What would it take to get you back to primarily using a tube amp?

ZEN Amps

ZEN Amps

Well-known member
If you've moved to modellers and can't or won't be coaxed back, read no further.

For those that mostly use modellers but could see a way back to the old days, or still yearn for authentic tube tone, what features and innovations would you like to see? Outlandish ideas are fine, encouraged actually.

Let's work on the fun assumption that tube amp technology will move forward, incorporate new tech, push some boundaries and bridge the gap between amp and modellers (in terms of versatility and convenience).
 
I love my modelers, but I also have (4) 100w tube amps and a variety of cabinets that aren't going anywhere.

Modelling has come a long ways, but one of the other things that makes it appealing to me is that everything is in one package. Amp, cab, effects, in a very portable form factor.

If there was something like that in a 50w tube combo, it'd be an easy sell for me. H&K came kinda close with the coreblade/switchblade stuff, but I don't think the implementation was great. The Diezel VHX looks interesting. Something like that with some solid Marshall-esque tones in a 1x12 package would be a slam dunk to me. Probably qualifies as "outlandish", lol.

That's just me. A Marshall 2525C with 4CM to a Fractal FM9 is probably about as close as I'll be able to get with current products. Still way better than lugging around a half stack with a 10u rack and floorboard.

I'm eager to hear what others say.
 
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Are nano tubes considered tubes?? I’ve not played one but what BluGuitar is doing seems like a perfect compromise, “tube” power and feel in a super compact package. Throw an IR loader if you need to go direct, maybe a feature to bypass the preamp and load some amp models and I’d be as happy as a hog in shit
 
I've been doing the digital thing for the past year for live shows. Still love tube amps though. What I would love to see would be a two channel head with great cleans and a hot-rodded Marshall flavored dirty channel that didn't cost $3k.
 
I never left ... still gig with tubes. But I do rehearse with an Amp1, because it's easier to move around.

If there's anywhere left to innovate, I'd think size & weight. Perhaps in the vein of hybrid tube/solid state - y'know, less iron to move around.
 
SFW said:
I've been doing the digital thing for the past year for live shows. Still love tube amps though. What I would love to see would be a two channel head with great cleans and a hot-rodded Marshall flavored dirty channel that didn't cost $3k.
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Did you get your BE100 Deluxe yet? Did I miss your NAD?

What are your thoughts on it compared to your Splawn and EVH Stealth? I see it in your signature.
 
I have both and love both. Future tube amp buys will be the smaller footprint full-featured 20 watters. Little Sister is the first one to try (if I don't vacillate back to the PT v2). Even on the big stages anymore, it's just hard for me to drag out the big boys. Sound guys always pissed, and so is my back!
 
It's an interesting time in the evolution of amps really. Many guys have gone to modellers saying either they're happy with the sound, or happy enough that any shortcomings are worth the conveniences. Others still aren't happy with digital, particularly for home use or recording when size and instant access to a large array of sounds isn't required.

I've personally tried pretty much every digital solution out there. They range from terrible to pretty good, but for the life of me not one sounded and felt awesome. People I respect say differently, but if I'm not having a fun & satisfying experience playing the guitar then times are grim indeed.

Was going to ask about innovations in amp tech, might start a new thread.
 
I was a tube amp guy for years then went to modeling for like 10 years and back to tubes again. Here are the things that would keep me in the tube realm forever:

- Auto biasing feature
- Components become lighter
- Tubes last longer
- External bias points
- Setup like JJ Jr. Can turn on without speaker load, Has emulated line out for recording, etc
 
If I was blessed enough to play live for a living, I’d be hard pressed not to tour with either a Kemper or a Fractal, if for no other reason than the simplicity, portability, and absolute consistency to FOH night after night. I’ve got 2 friends who play live for a living, one who plays 4-nighters locally, and one who landed a sweet gig with a national touring act. Both use Fractal / Kemper for those reasons. I’m really partial to the Fractal as far as recorded sounds go. Because my love of guitar has been relegates to hobbyist status, I get to indulge myself with big, old, heavy boxes of glass and iron.
 
No deceiving marketing buzzwords like 100W Nanotube when it is just a solid state class D amp with an ass old subminiature vacuum tube in there that can run from a battery.

Reliability instead of bluetooth, USB, IR loaders or similar stuff that will be outdated within a decade and almost nobody is able to repair or control in 20 years from now if the electronic components even make it that long. We don't need more landfill.

Korg Nutube if they have proven to be reliable but I have no problem with using solid state if the circuit design is 100% analog and using tubes where they actually matter; the 5150 Iconic would be one example where they changed the input tube, FX loop/PI to high voltage transistor circuits.

Auto-bias or the Fryette Power Station principle to minimize the need for having a somewhat competent tech in your vicinity for simply changing power tubes.

Integrated reactive load.

Make it comfortable to work on instead cramming everything in there that it looks like a modern Mesa Boogie from the inside. Having chassis mounted pots for example or having different pcb modules that are easily accessible and having schematics available keeps your tech and your wallet happy.

At least two channels with active and passive tone stack designs and various filter and EQ options pre and post distortion. High and low shelf and parametric mids to shape the distortion channel for example.

Second master volume.

NO pedal, make it a head or rack mountable the latter would make finding a good case relatively easy.

Stereo and bridged mono operation would be a nice addition.
 
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rottingcorpse said:
I have a Kemper. Played it once. Literally.
But still have it.
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DI profile your favorite amp head.I bet you’ll find it easier to turn on more.
I was right there where you are till I profiled and fine tuned it with the definition knob.
Every profile or patch I tried I hated. Didn’t sound right. Now the ones I did with my setup sounds great.
 
I've used Fractal modeling and effects since the late 2000's and still do. And I also still love tube amps. I love both types of tech.

As for tube amp features that could get me to stop using modeling? Well, among other things, no single tube amp is going to let me test drive 80-90% of all the amps, cabs, and effects I've ever heard of like the Fractal stuff can, so a tube amp will never truly be able to replace modeling for me and what I use it for.

Having said that, here's a list of innovations that I think could make a tube amp truly special:
  • Analog circuitry, but all parameters digitally controlled and MIDI compatible so you can make presets
    • Caveat - the resolution per control would need to be very fine, like 128 or even 256 steps per pot. None of this Triaxis style "only 16 different steps on each knob between 0 and 10" garbage.
  • Built-in reactive load of at least Suhr quality and multiple selections of user loadable IR's for direct-to-board routing
  • Built-in attenuation so you can control power tube distortion and loudness separately when using cabs

As for features that might be more individually dependent on the amp:
  • Boost and EQ controls before and after preamp distortion generation
    • Why is the Mesa Mark series and, what, the Fryette Ultra Lead and maybe Ola Englund's signature Randall/Fortin amp the only amps in existence with EQ controls both before and after gain? I refuse to believe guitar players are just too stupid to comprehend the most basic understanding of gain staging. Give us proper built in clean boosts and EQ filtering at the amp's input in addition to standard 3 or 5 band tonestacks
 
I still use tube amps exclusively for band rehearsal and live shows. I don't wanna go out and play anymore unless it's fun, and getting to crank my amps up in scenarios where it makes sense is a big part of that for me.

I like modelers from a practicality standpoint, if I want to record an idea where I need a bunch of different tones to pull from, the convenience of being able to work on something using headphones, or not needing much more than my laptop and a USB interface, they make great sense for that.
 
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