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Any solid state love?

PostPosted: Sat Jan 04, 2014 8:13 pm
by Barracuda
Anyone here actually enjoy solid state amps? Is there any reason in 2014 to hate solid state amps with as much passion as people still seem to? Whenever I see people hating on them they refer to 90's crate and line 6 amps that are at the "first amp for a 13 year old" price point, with tones that are dialed in by someone who has only picked up a guitar like 5 times in their life. As a distortion pedal user, I have a hard time totally condemning them, especially when many solid states sound quite reasonable. So what are your favorite SS amps?

Re: Any solid state love?

PostPosted: Sat Jan 04, 2014 8:49 pm
by fishtankdork
just cant. i tried to be an ss man for about 4 years 10 years back for gigging. i was like blah blah more reliable. first off it never achieved the warmth my tube amps have, and second off the ss amps i had crapped out just as often as my tube amps. you can never pry my fender/vox/marshall tube amps from me now unless you kill me with lazers and chop off my head. (i would like to think without decapitation zombie me would still fight off people for my tube amps.)
i can see the application i guess if u want low volumes that dont travel through floors, but even than there is low wattage tube amps.
everybody i know that plays ss amps i always recommend saving up and buying a nice tube amp. pedals and sweet guitars always get close to awesome tones, but imo the base is where its at and a nice amp is the most important part of anyones sound. i dunno i fucking love tube amps tho. id rather have a shitty guitar and no pedals and a sweet amp. i have about 8 or 9 giant amps taking up space.
dont get me wrong ss can sound nice, but it just feels sterile to me.

Re: Any solid state love?

PostPosted: Sat Jan 04, 2014 8:56 pm
by D.o.S.
I dig solid state amps.
I would rather use a tube amp, but I have no problem in the slightest going SS.

Favorite SS amps are the Peavey KVLT and a couple of the older SS SVTs.

Re: Any solid state love?

PostPosted: Sat Jan 04, 2014 9:02 pm
by fishtankdork
i still have my old ss svt 350. did many a gig with that beast.

Re: Any solid state love?

PostPosted: Sat Jan 04, 2014 9:16 pm
by Nixa_Miami
I'm a huge fan of the 80's Marshall solid state amps. I own a Lead 12 and 5210 and use them quite often for writing and practicing. They are basically JCM 800's without tubes.

Re: Any solid state love?

PostPosted: Sat Jan 04, 2014 9:20 pm
by ryan summit
havent made the switch
and i freakin love the sounds im gettin
im sure if i played through decent tubes
id want a tube amp
but ive only tried a few
my amps always clean anyway
so a loud solidstate does my tricks just fine
i just got an old randall rb300
thats my favorite to play through right now
clean forever
but loaded with beefaroni
the other amp in my setup
is a randall commander iv
love that too
and i have an acoustic150 that kills for bass

Re: Any solid state love?

PostPosted: Sat Jan 04, 2014 9:29 pm
by Achtane
behndy wrote:TOOB FENDER SVT OR YOU'RE AN IDIOT

Re: Any solid state love?

PostPosted: Sat Jan 04, 2014 10:35 pm
by Barracuda
ryan summit wrote:havent made the switch
and i freakin love the sounds im gettin
im sure if i played through decent tubes
id want a tube amp
but ive only tried a few
my amps always clean anyway
so a loud solidstate does my tricks just fine
i just got an old randall rb300
thats my favorite to play through right now
clean forever
but loaded with beefaroni
the other amp in my setup
is a randall commander iv
love that too
and i have an acoustic150 that kills for bass


Yessssss Randall rb300! So good. Peavey KVLT also sweet.

Re: Any solid state love?

PostPosted: Sat Jan 04, 2014 10:40 pm
by John Matrix
IMG_4286.jpg
IMG_4286.jpg (94.54 KiB) Viewed 22811 times


how about deez?

Re: Any solid state love?

PostPosted: Sat Jan 04, 2014 10:45 pm
by bigchiefbc
I don't really play any doom, but I have to say that the Peavey Mark VI that I had was pretty badass. It had a good amount of wattage, it went down to 2 ohms, it had an FX loop, a crossover, a compressor, and a shitload of EQing. And it had a cool breakup when you cranked it.

Re: Any solid state love?

PostPosted: Sat Jan 04, 2014 11:26 pm
by theAntihero
Im a big fan of my Crate vfx200s its a very badass stereo amp, high gain sounds awesome, stereo chorused cleans sound awesome.

I also love the Beta Lead, which sounds so nastily mechanical and the Alpha 112 i have, old Sunns sound quite cool.

I dont like SS more than tube though, i just like good sounding amps

Re: Any solid state love?

PostPosted: Sun Jan 05, 2014 12:11 am
by Ancient Astronaught
I've wanted an Ampeg VH140C for quite a while. Their famous for their 90's scooped metal sound but the mids were actually really good. But their getting harder and harder to find.

Re: Any solid state love?

PostPosted: Sun Jan 05, 2014 12:45 am
by Barracuda
Ancient Astronaught wrote:I've wanted an Ampeg VH140C for quite a while. Their famous for their 90's scooped metal sound but the mids were actually really good. But their getting harder and harder to find.


Likewise on the VH140C. I'm always on the lookout for one, but they just don't seem to pop up as often as I think they should.

Re: Any solid state love?

PostPosted: Sun Jan 05, 2014 2:41 am
by AxAxSxS
I sold Ryan Summit that ACC 150. I missed it. Recently found another for cheap that needed some work and jumped on it. It hums but I'm pretty sure a few new caps and it will be good to go. Might just be a ground issue.

Re: Any solid state love?

PostPosted: Sun Jan 05, 2014 3:29 am
by van_muddlestein
I've used a ton of SS amps over the years. My first "real" amp was a Randall Commander II head that I adored. One of my favorite amps of all time is a Sunn Beta Lead, which is also among the loudest amps I've ever owned. Had a couple other Randalls and a couple Acoustic Control Corps 150's, a peavey transtube supreme head or two and probably some others I'm forgetting. I've had tons of different tube heads, too. It boils down to what works and what sounds good and lots of different things can sound very good. Right now I've been eyeballing one of those new Orange CR120 heads for a 2nd amp in my plan for a dual halfstack rig.