At the risk of keeping another one of these “tubes vs modeller’s” threads alive any longer than it needs to be and contributing to the “aww shux, not this shit again!”, ill throw caution to the wind and add my 2c for anyone who’s remotely interested or cares! Lol
I thought it was commonly accepted at this point that tone and feel etc. are in the ears of the beholder? It’s all subjective. Making bold statements like “can't be replicated in anything other than a valve” comes off as a bit ignorant really and just sounds like someone adding their own opinion into the mix as “fact”. These days I take every statement I read on the interwebz with a pinch of salt. Nothing is “fact” unless scientifically proven to be, or, for my own personal subjective taste, fits the purpose and therefore my own perception becomes my reality.
Fwiw, I have owned and played through countless amps over the years. Everything from basic solid state to high end “booteek” tube amps. Some of them sounded amaze and some of them didn’t, to me anyway, yet some of the amps I didn’t like were the favourites of other players…..funny that!
In more recent years I have experimented more in the digital modeller space. Owning what a lot of people consider the “booteek” equivalent of the digital world – the Axe Fx II I can say that for me I miss nothing about the sound and feel of tube amps. It’s all there for me in the Axe Fx. That’s not to say I don’t miss tube amps…..I do sometimes yearn for their simplicity but then I turn on the Axe Fx, don’t have to wait for the tubes to warm up or cool down or wear out and I can plug in headphones or run the volume super low for playing while bubba is asleep and get 100% consistent tone every time at any volume. I can also use it as an interface to record riffs with ease while I am messing around, and it is a whole bunch of fun creating new sounds and also playing through other peoples presets.
As far as “sound & feel” are concerned I have personally experienced more consistency and fun playing from the Axe Fx than I did with any of my tube amps. I suppose a lot of that has to do with the fact that at this point in time it works for me. In the future who knows I may go back to a small tube head and some pedals for simplicity’s sake but it won’t be because I miss the “tone and feel” of a tube amp. In my personal opinion in this day and age with gear like the Axe Fx and KPA that is just nonsense. Anyone who swears that either of them sound better or worse than the other has obviously never spent any or enough time with each or both and is just injecting their own opinion or refuses to admit that a digital device can sound as good as an analogue one.
I like both, I just take issue with people who make broad statements like “they will never be as good” or “cant be replicated” etc. Its just un-educated nonsense.
2c /rant
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