Guitar Amps – Tube vs Solid State – Which Should I Choose?

Musicians are a finicky bunch. Sound is subjective and what sounds amazing to one player may sound terrible to another. If you are looking for me to make the choice for you, I am sorry. I can’t. All I can do is communicate my experiences and leave it to you to decide what works best for you.

I began playing guitar at the age of 14 in 1977. I pulled my mom’s crappy nylon string Sears guitar off the closet shelf and started working through a lesson book that taught me a few basic chords. When you have time, look up the album “When Finger Pickers Took Over the World” and check you the song “Mel Bay.” There was no Internet. We had four VHF and 4 UHF stations, and we have to move the antenna on the roof with a controller to tune each one! My first electric guitar was an old Silvertone. Good grief, I wish I had that guitar today as it would be worth a fortune. I played that guitar and another low quality electric that I found by plugging into the microphone jack on my all-in-one stereo. Needless to say, it sounded horrible.

I started saving my money and soon after I turned 16, I purchased a Peavey head and a 4 x 12 cabinet. I kept it out in our shop. We lived on a farm so I could at least get away and play without blasting everyone out of the house. that amp was a solid-state amp rated at 400 watts! To a 16-year-old, the amp sounded amazing. Based on what I know today, the amp had it purpose and was likely decent, but it sacrificed sound quality for power.

Since purchasing that amp, I have owned quite a number of different amps including several different Peavey combo amps, a Roland JC-120, a silver faced Fender Twin Reverb, a couple of off brand tube amps, an original Fender Hot Rod Deluxe, and original Fender Hot Rod Deville (both made in the USA), a 2005 Hot Rod Deluxe and two Fender Tweed Deluxe 5E3 amps (I built both of these).

So I have played and gigged with a number of different amps including fully solid state, hybrid and fully tube amps. Here is what I learned.

Sound clarity is your best friend – Too many players crank up the distortion and jam away. While this is fun, you aren’t doing yourself any favors. Distortion and overdrive cover up your playing and hides your mistakes! Seek to find an amp that first provides a clear tone over the full frequency range. Play without distortion and listen. You will uncover the mistakes you are making – timing, bends, not to pitch, buzzing on certain notes, etc. All these things you are missing while playing through a crappy amp with overdrive and distortion are slowing your growth as a player. Find an amp that sings. This is where a well-designed tube amp shines. There are some good solid-state amps out there but a good tube amp will open your ears to all the mistakes you have been making and, in the end, make you a better player.
Wave forms matter – Science plays a role in what your ears hear when playing through solid-state, hybrid (tube preamp and solid-state power amp or vice versa) and fully solid-state amps. Vintage solid-state amps are sought after for a reason – there are very few modern amps built today that reproduce the sounds produced by these vintage amps. By science, I mean that solid-state and tube amplifiers produce slightly different wave forms that are perceived differently by the human ear. Waves processed by solid-state circuits produce waves that are very square in nature meaning that they are either on or off and when these types of waves distort (or clip), the result is a very harsh and abrupt sound that is perceived as unpleasant in some regard. Electrical waved processed by tube circuitry tend to build up and tail off much like a sine wave. And when these types of waves distort, the result is a much more pleasing and mellow sound. You will hear the terms “hard clipping” and “soft clipping” when comparing the two types of amplifiers.
Harmonics matter – Electrical signals processed by solid-state and tube amplifiers create harmonics (a signal that has a frequency of some multiple of the parent frequency) when non-linear distortion occurs. Harmonics are classified as “even order” or “odd order” harmonics. When a given note is played though an amplified, harmonics are generated that are whole number multiples of the original frequency. The original note is a first order harmonic. Every multiple of the frequency of that note increments the harmonic value. harmonic orders that are divisible by a multiple of the two are called “even order harmonics” and produce a pleasing sound to the human ear. All other harmonics are called “odd order harmonics” and produce a sound that is not pleasing to the human ear.
Moving air – Speakers are designed to move air in waves at the frequency of the notes being played. Nothing beats feeling the air move behind you as you play live on stage though one or more amplifiers. Sure, there are a number of great amp modelers (Kemper, Line 6, Helix, etc.) but each of them rely on the settings of the amp being modeled at the time the amp model was created. This really limits your ability to find your tone. Find an amp that moves you because it move the air in the space you are playing in!
Reliability – Most traditional tube amplifiers are built using eyelet or turret boards that are assembled and wired by hand. Amplifiers built in this manner are must less prone to failure and are more easily repaired. Some mass produced tube amplifiers are built using cheaply made printed circuit boards combined with low quality components. These amplifiers tend to work well for a while but are not built for the road. When they fail, its often difficult to find replacement boards and are labor intensive to repair.
Tweakability – Hand wired tube amplifiers are easily modified so a player can customize their tone simply by changing out preamp and power amp tubes or altering a few resistors or capacitors. Many well-know players have spent countless hours fine tuning the components in their amplifiers in quest of that perfect sound.

Have I helped? Probably not but sometimes it helps to hear another player’s perspective on this debate. In the end, do your research, play a variety of amplifiers and find what works best for you and your playing style. For me, I change my gear from time to time. Currently, I play through two custom built 5E3 Deluxe amps. My signal goes through a very simple pedal board consisting of a DOD BiFET Preamp, an original TS-9 Tube Screamer, an MXR 10 band graphic EQ and a couple of other pedals that I rarely use. I also use a Fractal FM9 to split my signal and emulate additional amplifiers based upon the style and artist of the songs I am playing. Bottom line, you gotta play what works for you.

Play on and be good to one another!