What would you say is the difference in tone between tube and solid states?

[seamonkey]

Which SS?
If you talk pro audio FOH SS - they are transparent and clean. Warm in = Warm out but louder. If a Guitar or Bass on stage has a tube amp it's still being reproduced through a SS to the audience. Every top touring bands FOH, and sound companies, and recording studios use SS. For many good reasons. Sound quality being the utmost importance.

Many old myths still fly around about SS amps built 40 years ago. Time has moved on for SS, just like for all SS devices, they have greatly improved.

Tube amps haven't changed. They can't, if they're designed for MI use otherwise nobody would buy them if they improved and didn't sound familiar. MI Amps is the last industry to be using quantity of tubes. It's not true that foreign military's are big users. Even they have progressed.

Modeling technology is duplicating tube sound and much more. Measurements, Blind and null testing are proving this. It's happening.

 

[johnk_10]

Wh
Modeling technology is duplicating tube sound and much more. Measurements, Blind and null testing are proving this. It's happening.

maybe for you it is.

 

[NecroticImbecil]

As we all know, newer is better, and all that matters sonically is how an amplifier's specs look.

 

[topcat2069]

I kinda like the hybrid approach, tube pre-amp and solid state power amp. The tube pre can "soften" the attack of the input signal and the solid state power amp can control the speaker tighter (at least to my ears).

YMMV

 

[LouBass]

I'm a clod. Tubes sound great but they don't like to be dropped. Did I mention that I'm a clod?

 

[DeluxeRed]

...Modeling technology is duplicating tube sound and much more. Measurements, Blind and null testing are proving this. It's happening.

And it'll feel like internet sex...

I kinda like the hybrid approach, tube pre-amp and solid state power amp. The tube pre can "soften" the attack of the input signal and the solid state power amp can control the speaker tighter (at least to my ears). YMMV

I loved my hybrid for many years, but there's a pushback from the all-tube that my hybrid doesn't have--as much a feel thing as a tone thing. If I may suggest, if you like the hybrid, try getting some hours on an all-tube (if you haven't). It really opened my eyes.

 

[seamonkey]

And it'll feel like internet sex...

The extent of your sexual experience has nothing to do with it.

Good sound is good sound and DSP plugins can bring it on. Live and studio use is prevalent. If it's not for you - stay away. Players with open minds and ears may want to try them out.

 

[DeluxeRed]

The extent of your sexual experience has nothing to do with it.

Good sound is good sound and DSP plugins can bring it on. Live and studio use is prevalent. If it's not for you - stay away. Players with open minds and ears may want to try them out.

It's not the "sound" I'm talking about. There's more to it than sound. You might as well be using MIDI keyboards to do your bass parts. Players who can feel it might want to try tubes--there's a reason that that's what the plugins are trying to emulate.

 

[johnk_10]

Good sound is good sound and DSP plugins can bring it on. Live and studio use is prevalent. Players with open minds and ears may want to try them out.

correction - "Players with open minds and clogged ears may want to try them out."

 

[seamonkey]

It's not the "sound" I'm talking about. There's more to it than sound. You might as well be using MIDI keyboards to do your bass parts. Players who can feel it might want to try tubes--there's a reason that that's what the plugins are trying to emulate.

That's a starting point - prove they can sound like what's out there. Now they can go farther, do more, open the pallet up. The feels is there. They are sensitive to dynamics - if you want the turned on.

 

[stflbn]

And solid state amps last forever with no maintenance? Cool.

Look at many of the old Peavey solid state bass amps from the 80's and 90's that are still rock solid today without any attention vs Tube amps from that same day with the same amount of gigging and lack of attention/maintenance.

 

[topcat2069]

I loved my hybrid for many years, but there's a pushback from the all-tube that my hybrid doesn't have--as much a feel thing as a tone thing. If I may suggest, if you like the hybrid, try getting some hours on an all-tube (if you haven't). It really opened my eyes.

My 1st amp was an Ampeg B15 N, second was a Marshal Major then 2 or so Fenders (Showman and Dual Showman) and back To the B15 N twice...and that was only my first decade.. I've played through Many All Tube and Many All Solid State Heads through so many speaker combinations that I can't remember any but the best. But as far as I can recall.... the "feel" comes from the speakers...... try a Cerwin Vega folded horn topped with a 2X15" ... now that's push.

What really opened my eyes was not having a roadie.

(I hope I don't come off as too much of a wise ass)BTW I'm 58

 

[johnk_10]

But as far as I can recall.... the "feel" comes from the speakers......

yes, IMO, some of the feel comes from the speakers, but ALOT comes from the head. i've tried the same cab with alot of different heads many times, and they all FEEL alot different, with the 100% tube heads having the most sensitive response.

 

[kdogg]

Many old myths still fly around about SS amps built 40 years ago. Time has moved on for SS, just like for all SS devices, they have greatly improved.

+1

Today's solid state bass amplifiers are not the prone to unpleasant clipping, sterile beasts of yore. There are a plethora of well designed solid state bass amplifiers that have no trouble producing the warmth and punch of their all tube brethren. IMHO, the differences in tone can be chalked up to differences in design and manufacture. It's like asking what the tonal differences between Mesa Boogie and Gallien Krueger are. Differences to be sure. Is one "better" than the other? Totally subjective.

Using a sansamp bass driver pedal in front of my old SVT 4Pro, I could make it sound almost identical to my SVT Classic through the same cabinet.

Don't get me wrong. I love tube amps! I've owned the CL, VR, V4, and an old SVT HD "skunkworks" head. I'm just saying, to state that tube amps are warmer, punchier, and provide greater texture and feel is a bit of an overstatement these days. This may have been true in the past, but I think todays solid states hold their own and then some. YMMV

 

[johnk_10]

improved-yes, but for me, SS amps haven't gotten there yet. maybe someday.

 

[topcat2069]

yes, IMO, some of the feel comes from the speakers, but ALOT comes from the head. i've tried the same cab with alot of different heads many times, and they all FEEL alot different, with the 100% tube heads having the most sensitive response.

Does that come from the pre amp or the power amp...?

"My" experience (and I emphasize "MY"), playing the music that I've played, is: Tube amps sound better played loud but have "sloppy" speaker control, Hy-breds sound good at most volumes but color the sound of the Bass and SS let's me hear the sound of whichever Bass I'm playing clearer (as in plugging direct into the board in a studio). Again depending on the speakers I'm using.

If I want compression I'll use a compressor, if I want overdrive I'll use an overdrive unit. I like the Bass I'm playing to sound like the Bass I'm playing ..not the Amp I'm playing it through.

You may think that the amp is "part" of the instrument like a guitar player or you may just want to "monitor" the sound of your Bass like a keyboard player..... it doesn't matter as long as you're happy when you're playing and the audience is digging it.

 

[johnk_10]

Does that come from the pre amp or the power amp...?

not "OR".
Both!

 

[topcat2069]

not "OR".
Both!

OK...: so you (like most guitar players) feel the amp is part of the instrument .... so be it...

 

[johnk_10]

OK...: so you (like most guitar players) feel the amp is part of the instrument .... so be it...

yes, i feel that everything in the chain is part of the instrument, but tube amps can sound equally as transparent. and i've never heard a SS amp without color either.

 

[sloasdaylight]

To me, to answer the question from my experience, I would say that Tube amps are generally warmer, with a bit more rounded edges and less bite than SS amps, but also a little less...clean, I guess I could say, though that's not really an accurate word to use. To me, using a SS amp, like a GK, seems to have better articulation and punch to it than a tube amp does, while being a bit colder if you will, when compared to the tube's natural warmth.

Personally I prefer the SS style amps because it's easier, at least for me to score the mid range gut punch that I like to get. Now granted my Bongo helps with that, but even still, taking my bongo in and playing the exact same settings through my buddy's old Ampeg head (dunno which one though, CL I think, i need to ask) which is tube, and my Hartke, which is primarily Solid state, even with comparable EQs on the amps, I still get a punchier more aggressive sound from the Hartke, so that's why I play SS amps at the moment.

Also re: topcat2069: I too think that everything that happens before the audience hears your sound is a part of the instrument and yourself. The cab you use, the head you use, the effects you use, the cables, all of it is just as important imo as the instrument itself and the technique you use to make sure the audience hears what you want them to.