| Solid State vs. Tube tone [message #17566] |
Wed, 17 October 2012 21:38  |
ReverbJoe
Messages: 37
Registered: October 2012
|
Member |
|
|
|
I recently started messing around with my (Solid State)Kustom 150 combo and I really like it. But my friend says that Solid State amps tend to sound bad when you raise the volume compared to tube amps. Do any of you have this problem with your Solid State Kustoms? Does it make a difference? What do you do to fix it?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Re: Solid State vs. Tube tone [message #17574 is a reply to message #17572] |
Thu, 18 October 2012 12:26  |
pleat
Messages: 1454
Registered: June 2004
Location: Belding, Mi
|
Senior Member |
|
|
I've owned a couple of modeling amps that have all the effects of a processor pedal and they come close to duplicating a lot of tones, but I've always came back to a seperate processor pedal and a kustom amp for a couple of reasons. The new modeling amps, you always have to haul the amp to practice or a jam session, and if the amp should fail, you've lost all your patches and on a gig your cooked, and may have to finish the gig with no effects using the PA or the bass players amp. Seperate amp and effects, if your amp should fail, you still have your processor pedal or stomp boxs to get you into the PA or another amp and can finish a gig. Tube amps you have a clean and crunch channel and it limits me to two basic sounds and running a processor pedal in the clean channel colors the sound from a more transparent tone I'm after. Another issue, I'm not into spending money on replacing tubes. Tube amps never have the same sound over time as tubes get old. Solid state amps in general always sound the same. Again it boils down to the type of music your band covers and what you like to hear as good tone.
pleat
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Re: Solid State vs. Tube tone [message #17616 is a reply to message #17566] |
Sun, 28 October 2012 08:23 |
Kochens
Messages: 80
Registered: April 2009
Location: Denmark
|
Member |
|
|
@Kustom Bart, I use the Gibson at home. It is a master-volume amp, with 2 channels which can be mixed together and sounds pretty good. I use a Trace Elliot Bonneville 50Watt tube amp class A-B
for gigging. This is a monster-sounding amp. It is a Soldano Slo clone.But its weight are killing me, I hate to carry it on stairs. I have no use for 100 Watt tube amps.
[Updated on: Mon, 29 October 2012 09:12] Report message to a moderator |
|
|
|
| Re: Solid State vs. Tube tone [message #17617 is a reply to message #17616] |
Sun, 28 October 2012 14:43 |
Kustom_Bart
Messages: 601
Registered: October 2010
Location: Greenville, MichiGUN
|
Senior Member |
|
|
The SLO is a great head. I know Gary Moore used one of those a 70's Marshall and a 80's Marshall and another head for his setup. All great tonal quality heads for sure, but all different and that is what was cool. He used each one in a different way.
The big head that I have was a R&D head and was originally a 120W master volume head with reverb with two 6550 power tubes. It now has four 6550 power tubes and if 240W on high, 120W on medium, and 85W on low. However the breakup and best tone is on the 240W setting, but you have to keep the volume on 2 on everything, it has a British channel and American channel. The American channel is a Fender clean channel, but breaks up enough to be a great blues sound, but the other channel is just crazy overdrive.
here's a pic of it, http://www.rissonamplifiers.com/
[Updated on: Fri, 01 March 2013 09:36] Report message to a moderator |
|
|
|
|
|
| Re: Solid State vs. Tube tone [message #17623 is a reply to message #17622] |
Tue, 30 October 2012 10:52 |
zedsalt
Messages: 65
Registered: March 2008
|
Member |
|
|
|
I would say that, again, it comes down to the kind of tone you're aiming for...in this context, the reason you like the low output pickups. Some players like them for their warmth and the way they let you hear the wood (gotta love the colorful means we've come up with to describe indescribables) in clean signal chains; some like them for how richly their signal reacts to effects. Both are a result of the greater amount of color lower output pickups have, how much more they change the sound of the vibrating strings and the instrument's body material. Even within those categories, there's a great range of tones and reasons folks find them desirable or undesirable. Generally speaking, solid state has a bit less pronounced effect...but there are plenty of solid state amps that have very distinct coloring of their own, tons of it, and we're in a forum geared toward a manufacturer that's world renown for tons of unique character. Are you going to like that more on its own, with very little added by a dialed-back high output pickup/set of pickups or will you find that it's a combination of pickup(s) and amp colorings that gives you your "holy grail" tone? Even when we narrow it down to a relatively clean tonal range, there's an awfully vast array. This is one of many reasons I believe we HAVE TO support brick-and-mortar music stores. Generations of musicians have had the benefit of experimentation, comparison, etc. in shaping their unique instrumental voices; we do ourselves and coming generations a great disservice if we allow that to be lost.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Re: Solid State vs. Tube tone [message #18243 is a reply to message #17566] |
Tue, 19 February 2013 19:42 |
trfan
Messages: 6
Registered: February 2013
Location: NY
|
Junior Member |
|
|
|
I'm sure I'm not alone but as a tube amp owner, I recently got a hankering for an old Kustom amp, the kind that I would see being used by the local bands I saw while in high school in the early `70's. Even then, I knew Kustom amps were different from the rest. How could that tuck and roll not be the coolest?? Couldn't afford one then but now have a little more "play money"! So, I found a partially working 1969 K200B-1 in good cosmetic shape and bought it for about $100.00 as a project. Knowing nothing of serious electronics, all I could do was clean the inside (it was a mess). When I opened it up I thought, where's all the stuff? SS amps are pretty bare inside. Lots of empty space!! I also replaced some very deteriorated wires, swapped out the 2 prong power cord for a proper 3 prong (thanks to info gained from this forum) and replaced the old soldered-in pigtail fuse with a more modern fuse holder (previous owner had totally bypassed the fuse!). Then I took it to an amp tech for the serious work and he replaced a few transistors and such and pronounced it ALIVE again for a grand total of $150.00! Another piece of rock and roll history back in the ring for another swing! Now the moment I was anxious to see; how does this SS amp sound compared to my Marshall calss 5, Marshall haze 15 and Egnater Tweaker? My previous experience with an old Gibson GSS 100 SS amp was not good but what did I know about anything in 1975? So I powered up the Kustom through a marshall cab and armed with an old strat, I was amazed at the beautiful clean sound. If I dug in a bit, I got a nice "just on the edge of breaking up" sound with the volume at about noon or a little less. The mids were solid and and the tone was full! Then I hit it with an old TS-9 set about half way and playing a humbucker equiped guitar, was rewarded with a great crunch that amazed me! Honestly, to me, it sounded like a el84 powered amp but with it's own unique sound as well. So, don't buy into the idea that a SS amp can't sound equally as good as a tube job. I did, now I don't.
|
|
|
|
| Re: Solid State vs. Tube tone [message #18244 is a reply to message #17566] |
Tue, 19 February 2013 20:58 |
chicagobill
Messages: 2005
Registered: April 2003
|
Senior Member |
|
|
Welcome to the place. Your story is similar to a lot of us here. It doesn't matter how long it took to get here, as long as you got here.
An amp is only as good as what you play through it, so in my case they're not that good. There is nothing really wrong with either technology tube or solid state, they are just different and serve different purposes.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Re: Solid State vs. Tube tone [message #18251 is a reply to message #17566] |
Wed, 20 February 2013 09:35 |
stevem
Messages: 4758
Registered: June 2004
Location: NY
|
Senior Member |
|
|
trfan, I was happy to get your amp back up and running for you and since you are driving it thru a 16 ohm driver you are able to push it into pumping out some crunch tones that I am fond of too from these amps.
One thing to keep in mind when driving Kustoms with a stomp box is that if you exceed 1 volt of input signal with it you can pop the first gain stage transistor.
To not have this happen just make sure that with whatever straight in volume(clean volume) you use make sure that your stomp box added volume is no louder.
To do this that means you will have to back down the volume control on the guitar for clean sounds, and crank it up while kicking the stomp box on for boost and distortion.
If need be you can add a treble bleed cap and resistor onto the guitars volume control so that high end/treble setting is not lost when you back down the volume control.
[Updated on: Wed, 20 February 2013 09:35] Report message to a moderator |
|
|
|
|
|
VintageKustom.com
Search
Help
Members
Register
Login
Home
]