Not really the same thing. Old tech is an antique sort of thing. New tubes are going to become very hard and expensive to come by.
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Ever price a handmade boutique tube? They are not much less and some are even more. Not to mention the crazy price people will pay for old Mullards and stuff. But I am no audiophool So it’s $15 tubes for me.
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What we will probably see is the end of tube amps from the big manufactures like Fender, Mesa, Marshall, Orange, etc. If they can't get the tubes they need, they will hype the market with something else.
Back at the turn of the century I bought my first guitar amp, a solidstate Tech21 Trademark 60. The clean side was very nice and chimey, but the distortion side I was not as impressed with, kind of buzzy really. I sold it to a customer of mine at the photo lab and bought a 7ender Hot Rod Deluxe. It was an okay amp but was not much different than the Tech21, except that it was tubes, not solidstate. I sold that and found a Mesa DC-2 Combo that I bought. Fantastic amp, just what the doctor ordered until the next Dr. ordered me an early '70s Princeton Reverb Amp that had a Celestion G12M-70 driver in it.
Out with the Mesa (it went to a good friend of mine who still has it) Eventually, I sold the Princeton Reverb Amp to my same friend and bought my next tube amp, a 1962 7ender Concert Amp with 4-10" speakers (the precursor to the Super Reverb). Loved that amp but didn't love moving it around, so off it went back to a guy who had owned it in the '90s. My last tube amp was a Swart STR-Tremolo that was great and surprisingly loud for a 5 watt single-ended amp. But, a couple years ago I decided I wanted no more electric guitar stuff, so I sold off my PRS Custom 24 and my friend who has the Mesa and Princeton Reverb Amp bought the Swart from me.
So my guitar amp history was a solidstate amp first, then a succession of tube amps.
It's nice to believe this is true, but it's not. It costs a lot to build a factory, and at some point the amount you can charge times the volume you can sell at that price point can be not enough. And even if it is enough for some production, from a practical point of view, for most people they could be unobtainable due to expense. How I wish I hadn't broken that box full of 1960s Mullards when moving! My old boss has about 40,000 tubes from the 1930s-60s so he is potentially sitting on a (fragile) gold mine!
Of the multiple threads on tubes I've read on here in the last 2 days, this one is my favorite.
This thread is the 'tube amp' of tube threads, the others are all 'solid state amp' or 'plug in' in comparison.
This thread is the 'tube amp' of tube threads, the others are all 'solid state amp' or 'plug in' in comparison.
My first two bass amps and first guitar amp (a tiny 10W affair) were solid-state. I then ended up with a 300W Trace Elliot all solid-state for loud stuff, tube amps for guitar and bass on the side which I gigged. During a hiatus in gigging the tube amps went as I realised I was never going to want to shift them around again. I wouldn't mind a tube amp for guitar and/or bass into an appropriate cab at low volumes in my music room. Maybe I've missed my chance. I do have a couple of preamps with 12AX7s I will need to treat with more care now. Plus I do have three generic 12AX7s in stock. The Princeton would be my holy grail for guitar, though.
I’m pretty sure the Tubes will be here forever…
A few weeks ago I was in my favorite used gear store and I noticed a late model VOX AC15 ("C1" made in China) at a great price. I usually play some guitar in my band and an AC15 has always been on my bucket list. Having owned vintage amps over the years and tired of the worry and cost to maintain them as well the concern of using them for gigs. I picked up a late model Fender Champ X2, modeling amp with a 15w tube power side as a "low maintenance" alternative. While it was OK, I was never really happy with my sound. I traded it in on the AC15 and haven't looked back. While the "C1" model is not the hand wired British classic AC15 it still sounds great. I've got an older VOX AC30VT modeler in the studio I use clean for acoustic work, it can't touch AC15 tones.
My buddy, a machinist used to work at a place that specialized in making parts for classic Ferrari's, we can only hope that tube tech doesn't go that route. I'd like to think that the industry morph's into a niche market and not an ultra high end only product. Think Moss motors for MG parts.
My buddy, a machinist used to work at a place that specialized in making parts for classic Ferrari's, we can only hope that tube tech doesn't go that route. I'd like to think that the industry morph's into a niche market and not an ultra high end only product. Think Moss motors for MG parts.
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I have both but I mainly gig with my SS (Class D) stuff.
JJ is Slovakia, though they bought much of their early equipment and got part of their tube brand name from a Czech company (Tesla).
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