a one trick pony for drive tones. I have a governor pedal on my board and several other pedals for drive and I get a wider range of tones using those. (I'm an old plexi guy who prefers the amp to be cleaner anyway)

 

The Music Man's tone stacking is a bit dated. It does get the fender tone but the overdriven tones aren't that impressive. I usually set my clean tone then just dial in a tad of drive gain and get the rest from the pedals. It gets allot of power punch that way and I have no problem getting several decent tones from it.

 

I guess by using both its like having a combination of tube and solid state amps running together except the preamps are cross wired. If the MM had an effects loop I could probably cross the preamps and have a full tube and SS amp.

 

I'd still choose a full tube amp over a hybrid or SS amp of any kind, just because the fidelity is better, but having all the effects loops, direct recoding, channel switching etc. is a big bonus many older tube amps never had. If its a newer head that does have those options then the extra cost for a good tube amp is worth it. Its all about how that speaker gets pushed. SS tends to hang back inside the speaker box more and lack the dynamic punch and headroom of tubes.

 

You're just dealing with more voltage and current in a tube amp and you can make the guitar strings go from a whisper to full throttle with an easier touch. Its like comparing my Mustang 5.0 to the Ford Ranger I used to have. Both get you there but man you know there's a 420HP engine in there even if you aren't using it. The pedal response is pretty much 1:1. When you do stomp it you realize how much power reserve there is. I could floor the Ranger and just meet the normal acceleration of traffic but I'd have that same acceleration with the pedal half way down.

 

That's kind of how I rate a tube vs. SS amp. The SS will get you there but you really have to work your dynamic skills hard to get the best out of them. Tubes only need a little increase in playing dynamics and you get a big jump in power from the amp.

 

Both can be equally loud, its just the dynamic slope of a SS tends to be linear and the Tubes seem to have a curved dynamic response.

 

They can match the fidelity and much of the overdriven tones with SS, but they still need to mimic the dynamic string touch of a tube amp, If that could build some kind of compression into the power stage (not the preamp) to mimic power tubes and transformer you'll have a whole lot of people retiring their heavy tube amps. Until then the technology is still alive and well.

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I played through a Fender Stage 100 with a Sunn Consert Slave for eight years. The other guitarist in the band played a modded JCM 900. I wouldn't say I had a better tone, but volume wise I ate him alive and the tone was good. Plus it never gave me any problems where as the 900 {censored} the bed three times.

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If it sounds good loud/mic'd up, use it! I've used both SS and Tube live and I've never had any complaints about MY tone. The only hecklers will be the other bands playing with you, "oh, you use an SS amp..... the diodes man, the diodes" but that's a few of the many........... so unless you're playing to a crowd of gear snob/musicians (which is likely the case for your first few gigs, lol- "I GUARANTEE 15-20 peoples will show") you shouldn't have a problem. Even then the other bands will likely have crap for amplifiers as not everyone frequents the HC.com boards and couldn't tell a marshall MG from a JCM.. as long as it says MRSHALSZ on it.

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I switched from heavier all tube amps to a Marshall JMD 50H + Marshall 1912 cab and my pedalboard. For really small venues, I use a Vox Valvetronics AD30VT. Next step down will be a Quilter Toneblock 200 and Tech 21 Fly Rig 5 into the Marshall 1912.

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