I really can't imagine not playing through a tube amp. I have tried out lots of solid state amps over the years since the 70s when we were told that they would displace tube amps. Well I think everyone knows 30+ years later that that wasn't the case after all. The only thing is that now I use a much smaller amp than I used to years ago. I had a 100 watt Marshall stack when I was younger and then for a while a black faced 200 watt Fender Super Twin. The big trouble was that cranking those amps to distortion was absolutely deafening. Nowadays I am using a 40 watt Fender Hot Rod Deluxe that really can howl without bothering everyone too much including my own hearing. But real tubes are the only choice when it comes to guitar amplification.

Even a Fender Twin puts out a lot of volume before beginning to break up a little. I learnt a trick on how to easily add a gain control to a Fender Twin if you were willing to sacrifice the spring reverb - just unplug the cables to each end of the spring and connect them together directly. Because the spring has a lot of resistance the signal is boosted to pump it through. Remove the spring and the reverb setting on the amp becomes a boost setting that will overdrive the pre-amp. And the reverb footswitch becomes an on/off control for the boost in gain. This actually works on any spring reverb fitted amp and can be very useful. Just don't push it too high and blow your speakers.

Roy, how does the Variax sound through your tube amp ? Do you still prefer the strat over the Variax for playing live or do you use them both depending on the song's needs ?


[This message has been edited by Nigel (edited 01-21-2005).]