Perhaps the MOST IMPORTANT question ever asked on HCEGF...

[evh1984]

If you're playing through a pedal, even if it's connected to a tube amp, aren't you essentially still playing through a solid state amp?

 

Have millions of guitarists been fooled all these years?

[Bro Blue]

No, because you are still running through a tube preamp and power amp. All pedals do is manipulate the signal on the way to the tubes.

[Ferdinandstrat]

Nope.

 

You are playing through a solid state pedal.

 

Then what if you're playing through a tube overdrive pedal?

[Preacher]

No, because you are still running through a tube preamp and power amp. All pedals do is manipulate the signal on the way to the tubes.

 

Bing-go.

[StevenJM]

is my guitar solid state too then?

 

sorry to sound rude, but i think this was one of the dumbest questions asked on this forum.

 

just because you're using pedals, doesn't mean that your TUBE preamp AND TUBE poweramp are being bypassed. therefor you're still playing through a tube amp.

[evh1984]

None of these answers have convinced.

 

All of you thus far have failed me.

[nicholai]

 

by using test instruments the actual waveforms coming out of a Tube fed amp and those from a solid state amp are quite different. (imagine waves on a beach being flat topped - blocks coming in o the beach - instead of complex and beautiful curved waves of water.

 

 

this.

[StillRock]

The moment the signal hits the input jack of the amp, the amp does all the work. You could have 50 pedals in your chain and another 10 off of the effects loop, but your signal is still being run through a tube pre-amp and power tubes before it hits the speaker.

[BoneNut]

 

If you're playing through a pedal, even if it's connected to a tube amp, aren't you essentially still playing through a solid state amp? Have millions of guitarists been fooled all these years?

 

 

Do millions of guitarists care?

[StevenJM]

 

Do millions of guitarists care?

 

 

haha i was just typing up a response about how i don't think anybody cares. I get great TUBE tone out of my 59 bassman, just because i run through a reverb, a tuner, and sometimes a delay, doesn't mean my amp magically turns into a solid state amp... last time i checked my tubes are still glowing.

[*BLEEP*]

 

Have millions of guitarists been fooled all these years?

 

 

 

Not me. I became aware of this conundrum many years ago, and fixed this problem by replacing my guitar's pickups with tubes. That's right, the strings vibrate directly over above the blazing hot cathode for the ultimate in thermionic amplified mojo. Just don't touch that metal mic stand in front of you.

[ashtray]

I think the OP brings up a GOOD question! If your OD pedal is set for heavy distortion and you're playing your tube amp clean, while it might sound great, you're not getting overdriven tube tone. If you set up the pedal to overdrive the amps preamp (low distortion but high level on pedal), then you'd get some real tube overdrive. (preamp tube OD at least though still not overwriting the power amp section).

 

If an amp maker set up the OD channel of their tube amp to be solid state like a pedal, people would balk (though I'm sure they do this in many cases). You just assume the drive channel in a tube amp is driving a preamp tube into distortion.

 

In the end... Who cares as long as it sounds good.

[Busk]

But what if you are playing a modeling preamp into the amp it's modeling? Does it sound more or less like the amp you're modeling?

[Game2K]

[Elias Graves]

This one could get good.

 

EG

[Doctor49]

Whatever you put in line to the input, you will be playing through a tube amp. Whether it has those mystically desirable characteristics attributed to tube amps depends on what you think of what you hear from the output, but it will still have been amplified by a tube amp.

[BlueSky1963]

Who cares as long as it sounds good!!!!!

[Surfdude]

I guess one of these days I'm going to have to buy a tube amp.

 

Surfy

[cratz2]

Silly thread... I've come to the conclusion that most what I think makes a tube amp sound better than most solid state amps is the tube power section. I've used amps that had a solid state preamp and a tube preamp, a tube preamp and a solid state power amp and a solid state preamp and solid state power amp with the tube emulating a tube power section and the best and most believable results came from the tube power section, both Marshalls and Peaveys.

 

If the original post was accurate, that would lead us to believe that Jimmy Page or David Gilmour, on stage with a tube head and a couple pedals were not playing through a tube rig or it did not sound like a tube rig.

 

That query equals fail.

 

Now having said that, I'm sure you could put a Maestro or Behringer distortion pedal in front of a JTM45 and a 4x12 of Greenbacks and make it sound like ass, but that's the result of poor mixing, not JUST because there's a solid state pedal in front of the tube amp.

 

Try putting a Barber Direct Drive in front of a Silverface Twin and tell me it doesn't sound like an all tube rig.

[lowbrow]

If it sounds good, it is good! How the magic happens is immatrial.

[Angry Tele]

all I know is most pedals sound way better played through a cranked tube amp thats breaking up.

 

tube amps have a certain feeling to them as well that solid state dont, which does not disapear when a pedal is turned on. Not good or bad mind you but different. I kind of like it. Even just messing around in my bedroom at 3am I prefer my twin reverb on .5 to my solid state bullet reverb.

[Spudro]

 

None of these answers have convinced. All of you thus far have failed me.

 

 

It's a bull{censored} troll question.

 

King's X - "Gretchen Goes To Nebraska" Ty Tabor, solid state amp and tone to die for.

 

Shawn Lane - Holmes Mississippi Bluesmaster amp - solid state. Ever heard Shawn Lane (RIP) or have you read what guitarists like Paul Gilbert say about him?

 

A good guitarist can find good sound, tubes or not. There are {censored}ty tube amps too. We pick our tools and make them do what we need. We adjust to how they work and find our best sound from what we've got.

 

You don't matter.

[kulardenu]

Have you lost your USA mojo if you put foreign oil in you domestic car?

[NHLfan2010]

It simply manipulates the signal that is coming from your guitar, like rolling down a volume or a tone knob.

 

Hell, why don't we just put tubes IN OUR GUITARS!!! Then there could be no question!!

[Bro Blue]

Personally, I think this thread is a clever bit of trolling and, for that, I tip my hat to the OP.

 

On the off chance anyone takes this question seriously, there have always been ways to manipulate the signal going into the front of the amp. Pickup height is one, the volume and tone knobs are another. All that happens when you do this is you are changing the characteristics of the signal. The signal is still run through tubes.

 

Whatever you do to the signal prior to it hitting the front end it does nothing to change the nature and attributes of the amp. The amp does not change what it is based on what signal goes into it. You could plug straight into the front or go through 100 pedals and the amp is still going to be what it is. To borrow from Descartes: A is A. Unless you fundamentally change he nature of A, it does not matter what you do to B or C, A remains as it is.