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No, there aren't solid state amp builders. The tone stork brings them out of the sky.

The tone stork brings them out of the sky.

From the fabled land of super-linear cleans and reverb sprinkled with non-rectified fairy dust.

goroth wrote:I've got a lab series L11 head.

It is loud as shit (easily keeps up with a jcm800) has a nice overdrive, sounds great with pedals. But the caps are dying and the ICs aren't made anymore if they should go.

I would kill for a new production SS head like the L11. Or something that built upon it.

Caps and IC's can be replaced. I had the same problem with my beloved Ampeg G-212. I replaced the caps that needed replacing, and updated the preamp IC's. The original IC's didn't pinout with anything current, so a made adapter sockets for them. I freshened up the power amp section with beefier, more efficient transistors too. Two new Texas Heat's rounded out the upgrades.

It's a monster. Anything above 4 on the volume starts rattling the rafters, and it's dead clean all the way to about 8. Above that... I think it's my ears that are clipping.

The thing with all those neat SS jazz amp builders is the enormous lack of reviews or information from people who play anything other than strictly jazz, and the specificity of the marketing of the amps.
I have zero interest in using tube amps and would like to stick to SS indefinitely purely because i prefer the way they react to my playing almost 100% of the time, but its hard for me to actually decide on new amps because nowhere stocks them and there's not enough information for me to make a decision. I think this is a big part of why SS guys who aren't strictly jazz or metal dudes tend to stick to old stuff. Sure they're cheaper too but with how much people blow on other gear i don't think the price matters that much. I would happily plonk down a couple of grand if i was looking for a dope gigging amp and some company like Science amps for example made some 400w solid state handwired beast based on a hybrid of 70s yamaha designs and modern hi-fi or something and actually marketed it with detailed information and creative demos or whatever. That would be fucking neat. /rant

backwardsvoyager wrote:The thing with all those neat SS jazz amp builders is the enormous lack of reviews or information from people who play anything other than strictly jazz, and the specificity of the marketing of the amps.
I have zero interest in using tube amps and would like to stick to SS indefinitely purely because i prefer the way they react to my playing almost 100% of the time, but its hard for me to actually decide on new amps because nowhere stocks them and there's not enough information for me to make a decision. I think this is a big part of why SS guys who aren't strictly jazz or metal dudes tend to stick to old stuff. Sure they're cheaper too but with how much people blow on other gear i don't think the price matters that much. I would happily plonk down a couple of grand if i was looking for a dope gigging amp and some company like Science amps for example made some 400w solid state handwired beast based on a hybrid of 70s yamaha designs and modern hi-fi or something and actually marketed it with detailed information and creative demos or whatever. That would be fucking neat. /rant

The lack of reviews is frustrating
local GC has two Tomkat/jazzkat amps
I would love to know how they would work for the rock and rolls
but all the reviews is jazz
the specs features and weight are awesome but I have no idea how they would work with fuzz (I should take my board to GC and crush em)

Color me goofy, but why not a bass amp head into a guitar cabinet?

Bass amp heads go all over the place in terms of power, higher watt ones have effects loops for effects.

...or if your into a combo, get a bass combo and swap the speaker for a guitar speaker (as long as it's not a 15").

....or did I just suggest something really stoopid.

echoraven wrote:Color me goofy, but why not a bass amp head into a guitar cabinet?

Bass amp heads go all over the place in terms of power, higher watt ones have effects loops for effects.

...or if your into a combo, get a bass combo and swap the speaker for a guitar speaker (as long as it's not a 15").

....or did I just suggest something really stoopid.

Some people were doing this (back to strictly jazz dude anecdotes) with small Class D amp heads.
But with the availability of two different flavors of Quilter amp heads (101 and the Tone Block)
I would go that route instead.

For the first 15 years I played guitar I used an old Vox Essex 212 solid state bass amp for both
guitar and bass. It sounded pretty good. I ran a ProCo Rat into it and it did me fine. Other
than needing a big metal cart to wheel the beast around, it suited my needs at the time.

But with modern bass amps I still feel like the problem is that they aren't geared towards
the frequencies that guitars like to live in.

I agree there aren't a lot of reviews of jazz-directed amps being used for anything but jazz.
If you live in a place with a bricks & mortar store I guess you can try it out in person. Bring
in your fuzz and your Judder or Seppuku noise makers and hope they don't throw you out
before you do the sound recon you require.

My first thought reading this thread is someone building a Jazz Chorus clone with a decent dirt channel. Probably would not be enough demand for it, but it'd be a cool project.

Randall Warhead

I kinda like the dirt on the Jazz Chorus. Sounds nasty in a cool way, specially with a jag. Not a dirt sound I would use everything, but cool in the right context.

I thinking of picking up an older solid state head as a backup for my Traynor YBA-1. Probably a Peavey or HH, that's what's usually available second hand in Norway.

D.o.S. wrote:No, there aren't solid state amp builders. The tone stork brings them out of the sky.

Well if anybody wants to start a custom solid state amp building business they now have their company name:

Tone Stork

Seance wrote:

D.o.S. wrote:No, there aren't solid state amp builders. The tone stork brings them out of the sky.

Well if anybody wants to start a custom solid state amp building business they now have their company name:

Tone Stork

I think Tone Stork is Iron Man

hbombgraphics wrote:

Seance wrote:

D.o.S. wrote:No, there aren't solid state amp builders. The tone stork brings them out of the sky.

Well if anybody wants to start a custom solid state amp building business they now have their company name:

Tone Stork

I think Tone Stork is Iron Man

With a power transformer heart that glows like a tube, but obviously isn't.

Yeah it must look and feel and sound like a tube!!! but not be a tube


that may be the problem with the SS thing, most solid state amps now out try to be "tube like" or model sounds of tube amps
Nobody is pushing it in another direction

ISP maybe

hbombgraphics wrote:Yeah it must look and feel and sound like a tube!!! but not be a tube


that may be the problem with the SS thing, most solid state amps now out try to be "tube like" or model sounds of tube amps
Nobody is pushing it in another direction

ISP maybe

Yes. That's why the JC-120 maintains its appeal. A spatial effect isn't just trying to emulate a tube amp.
It's trying to do something unique. But once you get into the "out there" or unique, then the market
share dries up.

Not everybody wants the same type of experimental goodness. So it's impossible to please them all
with an innovative design.

If a builder "pushes in another direction" they might find themselves all alone.