mistermikev wrote:I'm not sure what it is in me, or what it says about me that I see threads like this and think "ok, your mission, should you choose to accept, is to play devil's advocate and find a scenario where solid state is actually better than tube"...
if you play jazz.. polytone
victor wootens' brother (not sure his first name) plays a jazz chorus and while he's not a tone guru I have to admit he sounds great live.
and the jazz chorus, not much beats that for a crystal clean tone... fender princeton chorus or peavey stereo chorus also sound great for that one thing...
but then those who know me know I have several tube amps so who am I kidding?
sans... I think so much of tubes sounding good at low volume is just that EVERYTHING sounds better loud right? I've got a killer ant (1.5w tube) and it sounds pretty good cranked and is very quiet... but I bet it would sound better loud!
No sir. I have to respectfully disagree.
Or perhaps it's not to disagree with your point, but it's actually something a little different to which I made reference.
Sure I like loud music, but it is not tone specific.
My Marshall and both my Carvin amps are capable beautiful clean bluesy tones. They are in the 2-5 range on the Marshall volume control, and have to be boosted into the stage mix via the PA monitors.
( not so with the Nomad as it has two channels and 50 watts , where as the Marshall is one class A circuit @ 5 watts )
But to get that chunky thunk & crunch with growling sustain, the amp needs to be run >7 and at that level does not really require any PA monitor boost to be hard in the stage mix.
( as a matter of fact I usually have to turn it away from us )
Of course I switch pick ups as well as adjust the volume & tone pots on my guitar to get those soulful sounds so it's not "all" amp.
I can approximate the distortion tone I like at lower volumes utilizing the Tube Screamer . . . but it just is not the same as when the amp and guitar are running that distortion together.