AmpTalk.com

[axeman5150]

It's time for a new amp...I've been playing solid state amps forever only because I could never afford a good tube amp. I've tried out modeling amps that were supposed to sound like tube but never had the tone I always liked, the good old Eddie Van Halen brown sound. That's the sound I like and can't be swayed from it. Does anyone know of a good, inexpensive tube amp that will give me the tone I'm looking for? I see Peavey has the Valve King 50W tube amp for about $350 but know nothing about it. Please help. I can't go on living the lie with solid state anymore. Also, is it true that a tube amp is louder than the same wattage SS amp? The 50W SS I have can't compete with the 30W tube amp my singer has.

[rockon1]

[samuelson]

I own a vox valvetronix, a fender deville, a traynor ycv40 wr as my tube or at least one-tube amp. for the money the traynor is very nice and the one thing about that is it's self biased which means you can change tubes. and eurotubes has packages (tube combos) that will bring out the high gain or blues sounds you may be looking for. Tube sets are cheap too. check out eurotubes website. I play this amp alot. the vox, with the modeling, is paritlally tubed -- but it's expensive. and the foot pedal is over $200 more. sounds great. many features. all-in-one amp.The Deville 2x12 is way loud, all tube, warm sound, and slightly pricey.
the guys at our local guitar center personally use the crate tube amps and they are all broke and play the best-deal-out-there amp. I know of one guy who likes the kustom tube amps -- don't know how expensive they are however. got rid of my line 6 for tube amp though. HUGE difference in feel, warmth and overall response and sound. DO THE TUBE

[sgrocka]

When it comes to my set-up I seek the cleanest tube amp at the cleanest setting possible then use all effect pedals through it. I recently bid on and won a auction on a fender bassman 59' reissue and I am awaiting for it to come in the mail..... can't wait shoudl be a beauty. I got it at an amazing deal of $500 as it being rarely used.... one problem i have with it is that the original speakers had been replaced with others. The new speakers are still good quality though. I would also suggest the hot rod deville series amps form fender. They are insane... good prices aswell. good luck have fun-

[StinkMonkey]

Yes, a tube amp of the same wattage can be louder than a SS amp of the same wattage. This is because tube amps are mostly rated at max. operating power and not max power output. A 100 watt tube amp may push 200 watts cranked to '11' everywhere and under a load. Also watch the watts/impedence rating. I saw the Marshall *** series advertised at 150 watts, but that was at 2 ohms, and cab is four ohms. They didn't advertise that part. I think that's about 80 watts real output. I have a hybrid high wattage amp that I dearly love, with the tube preamp if you set 'em up right they have real nice tube warmth. As far as low wattage amp volume I have a little 25watt Zinky BV I mic to the PA if I need to. She'll ring your ears in a small room all by herself. Through a Morley Tripler I run my GNX3 in stereo to the PA, the other outs to my two main amps. A lot of effects pedals and processors seem to rob my amps of the tones I bought 'em for. Although it may be nearly impossible, you really need to get out and play a few amps with your stuff to get the right amp for you, there's so much tonal difference in amps, it's the only way to guarantee you get the tones your after, and live happily ever after, or 'till your next amp GAS attack, which ever comes first..
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The voices in my head don't bother me, it's the sudden guitar tone in my head that haunts me, I gotta find it, make it mine.I'm DRIVEN to go on the next friggin' 'Holy Tone' Quest. That's what drives me crazy. There it goes again!