View Poll Results: Is your main jazz guitar amp a solid state or a tube amp?
- Voters
- 373. You may not vote on this poll
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Tube
162 43.43% -
Solid State
211 56.57%
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I'm happy with solid state because no maintenance. This is the amp I replaced in my Leslie. 5 wat solid state amp makes it nice and rich. Then I just eq the heck out of it with my 31 band eq.
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02-28-2023 02:46 AM
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My ultimate preference would be a tube amp for single line solo playing and solid state amp for chordal playing.
You'd get the full complex dimensional sound of tubes for your single lines and the clean clarity of the solid state for you chordal work (no mushyness).
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Originally Posted by Jimmy Smith
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Sonically, convenience and cost aside, tubes tubes tubes. For sure. And this coming from a guy who actually really likes his JC22. But with any A/B with a tube amp, the tube amp comes out on top. All the more so since I got my Brunetti SingleMan. That amp is magic.
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I bet that sounds really luxurious to play guitar through the Leslie 3300. And you play on the XK-5 too? My Leslie studio 12 is also hybrid but I use the little 5 watt amp to scale it down.
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Originally Posted by Jimmy Smith
Here I am on B-3 at the Wilmington (DE) Blues and Brews Festival:
And here's a shot of the stage at the club in which I play twice a week - it's actually the background for the landing page of my music website. The Nord and Hammond are front stage right, with the Leslie against the wall to the drummer's right and the player sandwiched between them. When I'm backing a featured artist on keys and guitar, I sit at the keys with my guitar on a stand next to me and switch off as needed:
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Awesome
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Originally Posted by nevershouldhavesoldit
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Originally Posted by Jimmy Smith
When I was 12, I also had Downbeat, a good local record shop, a radio, a good music store with some decent used guitars & amps, a library card, and an emerging world of jazz. But I don’t think there’s a “golden age”. Had I been born into the same circumstances in 1920, the specifics would have been different but the principles would have been the same. It would have been Eddie Lang instead of Wes. My first guitar would have cost $3 instead of $10. And I’d have waited for Benny Goodman to come to Steel Pier instead of Stan Kenton.
And if I were born in 2000, I’d have had the internet and e-books to help me learn and experience in a month what took years to get when I was a kid. I’d have had free instant access to a world of music, art, knowledge, culture etc 24/7 that we could only access in dribbles from books, magazines, TV, movies, school, etc.
It’s always a golden age if you have the love, the curiosity, the desire, and the fire inside to find and use existing resources well. Thankfully, I was helped along by a family that understood and generally encouraged my interests and abilities. I think it would have been the same had I been born at any time. But I’m very happy with my little window of life!
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Originally Posted by Little Jay
But, this video seems to show a Super Custom XV, which is a solid state amp.
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Just finished playing through my Cyber Twin SE on the '55 Tweed Tremolux with a little reverb and was a real nice sound and I'm a tube Amp guy.
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I recently built a roadworthy little all-tube amp/DI that sounds like a vintage combo (without the hum). It's about the size of a box of Turtles.
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They say Wes switched from tube to SS in 1965. I have heard him use both. Pre 65 he used all the usual Fender tube stuff (deluxe, twin, super reverb). That's according to this website I read sometimes that goes over all this gear-
Wes Montgomery Guitars & Gear List (with Videos) - Guitar Lobby
I read on that site that another guy with great tone switched over to SS also- BB King. With Wes and BB King, I would think tone is in the fingers more than in the amp. I assume since they were playing such big rooms and PA technology was not good back then, they were more on the practical side and wanted as much volume as they can get without feedback or distortion. SS is good for that.
There's a lot of variables- fingers, amp, guitar, PA technology, and recording technology on the records. I really like "Smoking at the Half Note." Not sure what's the amp on that one, but it's a great sound the way it's recorded and mixed with the band. "So Much Guitar" also has a good guitar sound. These old records sometimes have great playing and lousy sound. I used to listen to Albert King when I was getting into blues and almost all his records sound awful.
Originally Posted by Little Jay
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Originally Posted by Rob from Auburn
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Originally Posted by Rob from Auburn
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Originally Posted by Little Jay
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If I have to choose between headroom and ‘warmth’ I would choose the former. Nice to have both, but not always available.
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Originally Posted by EastwoodMike
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For me it’s both, depending on context. For rock? I’ve played thru Marshall Majors (still have one) with those monstrous KT88 tubes, as well as other Marshall and Fender tube amps.
I also played Hammond for awhile in a classic/prog rock context, an old A100 tonewheel thing. Used a MotionSound Pro3T, the bass rotor sim going thru that Marshall Major into a 4x12 for some years. (I still have the organ and Pro3T also.) For certain things there just isn’t an adequate replacement for tubes. And it’s not just the preamp! Tube power amps can provide both enormous clean headroom AND a hint of ‘sizzle’ (for lack of a better word) simultaneously.
But getting back to jazz guitar, clean input and clean power amp headroom are my ideal. I want it to sound like the guitar, amplified… with some of the top end rolled off to accommodate the needs of the combo. A tiny hint of reverb is nice sometimes, but not needed in most instances. Additionally, equipment weight has recently become an issue for me. So SS fills the bill.
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Originally Posted by Christian Miller
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Princeton Reverb II.
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Originally Posted by Litterick
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Originally Posted by rpjazzguitar
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I have a Fender 100w 2x12 Twin amp, a Marshall 50w 2x12 jcm800 4104 and a Musicman 65w 1x12 65RP(SS pre amp) and none of them seem to do the jazz thing for me.
I stick with my Polytone 1x15 MB3.
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Originally Posted by nevershouldhavesoldit
Last edited by Woodstove; 05-20-2023 at 06:37 AM.
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