Difference between solid state amps & tube amps?

snollup

Hi all,

I'm looking to buy a new guitar amp as my current Squire SP 10 sounds awful, I'm thinking this is down to the amp more so the guitar as it is tuned correctly and the strings are fairly new.

I'm only learning guitar at the moment so my knowledge on all things guitar is fairly basic.

My guitar is a Squire Strat that I bought in this starter pack.

The amp I'm considering buying is this Orange CR12L.

My question is what is the difference between Solid State amps & tube amps?

As I would only be buying a cheap amp would solid state be the better option?

Thanks in advance.

martinedwards

valves sound better turned up.

solid state sounds better clean.

best clean amp? roland Jazz Chorus. 20 years after they stopped making them they are still getting silly money.

valve amps sound good cranked.

that means LOUD.

for a practice amp, a valve amp isn't going to sound at it's best because you're playing in a small room and cant turn it up past about 2.

Master volume helps but its still not giving the valves the chance to do what they want to do.

In my humble opinion, and others will disagree, the Roland microcube is a great little amp. excellent clean sounds, a load of built in effects and it can model several good valve amps too.

its NOT as good as having £20,000 worth of valve amps in a big hall with no neighbours within two miles.......

but for domestic practice, its a goody!

slavetothegrind

blackstar's little ht1r is a cracking little 1 watt tube amp you can crank in the bedroom

but all round flexability of tones you have got to look at any of the modelling amps

micro cube a good bet at your sort of budget

wild turkey

Ive never tried any of the Orange Crush range so cant help you there.

Personally, while a great amp I think the microcube is very boxy sounding, I upgraded the speaker to a 6" in my one
the 20 xl could be a better option soundwise
The design is now a little outdated as the market has an array of excellent solid state bedroom amps, Line 6, Fender Mustang, Yamaha THR series that have usb connection, valve technology, etc

But for roughly the same money ( €150 ) your into the very good starter valve amps. More dynamics, response to pick attack & use of volume & tone controls, transparency & warmer tone than associated with the solid state.

VHT special 6 ; fairly basic, no reverb but handbuilt turret board & excellent sounding ( probably my next purchace )

Bugera V5; has reverb , attenuator & also excellent sounding ( I have the V22 & love it )

Fender super champ xd ; all valve & effects built in a little bit more expensive
Theres a lot of other really great ones as well Blackheart, Vox Blackstar
Thomann & Musicstore also have their own brands of budget valve amps which are very good value for money but again fairly basic


The only way is to go & try a few as it all depends on your style of music
for metal & if you like your effects id stick to the solid state,
for classic rock & lower gain go valve & maybe buy a few cheap pedals if you really need them


Im sure if you sway towards a model & ask for an opinion you'll get some good advice,but again everyone's taste is different

My choice would be the Bugera V5 because of the reverb & attenuator or the Mustang or Cube for versatility



Choice is yours !

Ravelleman

Crystal lettuces - that's the essential difference.

The above is a guitar-players' classic.

wild turkey

Ravelleman wrote: »

Crystal lettuces - that's the essential difference

I recon Doctor Dumble's been smoking the crystal lettuce :pac::pac::pac::pac::pac:
He explains it a bit better in this one !

http://youtu.be/nr8EcKe4p0w

Grolschevik

Snollup, at this stage in your playing, there's nothing wrong with going with a decent cheapish solid-state amp.

I'd go bigger than your 12 watt Orange, though, and look at second-hand solid-state amps at around the 50-watt mark. Peavey are great at solid-state stuff, and the bigger Orange and Laney solid-state amps are pretty good too. ‘Peavey Bandit’ or ‘Laney Tube Fusion’ are good search terms to use.

I pretty much learned on and used a Peavey Studio Pro for years. Sounded grand at bedroom levels, had a tasty distortion channel and real spring reverb. And it was light to carry.

Also, it means that, when you feel you're ready to jam with other musicians or even gig, that amp will be able for it: it'll be loud enough and it'll sound decent. I used my Peavey for years and gigged with it too, until I moved on to different gear.

A quick look on Adverts gets us this:

http://www.adverts.ie/guitar-amps/peavey-clasdic-chorus-212/2669096

http://www.adverts.ie/guitar-amps/peavey-bandit-65-guitar-amp/2465322

http://www.adverts.ie/guitar-amps/peavey-studio-amp-transtube-65-watt/2552451

http://www.adverts.ie/guitar-amps/peavey-express-112-transtube-65w/645233

topcatcbr

http://youtu.be/EcXSmBXylWQ

I bought the vox vt40+ and it sounds pretty good.

snollup

Thanks for all your replies lads. Picked up a Fender Mustang today in Music Maker & have been having great fun with it for the last four hours or so. It's made my (cheap) Squire Strat sound a whole lot better!

Thanks again,
S.

i57dwun4yb1pt8

i assume you are having a laugh

its crystal lattice not crystal lettuce

http://www.crystallattice.org/


what dumble is saying makes sense from a material properties view.

Ravelleman

DaDumTish wrote: »

i assume you are having a laugh

its crystal lattice not crystal lettuce

Then why tell us it's lattice not lettuce?

Anyway, it's clearly crystal lettuce.

wild turkey

Definitely crystal lettuce !

TroutMask

Dumble is an electronics genius who played a big part in kicking off the boutique amp revolution. I would listen to every word he says carefully, and consider his utterings to be the 'sacred texts' of amplification.

Ravelleman

TroutMask wrote: »

Dumble is an electronics genius who played a big part in kicking off the boutique amp revolution. I would listen to every word he says carefully, and consider his utterings to be the 'sacred texts' of amplification.

I prefer to take everything - things like this especially - with a strong dose of irony.

TroutMask

There is no grain of salt or irony with this - he's right The doped silicon crystals that comprise the active elements in solid-state amps have always failed to preserve the integrity of the upper harmonics in a satisfactory fashion.

slavetothegrind

until Kemper came along....alledgedly:D

TroutMask

Meh, modeling dross

zafo

TroutMask wrote: »

There is no grain of salt or irony with this - he's right The doped silicon crystals that comprise the active elements in solid-state amps have always failed to preserve the integrity of the upper harmonics in a satisfactory fashion.

You're obviously highly qualifed in electronics.

TroutMask

i grok amplification