The hybrid amp: tube vs solid state

The hybrid amp: tube vs solid state

ok, well, its no secret that guitarist covet real tube amps for their glorious sound and I must say that being in a room and playing one of thee amps is spectacular especially when you stop plying and the amp goes deadly silent with no hiss as if not even on and then roars to life even with clean sounds.

Now, tubes present a set of problems. all tube amps are heavy as hell and you have to replace the tubes and they are expensive and fragile.  So, for years, companies have put out solid state amps without these limitations but the tone is usually compromised. So, they come up with these schemes to try to duplicate the tube: modeling, solid state preamps and so on and today i ran into the hybrid amp. A real tube preamp with a solid state power amp. that way you get the tone but not the headache and only 1 tube to deal with instead of 6-9 tubes.

 I was in a local music store trying out a super expensive fender twin reverb and it sounded good, but was freakin heavy as heck. and at almost a grand,wasn't going to happen. but I loved its clean tone. I then went through and tried almost every amp including a cybertwin, some other fenders, a couple of crates and they all paled into comparison. then as a last minute thing, I looked and hidden behind the fender twin ,obviously neglected, was this amp.It looked like a 2x12 combo amp. I just thought ok last amp, why not. I could tell the knobs were dusty and then it finally kicked in and I was stunned. here was that fender twin clean sound again and even at loud settings it still sounded clean like a twin. I mean it has that tube bass thump the solid state amps lacked. it reminded me of the Texas made Alamo amps (old and pretty rare).I then dialed in some of the effects,perfectly clean,not over the top. then the overdrive ch and it was pretty close to a  jcm800 sound ,better than a jcm900 anyway.it nailed a jtm-45 without even trying. not enough to do modern metal, but more like that jcm800 ac/dc tone. I couldn't believe a solid state could sound like a tube amp, this time for real. Best part was the price.I could buy 4 of these for the price of the fender twin.It was a hybrid amp, a tube preamp (1 tube) and a solid state power amp. I am on the hunt for a second one.Its the closest thing to being a full tube amp.The company is obscure and worse, they have discontinued that series of amps sadly. I wont tell you what they are just yet or they will be scoooped up before I can get a few lol..but hearing is believing.