ilovefuzz.com

My Sunn Alpha 112R does an okay job I guess. Seems like you're more looking for something that packs a bit of volume though, in which case you'll want more power than what the little 112R has to offer.

Traded my tube combo for the ss combo cause 15 tube watts were overkill for my living room, and the downgrade also left me a nice chunck of pedal money

But even if it's a matter of saving a bit of money, I can't think of many good reasons to not just look for the right tube amp, with the right features and power rating for your needs
I'm aware there's plenty of JC120 owners out there who strongly disagree though, to each their own I guiess

Why not a tube amp?

Why draw with pencil or pen and ink instead of watercolor?
Depends on what you want to do. Each is valid depending
on the effect you want.

Do you want edges to blur/sag/squish into one another?
Do you want clean edges so that the gestural mark/sound
stands out more on its own?

There are different boats, and different floats, and a world
threaded with waterways each of a different ilk.

I'm a very big fan of my Orange CR120h. Super loud, sounds great, loves my pedals, available as a head or combo.

It is designed to react like a tube amp though, so with high output pickups, the clean channel will overdrive. I currently only have single coils though, so I don't run into that much.

I love my Fender FM100H. Super clean. The OD is worthless but pedals. Also I have a Kustom K200B that sounds similar to it that I use when I run stereo. They live pedals and are pretty cheap. I've had the Fender for like 15 years or something. I used tube amps for a decade and am back on SS because they're pretty accepting of pedals.

Seance wrote:Why not a tube amp?

Why draw with pencil or pen and ink instead of watercolor?
Depends on what you want to do. Each is valid depending
on the effect you want.

Do you want edges to blur/sag/squish into one another?
Do you want clean edges so that the gestural mark/sound
stands out more on its own?

There are different boats, and different floats, and a world
threaded with waterways each of a different ilk.

Totally. Was curious as to OPs position the perhaps she's some additional light.

I've played a Beta Lead and severa vintage Acoustic. Are are excellent in their own ways. Both fetch some gnarly prices. Hillbish has a Beta clone that may be worth checking out.

odontophobia wrote:

Seance wrote:Why not a tube amp?

Why draw with pencil or pen and ink instead of watercolor?
Depends on what you want to do. Each is valid depending
on the effect you want.

Do you want edges to blur/sag/squish into one another?
Do you want clean edges so that the gestural mark/sound
stands out more on its own?

There are different boats, and different floats, and a world
threaded with waterways each of a different ilk.

Totally. Was curious as to OPs position the perhaps she's some additional light.

Yeah, there are even a good selection of decent pedal-sized amps available too.
Or the Tech21 SansAmp emulators that can be run into a PA. All can be much more
compact/portable and lightweight than tube or SS amps. It all depends what a
person is doing and why.

Kingsley Amps also makes some tube-based preamp pedals to give a tube-amp
sound (just add speaker emulation and you're good to go).

I think some gravitate towards SS because it can be more "solid" for transport
than tubes (less prone to breakage or weight-based hernias). A lot of modern
digital stuff that is affordable is relatively crappy or chintzy. But even that is
changing with things like the Boss Katana amps, which are getting some good
reviews as a pedal platform (50 or 100 watt versions, or head version).

(And those Yamaha G100 amps definitely don't help one avoid weight-based hernias.)

I've had three Solid State amps. The first is an early 70s Acoustic 150. It sounds like a Twin Reverb on steroids and it's loud AF. It has good reverb and great tremolo. Any distortion you get, especially in the input section, won't sound too good, but you'll have inedible headroom
There's a bright switch. Depending on your setup and guitar, it can sound a little dull without it, and have an upper-mid spike with it, and the only EQ controls are treble and bass, so you may need external EQ. Overall, it's loud, sexy and has tons of presence. They're more expensive that they used to be, but not like Sunns. You can frequently find them in the $250-350 range.

The Quilter has a preamp that sounds more tube-ish. You can turn the preamp volume down for headroom, but it wants to sound more like a guitar amp than a clean machine. The one-knob EQ isn't particularly flexible, although other Quilters have more knobs. It will take you through the most popular guitar voicings, however. The power amp has classic good solid-scale punch and volume.

I played a lot through JC 120s in the late 90s and early oughts. It has a really nice clean, regular 3 band EQ. The stereo chorus sounds nothing like a pedal and is cool. They have a reputation for being awful with all kinds of dirt but I didn't really notice. However, Is easier to dig into the other two for dirt.

Sunn Concert Lead sounds great to me. Clean or with a big fuzz...and whatever other effects you wanna throw at it.

To me, the Beta Lead's main strength is it's distortion sound. I've always found it's cleans to be zzzzzz

odontophobia wrote:Not a criticism of solid state whatsoever but I'm curious as to why you want solid state exclusively if you're just looking for good, clean, pedal platforms.

Preference is fine. Or if it's a comfortability servicing your own amps and you don't what to deal with tube than that's cool. I just feel like you can snag a Carvin X100b for the same amount or less than some of these other solid state bad dads and wonder why you're excluding one or the other (why not both?).

The "good" SS amps, for me, are mostly 80's-90's SS amps that were built to compete in the Twin/JC-120 market. Just loud, immediate, flat clean headroom.
I like my amps to essentially be PA speaker for my guitar and effects. I never really use an amp's gain channel, and I get most of my sound from pedals, so the idea is to represent them as cleanly and accurately as I can. Also, I'm into the cold, flat cleans that bands like Slint and Shipping News had. If I want a little warmth, I'll kick on a preamp.

Otherwise, the compression and harmonic content of a good tube amp are nice, but not worth the cost and maintenance, to me.
Don't get me wrong, if I had the opportunity to snag a Twin or Music Man HD-130 or Ampeg V4 for cheapish, I'd probably jump on it.

^^^I agree with everything you just said. Although I probably would not jump on the cabs at this point. Too many builders are making "classic" cabs in a pedal format which (form wise) I think is awesome. I actually just got ordered that limited run of the LONE WOLF SUNN MODEL T (Adaptation). ABOMINABLE ELECTRONICS did a clone of another SUNN Head. The LONE WOLF does not have an xlr out but the AH does.

I was super into synths for a while, before I got back into pedals, and the first rule of synths is "they're not all good at everything". Obviously the same goes for any gear.

I think my buddy who tours regularly said it best, "Tubes will always have their place in the studio...but should never leave...cause Solid States gig forever".

When I learned about the cost of maintenance for some of these 'classic' tube amps I couldn't believe it. Kind of like buying an expensive acoustic guitar and having to keep it in a humidifier and/or dehumidifier. Or maintenance on sports cars. Forget it...I'll stick to being a dump pump'in soi boi.

I love my VOX AC15 (I have posted about it before). But don't ever spend the money to get one brand new like I did. I have a very loud HARKE Bass amp that I use for synths, noise, guitar, bass, a table and it was half the price via Craigslist.

When RadioSack [sic] went out of business, they had PA Speakers for like $60. I regret not coping one.

I've been enjoying my ZT LUNCHBOX AMP cause it is so tiny yet fairly clear.

Justinm1789 wrote:

odontophobia wrote:Not a criticism of solid state whatsoever but I'm curious as to why you want solid state exclusively if you're just looking for good, clean, pedal platforms.

Preference is fine. Or if it's a comfortability servicing your own amps and you don't what to deal with tube than that's cool. I just feel like you can snag a Carvin X100b for the same amount or less than some of these other solid state bad dads and wonder why you're excluding one or the other (why not both?).

The "good" SS amps, for me, are mostly 80's-90's SS amps that were built to compete in the Twin/JC-120 market. Just loud, immediate, flat clean headroom.
I like my amps to essentially be PA speaker for my guitar and effects. I never really use an amp's gain channel, and I get most of my sound from pedals, so the idea is to represent them as cleanly and accurately as I can. Also, I'm into the cold, flat cleans that bands like Slint and Shipping News had. If I want a little warmth, I'll kick on a preamp.

Otherwise, the compression and harmonic content of a good tube amp are nice, but not worth the cost and maintenance, to me.
Don't get me wrong, if I had the opportunity to snag a Twin or Music Man HD-130 or Ampeg V4 for cheapish, I'd probably jump on it.

cool cool cool.

t'was just a matter of like, "yeah, there are lots of threads about rad SS amps but why does Justinm1789 want one and why are they special to him?"

David Pajo played through a JMF Spectra H-162 SS head, in Slint. I'd like to try one of those out, if I can track one down.

One of the reasons I really want a Yamaha G100 III (or III S) 2x12 combo is because Ash Bowie used that exact amp in Polvo. Huge fan of them.
I have the 50w series 1 2x10 version currently, and it sounds fantastic. I just want its beefier version III brother to accompany it.
I've owned a jazz chorus before, and the Yamaha is in that sonic territory, but a little more rounded and balanced-sounding to me. My JC-120 could sound a bit knifey at times. JC-120's are great, but I wish their EQ's were a little more flexible.

odontophobia wrote:

Justinm1789 wrote:

odontophobia wrote:Not a criticism of solid state whatsoever but I'm curious as to why you want solid state exclusively if you're just looking for good, clean, pedal platforms.

Preference is fine. Or if it's a comfortability servicing your own amps and you don't what to deal with tube than that's cool. I just feel like you can snag a Carvin X100b for the same amount or less than some of these other solid state bad dads and wonder why you're excluding one or the other (why not both?).

The "good" SS amps, for me, are mostly 80's-90's SS amps that were built to compete in the Twin/JC-120 market. Just loud, immediate, flat clean headroom.
I like my amps to essentially be PA speaker for my guitar and effects. I never really use an amp's gain channel, and I get most of my sound from pedals, so the idea is to represent them as cleanly and accurately as I can. Also, I'm into the cold, flat cleans that bands like Slint and Shipping News had. If I want a little warmth, I'll kick on a preamp.

Otherwise, the compression and harmonic content of a good tube amp are nice, but not worth the cost and maintenance, to me.
Don't get me wrong, if I had the opportunity to snag a Twin or Music Man HD-130 or Ampeg V4 for cheapish, I'd probably jump on it.

cool cool cool.

t'was just a matter of like, "yeah, there are lots of threads about rad SS amps but why does Justinm1789 want one and why are they special to him?"

I hear ya. I think they have their own charm and they get shit on more than they deserve, probably because a lot of SS amps are shit, but some are totally not shit, and the ones that are not shit are fantastic for my purposes.

Oh, and dirt pedals into the front of a SS amp's clean channel sound harsher, which I prefer.

If anyone here feels compelled to, try running a pre-1994 Boss DS-1 into the front of a really clean SS amp. It's a great tone.

Justinm1789 wrote:

If anyone here feels compelled to, try running a pre-1994 Boss DS-1 into the front of a really clean SS amp. It's a great tone.[/quote]

Rat, my duder. Always a Rat.

I been digging high power SS bass amps recently too. GK makes some sick guitar doom machines. The 800RB is what I ran today. Soooo loud and just sounded exactly like a Tele neck pickup through a Rat.

I'm partial to 80s and 90s mid-range Fender SS amps (the Deluxe 85/90/112/etc and their ilk), the venerable JC in whatever incarnation, and the bigger modellers available. I've had a Mustang V head and 4x12 for a few years now and it does what it's supposed to do and takes pedals well.

I just have a few basic amp presets I use, and the rest all works like a normal amp with dials and knobs etc.