Any solid staters here?

[888]

I once had a solid state Sunn combo amp that sounded fantastic. I would love to find another one of those, great for clean tones.

[jorri]

Have a zt lunchbox for at home, despite its rating its not really loud enough for band practice.

That is because of the small speaker size, hooking it up to a decent cab will make it noticeable louder and fuller sounding.

I do love its sound, posted another thread about what cabs to get for it. I would want to use it as a second amp with my ac30cc1 (single speaker version), wondering if a decent 100w 2*12" is enough or too much, i only run it clean gain at 9 oclock usually.
There are some things solid states do that tubes can't, which is stay clean and clear with tons of loops and delay, what you put in pedal-wise is usually what comes out.

[Ex Lion Tamer]

My practice amp is a tiny Yamaha THR10C. I love it to bits and I use it all the time.

[UlricvonCatalyst]

HH MA100 PA amp through a no-name 60s cab I picked up for pennies a few years ago. It's really, really great. Monstrously loud, though.

Can't beat the charge of the green light brigade!

[leppie]

I think it's fair to say that I'm a fan of solid state amps myself. Really into hybrids as well. My current main amp is a Vox AC15VR and I love it to bits. In storage somewhere I also have an Marshall Mg15 with the spring reverb on it and it's never been an amp I've had problems with sound wise ether despite it's reputation by tone obsessives. If anything, it's the type of amp where I wonder what it could really do if it didn't have such a low end speaker in it.

While it seems that amp companies these days for their mid price range look at making low powered or just cheap all valve amps but I wonder how much of that is really a good idea and if many amps like them will last that well once the hype has truly died down. Something I like about amps like the Vox VR series and also what Orange are doing with the Crush Pro series is that if give it the right cab and speaker, you can get a good working amp that doesn't have the cost of a high end valve but nether the limitations of the low cost and powered versions ether. Thinking about it like this makes me miss my old college gigging amp, a 100 watt Marshall AVT.

Since Orange were the 1st to start the small amp trend with the Tiny Terror though, what's to say the Crush Pro can't do the same thing in the future as well.

Btw, for the record the worst non tiny practice amp I ever owned was a Peavey Valve King. Go figure!

[s_mcsleazy]

the ammount some of us talk about HH electronic gear, we should really start a thread on it.

[stevejamsecono]

Oh there were loads of them back in the day, believe me. Some great ones. I've always wished you could get those amps here so I could cop some of the 70s UK punk record sounds, but sadly no dice, and the solid state Peaveys from here around the same time sound not nearly as awesome... sigh

[JazzBlaster]

Yeah, all the HH thread did was make us American guys jealous....

[tdbajus]

Yeah, all the HH thread did was make us American guys jealous....

That's what Daniel Ash uses, right? Been looking for one of those for quite a while. Never even seen one. Sigh.

[stevejamsecono]

Yep. He still does to my knowledge. Also Stuart Adamson from the Skids/Big Country, John McGoech in the early Magazine Days, X-Ray Spex, Buzzcocks, Undertones, T-Rex, a bevy of cool sounding tones to be had. Some of them even have the international voltage switchers on them too, but seeing one here is like spotting a Unicorn.

Siiiiigh

[Kestrel-]

I find myself using my SS amps more than my tube amps, especially for home use. The venerable Vox Pathfinder 15R, and the ZT Lunchbox are my faves. Although it's not a well liked amp, I also like the massive clean tones I can get from the Fender Frontman 212R (yeah, the drive channel sucks ass, but the clean channel is where it's at).

[emanon313]

This one hasn't come up in this thread yet:


Seriously, it really sounds good. The clean tone is nice and full, great reverb, and I get a great tone out of the lead channel on occasion (still trying to get that figured out...)

That green vinyl looks much better than the grey carpet that it came with. I bought one new (the most I had spent on any gear until a year or so later when I bought the Jag I still play for roughly the same amount) but later traded it for a pile of pedals. I've owned all sorts of tube amps since, but secretly I've always sort of missed the M-80. I have recorded evidence somewhere of an awesome barely overdriven tone I got out of it. I don't have the luxury of hoarding amps anymore, but I admit I'd consider buying another M-80 for the right price.

[badpun]

I've got what seems to be the requisite Pathfinder 15r and an old 89' Peavey Bandit 112 with the scorpion speaker. I haven't bothered with tube amps really since i'm a bedroom player and a sporadic one at that Anyone got any recommendations on settings for the pathfinder? still trying to work my way around that amp

[lboorse2]

Pathfinder 15r player here too. I use it in the bedroom -- nothing too loud. I've found the trick is to use the "Boost" button or the Gain, but never both together. If I've got the Boost on, I turn the gain down to 9 o'clock or lower. If I want to crank the gain for some heavy crunch, the boost needs to go off or it sounds very unnatural. These are really wonderful little practice amps. How they get that little 8" speaker to sound so deep and full, I'll never know.

And, they get loud too... which is baffling. I don't know if they could hang with a drummer (maybe in some cases in a small space), but they're surprisingly loud.

[unvs]

I used a solid state SUNN for my punk band for a long time. REally nice gainy tones!