Does anyone *NOT* like valve amps?

punchesjudy

Can't say I dislike valve amps since I've used and owned a good few but I do tend to prefer a solid state amp overall. 

ICBM

punchesjudy said:

Can't say I dislike valve amps since I've used and owned a good few but I do tend to prefer a solid state amp overall. 

I definitely don't dislike valve amps as such, although I've played some truly awful ones as well as some great ones, and a few that I genuinely have no idea why they were ever made, other than just to make an amp with valves in and which sound far worse than even a quite average solid-state one.

Possibly ironically, some of the very best sounds I've ever got have been with valve preamp pedals into solid-state amps.

Roland

vasselmeyer said:

Liked the sound, hated the weight.

... and the reliability.

John_P

I’ve been using the ax8 in recent years but probably about the add another valve amp and go back to just sticking a mic on it.   The fractal gives me more quick options but I’m going to just take the right amp to the gig when they start again.  

althy

i like the sound you can get for recordings but I find them really hard to enjoy on small / medium stages 
The song hardly ever sound and breath the way it should for people on stage and everyone often ends up playing too loud.

I don't mind them in big venues, I do prefer modelers for any live application though. 
Sound wise in the studio you can get them to sound fantastic, just as good as a good modeler.
I should add that it is just amps in general,  solid state, tube or even digital.

munckee

Jackobean said:

Boromedic said:

Jackobean said:

They're ridiculous, like so many things associated with guitar.
A moribund technology for an increasingly irrelevant instrument.

How about a side of misery to go with the pessimism! Jeez, yes in popular music terms the guitar has gone back to being a support or back up instrument instead of at the forefront, but I'm not really a fan of popular music per se. Plenty of great bands out there still making awesome guitar music though, and a lot using valve amps. Having just gone back to valve amps, I think I'll be staying with them too.

Hardly. I'm overjoyed the younger generations haven't fallen for the same brand of toxic nostalgia that pervades boomer culture. Aside from their inexplicable love of Friends...

No one needs more throwback 60's music played on exact replicas of 50's/60's gear.

I do. 

Lestratcaster

I do but since acquiring my Kemper Profiler this may change!

Jez6345789

Completely unbothered to own one these days I hear things I like but I have used modelling since early vox//line6 days and these days Kemper and Helix keep me amused.  Last Valve amp I owned was a Seymour Duncan back in the late 80's.

sweepy

Keefy said:

That guy who makes Session amps - he’s not keen on them.

Considering he used to make a very nice 15w valve combo

I couldn't be without a good valve amp or two, the interaction between one and a good guitar is something that always brings a silly grin to my face

UnclePsychosis

Whilst I would have phrased it differently I see where @Jackobean is coming from.

Along with Sporky I also never understood the "guitar as historical re-enactment" thing. That said, its definitely more vintage-flavoured gear that I lean towards and I'm sitting here with a Princeton Reverb so you can definitely add me into the "loves valve amps" camp. 

Kittyfrisk

Jackobean said:

They're ridiculous, like so many things associated with guitar.
A moribund technology for an increasingly irrelevant instrument.

A fair point, well made.
Do you have a stab proof vest & fire insurance? 

PolarityMan

hate 'em

BintyTwanger77

EricTheWeary said:

I suppose there's a difference between liking using valve amps and liking the sound valve amps make even in a once removed situation. So, if you like Award Session amps or use a Helix it's still roughly based on sounding like a valve amp. Even the 1970s artists who used solid state generally eventually went over to valves when they had the money/ roadies. 
But there are artists who have based their sound around amps like the Roland Jazz Chorus - you'd get a lot more valve naysayers if this was a jazz or soukous guitar forum.
I think for the noises I make if my valve amps were destroyed in a house fire I would probably replace them with solid state. Indeed I'd be tempted by a Jazz Chorus because that does do a thing valve doesn't do as well and then try to find ways to make that 'valve like ' when I wanted it. 

I found a Fairfield compressor can make a Jazz Chorus sound very valve-like.

57Deluxe

I don't like that they are more temperamental and expensive to retube and constant servicing. BUT I do like the sound, smell and overall old schoolness...

rlw

I like the idea of valve amps - indeed, I have one - but, for my purposes, solid state is far more useable and practical, even scaleable I suppose in volume terms.

ICBM

rlw said:

I like the idea of valve amps - indeed, I have one - but, for my purposes, solid state is far more useable and practical, even scaleable I suppose in volume terms.

That's something I've always liked about solid-state - the ability to adjust volume independently of tone. While some valve amps do it quite well - especially higher-powered ones running well below their capability - most have a much more obvious interaction between the two, which can be annoying in a mix. You can fix that to some extent with attenuation, but that causes other compromises.

Sassafras

I dislike valve amps that don't have a good clean sound.
I dislike solid state amps that don't have a decent drive sound.

bloodandtears

they sound immense, no denying it.. but  often they have to be too loud, they're heavy, can be unreliable, they're expensive.

Now the big guns are using digital live, it cements my decision to avoid them all along.

digitalscream

I guess you could say I dislike them. I mean...on balance, the only thing I like about them is the sound, and I hate pretty much everything else about them (the heat, the inefficiency, the lack of versatility, the lack of reliability, the maintenance costs and the general pain-in-the-ass-ness). I also dislike the fact that, despite being a fully-mature technology from almost a century ago, they're still ludicrously expensive for what they are.

I can also get exactly the sounds I want from modern high-end modellers, which have none of the above drawbacks. I just get bored when I've got too much at my fingertips.

So I've got a valve amp.

I'm just a barrel o' contradictions.

Blueingreen

I haven’t gigged one in decades. I own a couple  but only because I haven’t got round to selling them. They haven’t been switched on in years.

 I’m a clean pedal platform player.  The right solid state amp - I use Quilter - sounds as good if not better than most valve amps, weighs a fraction, and is generally more reliable and less faff.

I don’t dislike valve amps but for my purpose they are superseded technology and a bit pointless.