Tube Amps vs. Solid-State Amps
76Tube vs. Solid-State
Tube amps have been around for many years. In fact, many years ago, tubes powered most things, such as T.V.s, radios, and yes, guitar amps. Modern amps have become cheaper and the quality has diminished. Of course, there are still nice amps that are brand new that are tube, but they are heavy, expensive, and more fragile than solid-state, but the sound quality is superb. Solid-state amps run off of pure circuit boards and try to model a guitar sound. Tube amps are powered by glass tubes and do a better job of voicing whatever is inputed into the amp. It is a pretty safe generalization that tube amps are better than solid-state.
Tube amps have their pros and their cons. There is really only one pro, but it is the most important one to a musician-sound quality. Tube amps sound better than solid-state amps. All professional guitarists use tube amps of some sort, because the sound is truly better than cheap solid-state amps.
The cons to tube amps are cost and weight. Tube amps cost more than solid-state and weigh more than solid-state amps. A quality tube amp can cost anywhere from $400 and up. However, the premium price is worth it because you receive premium sound. tube amps are also a bit heavy, and a 30-watt combo can weigh 50 pounds. The simple solution to this, however, is simply installing casters on the bottom and just rolling the amp.
The only benefit of solid-state amps really isn't even a benefit. Sure, they are cheaper, but the overall quality is awful.
Tube amps also can be very loud. Concerts at stadiums can be played with 30-watt combos, as 100-watts or more are needed for solid-state. Personally, I have never played anywhere that I needed more than 20-watts, and chances are, wherever you play, you will probably be miced, and thus not needing more than 15 or 20 watts of tube power.
There are many quality tube amps on the market today. You can do the research yourself if you wish, but here are some starters:
- Fender HotRod Deluxe
- Fender Blues Deluxe
- VOX AC30
- VOX AC15
- Marshall VintageModern 2266
- Marshall JVM410C
- Fender Blues Jr.
- Fender Vintage Reissue '65 Twin Reverb
- Fender Super-Sonic 112
- Fender Vintage Reissue '59 Bassman
- Egnater Rebel-20
- Egnater Tourmaster 4212
- Orange Rocker 30 combo
- Orange AD30TC
- Orange Tiny Terror
- Mesa Boogie Express 5:25
- Mesa Boogie Lonestar
- Blackstar Artisan Series 30
- Blackstar Artisan Series 15
I hope this information has helped you. Make sure to find the sound that fits you, and don't worry about the price. Don't settle for less, and when you find your amp, save money for THAT amp, and don't cheat yourself.
-Matthew
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Comments
Transistor amps are direct coupled to the speakers and the output power varies at differnt frequencies ---tube amps are coupled to the speakers using output transformers--the results are that the tube amp puts out the same amount of power at any combination of any frequiencies---high or low
So what are you saying, Rich?
"Transistor amps are direct coupled to the speakers and the output power varies at differnt frequencies ---tube amps are coupled to the speakers using output transformers--the results are that the tube amp puts out the same amount of power at any combination of any frequiencies---high or low"
You have it backwards. The reason why a tube amp uses an output transformer is because power tubes are high-impedance devices. An output transformer is device that matches an output stage that has an impedance that is measured in thousands of ohms to a 4, 8, or 16-Ohm load. A high impedance amplification stage that is coupled to a low-impedance load is less able to dampen (control) speaker movement than a directly-couple output stage; therefore, a high-impedance tube output stage is more frequency dependent than a low-impedance transistor output stage.
The cold hard truth here is that tube amps are usually rated at RMS power and transistors amps are usually rated at peak power (or at some made up number). RMS power is 0.707 x peak power.
johnb0127 says:
10 months ago
VERY NICE MAT