High end Solid state amp or Low end tube amp?

[Radius_Vector]

Hi,

Im looking for a good amp basically. My budget is around 1.2k Sing.

The bare minimum requirement that it has to be alteast 50 W, well willing to compromise and am ok with 40 W if All-tube.

Styles of Music played: Hard Rock (velvet revolver, Audioslave), Some 80s Thrash Metal (tallica, megadeth), Blues Rock, Alternative

Im still wondering if I should go for a high end SS amp or a low end tube amp NEW? Or maybe a used tube amp?

Can you guys please suggest some models?

Thanks a ton!!!

 

[imcorn]

with 1.2k .. you can always afford to get one of those tube amp kits offered by the many websites out there

 

[Crawldaddy]

Hmm.

And if I'm not wrong, after a little saving you could get the Vox AC30 from music plaza... just top up another $200 more?

 

[namle]

You better try those AC tube first before deciding playing

I tried it and for me it cannot do much of high gain stuff with my Blackstar. It sounds kinda funny to me

This is me though

 

[AEnimic]

oh wait..
wrong place

 

[trianglebiscuit]

are you planning to use the amp's drive for your gain purposes?

if so, i cant think of any 1.2k ish higher gain tube amps. except maybe that randall 50 watter at guitar 77.

 

[guitarsan]

Go for solid-state and you'll always be GASSING for a tube in future. Go for tube and you'll never look back at solid state again.....(but GASSING for a bigger better tube next time!) :lol:

IMO, tube is a better choice.

 

[hydrogencynide]

the randall 50w is quite decent to me imo. kinda fits ur purpose also.

 

[WiZaRd]

Could check out some laney's though... Peavey ones are good too..

 

[almondx]

40 watts full tube is approx. 160 watts of solid state loudness. And it will sound lousy if you play it at bedroom volumes. At that volume a great solid state will usually sound better.

What's most important is speaker cone size me thinks.

Hope this helps :wink:

 

[namle]

Absolutely agree with Raymond

The irony of owning the great tube amp is that when you try to use the amp gain to get distortion it gotta be in LOUD volume to achieve the sweetness of the amp. If not possible then really don't bother

I would suggest a Solid State

 

[subversion]

regardless- get what you like hearing.

 

[strinq]

personally, i think that tubes are the way to go.
But like the others said, u gotta play it loud to be able to truly maximize its potential.
The Vox AC30 doesn't have very high gain, that's why a lot of people buy some sort of booster for tubes.

 

[Phil]

Subversion is offering great advice, my suggestion is to follow what he said. i.e to get what you feel sounds best.

 

[subversion]

having tried many amps already, i feel that whatever tone purists recommendations you read here, have to be substantiated by an actual audition.

tube equipped amps sound different from their non-tube counterparts, many would deem the 'warm' voicing to be superior than solidstate units but it's down to a matter of preference.

as mentioned in previous posts, you will benefit fully from a full-tube amp only if you play at higher volume settings- this is to manifest power tubes saturation which is manipulated by the volume control.

personally, i've gone full circle- solid state/ partial tube/ full tube/ back to solid state. the tone of an amp is superior to another only if you deem it so, otherwise choose what you like to hear/ whatever reacts well with your guitars/ FX units. i'm not dissing tube units but these are quite over-hyped in terms of tone superiority.

 

[MrE]

+1 to almondx's point about speaker cone size being important to tone of the amp.

i went the solid state path for the same reasons he mentioned, spent about 1.2k for my peavey special 212 cos i wanted something with 2x12"s.

the 12" cones make a big difference in bass response, warmer clean tone, and esp good for chugga-chugga too

 

[thor666]

Tube amps are just NOT the be-all end-all for application. In fact, if you play heavy metal, they tend not be the way to go. Go check out the big multichannel switcher amps - notice that quite a few companies use solidstate clipping circuits for their chugga/metal channels.

+1 to MrE anyway. That's probably what you want.

 

[strinq]

oh yeah, just for ur info
the small 5watt peavey mini colossal Class A tube amp is now in the market

 

[loldude333]

I say go for solid state. All the comments abt tube amps not being sweet enuf at low volumes is true. Unless ur gonna reserve the amp for gigging, i dun really think that a tube wld suit u jus 4 now. And wat r u gonna use it 4? R u gonna use the in-built dist.? Or chain up ur pedals to feed it thru clean channel? Or a combi of both? I wld recommend a Sound Drive MIK amp frm www.standardvalue.com.sg. Go check them out. Sound gd. Or else Smarvos frm ranking,music theme. If u still want tube the 50w randall at G77 is a good bet.

 

[penta-tonic]

i wonder who would buy a good tube amp with good drive and use pedals. pedals were meant to copy amps and would never hold a candle to one. well for most metal sounding stuff they would usually go down the path for a mostly tube signal except for the rectifier being solid state so as to have a tighter sound. but for lead tones i think the sag tube rectifiers provide is still pretty welcome. this option is avail for certain mesa models which allow the switch btwn SS and tube rectifiers.