Welcome back to the intheblues Tone Podcast for August 1 (released on August 3), 2024. This will cover the death of the QUALITY and affordable solid-state amplifiers, the New Fender Tone Master ’59 Bassman, and how digital modeling amps are way too expensive.
LINKS TO GEAR:
My Three Favorite Solid State Amps on Guitar Center (used)
► Peavey Bandit 112 – https://guitar-center.pxf.io/9g5Bm3
► Tech 21 Trademark – https://guitar-center.pxf.io/jrojN0
► Fender Princeton 112 – https://guitar-center.pxf.io/k0BPyd
► Fender ’59 Bassman Tone Master – https://sweetwater.sjv.io/1rqKXm
Watch More Like This:
► https://youtu.be/LAt8rGv0gZU?si=fzOjShJb_I1Wso-g
► https://youtu.be/dkxiQ9kMX7I?si=SCtqOdK_bQcW6ipg
🇺🇸🇦🇺🇬🇧🎸Get the best prices on guitar gear below! 🇺🇸🇦🇺🇬🇧🌎🎸
🛒 Sweetwater Crazy Good Deals – https://imp.i114863.net/dealzone
🛒 Guitar Center Massive Discounts – https://guitar-center.pxf.io/gbQbDv
🛒 Thomann’s Guitar Bargain-Zone – https://bit.ly/3TEf7iR
🛒 Sky Music, Australia Guitar Bargains – https://bit.ly/3MGLtby
🛒 Artist Guitars – https://bit.ly/40E8WPG
🛒 Best Used Guitars on Reverb – https://tidd.ly/4dCxOxl
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Video Chapters
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00:00 – Channel Updates, New Series, and Viewers Comments
02:42 – Fender Tone Master ’59 Bassman
07:05 – Death of the Solid State Amp
13:18 – What Killed the Solid State Amplifier?
17:07 – Final Messages
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A great video. Very informative. Thank you.
Fender are overpriced, but especially their Tonemaster series. I won’t be bothering with them.
Digital modelling is there for free in GarageBand, and it is good. However, it misses the point of having an amp. I am old ,and have a valve Marshall, because that was my generation aspired to. But I seldom use it. I have more modern analogue SS Marshalls that sound like 70s/80s SS Marshalls, and use them more. BUT, 35 years ago I discovered Peavey SS, and that is really my dream sound, so that is what I usually play through. Especially the Renowns, which are like double Bandits; headroom in any imaginable situation, and the clean and dirty channels jumped by default, so you can get creamy overdrive that makes classic valve amps sound cheap and rough. Mind you, I am strong as well as old, Renowns are not for the physically frail!
Valvestate 65 still works, just changed the preamp tube a few months back. still had the original tube in it.
I have 4 Award Session amps including a later Blues Baby 45. I have a Fender Studio 85 and an HH Performer 150 watt monster all going strong. The only valve amps I have is 2 Rat Amp 5 watters that are fantastic. All have great speakers in. I also have access to a Classic 30 and a Blues Deluxe both of which have have to cranked to get the best out of them. Which is the best? Depends how strong your back is…haha.
You can literally get a used Boss Gt1000 or Line 6 Helix (now owned by Yamaha) AND a Boss Katana Artist MKII for LESS than the cost of the Fender.
I have the Helix Rack and two Katanas running in stereo. Here's a kicker, you can get the Katana MKI's for DIRT CHEAP and just use them for the power amp and speaker by hooking your pedal board up to the "Return" of the Send/Return on the back of the amp. If you're on a budget and you want a stereo 100 watt rig (per side), get the Boss GT-100 and two MKI Katanas 100 watt.
You can get that setup in the US for around 500 to 600 bucks. And the Boss GT-100 is still a BADASS guitar processor. I know, I've owned two of them.
The older you get, the lighter the amp.
Finally to hear someone mention insane pricing that's been going on. Guitar manufacturers have been pushing the prices up insanely over the last few years and it seems like it went unnoticed. Sure, there are a lot of great affordable stuff out there, but for the "real" name on the headstock I feel you have to pay more money than ever and without any actual improvement of the product. Companies are selling lifestyle not gear.
Do you think the fender champion 100 is a good amp? I was thinking about getting one as a backup amp to my '96 blues deluxe.
::scratching head::
Wait.
Boss makes a really good SS amp and they’re affordable.
Or am I misunderstanding the aim of this video?
Most solid state amps are built on the cheap including the Peavey bandit otherwise we'd had nothing to play when we was kids, nothing wrong with boss katanas , great solid state amps, i played in a band with a guy that had a Roland jc
40 the clean was wimpy and the driver was awful, its all subjective, i have a carlsbro stingray from the seventies well built far better than the Roland but all the caps need replacing which would cost more than the amp is worth
You absolutely right about the speaker, quilter make quality solid state perhaps you could review one
Surface mount components ….yuk!
What's wrong with affordable tube amps? Why would you buy that garbage when you can buy a vintage tube amp for that, or even go the self sufficient route and buy a tube amp kit for that or less and build it your self or with a friend?
In 30 years that new fender will be broken and unusable. The only think they will good for is to gut the Chassis and build a 5F4 if you want a loud and a 5E3 if you play small clubs.
In the mid 80's I used a Peavey Backstage Plus, nastiest crunch tone around.
HIWATT and Orange both make great solid state amplifiers that sound fantastic.
If Fender was selling these for $800, they would possibly be a decent deal. At basically double that….. Pass.
Orange Crush, Quilter, Laney, used Peavey… Still lots of options. But I get your point, quality SS used to be dirt cheap and now people have discovered how good they can be. I blame Josh Homme.😅
I'd love to hear your opinion on Quilter amps! The best SS amp ever.
I got a Peavy 2×100 Valve King so heavy it’s on wheels ,talk about sound quality it has it ,it will also clear the bears & coyotes out in a 10 k radius when cranked up ,but I have a studio full of some great solid state amps Fender , Orange , Blackstar, Boss ,Hughes & Kettner
Award Session Blues Baby. Great sounding analogue combo available for under £500.
I suppose it all depends on what one is trying to accomplish but I really like my Fender Champion 100. Takes pedals very well.
Agreed. I bought a marshall code 25. Sounded good in the shop with a million different effects. But I always struggled to get a good sound out of it. It really is horrible. I got a simple valve amp in the end (Laney). Easy to get a good sound and I use pedals in front. So much better
What about the Laney Ironheart? Know it's Solid Hybrid, but have you considered trying it out? Or, too much "metal" amp? First time time I heard it and found out about its features/options, I was sold, I wanted one. But then I didn't like it was too much directed towards metal music.
Had a tone master – didn’t overly like it and offloaded it – no where near as good as my Fender pro jnr. But of all my many amps – incl von 10, Marshal der 40, delta blues, Woogie- all great amps for a sweet clean tone fantastic with pedals and little money – esp great for recording country-rock/ fol-rock I can’t beat my Artist 12 watt – $450.
Quilter. Doesn’t Laney have a new line of SS amps? Another amp that should be brought back is the Vox 15R.
I've been using a Blackstar but always take my Peavey Silver Stripe Bandit as a backup. I know it's going to work and sound good.
Weird. It looks great and it's not as heavy but it's just one of the amp models that is in the Fender Tonemaster floor thing….if it had all of them (and the effects) then it might be a goer but not like this. Crazy.
Shall stick with my Stomp and a few pedals and Roland Jazz Chorus thanks!
And wish I still had my Peavey Combo from the 80/90's…I think it was 65W with 2×12" but can't seem to even find what it was. Great solid state amp.
1500 for a bunch of plastic knobs and components
Says that “Modern solid state amps suck” meanwhile has a Kemper in the background
Those Peavey Bandits were amazing. Even the reverb was drippy with a clean sound. I only gig with solid state amps these days. Roland JC40, Boss Katana 100, and a Fishman Loudbox Artist. Just remember to roll back that treble on the Roland and crank the bass so it's not so ice pick sounding
I still have my Peavey Blazer 158, what a great little amp. I got it new in 1995 and never had a single issue, a really good and affordable piece of gear.
Quilter
My Quilter Aviator Cub UK kicks like a classic English tube amp, and takes pedals like a dream (every bit as well as my Marshall 1974X did, but no tube maintenance and it's light).
9:57 🤔 I don't understand, my friend has a Katana, I used it a lot of times and every time the tone was nice, I just used the clean channel, set the eq to flat, set the presence to zero, plugged my pedals and that was it, nice tone 🤷🏼♀️ could you explain what was the difficulty?
I've often struggled to hear the difference between tube and analog solid state. The tubes do have a rounder bottom end and (depending on saturation) will react and squish in a certain way. But many of the higher-gain, higher-wattage tube amps are designed NOT to do that and so the difference there becomes very minor. But I find I can ALWAYS hear and feel a difference between analog and digital. The A/D > D/A conversions create latency and artifacting in the high end that is tell-tale.
"Solid state amplifiers need to come back"
Orange has done it. I've been using the super crush 100 exclusively since trying one in 2021. The CR35RT is also a really great light small combo with the same FET all-analog preamp style as the bigger amps. They sound great.
I happily played a 1983 built Peavey Bandit 65 for many years. The saturation feature worked well for me, making it a very versatile amp for the Top 40 pop music I was playing at the time.
Bought a Blackstar id 100 head which is solid state and the matching 4×12 cab for 1000 dollars new in Canada 4 years ago. does everything i need and still sounds great. Is it a jcm 800? not a chance but has everything i need at 65 years old.
I’ve got a sliver strip Peavey Bandit and Supreme that I swapped the op-amps to NE5532s which helped the noise floor and trans-tube tone immensely that I would never ever part with.
I'm electrical engineer and I know that technology is better and better each time. I know we need pushing forward and having better products. As weekender musician I know that some old stuff, solid state or tube are more reliable. Not all new things have a great quality control sadly…
Every now and then there's that H&K Black Spirit 200 that calls out to me. But apartment dwelling in a crowded city and all that. So the EHX 5mm is PLENTY already. My recent crazy idea is to use a Bluetooth speaker(s), with a multi effects unit. It sounds a bit clinical, but living spaces is s real premium.
Thanks Shane for exploring this solid state idea.
I still use a red stripe Bandit. All other amps have come and gone but the Bandit will stay.
My latest fad is a Nux Amp Academy into a HeadRush FR-112. Fun but I am always trying to achieve the Bandit tone with it. 😁
Quilter, hands down, IS the BEST solid-state amp around. Their clean sound is wonderful. I prefer to have a clean platform with pedals, and the Quilter reigns supreme….I haven't explored their amps that have drive capabilities, so I can't speak to that. But if you want pure, natural, fat and warm cleans, Quilter is a fine option!