My favorite is when tube amp players complain about the sound of solid state amp distortion, and then subsequently use a solid state distortion pedal as their main source of distortion.

It's important we keep saying these amps suck so we can keep the prices low!

I once had a nightmare that my tube amp was actually solid state, it was absolutely terrifying, I woke up screaming for my mommy but she reassured me it still was a tube amp... Phew.

I have a Vox Pathfinder... But that's because I suck :(

I used to go to this guitar repair store. The guy had a vintage vox on display. He made people play trough the vox and they all agreed it sounded absolutely fantastic. Well, in reality, the vox was dead. it was actually an Ibanez solid state amp with the vox as a cab. Everyone fell for it.

"the gold paint sounds the best" is probably the most guitar player thing I've ever heard

I had a VOX Pathfinder and used it to record quite a few songs during my senior year of high school (2001). I still listen to some of those songs, and the tone is awesome. I also made heavy use of the DOD Grunge pedal - it was a huge part of my sound.

The Roland JC-120 is one of the best sounding amps I've had the pleasure to play with!

I once had another guitarist actually get pissed off at me for lying when he complimented me on my dirty, dirty tone and I told him it was a solid state amp. He was so convinced it HAD to be tubes that he went behind the amp poking around looking for the glass thingamabobs. Then he was even MORE pissed off. Funny shit.

Because tube is so fun. Replacing tubes, carrying all that weight, being extra careful transporting them. Oh, and playing super loud all the time because you think your neighbours and family should enjoy your playing too. There is nothing worse than getting decent tone at low volumes on a Tuesday night and having zero complaints.

As someone who mostly uses tube amps, I must admit that I'm a massive fan of the Sunn Beta/Concert series and the old Peavey amps of the 70's. They're some of the best discrete transistor solid state amps I've ever heard in my life, if not some of the best guitar amps I've heard. You can't go wrong with a Jazz Chorus either.

Josh sporting the legendary Hanson/Nirvana t-shirt is a sign that this show will be full of sarcasm and comedy. I salute you sir. Way to be😎

Pedal fans are a funny breed. We LOVE transistors, just not when they’re IN the amp. 🙄

The amps sounded fine... Maybe it was just a good mic? Did the mic use tubes?

Absolutely love the tone he got from the mic placement on the LCD screen of the Johnson amp!!!

I recently learned that on most of the Machina album, The Smashing Pumpkins used a dinky solid state Crate gx-15r, and you can get the right sound with just the amp! Billy sold the original on Reverb for 6K and you can find a nice write up on the listing.

As guitarists, most of us arent encouraged to find OUR sound but to sound like everyone else and that means buying expensive tube amps and expensive guitars. How many sounds have become iconic by folks using discarded and overlooked gear?? The sound is in your head and hands.

Josh’s master-plan: Drive up the prices of every other brand so JHS becomes the most affordable and therefore biggest selling brand. It’s a long game but a good game, like Final Fantasy 7 or Shenmue 2.

Roland JC120 is a Solid state amplifier. Classic sound. Engineers can simulate tube sound in electronic design.

Josh you are so funny and a very good talker at explaining things. I've learned so much from this channel its unreal. Thank you a lot for helping me understand these pedals and what I need.

So sad that there wasn’t a “He has the VOX!” jingle.

The fact JHS has an entire staff dedicated to making informative and yet comedically niche videos for guitar players is just really nice Most people wouldnt pick up on 75% of the jokes

I have been playing electric guitar and bass for 36 years now and arguing these same points for 30 years. This is channel is new to me, and I love it hard.

This channel is so good 12:43 (Atlantis B&B) is pure magic, I wish there was an entire video on that tone and other ways to mimic that tone on different setups with any clean amp.

I completely agree: ANYTHING solid state sucks. I even recently upgraded to tube wifi, so actually I haven't been able to watch more than the first 3s of this video... But man, it just looks and SOUNDS so much more 3-dimensional! When the video finishes downloading in a few months, I'll be back to give my full comments.

This episode needs a sequel because there's more solid state amps that I need to be warned against.

The Grunge Reverb jam was unreal. I'm buying the pedal now after hearing that opening riff for approximately 0.2 seconds.

I have a studio full of stacks, matched fender reverbs, custom built cabinets, etc, but nothing has ever sounded more enormous on record than a friggin hiwatt 10w solid state combo mic'd with a 57 close and an mk4 further back. blew the doors off of a soldano super lead II through an orange cab. I still have my roland CUBE30 from 2004-5 and still find new, useable, repeatable tones out of it. AND I was able to carry it to high school an hour on transit every day.

The other thing about solid state is they don't weigh enough, so you don't get the exercise trying to move them around. And of course with solid state you don't have to keep buying and changing and balancing tubes and warming it up and all that, so you get bored just switching it on and playing it. Finally, they are too quiet, so you don't get the permanent ear damage all true guitarists are proud of - they're truly rubbish!

Funny story: this guy who was renting my studio for recording came one day with the Fender Deluxe 85 and asked me if I wanted it for free. I asked "What's wrong with it?" and he replied, "It sucks, it's a solid-state amp... you can have it, it works." This is the amp that Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead uses fucking everywhere.

The Roland JC amps are my favorite. All the sizes are good if you don't want a JC120. One upon a time they even made head units and separate cabinets.

just bought one of your pedals by accident, been watching your videos and went to go and get some good behringers but the guy sold me on an octave reverb. AMAZING WORK!!!!!!!!! THANK YOU!!

The impending Reverb bump means I won’t be able to afford tube AND solid state amps!

Gear snobs are annoying. I’m just glad that there is someone out there that knows what they are actually taking about that is as sarcastic as Josh. 🙏🏽 ❤️

The one you said you like was the worst of the lot. I loved the Jazz Chorus 120, biggest mistake I ever made was selling mine.

I currently use a Fender Champion 100 and I like the versatility. I use Boss Super, overdrive, Morely Power Fuzz Wha, and Electro Harmonix LPB-1. I add a digital reverb pedal in the effects loop. It's loud and has great tone.

Me: "waiting for a good deal on DOD grunge pedals" Josh: "DOD Grunge..." *DOD Grunge prices instantly double*

I've been using a solid state amp for so many years, that explains why I never had a girlfriend because my tone sucks!! my gosh!! thank you josh for enlightening me. I'll never lay my hands on solid state amps ever again!

Love how you guys Mic'd the LCD display on the Johnson amp. That display although not a 12", sounds great.

I actually felt a bit sick when I was listening to the VOX, but I made it through without throwing up. Great work, as always.

Josh's gift is helping people realize that gear of all value levels is valid to use for creating art and you shouldnt feel bad if you don't have a $3,000 rig.

Can we all just take a moment to acknowledge how CLEAN the drums sound

Love my 80's 120 Jazz Chorus, also for my synths. Its wonderful. I love Roland, specially their analog synths from the 70s

I still enjoy the heck out of my early 90's Randall RG150ES. It really opens up the louder it gets.

“No, I don’t like anything!” - That one guy on literally every gear forum

I used to love the sound of a Roland Jazz Chorus until I heard it was a solid-state. Haven't listened to The Police since. Talking Heads are also out the window.

I still have my Roland Jazz Chorus that I bought in 1983. Still love it.

The Peavey Bandit is one of the all time classic SS amps. It is worth trying out.

Whatever Roland did with Jazz Chorus is pure magic. To this day one of the best sounding clean amps.

I hate how you made us all think those amps sound good. Shame on you, Josh.

I used to have that Lead12. Was a fun amp. I don't use amps any more but my favorite memories of amps are mostly the first ones. All solid state except a Crate that had a single 12AX7.

I have used an Award Session Sessionette 75 for 38 years now. Solid state. Only one repair in that time. Serviced by the builder and an amazing, full warm sound. Much admired and known as the British Boogie. Current Blues Baby model is outstanding. No, I have no connections to the company but they are worth checking out.

This was a solid video

I must say Josh, that that Quilter sounded so horrendous you better send it my way ASAP so that I can properly dispose of it in a way that it can't, ever again, assault' anyone's ears.

You left out the "worst" solid state amps, Oranges! When I started getting back into guitar, I quickly decided to get a digital Marshall Code 50. It was okay at first and I enjoyed playing around with the different sounds, but once I found that the Silver Jubilee mode was my favorite, I didn't use most of the other features and it started sounding worse to me after comparing it more closely to other amps. I decided to switch earlier this year to a solid state Orange CR60 after demoing a lot of different amps in stores. I grew to hate scrolling through the Code's menu and analog generally sounded better to me (I'm not sure how much that has to do with a lot of digital amps cutting costs with the speaker and cabinet design, though), but I didn't want to have to worry yet about possible maintenance issues with a tube amp. The Orange got close to the Jubilee sound, didn't involve scrolling through menus, and had a variety of inputs and outputs on it. I still intend to get a Jubilee one day, but I am blown away every time I play the CR60. It is so responsive and sounds super smooth and velvety, and it looks gorgeous. Next time I see a Jubilee in a store I definitely want to compare it closely to a CR60 - I might end up not even wanting a Jubilee the CR60 is so good!

I have the reissue of the EHX amp. I like it. My brother has the current version of the VOX 15R bass version I gave him. I think the original 15R is a better amp but the current one is smaller and I added a speaker out jack so it can be used as a head. I also removed the LED clipping diodes to give it some more volume. I recommend both amps.

You're doing god's work, Josh. My mother choked to death on a transistor

Me, looking at my vox pathfinder 10 from across my room: “Don’t listen to the bad man, you sound great.”

Had a Roland JC-50 in the later eightys. Had a Boss DS-1 distortion with it and wasn’t that cool with the other guys with their Marshall stacks and tube screamers. Still have it and love it!

Back in the day like 1985 I had a Marshall lead 20 solid state amp that I ran into a Fender 100 watt Super Six. I had a tube screamer a wah pedal an ADA flanger and the reverb on that Fender was glorious. I played quite a few shows with that setup.

that DOD Grunge Reverb was just Soundgarden in a box, that ruled

Sitting through this was absolutely agonizing. At least he warned us first.

Expert mic placement on the Johnson. no weird phase issues coming from the display! Green front equipped. Super cool!

Love all of the amps … they sound awesome. Great job!

Vox Pathfinder amps are now going for $5000 on reverb. Way to go Josh.

I'm more impressed he found a drummer who understands dynamics and can play along with a 15W amp. :D

Your absolutely right Josh. I've only kept my '95 Peavey audition with spring reverb all these years to remind me of how terrible these things can be.

I have 2 Vox Pathfinder amps - one in a head version. The combo has a speaker out jack though. I played that 15 watt solid state amp through one side of a Vox 4x12 cab (so think 2x12 vertical cab) - played that in an 8 piece band and never had issues with clean volume. Crazy. The other guitarists figured it was a tube amp and commented how good it sounded with my Strat.

That Deliberately Unnamed(!) microphone is obviously being “warmed up” using an expensive “boutique tube preamp,” which is the reason for the pleasing “tube-like” “complex harmonics.” Solved.

an old weekend warrior musician here in my town once summed it up so nicely: I've never been booed off stage because I don't have tubes in my amp

Back in the early 90s I started playing bigger venues and my small amp wasn't up for the job... well according to my band mates at least. I'm a fan of keeping volumes pretty low on stage and letting the PA do the work. (I'm an ex audio engineer) So, I went out looking at dozen of tube amps, and the one that I liked the best, by quite a lot actually, was an Ampeg SS-140C. You'd think that maybe the SS in the model number would have tipped me off that it was "Solid State" but you'd be wrong. 😆 It wasn't until I got it home that I noticed... there were no tubes! THE HORROR! How could I have done such a thing?! Actually, I didn't think that at all. It was more like, "oh, solid state. Huh. I guess I won't have to worry about replacing tubes." I went on with my life and frankly I loved that amp maybe more than any tube amp I've ever owned, and I've owned a fair amount of them over the years. I know this makes me a bad person, but I have accepted that it is my job to play this role.

I had a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe tube amp but it constantly gave me problems when the tubes would get adjusted moving from gig to gig. I got rid of it! Been using solid state ever since. Never had any problems.

The video that nobody was asking for but everyone needed

Josh has just made solid state amp prices go to the roof. Josh, please stop the guitar gear inflation.

My setup is a 1w Ruby Amp and 1x8 cab DIY job. Maybe I dont have "the ear", but it sounds great to me!

The JC120 is legendary. I picked up a slightly less legendary amp recently: 1990 Fender M-80 chorus. Solid state, 2x12, chorus, reverb, 130 watts. It’s no Twin Reverb, but it’s really uniquely voiced. Very 1990 hair metal tone.

Josh’s sarcastic tone is to the ears, both confusing yet totally logical at the same time.

Josh’s top tier Patreon should be him finding a way to talk up gear you’re trying to sell on Reverb.

Yes, this was extremely terrible, i have to suffer one of those vox 15r myself, so i know how you feel man. Let's just hope for better times and take care.

My first amp was my Gorilla GG-25. I still have it, but it ain't working right. Maybe dirty pots or something. It has a burn on the grill from a lightbulb that just sort of fell onto it and melted it. It was a red light bulb, but why? I was 12 and it looked cool. Or maybe its Tube Stack feature melted it. I can't remember exactly. Maybe this is the year I get it working again. Keep up the great work Josh & friends!

"the gold paint sounds best" Alright William Corgan.

Ok, The Jazz Chorus is actually one of the best amps ever

This video format is gold.

After being a tube snob for 20 years I just got a fender tonemaster deluxe reverb..24lbs of awesome it is.....

A few years ago I was invited to a jam by my best friend with a prospective drummer and some of his buddies. I brought my Line 6 Spider IV 150, and setup in the spot. It was certainly loud enough to keep up with a drummer, and I honestly never had any trouble getting the sounds I wanted out of it. I really wasn't into tubes or pedals at the time. I'm a metal dude, and it was to be a metal jam, so of course I was aware of the reputation solid state and Line 6 had, especially when it comes to high gain, but I liked the idea of my Line 6 being an all-in-one amp and it was working for me, so I had no burning desire to invest in anything else. So we're hanging out when this kid walks in and asks the drummer to help him bring in his gear. They leave and a few moments later, the same kid walks in with a Mesa Dual Rectifier head and the drummer is lugging a 5150 cab. Immediately I was furious. This CHILD has pro-level equipment?! How the hell did this kid get a $3000 rig?! But even worse, just glimpsing his setup gave me terrible tone envy. I was almost embarrassed to kick my combo on. There I was, trying to take myself seriously with my guitar plugged into the laughing-stock of the metal community, up against the quintessential metal stack. I felt despair. But then the strangest thing happened. We started to play and I couldn't believe it. My tone was absolutely crushing his. I looked to my friend for confirmation, and saw him scowling, nodding his head. We should all know by now that a good metal guitar tone causes ones face to curl up into a scowl, very similar to the facial expression that often follows smelling a bad fart. In terms of sheer loud he had me beat, so the kid tried to compensate by increasing his volume, but was met with complaints from the other musicians. He started dialing knobs, panicked and struggling, his hands dashing across the controls. He was muddy, I was crisp. His bass was flubby and rumbling, while mine was tight and articulated. When he struck a chord, it moved the air, but when I struck a chord it cut right through it. He became more and more visibly frustrated. As he was franticly cutting his mids and boosting his highs to try to match my ferocity, I was carelessly riffing and shredding away on my custom designed preset. After a short while he put his guitar down in frustration, and the session ended. His flex had failed, and I had won. But in all seriousness, I have pondered this happening since, because it taught me a valuable lesson that is sometimes easy to forget. Maybe the kid JUST got his stack, and really didn't have a feel for it yet, while I'd spent YEARS with my Line 6. I don't recall him having any pedals... maybe his tone would have killed me with a boost. Maybe if he'd boosted his mids instead of cut. Whatever the reason, it taught me that our guitars, pedals and amplifiers - tube or solid state, boutique or cheap, name brand or otherwise - these things are all nothing more than tools to aid us in our human expression. If it helps you achieve your vision, then it is valid. It is said that the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house. I'm no master by any means, but on that day I think my laughable tools worked better for me than his pro tools did for him. I've since gained a love for pedals and tube amplifier technology, and I've invested more money than is probably healthy on these things, but that's just part of my journey. That's the coolest thing about music and gear. It's all about YOUR sound and YOUR voice, and experimenting to find it. And if you find your voice in a solid state amplifier, that is perfectly fine.

"I'll give away this amp" *gets excited* "just make a Tik-tok" *profound sadness*

Great job bro! Very entertaining and informative. It was a real joy to watch entire vid!!

Solid State amps don't suck, they just sound different than tube amps.

This was supposed to make me want a solid state amp, but all it did was make me want to get a DOD Grunge pedal.

I just love that he's wearing a Hanson shirt.

Thanks Josh for reminding me why I absolutely hated playing through 2 Roland JC 120s in stereo for all those years. Boy did I waste my life away with those……

My 1st amp was a really cheap solid state amp from the local furniture store back in the 60s. Been Chasing that tone ever since. 😊

I can't believe how bad these perfectly good amps sounded I am outraged by how badly good these terrible solid state amps sounded good.

Does Nick get enough praise for his drumming skills? I think not. Just nails it every time. #TeamNick

Ibanez tone blaster, you graduated highschool about same time as I did. The tone blaster came out around then early 2000s. I had one sold it and could not find it again, then just recently found one again. Love them they have great clean and dirty channels and eq for both channels. Also a friend's grandfather gave him a jazz chorus they are amazing amps.

i'm lovin the sarcasm... i grew up with my dad as a band leader and guitar player, and he dual-wielded tube and SS amps. he actually preferred SS because you weren't screwed if a tube blew out at random.

"The gold paint sounds the best" 😂 new shirt idea

I freaking love you and your sense of humor. You always drop knowledge bombs that noone else even touches on. It's informative, and you keep it hilarious. Killing it.

Tubes for the studio, SS for the road.

I have 2 tube amps, 2 solidstate amps and one hybrid, and I love them all.