Best sounding SS amp you all have encountered?

[GorgoJr.]

Yes BIGKAHUNA,
I've got a Crate G40c, and it actually has a great sound, especially the distortion. The problem is, it really is too much amp for the two little 8 or 10" speakers it has! No problem with the highs, but when I crank the bass all the way up, including the volume---the little speakers can't handel it properly, causing the tone to degrade. The G40c, has enough power to use a 4x12, and most likely even two.

I also have a Peavey Pacer from back in the day, and it's loudness impresses me. The sound is very usable.

Then there is my old "Monster"---The Crate GX130ch---head!!
It needs a very quality 4X12 to get the most out of it though; I'm using it through a single 15 watt PA speaker from the 70's at the moment---so it can get muddy with the volume past 5. Brutal---and I do mean Brutal---Old School Metal sound!!!

I actually like old stuff better than modern things; anything from amps, guitars, and even computers!

[Steve A.]

Well,
I'll try to see who all wants to get in on this one.
We all have had SS amps before we went to tube amps...

Ummm... when I started playing I don't think that there were SS amps. At least any that were pro quality... I got my first guitar amp in 1966 and did not buy a SS amp until 1978- a 20 watt Peavey Studio Pro.

This looks like an interesting thread and I want to come back to read it.

Thanks!

Steve Ahola

[Phostenix]

Does a Boss GT-Pro count as an amp? I run it into 2 Tapco Thump TH-15A powered PAs & I have to say that it's the best guitar-related purchase I've made. It's not perfect, but I've never been more satisfied with any piece of gear. I love the versatility. My favorite setup right now is a TS9>Compressor>dual Mesa clean channels>Korg G4 in the stereo effects loop. Stunning stereo rotary sounds.

The Crate GT3500H has really impressed me so far, too. I think this has to be one of the most underrated amps I've played. Search the internet for this amp & all you'll read is how %$#@&^% loud it is or what a great metal amp it is. First of all, I run it through 1 or 2 single 12's and it's very usable at low levels, and the clean channel is great! The lead channel has an impressive amount of flexibility. The tone controls on both channels have far more range than the typical FMV tone stack. The Solo channel is what you'd expect - loads of gain that sings into feedback, but you can have totally scooped mids or big, cutting mids. I'm really surprised at how much ground this thing can cover.

The only thing it can't really do is a nice mellow blues sound that breaks up a little when pushed. You can set the lead channel with low gain, but the breakup is a little too edgy (for me). I'm going to try some pedals into the clean channel or a volume pedal in the loop with the clean channel cranked.

They've been selling on ebay for $200 or less lately. I'm tempted to get another one....

[Phostenix]

Ummm... when I started playing I don't think that there were SS amps.
Steve Ahola

Now that you mention it, my first was a SF Vibro Champ & I went from that to an Ampeg VL-503. I really hadn't looked at amps in years, and once I got the GT-Pro, I settled in again....

[Leif H]

Best SS amp I ever owned, I gave away...

Roland Jazz Chorus 77, it had an awesome sound, and the reverb really could work a Dick Dale vibe with my Marauder.

[jvb]

Best for guitar, Vox AD50VT. Great blackface and tweed emulations
Worst for guitar, Savage 150 (70's Aussie head)


Best for bass, MarkBass LM2
Worst for bass, Behringer 300watt. Cheap but no guts and crap tone

[RichardM]

[Leif H]

I have a Yammy 115B, it's similar to the one under your 212b. Not a bad Bass amp. Then again the one I have is not in good health. I suspect that the input jacks are toast as they are pcb mounted. I just haven't had the time or inclination to have at it yet.

[Zouto]

Sessionette 75

The best solidstate amp I played in all the years is a blond Sessionette 75 combo Mk.II with an old 12"Fane Axiom speaker.It sounds just great in clean and drive mode, is powerful and absolutely compact, sort of a true classic.
Zouto

[Pedro Vecino]

[ParthaD]

Not an amp but ever try the Korg Pandora PX5D??!!

This is not even an amp but if used in the way I am about to describe, it will blow your mind!

Most people who diss this device have just used an ordinary pair of headphones with it, perhaps Korg was trying to say something when they provided a 1/4" headphone jack, NOT the standard 3.5mm one! How would your tube/ss amp sound if you disconnected the 4-8 ohm speakers and connect a 16 or 32 ohm one instead? Same thing, standard headphones are 16 ohms per side while the old 80s studio-style headphones are 8 ohms per side... its a night and day difference. I am using an old Pioneer SE200 set of headphones with it.

It sounds great without any modification but if you connect a $29 Art Tube Preamp between your guitar and the device the sound is even sweeter! Try getting a really good tube/ss amp in less than $200, now try getting 25 of them at that price, that's how many amps this models, and does so WELL!!!

Gigging... again people who diss this for gigging have usually just connected a standard instrument cable between the device and their amp and sometimes not even into the FX loop but between their instrument and main input. The output jack on this is STEREO.... how would headphones sound if you removed one side from your ears??!! You need a Radioshack stereo to mono adapter that combines the two channels or you could try using their included Y-stereo adapter and connect 2 standard instrument cables to 2 channels on your main amp or PA.

Of course band members will not think it is cool, and I am not recommending gigging with it but if you have one lying around try what I just said and you may be surprised. And yes I do have decent tube amps and really good ss amps and with my eyes closed and this thing equalized just right I cannot tell what amp I am playing, have been playing the electric guitar for 29 years!

[unparalleled]

i have a fender frontman 212 r (100w amp with 2 12" speakers and reverb) not too bad an amp. nice clean sound and reasonable distortion. i hadn't owned a tube amp yet (atleast not a completed one) until last night when i picked up my monster

the solidstate amp is more versatile, but the gap may close once i clean the pots on the new amp, its been sitting in someones garage for 20 years so the pots are mighty scratchy, and there are only some spots where they make contact. ive got some cleaner so ill get going on that tonight.

Wasp 200xl circuits and info:
Classic ANZ Valve Guitar Amplifiers
I did the restoration on the wasp 200xl featured there.
Heaps of them come to my service workshop. Their POWER is earth shattering!

[Jazz P Bass]

Peavey Sc400

My all time favorite is the Peavey Stereo Chorus 400.

[Phostenix]

It seems that most of the effort by manufacturers of SS amps is to get overdrive/distortion that sounds like tubes, but the thing I always notice that's missing with SS amps is the clean channel chime of a tube amp. That's what never sounds "right" to me with SS amps. I'm guessing that's why the Roland JC-120 is so popular - add a little chorus to get the chime?

[Steve Conner]

Well, the chime is a kind of distortion too. It's just mild enough that it doesn't register mentally as actual distortion.

It's actually harder to get this mild distortion with silicooties than with tubes. Heavy distortion is easy, because by that time everything is square waves, and the main thing that determines the tone is the duty cycle of the square wave and how it varies with the degree of overdrive. A square wave is a square wave, no matter what device it comes out of.

But with lighter distortion, you start to hear the non-linearities of the devices themselves. And tubes are fundamentally different in this respect. Transistors and clipping diodes are exponential, JFETs are square-law, but tubes follow a three-halves power law.

You can't exactly copy the three-halves power curve, but JFET circuits like the so-called "Fetzer valve" come reasonably close. They're useless in mass production though, because JFET parameters vary so much that every Fetzer valve needs trimmed by hand. And then they drift with temperature, like your grandpa's germanium Fuzz Face. It's probably cheaper to add a 12AX7 and make the amp a hybrid.