The best SOLID STATE halfstack for Metal

[Torment Leaves Scars]

How long do tubes last in a tube amp...with heavy use?

what do you consider heavy use
weekend gigging or nightly gigging?

"Riding the lightning," so to speak.  I plan on playing for at least 1.5-2 hrs per night, preferably at "5" or above.

The truth of the matter is that I will probably never gig, but at the same time, I also said that I would never make my own music and record it, yet here I am a year later...  :doh:

 

[Death by Uberschall]

I'm going to put this thread into the "over thinking it" category.  :icon_jokercolor:

I own an older Randall RG80 head and cabs w/Jaguar speakers that I use for practice, but not for live use. Just because tubes sound better.  If you want to stay solid state, I would suggest a good solid state power amp or head along with a PodXT on the floor. That would sound much better and be much more versatile.

As far as tubes and gigging, unless you use your amp for self defense from attackers, I wouldn't sweat it. I've had tubes on stage with me for 20 years, never had a failure. Just take the normal precautions you should anyway and just respect your gear. Toss it around in a careless manner, it will fail, solid state or tubes.

 

[Torment Leaves Scars]

I'm going to put this thread into the "over thinking it" category.  :icon_jokercolor:

I own an older Randall RG80 head and cabs w/Jaguar speakers that I use for practice, but not for live use. Just because tubes sound better.  If you want to stay solid state, I would suggest a good solid state power amp or head along with a PodXT on the floor. That would sound much better and be much more versatile.

As far as tubes and gigging, unless you use your amp for self defense from attackers, I wouldn't sweat it. I've had tubes on stage with me for 20 years, never had a failure. Just take the normal precautions you should anyway and just respect your gear. Toss it around in a careless manner, it will fail, solid state or tubes.

What types of precautions/maintenance are necessary with a tube amp?

 

[stubhead]

How long do tubes last in a tube amp...with heavy use?

To be precise... it depends.  :laughing3: The plate voltage has a lot to do with it, if it's on the higher range of a certain tube type's allowable voltage, called running "hot", they'll go quicker. And it also depends on the quality of the tubes. We are very lucky to be in a sort of tube renaissance, where there are companies re-releasing tubes that used to be really scarce. They're being made in Russia and China, but it's still a good thing. I had a great-sound... fantastic-sounding early 70's Marshall 50-watt head, essentially the same thing that Duane Allman and Jeff Beck used along with 2/3 of the real rock bands (unless they were using Marshall 100 watters). But part of the reason it sounded great was because the plate voltage was high, and I was using it in the tube Dark Ages of the early 90's, when there were NO decent new tubes and the guys who had the old stock knew it was a goldmine. I had to retube at least the preamp every six months (though heavy use for me was more like six hours a day and that was CRANKED up). I ended up replacing it for live stuff with another great amp, the early Peavey Classic 30; and my tubes were lasting at least two to four times as long - but even there I was scrounging for New-Old-Stock tubes and some were much better than others. I could have had the Marshall reworked to run a lower plate voltage, but it was already getting into the "collectable" category and it would have wiped out the value. If you're only going to be playing two hours a day you might get 5 years out of the right set of tubes.

 

[Cagey]

The key phrase there being "the right set of tubes", which are nearly impossible to identify. I've had new tubes go microphonic in a week, and some tubes go 10 years, at which point I may replace them on general principles rather than any objective need. Brand name doesn't matter, either, since there are only a couple manufacturers left, so nearly everything you see out there is just re-labelled for whichever group of marketing weenies thinks they have the most compelling ad copy and can therefore charge the highest price.

I guess what I'm saying is, tubes are a crap shoot. Sometimes you get lucky, other times not so much. New, NOS, brand name, etc. rarely matter. You pays yer munny and you takes yer chance.

 

[mayfly]

How long do tubes last in a tube amp...with heavy use?

I've done accelerated aging testing of tubes in my amps (ac30 type ). I would run them into dummy loads sweeping the freq. at full power.  My tests showed that output tubes would last about a year, and preamp tubes would last indefinitely.

In practice, even if you are gigging every night, you won't see that kind of aging.  My personal amp has never been re-tubed since creation over ten years ago. 

Finally, ac30s are really hard on op tubes (cathode bias, high plate current). Any Marshall style amp, properly biased, will be much easier on tubes.

In summary, tubes are not a liability from a matenance or reliability pov.

 

[m4rk0]

I hear that Tech 21 makes some of the best sounding ss amps for a low price.. never tried them myself though

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

The Tech 21 stuff is analog too, instead of digital.

 

[Torment Leaves Scars]

I feel so defeated...there are so many different choices.  :sad1:

What really makes matters the worst are that there are not a lot of stores in my area that even carry these products, so it's going to be nearly impossible to play one before making a purchase.  I'm gonna be nearly relegated to listening to these things over a computer and making a decision based on that.  :sad:

 

[Cagey]

Are you in a hurry? If not, Craig's List is a good source of trials. Grab your fiddle, and go check out things that are promising. It may take a month or two, but the longer you shop the more likely it is you'll learn what you do and don't like about different brands/styles. Plus, when you're not under the gun, it's easier to wait for the right thing to come along. Desperation makes many of us buy things we don't exactly want/like, but if you're patient and you put the word out and do a little looking around yourself, something fantastic may fall in your lap. Happens all the time. Not looking for something, but a magic piece shows up out of the blue. It's nice to be able to jump on it since you didn't shoot your wad on a compromise.

 

[Jusatele]

torment
I have listened to you and think what you need to find is an RG80 from the 80s
It would be the best thing you learned from this thread
they rock, have a great distortion, and whenever you want you can upgrade, but you would have the power to gig a show and just do Craiglist searches till you find one, they are great amps and they sold a ton of them, I know one is for sale in your area, just wait till it shows up
Patience Grass hopper, when you can snatch the fly with.........................................

 

[Cagey]

Here's a decent demo of the RG80...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yW7qhTQLu4A​

For what you can get one for, it seems like a no-brainer. Worst thing that could happen is you don't like it after a few months and you can't sell it, in which case you're only out $150 or so. But, I gotta think you'd get back a good portion of that. Like junk cars, damn near any amp is worth $100.

 

[Torment Leaves Scars]

torment
I have listened to you and think what you need to find is an RG80 from the 80s
It would be the best thing you learned from this thread
they rock, have a great distortion, and whenever you want you can upgrade, but you would have the power to gig a show and just do Craiglist searches till you find one, they are great amps and they sold a ton of them, I know one is for sale in your area, just wait till it shows up
Patience Grass hopper, when you can snatch the fly with.........................................

I'll look into one of these.  I'm just kinda disappointed because the tone I'm really looking for are the ones I've heard from the Peavey 6505 and the Engl Powerball.  The full-tube Randalls sound real good, too. 

I guess I've just come to the realization that I'm going to have to spend a ton of money to get the sound I want, but I'll still check out the RG80.

 

[Jusatele]

yea, real tube tone is not cheap

when I was running randall ss, I was running a rg 120 2/12, had a lot more tone than the rg 80, but those were hard to find, and you have to check if they had the upgrade soldered in, yea they had an upgrade you could get for free and have soldered in the tone circuit. Helped a lot in the Distortion circuit, gave it the famous Randall soak, which in the Hair metal days was the rage.

 

[Tipperman]

It's not SOlid State, but Orange has some pretty decent 1x12 combos for like $800, with huge amounts of gain. At least worth looking into, as once you understand them tube amps can be very reliable.

For Solid State, Randall is a pretty good way to go.

 

[Torment Leaves Scars]

It's not SOlid State, but Orange has some pretty decent 1x12 combos for like $800, with huge amounts of gain. At least worth looking into, as once you understand them tube amps can be very reliable.

For Solid State, Randall is a pretty good way to go.

I'm looking for something with more than a 1x12 though.  With a 1x12, if I really crank it up, I'm going to lose a bit of the sound quality.

I'm really leaning towards the Randall V2, which is some sort of hybrid amp.  Any opinions on those?

 

[taez555]

Have you checked out the Carvin solid state stuff?  Under $300 for a 100watt head with pretty much all the features you want.

http://www.carvinguitars.com/products/single.php?product=SX300H

 

[Torment Leaves Scars]

Have you checked out the Carvin solid state stuff?  Under $300 for a 100watt head with pretty much all the features you want.

http://www.carvinguitars.com/products/single.php?product=SX300H

I never even considered Carvin.  Unfortunately, there's no way I can actually play one, given there aren't stores outside CA to demo them.  :sad1:

 

[bagman67]

Have you checked out the Carvin solid state stuff?  Under $300 for a 100watt head with pretty much all the features you want.

http://www.carvinguitars.com/products/single.php?product=SX300H

I never even considered Carvin.  Unfortunately, there's no way I can actually play one, given there aren't stores outside CA to demo them.   :sad1:

If you can find them on your local Craigslist, or even ebay, they're dirt cheap used.  If you end up not liking it, you can turn it around for whatever pittance you paid for it.  I've played the Carvin SX line and was blown away.  Serious bang for your buck.

 

[Torment Leaves Scars]

Have you checked out the Carvin solid state stuff?  Under $300 for a 100watt head with pretty much all the features you want.

http://www.carvinguitars.com/products/single.php?product=SX300H

I never even considered Carvin.  Unfortunately, there's no way I can actually play one, given there aren't stores outside CA to demo them.   :sad1:

If you can find them on your local Craigslist, or even ebay, they're dirt cheap used.  If you end up not liking it, you can turn it around for whatever pittance you paid for it.  I've played the Carvin SX line and was blown away.  Serious bang for your buck.

Think they're good for Thrash Metal and just the really heavy stuff?