spacehead333 wrote:i would go for a tube amp. like a fender delux or something smaller with lower wattage. Solid state amps are a bitch when they burn out. go with tube, the sound beutiful and last forever.Amen. Tube amps are good amps.
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GratefulPat wrote:i like the sound of tube amps for some music, but i would stay away because to me they have like a natural compressiony sound which i dont really like... depends what your trying to play and the tone you want to accomplishSeriously, WTF? What is a tube amp bad for??? I know some jazzers who dig the Roland JC120 but besides that I know of no other good SS amp. But those same guys also love Twins.
I cannot believe what I read...
I have a mutual friend with Jack pearson (ex ABB) He's told me that Pearson used to use an old solid state Acoustic brand amp and got a fantastic sound with it. Anyone who's ever heard him play knows that he always does have great tone. And, oh yes he can play. Really.
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The tube 'sag' is what I like about tube amps. Say your really hitting a rhythym like TOO for instance, when I play a tube amp, when the tube 'sags' (someone more techical will have to explain that) I feel the amp is working with me. Like jumping on a trampoline, but when I play a SS amp it seems too immediate, like that trampoline has just been tightened to feel as if you are just jumping up off the ground, and when you come down there's no give and still you have to jump back up! Hope that makes sense to anybody.
Django, what you've described as "sag" is something I experience with tube rectified amps. Or running with some sort of variac for "brown".
What I hear is my notes blooming. I hear them from the initial pluck of the string and in a 1/100th of a second I hear that some not bloom into something more musical and full and rich.
No glass, no class...
What I hear is my notes blooming. I hear them from the initial pluck of the string and in a 1/100th of a second I hear that some not bloom into something more musical and full and rich.
No glass, no class...
even though I'm a novice at best I recently bought a fender deluxe reverb after using a SS for a couple of years and the difference is night and day...no comparison between tubes and SS...I know I will never regret the decision to go Tube 
"Don't go mistaking paradise for that home across the road."
Rev_Roach wrote:Are we talking about preamps, power amps or both? Not to mention the rectifier...strumminsix wrote:I know of no other good SS amp.Nor any good SS players
As far as power amps, obviously Garcia, Weir, AND Phil all went the SS power route in the early 70's and none ever went back to tube. So about 80-90% of the bootlegs we enjoy feature SS. I just went tube pre-to-SS power a couple of years ago, after 17 or 18 years playing tube combos, and I doubt I'll ever go back.
"There, in huge black letters, was 'The Grateful Dead'. It just... cancelled my mind out."-Garcia
tigerstrat wrote:IMO (yes, in my only) there are 5 types of amps:Rev_Roach wrote:Are we talking about preamps, power amps or both? Not to mention the rectifier...strumminsix wrote:I know of no other good SS amp.Nor any good SS players
As far as power amps, obviously Garcia, Weir, AND Phil all went the SS power route in the early 70's and none ever went back to tube. So about 80-90% of the bootlegs we enjoy feature SS. I just went tube pre-to-SS power a couple of years ago, after 17 or 18 years playing tube combos, and I doubt I'll ever go back.
1. All tube (tube rect, tube pre, tube power)
2. Tube amp (diode rect, tube pre, tube power)
3. Hybrid A (diode rect, tube pre, SS power)
4. Hybrid B (diode rect, SS pre, tube power)
5. Solid State (diode rect, SS pre, SS power)
My comments that started this all off were in response to Pat saying:
i like the sound of tube amps for some music, but i would stay away because to me they have like a natural compressiony sound which i dont really like... depends what your trying to play and the tone you want to accomplish
So in that case I read his words to be all solid state.
Have you ever used an Alembic F1/2???
If it doesn't have glowing glass bottles i don't want to plug into it. 
maybe you can get away with a diode rectifier... fender hot rod comes to mind in your price range; cheap loud and beautiful sounding...
like someone said; tube amps add to your sound; where solid state merely amplifies it. certainly line 6 has all those models and whatnot; but i have found that an amp with 1000 sounds tends to not do any sound well, and a tube amp with two switched (like my self-built 18w marshall clone, it only has tone/volume) has more good useable sound out of a then any supercomputer of sound processing you can find me.
maybe you can get away with a diode rectifier... fender hot rod comes to mind in your price range; cheap loud and beautiful sounding...
like someone said; tube amps add to your sound; where solid state merely amplifies it. certainly line 6 has all those models and whatnot; but i have found that an amp with 1000 sounds tends to not do any sound well, and a tube amp with two switched (like my self-built 18w marshall clone, it only has tone/volume) has more good useable sound out of a then any supercomputer of sound processing you can find me.
i was directing that toward the power amp
Comes a time, when the blind man takes your hand and says "dont you see?"
Revv23 wrote:If it doesn't have glowing glass bottles i don't want to plug into it.YES! Totally agree. There is something called a "Port Arthur Rectifier" that is a hybrid of tubes and diodes for the bloom of a rect tube but headroom and clarity of diode rect.
maybe you can get away with a diode rectifier... fender hot rod comes to mind in your price range; cheap loud and beautiful sounding...
To the OP - If your price range was a few more there are lots of good examples of vintage amps.