tube power amps

[marcus]

well, I want to try out a tube power amp. I have found out ways to dial out the inherent SS harshness from the GT-8 to a point where I think I am very satisfied. So, yes, I AM looking for the inherent power amp warmth from the power amp side.

Hmm, I'm kind of confused now. I guess nothing new about that Sorry if I mislead you earlier, let me try to explain further what I was talking about:

If you are talking about the harsh sounds that come out of SS amps when generating the distortion, then I am with you. They are kind of harsh, but really, its more like you dial those tones in, they are not inherent to SS amps. When you drive a transistor into clipping, you get a lot of high order harmonics that you don't get with tubes. Most SS power amps are very hard to drive into distortion and won't generate these higher order harmonics. In fact, outside of the world of guitar gear I have never heard this kind of tone out of any SS amp, including the cheap-ass op-amps that generally drive head-phone outputs like the one on your GT-8.

As for warmth: this is distortion. It actually works against transparency/flat frequency response. If you want transparency, you can get close with a tube amp, but not quite there. In fact, pretty much the only reason people buy tube amps is because of the distortion: it sounds good. SS amps will always be better in terms of transparency if you don't drive them into clipping.

Anyway, try both, and see what you like. If you can get the tone you like out of a SS amp, then you will save money, maintenance hassle, and your back lugging the thing around. If not, well tube amps kick ass so perhaps they are worth it