You hit the nail on the head Chris. I use valve and ss amps and they all sound good when they are reasonable quality and set up up well.

I like the clean headroom and tight low end of solid state amps.

I love my Orange Crush 60. Put a TS9 infront and it sounds killer!!!

Reason 5 , lighter and safer to travel. And im a exf guy so having an amp that doesn’t break up when driven hard. Headroom headroom headroom! That all said there is something almost unexplainable in human language that tubes add that gives that special something maybe it the harmonics maybe it’s subtle clipping idk but tube amps are wonderful i just prefer solid state for personal taste reasons.

I own both! JC40, Katana 100 mk2, and Hot rod Deluxe, and Deluxe R. I'm a high headroom clean guitar player, some venues have horrible electrical supply and tube amps are very sensitive to that, on those cases y bring my solid state.

Well Kris you are rapidly becoming one of my go to reviewers i've checked out quite a few pieces of gear with you now as you always have really great demos and this is no exception

The Jazz Chorus is one of my favorite clean amps of all time

Dealing with weather and temperature changes is another huge bonus of solid state. If I were playing clubs every weekend I'd probably want a tube amp, but for playing a party in someone's yard, a solid state amp is going to be my first choice.

There are a lot of SS amps to like. Marshalls early Valvestates 8xxx (Preamp Tubes), LabSeries L5 L7 L9, Yamaha G50 and G100 (2nd series), Peavey Bandit Red Stripe... I like them.

I have a 03 single rectifier and a newer Marshall dsl20 head. Both sound good but not at low volume. I still use my old line 6 spider series 3, 75 watt combo. The insane channel is perfect for low volume.

to each his own... I'm happy with my tube amps. I got a Two-Rock for my cleans, a Dr Z EMS for my Marshally crunch tones, and I plan to add a Diezel VHX for my high-gain. Sure, it takes me way more time to save money to afford them, but I know they will work great and will be serviceable 50 years from now when I will be long gone... I don't hate SS, nor even Digital, it just depends what you're looking for. I only play in my (home) studio. If I would be playing on stage or touring, I would probably use a Diezel VHX and a Fractal FM9 for a fancy setup, or maybe just the fractal for a more simple setup. So yeah, I get it, I can understand why someone wouldn't want to deal with tube amps in 2024... lot of potentially good alternatives. I just prefer tube amps because I'm a traditionalist... but to each his own.

Great review as always. 👍 Thank you Kris and Thomann Music!

My first amp was a little Crate 15 watt solid state amp, my second amp was a Marshall 60 watt hybrid (tubes in the pre-amp, solid state the rest of the way). I honestly like both, though the “lottery win” dream is to get a pair of all tube combos from the golden age of amps (hopefully still working well, or at least restored).

Great Job Man 🎸🎶🎸

I am a big fan of sansamps which naturally makes me a big fan of high performance high headroom solid state amps with quality speaker cabinets. Honestly the tech has advanced to the point that tube amps are no longer valid. You just have to understand what is required to get where you are going and isn't always gonna be "cheap". My sansamp based pedalboard will outperform any equivalent tube amps at ANY VOLUME level into a good solid state amp with a good speaker cab and it aint even close. Speaker selection is probably the most critical rig choice these days after your preamp. Digital cab modellers require a high performance full range speaker setup to actually unlock them and alot of people don't understand this. This makes digital cab emulators very much valid. BUT... not so with even premium digital amp/preamp modelers. They can be made to spund good with work setting them up but you still will find response issues with them the more you use them that can't beat well designed analog preamp circuits. Its not that they are bad - they just aren't the best option.

To use at home you don't even need 1W, half a watt is enough. I built an amp with a TDA7052 chip (barely 1W not heatsinked) and is incredibly loud. And incredibly similar to my tube Blackstar HT1: it has that kick when starts to compress.

I’ve always preferred solid state. Have had many good tube amps over the years but always go back to solid state. It’s just personal preference and they work for me. To me they just sound tighter

Regarding balanced tone on low volumes - not every tube amp has problem with this. I bought Marshall JVM 215C, and this 50W all tube combo has great tone, drive and sustain even on “almost bedroom” volumes. No power brake is needed. I never heard solid state amp with this sound quality on full range of volumes, from relatively quiet to full blast. I enjoy this little sweet british beauty!

I prefer solid state because I live in a country where buying gear and tubes isn't as easy as other countries. I use a Crazy Tube Circuits Crossfire as my main preamp. I can go ampless or into a poweramp. It's great.

Reason 2 depends on cab and speakers too though. I run an Orange Pedal Baby 100 into two 2x12 16ohm cabs with Neo V-Types, to get the wanted low end responce (oomph) I have to set it to 10-11 o’clock, that is with a driven sound, clean might differ, but can’t really care about clean when with drive is the main sound.

I play solid state! I use the wonderful Roland Blues Cube Artist. I also use a Blackstar HT-Dual Drive pedal. it has a tube inside, so I get the real tube overdrive at a low master volume. Veeeeery happy with that! Before that, I had a Marshall Origin 20 head and an attenuator. Still was too lound and sounded like s*hit!

I went through a LOT of solid state amps....and to me...they just didn't sound as good as my tube amps...on a lark I bought a Peavey Bandit 112...that's right....a damn Bandit 112...and I was shocked. Swapped out the speaker for a Eminence Texas Heat....and it sounds freaking great.....who knew???

Preamp distortion has always been far more easy to produce. Power amp distortion and compression less. Before digital it could become very complicated to completely simulate a tube amp with solid state so many did not even try. Yet some examples are really really good. The Quilters and the T dynamics Transtubes are non digital solid state amps designed to simulate "compress and sag" which they do quite nicely. On top of that 100% simulating a tube amp does not need to be the ultimate. Not everything on a tube amp is nice...

Eh…I dunno, man. I was a touring musician in the late 90’s up to the early 2010’s, and heard plenty of ok sounding SS amps, but I wouldn’t use one live. When we’d do fly in gigs, I always asked for a jcm 800 or 900. SS amps just don’t react to a guitar the way tubes do or break up as naturally That said, as long as people are playing and enjoying playing, then it doesn’t matter their amp. My first one was a Gorilla amp, and it sounded awful, but I absolutely loved it.

Quilter seems to become one of the big contenders for excellent tone. There is another component i would mention to achieve a top notch clean tone: the speaker ... once tested a bunch of ProJuniors an BluesJuniors and the best sounding one was the one with a highly reactive high efficiency speaker. this one just "breathed" ... Maybe you could do a test replacing the speakers in your trusty HB cabinet with a EVM and a "swamp thang" or like ... and give it a go Anyway ... thanks a lot for sharing

The Super Crush 100 Head is a great example, great tones and very good price

... just a hint 4 us low volume JC clean addicts: there is a JC-22 and it is full stereo, has THE chorus and all the I/O you need and it does give us the change of having our beloved amp - in a shrunk version - @home ... me loves it

idc about tubes or solid state i just want something reliable that i can buy good speakers for, any recomendations?

The problem is gain/dirt. I definitely agree that solid states pretty much rule clean sounds. Gainy/dirty sounds.....I always go with Tube versions. There have been some really nice solid state amps where the gain sounds nice but they are few and far in between. There's just nothing like having a tube amp turned up and then boosted with a pedal up front. It's even more difficult if you are looking for a very niche sound that you can only get with a tube amp.

It’s in the fingers when it comes down to it🤘

A Telecaster doesn't have such ear piercing high end through a tube amp though. It sounds fuller

In an ideal world I have muliple tube amps with attenuators. Why multiple? Because I play many different music styles. I don't have a house that is big enough for that, so in an ideal world (for me), I have a bigger house with a (or multiple) music room(s). Unfortunately I don't have the money for all that (starts with the house). Thus, I use a solid state amp with (almost) no sound from its own and I add pedals to create my sound.

No. Solid state doesn't have the toan tubes have. Toan is in the tube.

I think tube amps sound a little better but not 5-10x better as the price difference would suggest.

Can I come up with 5+1 reasons before hearing Kris? 1. cheaper to buy 2. cheaper to operate 3. less fragile 4. can be used without speaker cab 5. smaller 6. lighter

The downside to SS amps is a drive pedal doesn’t push the front end the same as a tube amp. Most SS amps don’t take any pedals well.

Most of these commenters "tubes are the best and solid state sucks" said commenters then go ahead and run a solid state pedal through a clean tube channel 😂

As much as I try to make my katana 100 head to sound like my engl fireball 100, it just doesn't happen. SS wins at bedroom levels, but rehersing and live (even when miced) the fireball anihilates anything SS. You just feel its brutality. Best regards

Blackstar silverline deluxe🫶 beyond impressed with it. With a bit of patience and tweeking- you can get close enough to most of the silver face and other grail amps.

_"YOU'RE LATE!"_ ~ Country, Blues, Jazz, Folk, and every Ambient guitar player I've ever met

i guess i just feel solid state is 2 dimensional, immediate, and no natural compression/sustain you get from valves. valves often 3 dimensional, like the rev against the quilter. however, valves belong on stages, solid great for home and ok on stage. i personally prefer modelling for home and small gig, break out the valve for bigger more important gigs.

Hmm I thought Metallica Pantera jimmy page rush all sound pretty good .

Tubes.

I use both 🤷‍♂️😂

Reason 6# Deaf or Insane. If your deaf you can't tell the difference. If you're insane you can dilude yourself into thinking SS is just as good. A real test is 2 guitar players with a SS and a tube amp next to each other with a band. You'll never hear the SS amp.

Only reason i play SS...my neighbours/the cops 🤷🏻

1 reason to hate solid state amps…………….. unless you’re deaf they sound fake tonally dead. How’s that for an answer. Plastic can look like wood but it’s a million miles away from it in texture, feel and smell. Synthetic.

There's no way Hendrix would've been able to play his feedback induced stuff with a solid state amp😂

I've come from Palmer DREI down to TONEX pedal + Harley Benton SS Amp pedal into 1×12 Eminence Swamp Thang. It's all good.

valve amps are the best . Never buy this shit