Guitar Tube Amps vs Solid State
Guitar amplifiers have come a long way since the early days of electric guitars. However, innovations in technology may not have made the impact on the industry that was expected. Vintage equipment such as tube amps still reign as the royalty of the industry. Tube amps still provide the warmest sound with the highest quality. These amps are the tried-and-true favorites of most electric guitar playing musicians on Earth today. However, solid-state technology has always come in as a close second in the contest of guitar tube amp vs. solid-state.
The truth is, when it comes to tube guitar amps, they have the most desirable sound quality, hands down. Most musicians who play guitar will attest to the superior sounds that emanate from a good tube amplifier. The disadvantages of tube amps are that the tubes themselves can shatter if the amp is accidentally dropped and also the tubes need to replaced periodically as well. Tube amps are also heavier than most guitar amplifiers that contain alternative technology. Vintage tube amps tend to appreciate significantly in their resale prices as well.
Solid-state guitar amps are generally not as warm sounding. In my opinion, regardless of the brand name, solid-state amps all tend to sound the same. However, they are much lighter than their tube amp counterparts and sometimes for a gigging musician, this is a huge advantage. There are some solid-state guitar amp’s that sound decent, but they are extremely expensive. When a solid-state guitar amplifier is down for repair, it usually takes a skilled technician to fix it.
Inside an Egnater Rebel 20
Tube amps are unmatched in power and clarity versus solid-state technology. The 20 W tubes can easily match the power of a 200 W solid-state transistor. However, tubes sound better when driven by volume. This can be a problem when practicing near populated areas. Solid-state amps can maintain what sound quality they have at lower volumes.
The greatest vintage guitar amplifiers in the world are tube amps. Fender, Marshall, Vox and many other old guard brand names remain popular with technology that was created more than 50 years ago. That fact in itself is remarkable and continues to provide musicians with the electric guitar sounds of today. The latest technology in guitar amplifiers has been digital. The jury is still out on this newfangled technology, but it seems as if the tube amp will continue to maintain its place on the royal throne of music, at least for now.
About the author – Corey Palmer has been playing various styles of guitar and teaching classic rock guitar lessons for the past two decades and during that time has played in a number of different bands in all kinds of music genres.
Tags: solid state amps, tube amps, vacuum tubes
I have a friend who owns and runs a commercial music recording studio; many times have he had customers singing the praise for their beloved tube amp. Ok, so they record, and it doesn’t sound that amazing. Wait a sec, my friend use to say, I will turn a few knobs: instead he feeds the line signal from the guitar into a digital plugin like Amplitube, and when they listen again the customer goes like: Oh, I didn’t know my amp sounded THAT well! Also, I have visited forums where people upload their ultimate guitar-sound recordings for comparison, and it always turns out the one that sounds objectively best is a Line 6 or Amplitube recording alas digital all-the-way. A live-gig may bring a different outcome though(ie not using solid state power stages when driving at high volume)
This article seems like it was written a decade or two ago. I think these days it’d be more accurate to list the main options as tube vs. digital. (Where “digital” means tube amp simulations.)
And, really, nobody today needs a tube amp that’s too loud for practice. People expect lower stage volumes today, so a low-Watt tube amp is a good idea on stage as well as at home. In bigger venues, they’ll just mic the amp for the house PA.
The first comment attempts to claim that solid-state amps actually do sound better than tube amps, but makes a couple of crucial logical errors. First of all, any claim to an “objectively best” sound is obvious nonsense. The ear of the beholder and all that…
Secondly, anything uploaded and then played through a computer is, of course, digital by definition.
Really, I only take issue with the logical flaws–not the observations themselves. Solid state/digital will certainly be preferable to some people. It’s all about what you like best. Having said all that, what I like best are tubes. Digital amps (to me, mind you) sound lifeless and sterile.
Basic Rhythms Guitar – 2 Pack | Basic Guitar Blog – March 8th, 2010 at 2:05 pm
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Overdriven tube amps sound established rock sound since 50’s; we grew up with it, got used to it. Like it or not, good or bad, that sound is distinguishable, and it sounds as it sounds, we cannot change that. However, if you want to recreate that sound, you can either use digital modeler or a tube amp. If you play several different styles of music, you might need a tweed, blackface, Princeton reverb, maybe one brownface, few different Marshalls and maybe even Engl or two…al in one stage. It’s up to you.
Although you get a lot of flexibility from modellers its very easy to get a bad sound, there are sometimes to many parameters to tweak.
I recently moved from a laptop based VST setup back to a tube based amp and have never been happier. As much as I try I cant get a bad sound out of my new Blackstar club 40.
Guitar Tube Amps vs Solid State | MyStage Music – March 14th, 2010 at 4:40 pm
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I’d say just look at credible artists and what they use. Also if tube amps were not the greatest sounding, why would “modeling amps” try to sound like tube amps? Tube amps are pretty much the standard.
It is sort of a fluke of technology that the first amplifying devices, ie electron tubes, are more ‘musical’ than solid state switches, ie the transistor. That tube amplifiers sound better than transistor implementations ( even using FETs) is really not even a debate anymore. Amp modeling is another matter. The sophistication of modeling technology is getting to the point where people have real trouble telling the difference between a modeling and a tube amp. Here is a sound test that was performed, with some interesting results : http://www99.epinions.com/content_3726614660