High Power Solid State Amplifiers . . . . Discuss

[Anonymous]

I don't understand why you needed so much volume out of your onstage rig. When I was playing in the 80s, we were playing for 500-2000 per night and at larger venues, up to 5,000. I was playing through modded 100 watt Marshalls with Duncan convertibles running effects and lots of cabs. I couldn't turn my Marshall's master volume much above 3 or 4 before the sound guy would start complaining. My cabs were mic'd through the PAs at the venues, which provided as much clean power as needed and no one ever complained about not being able to hear my guitars. I could hear myself and the other guitar player through the cabs behind us and the monitors in front. I have no idea why you were blowing up amps unless you were cranking non-master volume Marshalls to get the dirt you needed, but I wouldn't see how power amps would help that - you'd still need to crank the amp to get the tone...

Steve

 

[Anonymous]

As for mic'ing . . . . I refused to let the rig be relegated to playing through a POS wedge on stage. We would only put the bare minimum through the PA and let the guitars blast through the venue from the stage. Not unheard of for many thrash bands and believe me, people in the back of the room had no issue hearing the guitars from the stage alone.

Ok... I guess we were playing places with far better PAs because every one I ever dealt with was awesome and far more than a POS wedge on the stage. With all the guitar firepower you were running though, I can't imagine the live sound of your whole band was very good or even sounding. The worst live mixes I ever heard were from bands where the guitarists kept turning up the amps and screwing up the balance of the band mix...

Steve

 

[Racerxrated]

It depends what you are using it for? If you are running a pre (triaxis, quad, engl, etc...) a tube power amp is a must have. I ran an ADA rig and later a Triaxis, doing exactly what you are describing. I started with a ss power amp and thought that I had a good tone. Then I bought a tube power amp and it was night and day, the tube amp just killed it in every regard. With that said, if you are running your effects w/d/w or split, w/d, then I can see running ss for the delays. To your point though, the best live tone that I have ever heard was Eddie's and he uses ss amps for his effects, so there must be something to it.

I actually tried the pre through several tube amps and was not impressed compared to what I could get from the ss amps. As I stated in my original post, having all that power made the guitar scream. Bottom had 10X the punch of a tube amp and was much more defined. Felt like getting kicked in the chest every time you thumped a string. No tube amp ever gave me that kind of attack, depth and clarity.

At the time I was using this rig for everything. I was playing in a thrash metal band with speed of light timing\meter changes, high speed skips and was very difficult guitar playing to say the least. Our theory was, you only get one shot to get it right so we practiced with the same rigs we played out with.

As for mic'ing . . . . I refused to let the rig be relegated to playing through a POS wedge on stage. We would only put the bare minimum through the PA and let the guitars blast through the venue from the stage. Not unheard of for many thrash bands and believe me, people in the back of the room had no issue hearing the guitars from the stage alone. It wasn't till much later that I would use a TS Power Soak on one of my cabs and let the soundman mic up that cab. Once I started doing that I shrunk the rig down to what I have today which is 4 1960 B cabs.

Now I'm gonna add this little tidbit of information to this mix, since that time I've played with quite a few other guitar players who have used great tube heads (Egg, Mesa, Marshall etc.) in a practice situation and nearly all of them praise my guitar tone as being one of kind and "Cuts like a knife". Several have had a lot of trouble cutting through while playing next to me and just seem to get swallowed up in the mix. Since I switched to ss I've honestly got to say, I've not had that problem.

It's cool that you dig it. But MANY pros have talked about this subject, and to a man(what I've read at least) the ONLY SS amp that compares to a VHT or Mesa Tube power amp is the HH V800, which is what EVH, Steve Stevens and others used for their live tones for years. I'd like to hear how the Matrix power amps compare to the legendary V800.

 

[cecilbag]

I hope you have a roadie

 

[Lightninboy]

But MANY pros have talked about this subject, and to a man(what I've read at least) the ONLY SS amp that compares to a VHT or Mesa Tube power amp is the HH V800, which is what EVH, Steve Stevens and others used for their live tones for years. I'd like to hear how the Matrix power amps compare to the legendary V800.

Good enough that Steve stopped using the HH and went to the Matrix GT1000FX 2U. He's said his wet cabs now sound much more like his center dry cab

 

[mudf00t]

The older Rocktron Velocity 300 was actually a really great sounding and highly underrated power amp. Had great warmth and plenty of low end thumpy-ness of a good tube power amp.

I have one that powers my rack rig with my AX8. I agree.

 

[HellraiserJohnny]

Thank you all for your posts and replies, all of you have been very cool discussing this subject which I know is a hot topic of debate here on rig talk. I've looked up many of the tube amps mentioned in your responses and I do have to admit, many were out of my reach pricewise or no one in my crew knew of them at the time.

We did what we did "back in the day" and it worked for us. Today people gig with their Strat an amp the size of a pack a cigs and call it a night. We were a Metal band. Part of our success was we played every show BIG. 6 Marshall stacks - 2 Bass stacks and a huge double bass kit was part of our show and we took all that with us every night we played ( YES . . we had lots of roadies!). I think somewhere in all this people forgot that getting paid to play is SHOW BUSINESS. We did what we thought would WOW the audience. Yes there is nothing like being able to lean back in front of your guitar rig and let the wave hold you up. . . . I guess those days are over as well.

So we all know that you really don't make a lot of $$$$$ if all you do is play music for a living so my guys always helped me save money and get the most bang for the buck. Today there are an endless number of "boutique" amps out there for guys that have day jobs and lots of initials after their name in their email signatures, I'm not one of those. I do spend quite a bit of cash on music gear but most of these amps are well out of my reach (both then and now). I tried to keep the big $$$ where it counted, that's why I spent the big bucks on the Mesa Triax. Tube Pre amps rock, I wouldn't argue that point. I spent $400 on the PB II I bought in 1992. That amp still runs like a raped ape to this day and has given me 0 BS through years of road, studio and home use. I still think it's one of the best sounding SS amps out there (ok even if I throw in "for the $$$").

Next time I get to the music store I will look into some of the amps suggested in the posts here. Price will be a big deciding factor for me. I like the old used gear I've seen so far on sites like Reverb but I want to hear them in person. Again, I thank all of you for the great feedback, it has been a real pleasure reading your responses and I may have learned a thing or two in the process.

Keep this thread going!

HRJ