I put a date on this, because this is a topic I’ve discussed before and will discuss again in the future.
I’m watching the Tone-Talk YouTube channel, and it’s the episode with Dan and Mick from That Pedal Show. And what I’m looking at is four guys over 40 who are talking about how a modeler just can’t match a real actual loud tube amp. And part of me thinks “That’s true”, and part of me thinks “These guys think it’s still the 70’s.”
OK, I’d expect Dave Friedman to be pro-amp. I’ve played Friedman amps before and they are amazing. I want a 20 watt Runt head pretty badly, but it’s far, far outside of what I pay for gear. If I were a full time pro hard rock guitar player, I’d either play a Friedman, a Marshall, or a Bad Cat. And Tone-Talk is one of my favorite channels.
But… well, they’re talking about playing amps at volume levels that can damage your hearing. It’s just that simple. That’s sort of where us old guys grew up, but that doesn’t make it right. What it actually is, well… it’s stupid. So it can be fun to crank your amp and play real loud so that you can feel it in your stomach, but if you’re damaging your hearing, you might want to rethink that. Or, go ahead and fuck up your hearing. Up to you.
I’ve never played at crazy loud volumes, even in bands and on gigs, and my hearing at 55 is still very good.
I’m reminded of the KISS line, “Don’t let them tell you that it’s too much noise, they’re too old to really understand.” I’ve always liked music to be loud enough to be exciting, but when it starts to hurt, that’s idiotic. Maybe some of today’s guitar players are smarter than the old dinosaurs.
But they were talking about how you need a real amp for real energy. Metallica seems to be doing OK playing modelers live. The amp or amp modeler isn’t what matters – what matters is the sound the guitarist hears and the sound the audience hears. I think that should determine what is used. Solid State vs Tube vs Modeling? What does it SOUND like? Anyone want to tell me that The Police didn’t have great sounding guitar tracks? That was solid state.
Still, if you ask me if my HX Stomp can sound just as good as my Bassbreaker 15, I’d say no. I’d say it can sound like 20 different amps, though, and the Bassbreaker 15 only sounds like a Bassbreaker 15. Ask me to play with a live drummer and a live bass player and another live guitar player, and I’m thinking tube amp. But ask me to play with in ear monitors, and I’d vastly prefer a HX Stomp, because then I have far, far more control over the sound.
But the Bassbreaker 15 does a tube breakup sound that I can’t match with my HX Stomp. I’ve tried. I will continue to try, because I want to see how close I can come. But there’s a quality to the breakup that I can’t match.
I guess at this point I still like both modeling and tube amps for different reasons, but the concept of “missing out” because you can’t play at unsafe volume levels is old fashioned and stupid. It won’t make sense to a lot of younger players, nor should it. That said, real live music is kind of loud. Real drums are very loud. And an amp cranked up to compete with real drums is also very loud, but it shouldn’t be painfully loud. You can be very loud but still very good sounding. That’s a whole nuther topic.
Boy, that Friedman Runt 20 amp does sound kick ass, though. Man. That’s a great sounding little amp head.
