Is This The END Of The Tube Amp? (we're running out of tubes)
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- Опубліковано 27 вер 2024
- This week, Founder & CEO of Electro Harmonix Mike Matthews announce that Russia has banned the export of 200 different items, including the tubes from the factory that EHX operates (mullard, tungsol, EHX etc.) On top of the already slow production numbers of tubes world wide, this is going to put a serious strain on the guitar amp industry.
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Will this blow over? or is this a more serious problem, Id love to hear your thoughts.
Huge huge huge huge problem
Meet to start looking into ghina for tubes
This is a serious problem, but I think we all gotta be open to change. Just how we need to be open to transitioning to renewable energy instead of relying on foreign oil and big oil companies in America, we have to be ready that solid state amps and amp modeling will become the norm in the years to come. For example, the Tone Master Fender amps are really good and have potential to get even better, and Roland Jazz Chorus amps still remain relevant. Expect to see Vox, Marshall, Fender, and even boutique amp companies transition to solid state, and a lot more digital amp modeling to come forth in the future.
Relative to the severity of what's been going on in Ukraine, this is a non-problem. This is the most unimportant thing that I can think of in regards to this situation.
I don’t think it will blow over for about 5-10 years
The only thing I'm sure at this point is that tubes still sound the best, and I'm glad that they're still made at my homeland, Slovakia.
Maybe the maker in Slovakia can expand in 2022?
it's definitely a possibility
@@WarrenPostma It's JJ Tubes. They've grown big time since the 90s
@@MoreMeRecording awesome. well if I could buy more 6l6s from them I would.
@@WarrenPostma I don't know if they have the space but if only a few big names got together (seems unlikely), they could maybe help expand the manufacturing.
I think its a bump in the road. I agree with Pete Thorn that demand for tubes will be great enough to create new tube manufacturers. I remember in the late 70's when the Compact Disk would do away with records, and now we see the records returning. It's all about the demand.
you mean late 80s for compact discs
The first compact disc was made in 1982, that's hardly late 80s.
Sure records have their fans. I am one of them. But their demand is nowhere near what it once was. Sure tube amps will always exist but the demand is not what it once was and it will never be the same.
@@vladimirlopez7840 Can you give me the winning power ball numbers for the next draw since you're able to read the future? Thanks.
@Hulk Hogan There is absolutely no substitute for vinyl. When I was a kid I had Led Zeppelin I on cassette and subsequently bought the CD version. Terrific album start to finish. I had never heard it on vinyl. Fast forward a couple of decades and I heard it for the first time on vinyl. It gave me chills.
The things that you can here on vinyl do not transfer to digital. More people need to go back to recording with analog equipment and putting out music in analog formats. Digital, although convenient, sucks. Just ask Jack White.
I have boxes and boxes of tubes. I should be set for life. They don't really degrade on the shelf and I kinda saw the writing on the wall and got lucky a few times where I could buy tubes in bulk from businesses that were shutting down. If I get a few minutes this week, I'll look and see what I have and see what I can share to get us through this.
I vote that we guitar players, should panic and hoard toilet paper.
solid logic
@@RhettShull I didn’t get this far in life without an innate ability to panic.
What do you think I’ve been doing!!!
Exactly what these kind of videos will incite. Nickel strings and Cobalt (Alnico) products too btw. No shade as its decent info albeit a bit later. But the toilets paper plebs have been activated.
@@Stsilascousteau mother of God!, I didn’t even think of strings!!!! Why are we not at DEFCON 1 ?!?!
Im 18, started playing guitar at around 15 and just few days ago i got my first tube amp (marshall mhz15 haze). I absolutely dig it and i see that many people around me do prefer modeling amps and/or plugins. Coincidentally i am from Slovakia and had no idea about the tube making here. I hope that everything will be normal as soon as possible.
В Словакии есть свои лампы. Открывай бизнес и продавай лампы в США ;)
@@ExpatZ266 thank you very much! i totally agree
I wish you all the luck man, and I agree with pope todd, if it sounds good it is good, keep on picking.
If truth be told, I was never really able to afford a decent tube amp or really any tube amp for all practical purposes. I just about was able to afford a modeling amp and very inexpensive guitar and pedals. I try to approximate a tube sound as best as I could. I feel bad for people who own tube amps now that this happened. Maybe this will drive manufacturers to come up with a better solution. I know it's been done before in other areas.
Yeah, JJ tubes are made in Slovakia. We're good, but JJs will probably go up, as they should.
I'm sorry to hear about the tube shortage just as I am beginning to learn how to service tube amplifiers! Great job keeping us posted. Thanks!
i work at a guitar center and two days ago we got the memo to start taking specific tubes off the shelves. i’m not sure it’s signaling the end of tubes entirely, but i do think the entry level price is going to skyrocket & it’s going to make tube amps strictly a niche, hard-to-get-into part of guitar tone simply for the price & hassle.
Good old fashioned artificial price gouging coming to a theater near you! These fucking companies greed knows no limits. Theres no fucking shortage. They are purposely creating the shortage.
@@breadnaut3087 You are not paying attention. There is a shortage and they aren't creating it.
They just pulled the tubes so they can sell them later at a 3x markup. That's just the way g.c. works
@@jguse2378 Yeah, just like there's a US oil shortage too....right?
@@captaintony1227 Yeah, or they're just plain stupid and think that pulling the tubes will stick it to Russia.
Really appreciate your sensitivity to a very important and event in mankind and of the world. This is definitely a huge impact on guitar amps, and I do wonder how it will conclude.
Lol man someone will just make them somewhere else and probably better too it's not that big of a deal. People need to stop sounding like they're trying to give important speeches in their UA-cam comments.
@@ThatIrishCowboy yep and remember to vote republican
@@tbone9347I hate to break it to you, T, but "Republican" has an entirely different meaning in Ireland.🤣
Like gasoline, I would gladly pay a premium to have ethically built high quality tubes. I've used many solid state amps and modelers, and they're just not the same. I hope another manufacturer steps up.
@@rohankhemraj Good news; JJ in Slovakia are still in full production right now, and could possibly even ramp up production to keep up with the increased demand.😉
#1 - There's a microchip and rare earth metals shortage too (this is applicable to analog alternatives)
#2 - There's too much money to be made in tube amplifiers and vacuum tubes for someone to not step in as a replacement
#3 - The situation with Russia will not last forever
#4 - Russia still sells tubes domestically and to other approved countries. A percentage will make their way elsewhere for the time being
#5 - Panic about a tube shortage is more likely to cause a tube shortage because of people stocking up
#6 - Digital doesn't sound as good as analog at this point in time
My thoughts exactly also all the dummies buying electric cars the damage that does to the ecology. SMH
The hybrid F1 cars are awesome though.
Disagree on #6. Nobody can really tell the difference. You can argue about power amps and fletcher munson but they've largely nailed that with modern SS preamps.
Microchip shortage won't last forever either. a lot of that's driven by supply chain issues and the boom in cryptomining. Rare earth metals is more of an issue(particularly the slavery-like conditions they're mined under) - but that applies to tube amps anyway too.
@@SisterRose Agreed. I would even say that just because you can tell there's a difference when you A/B tube vs. whatever, it still doesn't matter. In a mix or live, the differences are nearly imperceptible and completely don't matter at all. Not to the audience, not to other musicians, and certainly not to tone snobs.
@Sister Rose Digital can sound awesome. Look at any hi-fi application. In fact I'd argue SS amps are the best option for reproducing music recorded with tube amps because they tend toward being neutral. There is some magic listening to some classical or jazz recordings through a hifi tube amp, though.
My point? There is a unique and special sound that comes from a instrument tube amplifier on the cusp of loosing it. I have yet to hear a SS amp do it. IMO this is because SS amp designers are using the same default design goals (clean headroom, low noise, break-up if desired) and are building better-engineered and fundamentally superior amplifiers. Unfortunately there is no link to sounding like a tube amp. Modelers sound different as do things ilike the Nextone.
Maybe it's already out there, but I'd like to see someone build a SS amp that uses high voltages, moderate-to-high impedance internal nodes and transformers to convert to low impedance. This goes against much of what SS design can offer, but it would be a worthwhile experiment. There is a lot going on in a tube amp beyond the tubes that will color the final tone.
@@SisterRose I think there are several instances in which solid state amps sound better. like super technical or metal playing. but to my ear I can totally tell the difference. like with vinyl or film vs digital photography. even if it is a placebo effect. "if it sounds good it is good"
Rhett makes some great points. I own a tube amp company - and tubes are pretty much unobtanium right now. Does that mean it will stay that way? Who knows. But, obviously, I hope not. I remain convinced that the pure spectacle of seeing, and feeling, a big fat tube amp onstage will continue to have its place. Time will tell. (Fingers crossed)
@Scott Phillips What is the name of your company?
Phillips....
EHX as of March 16 says the Expo Pul/Saratov tube factory is running again and tubes are being imported to the US again, just with Russian export tariffs and US import tariffs.
Mostly, that means expensive boutique amps will get more expensive.
@@rikkousa Mahalo Amps
@@sjlBoise54 Sadly, probably true. Our costs have skyrocketed in the last year. We haven't raised our prices - but it may be inevitable. Inflation is no joke.
70 years into the mass production of electric guitars and related gear, it’s too easy to forget the non-musical reasons why our heroes played what they played. The classic example is the development of British gear companies because of bans on the import of American gear, but there are others. Imagine where we would be if, 100 years ago, working class Americans couldn’t buy acoustic guitars from mail order catalogs for relatively low prices? What if trumpets or violins had been cheaper? What if the itinerant musicians that inspired Robert Johnson had played something else?
Practical factors of culture influence music at least as much as the other way around.
One crucial part of this discussion worth emphasizing is solid state amps. We're going to see a lot of manufactures scramble to design and produce new solid state amps (and I'd bet many are already in the process of doing such). FETs, JFETs and other similarly warm-sounding circuits often found in pedals are going to make a big splash in the amp world. With good gain staging and circuit architecture, it's possible to make many, many different components sound excellent.
To give a personal example, I spent 3 years eyeing Vox AC15's - I love the variety of colorful sounds you can get from those, especially when pushing them hard. I was dedicated to saving up and buying an AC15, but last Autumn, I tried out a solid state Quilter Mach 3 by sheer coincidence. The Mach 3's amount of control over gain staging had me absolutely floored, plus I was able to dial in sensational sounds at virtually any volume thanks to some excellent power scaling. I ditched my former dream amp the AC15 in favor of the Mach 3 before this tube shortage hit, mostly for sonic reasons.
We're diving into a big rise in virtual AND solid state amps.
Problem is that THT FETs basically don't exist at least for RF applications. I have no clue on FETs for AF uses.
No we're not. Tubes aren't going away, and you can't make a "warm" solid state amp.
@@TheHexeract Somebody seems eager for an argument. I never said tubes are going away; I just think we're going to see good solid state and virtual amps go up in popularity.
As for making warm solid state amps, I hope you try out a Quilter Mach 3 or Mach 2 sometime. I'm ogling the Mach 3 in particular because of how warm it sounds. A lot of cheap entry-level solid state amps out there sound crispy as heck, but nicer solid state circuits that provide more control over gain staging are another matter to me entirely. Cheers!
I think you're right, another good example of a company being successful with solid state amps is Orange with their Super Crush 100. It's almost indistinguishable from their Rockerverb III and cost's 1/4 of the price.
How often do you guys and gals actually change your tubes? I still have all the original tubes in both of my amps. Unless you are into tube rolling or serious touring, you probably don't need to change them very often. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Yes tubes will get more expensive in the short term. But the conflict will eventually end and Russian tubes will come back. I don't see the tube amp dying any time soon.
I find I usually have to replace power tubes every 18 months or so... Not driving them particularly hard, but they get daily use.
Usually it's a problem like microphonics or rattle and buzz that starts to creep in that makes me change them.
Once a year. I crank my volume maybe a tab too much
I've changed tubes, on one amp... once in my life. I better buy a pack asap for my ac15
Only touring musicians really need to be concerned about replacing tubes on a regular basis. I'm not a gigging musician anymore but I do play every day. I only replace tubes if one blows up, which has only happened to me a couple times in the past decade. In my main amp, I currently have a couple old stock tubes from the 70s or 80s that I have been using in various amps of mine for the past 20 years! They still sound good. It's just not necessary to regularly replace tubes as long as they're all still operational.
@Hell Cat well tel putin to be less of a dork
Rhett- Thank you for this informative talk. I heard Robben Ford talk about this. He was talking a while back to Howard Dumble, and it was a bit surprising, in the sense that Howard said that the solid state technology will get there. That’s coming from Howard! Last year, I bought a Fnder Tone Master Twin Reverb. During my career, I’ve mostly played tube amps. And have a couple at my home. But, the Twin TMaster is a close as I’ve heard to a tube circuit. And it’s 33 pounds, it doesn’t kill my back. This could be the beginning of the end for tube amps, outside of a small percentage of players. Thank you again, Rhett.
The Fender Tone Master Twin is a killer amp! I picked up a used blonde twin, it has that great Fender tone! With a few pedals, it can literally go from clean to mean and compete with my tube amps!
Quilter is doing some amazing work with SS amps that have a tube like feel. I think its here, but with a limited number of builders.
Being electronics engineer and a guitar player for many decades with deep knowledge into amps, I think that you are on the right track. It is, however, difficult to figure out what will happen to the tube industry. Tube amps do have a unique sound mainly due to the tube characteristics, but with increasing capabilities of computer processors and some transistors it is getting very close to being able to produce sounds that closely resemble the tube sound. Personally, I love tube amps and I have been using them for decades, but I have been using effects processors and plug-ins for some time now and one thing that you can see is that these get better and better as technology evolves and the possibilities with these new devices of which some are purely software on your computer are endless. And don't forget that the vast majority of pedals are based on solid state devices.
This was a long comment, but short in terms of what could be said about the subject, hope it makes sense!
As an electronics engineer, would it be possible to create a solid state substitute for a tube that could plug right into a tube socket? I understand that it would be difficult to make it sound just the same but it could make tube amps convertible. I am not an engineer but conceptually is it a possibility?
@@aoandthekos1417 That is a very interesting question and as an engineer, I would say that it would in principle be possible to create a solid state device that would fit in a tube socket. It has been done with rectifiers and even though they are much simpler devices it should also be possible with other tubes. I have never thought about a direct solid state replacement for amplification tubes, but I am definitely fired up to investigate the subject and it seems like a good chapter for my website.
What I have looked into is recreating a tube performance using solid state devices at low operating voltage where it is easier to find devices with tube-like characteristics. It will be interesting to see if there are high voltage devices that could fit the bill.
This is a short answer to the question, but I am poised to look into this further!
@@hankgesmag9650 thanks. You mentioned a website. Can you please send a link?
This is heartbreaking. Honestly getting my 1st tube amp was what made me get super serious into guitar playing. It was that moment when I was like this is what it is really all about and it all made sense. I really hope this isn’t the death of tube amps.
I remember my first amp I played guitar through was my Pioneer 100watt stereo receiver..
Just think of the great amp you could have got if you spent your money on something other than expensive tubes. I'm not against tube amps, but the initial cost and upkeep is diabolically expensive. ✌️🇦🇺
My first tube amp was an epiphone valve Jr. Head. It was so cool when you turned it all the way up it distorted so good
I think it will simply bring more amp manufacturers into 2022. The Fender Tonemaster series Blonde update is just amazing. I mean Marshall made the Lead 12 about 40 years ago and instead of developing it they just stopping making it. One of their best sounding amps and it’s solid state.
@@Richtone85 my dad had a lead 12 they really are amazing amps. They should do away with the MG series and bring back the lead 12.
We’ll see the same thing the vinyl production industry is facing right now: 12-18 month back orders for production at fewer facilities. As long as there are tube amps in circulation, factories will make vacuum tubes. Feeling fortunate that I dropped new EL84s and 12AX7s in my AC30 last year.
That is not true. There were plenty of tube amps in circulation when tube production ceased in western countries in the eighties. If it had not been for the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, tube amps would be a novelty. The Soviet Bloc countries held on to tube technology longer than western countries. They did so because vacuum tubes are most resistant to electromagnetic pulse energy than silicon.
Mike Matthews is a wild man. He’ll move his factory before he lets Russia end tube amps.
I was just thinking about this, mans literally bought a tube factory bc he was tired of issues stocking them. Maybe he'll buy the old e.i. factory next.
Yeah, I really hope so!
That won't work. The capital required to produce the tubes is not trivial. Most of the sites producing tubes today have produced tubes since the sites were first opened many years ago. Sure the owners have changed...but the physical production sites have not. The tooling and skills required to produce these tubes does not exist outside of Russia, China or Slovakia and the market is too small to build it from the ground up elsewhere.
All good points. I wonder how many things have the words, Electro Harmonix on them. A few. He’s sure to have ties with folks the run the gamut from fifty years in the biz. Stranger things have happened. But I hear ya. Picturing creating the parts and assembly of tubes is a daunting proposition. This too shall pass.
I went through a very similar event back in the early 1980's, when the last U.S. tube manufacturers stopped making tubes, The U.S.S.R. was closed to all western countries leaving only P.R.C. as our only source of tubes. I know this all happened long before you were born, but I grew up during the Cold War, when the Russians were our enemies, we had a similar situation, with most tube Amp manufacturers, developing more hybrid and solid state amps, as well as the price of both tubes and tube amps skyrocketing at the time. My advice is not to worry about the tube supply, and please, everyone, STOP panic buying anything, whether it's toilet paper, bread or tubes!
In the early 1980's an RCA/Sylvania salesman told me the U. S. would never run out of vacuum tubes, even if American tube factories were closing. As a hifi repairman and guitar player, I asked what I should do. "Buy what you can afford now, and call me when you've got more money in the future." How did he know I would have way more money in the future?
For real. Idiots panic buying will cause more problems than the actual shortage
@@Nick-qq2nq best is these are exact the same people who make fun of the preppers for horting food before..yet these panic now about sunflower oil, toiletpaper and flour 🙄
Or tubes 🤣
@@Nick-qq2nq Videos like this one lead to more panic buying. Super irresponsible to put out such a dumb alarmist video. The guy really is a dullard.
The last set of 6L6s in my dual rec lasted about 20 years and are still good, so the new set I bought should see me right for a while, at least for power tubes. Hope I don't need any 12ax7s though, tried to buy some tung sols the other day and they've shot from $20 to around $90 .
I feel like this is just temporary and as price and demand rises, production will make a resurgence and the increase in supply will drive prices back down a bit as tubes approach an equilibrium.. that said.. I am using my universal audio amp plugs more and more these days and something like an AX FX is certainly becoming more and more appealing..
same, UAD rules
I think the key thing here is: who is going to produce them? Some posters below allude to small industries dedicated to keeping alive otherwise outdated tech and hobbies/practices based on that tech. Something like that will need to happen.
@@paulvsmith I personally don’t think the Russian tubes will be offline forever and the Chinese tubes will likely be available even sooner.. I do think the temporary spike in demand, if it lasts long enough to cause a significant price increase, could spark some other smaller manufacturers to get into the market..
@@stabzatvisionz prices and availability will remain high if people follow the advice to only replace tubes every 6 years or more...every two or 3 years and they'll keep making new ones..
I left tubes behind a couple of years ago. I've owned and enjoyed Fenders, VHT, Marshall, Vox, Reverend, Swart, Sovtek, and others. Quilter has been doing amazing things with their all analog solid state designs (no modeling found here!), and they've become my go-to amp live and in the studio. Plus, there's a lot more to them than just being tubeless. Check them out, you might be surprised.
Thanks I was looking at Quilter a few days ago.
I had a friend who had a vox it sounded like mud because the tube's were never replaced people don't realise the sound does change overtime and they are a service item to a degree
I would put my Quilter up against most tube amps and choose the Quilter every time.
I bought a Quilter Aviator Cub and I am very happy with it.
Couldn't agree with you more. It's a new world of great sounding gear out there, but for me I still love pushing air and hearing tube break up. I also own some quilter products and we deal them at the store I work at. They sound great and have their place in the world of live music. Who knows what the future will hold for guitar players? Also, props for mentioning Swart amps. They are produced in my home town. Just a few miles away from where I live.
The thing that drives me crazy to this eventual move away from tubes, is that everyone is over exaggerating how close digital/ solid state amps sound to tube. Maybe a kemper can sound close in a head to head shootout straight up. But with that being said, as soon as you put pedals in front of any none tube amp, it doesnt react the same. I'm not saying it sounds bad, it just doesn't come anywhere close in my experience.. and I don't believe they ever will.
The battle of the mind versus reality.
True, not only do many SS amps sound harsh or total shite but they don't react in the same way as a tube amp does to touch or the guitar's volume control.
@@Mark95876 the greatest counterexample I can give for your statement was the fact that B. B. King, from 1974 to his death, used his Lab Series Lab 5 solid state amp more than 99% of the time. He only used tube amps when his Lab 5 was in maintenance, or if it wasn't possible/feasible to bring them in, in these cases he asked for Fender Twin Reverbs. One thing you cannot say is that B. B. King had a bad tone.
@@nichendrix yea i agree solid state amps can sound good in there own way, but different. And I also can't argue with BB's tone, but he didn't use pedals as far as I am aware. My point is solid state and more specifically digital do not react the same to pedals. And being someone who uses pedals for my gain stages, I can tell you I am yet to here a convincing sound out of a digital amp when I run my board in front of it... It sounds like compressed garbage with 0 note definition. From Mustang gtx to Kemper.
@@nichendrix I may be wrong but I don't think that B B King played through digital pedals into a distorted SS amp.
I personally think it just means that the tube sound will become even more expensive and sought after but people will still crave after it, Chip shortage is a problem too so the solid state stuff will be hard to build and probably become just as expensive as well its a bit like saying you cant have a v8 corvette any more so here's a Toyota Prius it still gets you from a to b but not in the same way a corvette would
There's a local blues jam that has been going on for 17 years that I just started attending. You have to bring your own gear so I brought my 90's reissue Fender Vibroverb, SG and Pedalboard. The idea was to get into the club with only one trip to the car. Gibson SG in a hardcase in one hand, Vibroverb in the other hand and my PedalTrain board in the backpack that they make. Stating the obvious: that Vibroverb is heavy! I had this in mind when I started thinking about the optimum jam rig. Between the first time I went to the jam and the second time, this video came up. That made me think about an amp in a pedal format. No tubes? No problem, it's solid state! A few folks do it, but the Quilter options looked really intriguing. Today I went to Quilter Labs HQ in Irvine. They just moved locations. Still unpacking but they were gracious enough to let me come. Pat Quilter was there! *Mind blown*. I tried the Superblock US and the UK version. Wow. Blown away. They both sound great. I brought my Fender Vibro Champ to have something to compare them to and didn't even bother. I brought my pedalboard and my 12" Speaker cab. I walked away with the US version but they're both phenomenal. Really excited to try them out in context.
Same shit happened in the 80’s with the Cold War. History repeats itself.
Remember when it was said CD's would kill vinyl. Ironically CD's ended up being decimated by streaming. In the UK vinyl now considerably outsells CD's. For Vinyl think Valve, for CD think transistor, for Streaming think Digital modelling. Short term valves are in a precarious position, but belive me they'll still be around in ten years time and by then thriving again.
100% my thoughts😅
And vinyl is as popular as ever.
Great point!
And of course, streaming is still digital...Most people listen over their tiny little cell phones so it's not really that much of an issue at this point.
we have been brainwashed with vinyl. that crackle when playing a record. though they do look great on a wall.
A fact I just learned the 12Ax7 tube was invented in Camden, Nj… Nj has a crazy rich history of inventions… anyway I’m sure from what I’ve seen and experienced historically this should be a temporary issue… I’ve been using tube mic preamps, guitar pedals with tubes and tube amps for almost my whole music career which is more than 35 albums in a little more than 30 years however I’ve also used guitar amp modeling technology, guitar effects and amp modeling plugins… all of these various techniques and even tube instrument direct boxes… virtual pedals and many analog pedals…. I use vintage and modern gear… I fairly recently realized the tube shortage and also realized I had a few back ups… I just purchased some hybrid tube guitar amp heads for an upcoming project… there are many work arounds to warm up digital and solid state amps, plug-ins, modeling amps etc… as an audio engineer I don’t turn my nose up at anything… I even have this plugin I’ve had for many years which emulates a tube… it’s programmable and has two distinct tube types… my recordings are considerably warm…
Well-handled Rhett. This afternoon I was doing my usual browsing guitar gear on Reverb and stumbled across a cool looking shop selling boutique effects, based in Kyiv. It stopped me in my tracks. I hope to god they’re ok and this conflict ends soon.
vote Republican in the future
As a tape guy, there are only two tape companies left in the world, and one was only founded a little over 10 years ago in Pennsylvania and was set up specifically to make small batches of tape for musicians. I don't see why something similar couldn't happen. We've seen whole pet industries develop to manufacture to keep antiquated tech alive. I'm think of vinyl mastering, reel to reel tape restoration companies, and of course vinyl pressing where some new vinyl pressing machines were in fact made new. So there is hope, and certainly demand, for something similar.
Absolutely! I just hope it doesn’t become a commodity exclusively or primarily for the affluent.
John Kaplun - Tube manufacturing is extremely toxic, and very cost intensive. It would have to be a large market, or none at all. A small market would not make it cost effective to even take it on.
@@christopherweise438 Well pretty much all the same points could be made about tape or film, but they're still going. Clearly a smaller market than in the past will exist, but its clear there's enough demand for at least one factory to operate since the one in Russia was backorder months. The hard part will be finding the equipment and starting.
@@johnkaplun9619 - I get it, but it's not nearly the toxic mess to manufacturer tape or film as it is tubes.
I highly doubt the EPA would even allow it in the U.S. That's why the only plants exist in Russia and China where they don't give a shit about pollution.
That already exists. There's a guy in my town who makes tubes but they are fairly expensive already
Vacuum tubes (valves) are also used in some high-end mic preamps, and also as the front-end buffer/preamp inside some high-end studio mics. So guitar amps aren't the only part of the musical signal chain that's being affected by this. -Tom
This goes well beyond current teens. I'm 30 now and I have never even owned a tube amp. The conveniece and price to performance ratio of the modelling technology just made it hard for me to justify. These days what I see half the time is guys my age and older leaving their heavy guitar heads at home and turning in to gigs with a modeller.
same. I'm 47 and never had a tube amp. No one has ever said i would sound better if i had a tube amp lol
@@kiethyrich You would sound much better if you had a tube amp
I'm 38. I have never owned a tube amp either. In my opinion, they're too expensive, too loud, and I don't think they sound any better.
I do have a small tube amp for my vinyl turntable rig, and that sounds nice. But if the tubes go, then I am not going to lose any sleep in replacing it with something else.
@@kiethyrich I'm 47 too, and while solid state can sound good (I've owned both types of amps, as well as a hybrid amp w/ solid state power section and a small tube in the preamp), with tubes, it's the "feel" and touch that set them apart. If you've never played a tube amp, it's hard to explain. Simply put, tube amps just feel different (better) than solid state.....especially when you really push the tube amp, which you can easily do and still keep it at lower volumes with a good load box. I once had a Sovtek Mig 100H, and it was pretty impressive for such a "cheap" amp back then - wish I never sold that thing. I fully cranked it once (back then, the only load box really available was a Marshall power brake, which I didn't have), had to put it in the basement while I played from the first floor lol. So awesome though, and the amp reallllllly came alive when pushed to the max.
I’m 38 and I went from Roland cube to fender bassbreaker to Vox ac30. I really prefer the dynamic characteristics of a proper tube amp. Might switch to a fender 68 pro reverb in the near future.
We'll see what happens, patience is most definitely a virtue during times like these.
Patience, and good whiskey.
@@theodosios2615 Definitely good whisky!
I've been recording DI for over 40 years. Starting with Boss effects into my Portastudio in 1980 and continuing today with a Pocketstudio to record and Audacity for mixdown.
I predict companies have already fired up their engineering teams on how to fill the gap with solid-state amplifier alternatives, thus bringing forth a new wave of incredible and affordable solid-state and modeling amplifiers. This might be the push big brands needed to invest more in solid-state lineups and take modeling farther than it's ever gone before.
they do not compete with a good tube amp, otherwise they would have stopped making them decades ago.
They better fire those people cause they are gonna sell alot less amps
@@Ottophil Alternatively they can just wait until supplies are entirely depleted and lay off the team you're saying should be fired now. I personally prefer a tube amp over modeling any day, but what do you do when there are no more tubes? When no new tube amplifiers can be built? An alternative has to be considered.
They already have! I use an orange CR120c and it's the best solid state amp I've ever heard. It emulates tube breakup in a way that I've never seen solid state amps ever accomplish. They even improved upon this with the release of the Super Crush 100. Trust me, the future is now.
Yuck.
I’ve only had a few budget tube amps over the years and they never impressed me that much. I switched to the orange crush 120 and run a pedal board into the front. It’s a great compromise because it is tube like, but not digital, budget friendly, and still looks like a “real” amp.
Tubes in the music industry will never go away. They tried that already, didn’t work then. Supplies may go down and it might become very difficult to obtain but once supplies come back, the demand will be there with open arms.
Whatever is pleasing about the Vacuum Tube, you can easily replicate it with the RC20 VST. I can apply whatever "vintage quality" to the audio that I want. You want Vinyl Crackle? You can add that. You want Wow & Flutter? You can add that. You want Harmonic Distortion??? You can add that. You want a Wider Stereo Separation??? You can add that. And you can A/B (turn the effect OFF & ON and decide whether you like the sound before or after the RC20 effect). Digital VSTs have come a long long way.
I could probably make a "Fake Vinyl Rip" that would fool the most snobby Audiophile. Lol...
@@kitsunegiblaze8022 Can i ask : Is the RC20 VST some kind of micro chip?
@@vincentl.9469 -- It's a VST plug-in for Adobe Audition... It's a versatile method of adding a "Vintage Feel"
@@kitsunegiblaze8022 you plug it into a computer?
@@vincentl.9469 ---- It's Software, just look up RC20....
I cannot imagine that a thriving boutique handwired amp industry is giving up that easily. Someone will pick up tooling and take on production somewhere in the world.
Its difficult and you need parts to make them. But the biggest problem is its not friendly to the environment and we are headed into a 'everything must be green" new world. I don't think any new companies will be popping up.
I probably wont ever get a tube amp (at least a loud one), but I would definitely hate for them to go away. I have a boss Katana for bedroom playing and Neural DSP for recording purposes, so imo I dont have the need for a tube amp, but they have been such an integral part of music history and have a unique tone to them, it would blow if they went away.
Katanas are superb, they cover just about all styles and applications. At the same time, nothing really matches a tube amp. It's not the sound, it's the way it responds to your playing. Dynamics.
@@darthgibsonlp6631Ding Ding...spot on. The response for players is different and you see little mention of that when comparing tube to modeling. Nice catch...cheers
Just so happens, I'm the proud owner of a Boss Katana KTN-100 1 X 12 amp, I also have the optional foot controller and amp cover too, wonderful little amp.
Thanks you for support and good words! Wish you only the best!
It is a sad situation in Ukraine. I am glad you gave voice to the very real human condition happening. Definitely that is where the world will see changes that affect us all. That said I remember back in the 80’s it was a pretty forgone conclusion that tubes and everything tubes were in the past. The only chance of finding tubes was NOS. There was a great resurgence in the 90’s and I only hope that peace returns and the world returns to “normal” with or without tubes. One door closes and another one opens.
Have to do more than just "give voice". voting or not voting has consequences. now we feel it in our pocket due to fuel prices and instability on the world stage due to weak American leaders. Voting the wrong way has consequences all the way down to an insignificant guitar amp tube.
I hope they eventually can make solid state amps that respond and feel like a tube amp. It’s not just the sound but the physical connection you get with tubes.
peavey did it back in the 90's with the red stripe & silver stripe peavey bandits, 80 watts of analog solid state goodness.
@@BlackJupiterOfficial I believe these amps are “sleeper’s in the Nashville scene.
Roland Jazz Chorus Amps are actually solid state and having been around for a while. They have been used by many bands and tons of recording studios.
@@kevinpolochak9477 JC’s are beasts
Try out a JC or an Orange Crush, they've got character !
I was born the same month and year the transistor was announced. In my crib, staring up at my mobile, I knew this day was coming.
I am an individual who has big boxes of new tubes in my house. All sorts of guitar amplifier tubes. I totally agree with your assessment for 2 primary reasons. 1, SS amps are getting better and better everyday. 2, tubes are bad for the environment and younger people are very supportive of cleaning the environment & stopping globalwarming. I am 71 years old so my family or friends will have no problems with their tube amps if there still is a good amp tech to repair them. Tubes will not be their issue.
Someone needs to invent a digital transistor, or cluster of transistors, that fits into tube sockets and make one for the standard preamp and power amp tube sockets! Then you could download various parameters for different tubes and have a Bluetooth connection to adjust settings on the fly
Any tube amp could be easily restomodded to modern specs, if all it needed was new tubes anyway.
I started playing guitar through a stereo boombox and might end playing through something similar!
tube amp makers should have an economic incentive to do something about vacuum tubes, whether that's to create digital or solid state replacements or to create a tube manufacturing facility with real environmental impact controls or something else.
If they don't do something about it, they will lose business, and many tube amp owners will have a bunch of non-working tube amps that will become prohibitively expensive to keep working as the available tube supply dwindles.
While I currently use digital modelers, I own several tube amps, I have a few spare tubes but not enough,. One of my power amps alone requires 8 x 6L6GC "matched" tubes and 3 x ECC83S tubes!
Even more challenging is my vintage Hammond A-102 and matching Leslie 142 that need several tubes each to keep going.
AMT actually makes something like that: "12AX7 Warm Stone" solid-state circuit that reacts as a preamp tube.
@@zoomzoom3950 possibly Fender, Mesa, Marshall could all get together and start a tube factory in Indonesia or South America.
Vox just needs to make Nutube work in old-fashion tube amps.
@@zoomzoom3950 or simply ban together and start their own factory in China or Indonesia.
Antique electronic Supply still has JJ 6v6 pairs, couldn't find them anywhere else
This is going to be a bump in the road. after watching your video I did some research and found that a company in Georgia - the state not the country - is looking to expand its tube production. The company is called Western Electric, and they currently produce one type of tube for High Fidelity audio equipment.
I thought that they are out of business completely but apparently not. I remember that like a decade ago they were making almost all basic tubes, like KT88, 6L6 and US equivalent of 12AX7 and one or two more. But today they only make 300B, sadly. AFAIK those tubes were not that readily available in Europe back then.
Maybe thats a good thing. Its about time the traditional brands invest serious money on research and development to make real top of the line solid state amps.
Tube amps not only sound better but u can't replicate the touch sensitivity/ feel of tube amps . I'm glad I have stacks of tubes !
I strongly agree with Rhett on many of his important points. I have saved every tube I've ever changed out, so my sound may eventually have a lot of squealing and pops in it if I am forced to recycle some of these. One can only hope this becomes the new sound guitar fans covet. We may need new parameters in our modelers to mimic these old tired tubes.
This is something I never really thought about. I currently own a Marshall Vintage Modern 2266C (bought used several years ago) which I absolutely love and I don’t have any replacement tubes. I don’t use it much, however having a set or two extra tubes would make me feel better about using more (I do have a ToneMaster Twin as well). I putting this out here for all to respond; anyone know where I could get a set of these tubes, please let me know. Thank you Rhett for this video as a well as your sensitivity on this subject✌🏿🙏🏾🙏🏾
JJ is Slovakia is still making KT66s. That would be the way I go.
@@dafud77 Thank you!!! I will check them out!!!
holy cow, that'll teach me to type from my phone. JJ's are made in Slovakia lol
Germany makes better tubes , cost almost the same, more variaty and are part of Nato. Buy as mucho as you can and burn the russian (tubes) they were the werst of the bunch any how
I started playing guitar when I was 5. I got my first tube amp for my 7th birthday and I’ve only played tube amps since…. My dad got a Fender Tone Master yesterday and so I’m using a modeling amp for the first time in my life. 😞 I just took my %13 and my Morgan out of my bedroom today. I’m saving them for special occasions only. 😞😞 But I have faith that I’ll be playing tube amps again. If not now, I know my Father in heaven has a room waiting for me. And in that room, there will surely be a Gibson that stays in tune, leaning up against a %13 amp. ✌🏽♥️ 🎸 🤘🏽
For non-tube amps take a look at the following: Quilter Labs, Boss Nextone amps, and the Vox Nu-Tube tech. I really like my Boss Nextone. Roland Blues Cube is worth looking at too.
hi simply pi; i use a marshall ss with a boss gt100 and i am very happy with the tones. I play clean tones, and detest dirt or distortion.
Interesting to note that the decline of tube availability is happening at roughly the same time as the declining availability of traditional acoustic guitar tonewoods (although this decline has been progress for decades). In both cases, traditional tone and feel will become unaffordable to newer players. Will they miss it? Or will they just become accustomed to what they're used to?
I agree with your assessment 100%. I still own a few tube amps but 99.9% of my guitar sounds are generated with plugins these days. I can remember upright bass players throwing a fit in the 50's when the Fender bass came along. As we evolve as a species our tools change. Nostalgia can make us hold on to plans that no longer serve our goals. Adapt or die is the name of the game. Gas guzzling cars and tube amps have had a good run but we're past the point of diminishing returns.
Some electronic genius(s) need to develop a solid-state tube replacement unit. As in a tactile unit(s) that plugs directly into the tube sockets.
ROBERTS RETRO VALVES PRE AMP ONLY IF YOU CAN FIND THEM
AMT warm stone is what you say. Russian though, so, you know...
@@freddycookjr.2164 the problem with a substitute solid state valve replacement, specially power stage, is that the voltages would be too high & that means changing transformers and the circuit ..probably not possible
I’ve been playing for 57 years and currently play around 120 gigs a year. I own Fender, Fuchs, and an array of different tube amps! I know there will be people who laugh and make fun of what I’m going to say, but the best amp (work horse) in my a arsenal is a Roland Cube 60. It’s loud, it makes a wonderful pedal platform and it’s never ever let me down. I actually have another just in case my original bites the dust. I also own a Quilter 100w Aviator and paired with a 2-12 cab, it’s a beast! I own a Boss 50 and 100w Mk II Katana’s and for pedal platforms, the clean sounds can’t be beat! So for what it’s worth, there are very affordable options out there for the working guitarist! Play hard and have fun! 😉🎸
Ripley was in hyper sleep for 57 years. I drink too much....,.
Got my eye on a Boss 50 and also have a tube amp and I am old school and have played with tube amps 4 years but I am in my 50's and the older I get the heavier the Ole tube amps seem to be getting 😊
Right on..honestly us guitarists are the people that recognize this...most people at a gig don't care what a guitarists rig consists of they just care the song sounds good dude much props to you for talking about the cube.. right on dude keep jamming yourself
Before the tube crisis, there was a chip crisis. Not sure how much has this affected the production of digital modeling amps, but it can continue to happen. I will hold onto my Milkman the amp and my Quilter tone block 202 dearly.
Thats why I bought a Roland blues cube artist 2×12 with 4 tone capsules and a quilter micropro 200 they sound phenomenal no joke
I love my Roland JC-40. Fantastic clean sound, (which I'm aiming for these days), but also extremely pedal-friendly. I sold a highly-regarded boutique 1x12 tube amp and don't miss it a bit.
I bought a JC40 a month ago, best decision I've ever made honestly, sounds stellar!
My 80s era JC120 likes pedals as well.
I switched to Modeling five years ago and don't regret it.
I work with the Marshall Code 100H and the Fender GTX 100. Love it
Rhett, I can tell you with 100% certainty that as long as there is a market for tube amplifiers (and I believe there will be for as long as there's a market for electric guitars), that American manufacturers will definitely manufacture tubes on American soil. There's no chance that this Russian ban will stop Fender, Gibson, EVH, Yamaha, Marshall, et al from producing their classic amplifiers.
And a set of American made tubes, made on American soil will likely be 20 times the price. No getting around OSHA and EPA regs. that other countries don't have to deal with, plus a vastly more expensive labor pool, and start up costs. It can be done, but you won't like the price tag.
Very true...but unless production is increased buying tubes is going to feel more like buying a Klon, potentially putting them out of reach for most amateur gigging musicians and smaller studios. The upside is that the amp companies you mentioned might start dedicating more budget to developing higher quality solid state products...and maybe in a couple years some of the high-end solid state/processor options will become more available on the lower end. Hopefully.
edit: Side note, I picked up a Helix Stomp last year for $600, and it's by far the best processor I've ever heard for anywhere close to the price. My guess is that in a few years stuff like that will only get better and cheaper. I expect most big brands will be fighting to be the biggest "post-tube" guitar amp companies, and the competition will be good for consumers.
I saw an interview with Rick Heins from Fender a few years ago, and the future of tube availability isn’t good. It’s not a surprise that they have been spending R&D money on Tone Masters. That video absolutely disappeared.
Lots of products have disappeared forever because something happened that made manufacturing them too expensive. The idea that people will always make something if there's a demand is false, because sometimes the cost makes the demand stop.
@@LouSpowells JJ tubes are made in Slovenia..which is not in Russia or affiliated politically. good tubes...
Take a look at the Orange Super Crush 100. That solid state amp is very close to the sound of a Rockerverb. Solid state technology should be the way of the future for amp manufacturers, with the world changing so radically. It's forced evolution due to the circumstances in our world today.
It's kind of weird. If more big amp manufacturers had put money in the development of solid state amps in the 60s, I'm pretty sure they would have made tube amps obsolete. The technology is objectively superior and the only thing that really make tube amps "better" to a guitar player is the sag and feel. And I'm sure that effect can be achieved with solid state technology. It's just a matter of doing it. As you said, the super crush is awesome. I really enjoyed playing that amp.
I’m using a combination of Quilter and Rocktron Amos along with a lot of various boutique pedals to get classic tones like Fender, Vox Marshall and Dumble amps. I don’t miss my tube amps at all.
Every guitar influencer on UA-cam is covering this and will be directly connected to the panic buying and shortages
Yep these UA-cam videos did all the damage. Last week there were tubes , go ck Sweetwater, viva tubes , reverb, eBay . There gone
Bingo. It makes for interesting content but in the end it will cause everyone with the means to buy up everything available, completely screwing folks that buy a set or two as needed. F*cking wonderful.
@@stephenpirie8900 Are you sure no one has tried it? 🤣
And a lot of well-known guitar influencers get free stuff sent to them. Not sh*tting on Rhett at all, but geez it's like a baseball announcer talking about a no-hitter in the 6th. Ssshhhhhh! 🤫
Was able to snag 2 preamp tubes I like, 2 PI tubes, and a quad of el84s on Reverb without mortgaging the house. 👍🏻
I spoke to a supplier who told me that the Russian government has no control over the tube manufacturers. The manufacturers just keep supplying tubes.
I also remember when digital recording started making more of an impact, and those who confidently said the tech would never replace analog tape. Well, it pretty much has, aside from niche studios. It took a while to perfect the sound, but here we are. Having played tube amps since the 70s, I am happy that digital modeling is at the point it is. It will only get better.
I've owned and gigged a bunch of amps over the years, including a number of boutique brands (Dr. Z, Morgan, Fuchs). A couple years ago I bought a Fender Tone Master DR and I gotta say, it's really close. Maybe even nearly indistinguishable in a live bar gig setting with drums crashing away, etc. In a quiet room there are detectable differences in tone and feel but not drastic in my opinion. Most of my drive pedals sounded great with it, but as with any amp some sounded better than others. I flipped the TM for another boutique tube amp but if for whatever reason I decided (or needed) to go back to a TM, I'd probably just go on with my life and focus on improving as a musician. I do think these market conditions combined with the resurgence of guitar will drive manufacturers to increase their R&D budgets on the modeling side of things, and I do think modeling will continue to improve. And to those who say "it's not the same and never will be and I need my tube amp", I have to wonder if their experience with "modeling" was an old POD or Fender Mustang practice amp. The newer technology is good, and it will get better. I agree with Rhett - there will always be tube amps and there will always be tube amp players, but I think it will become an elite market and I think the cost/benefit/reliability factors won't be practical for most players with average means.
you can blow tubes with propane torch and old fridge pump for vacuum, they are breeze to manufacture compared to even simplest transistor and so long as we can figure easier casing then glass it would be even easier.
Genuine question, has any manufacturer tried making tube like replacements that have computer circuitry that mimics how tubes behave that can plug into the sockets so the amp is usable?
I get the modeler argument, what I'm asking is if manufacturers have figured out a way to easily convert the current tube amps we all currently have.
Yes Russian did. AMT Makes a 12AX7 full Solid State. Not available as well...
@@samuelsoucy-bouchard6114 so the technology is there. I watched a demo of it and I couldn't tell a huge difference in sound. I'm guessing the way its manufactured is a bit more eco friendly?
Honestly though thats the best route for amp manufacturers to go. I'd hate for everyone who owns a tube amp to be in the situation where there amp worth thousands of dollars turns into a paperweight because they can't get regular tubes.
Vox has nutubes, which is another technology that has potential. Its just a matter of them building a tube esque replacement that can fit in an amp.
There are S.S alternatives to rectifiers, but beware that B+ will be available too quickly for some output tubes and can cause unnecessary wear on them, unless they are designed with a soft start feature.
You don't need a computer a valve acts like a transistor any suitable MOSFET can replace a tube with few mods.
Some valve amplifiers have a valve preamp and a MOSFET based output stage. You get nice harmonic distortion with the valves and the reliability of a MOSFET output stage.
That doesn't make any sense at all. That'd be like saying "do you have a computer that mimics how a combustion engine behaves?" We're talking about physics here. You can't just slap a computer into a car and expect it to move. You still need a motor. The tube is the motor of the amp.
well said! i sold my mesa a month ago because i couldn’t find backup tubes. saw this coming.
I’m a drummer that has always played in bands on the heavier side of music, and have always preferred playing with guitarists who use valve amps, particularly back in the late 80’s and into the 90’s because solid state amps, particularly back, then just didn’t have the warmth and power of valve amps. Although more recently, as you mentioned Rhett, the modelling of valve amps for current plug in and digital amps has produced some convincing results. I have ventured into playing rhythm guitar, and due to finances searched high and low for a digital amp that got as close as possible to a valve amp, and settled on the Blackstar id core 150, and after hours of tweaking have managed to get pretty bloody close to that powerful warm sound of those valve amps I used to love roaring away beside me when pounding away on my drums. So, definitely a sad reality that the tube amps days might be numbered, but amp sims and digital amp alternatives are promising.
I think the tube freak out is a huge overreaction personally. I’ve had the same set of RCA and Amperex tubes in my amp for nine years. Vintage tubes last decades, not years.
If old tubes aren’t your thing, JJ’s aren’t made in Russia.
Hmm I don't think that the issue is that there won't be any replacement tubes just that the market will stop developing in that area.
I will continue to use tube amps. And yes tubes last a long time. Thankfully my tubes in my main 2 amps are less than a year old. So I am not going to buy in to any stress on whether tubes will be available or not.
@@Pinko-Diamond
The demand will lessen as years go on, sure. But guitar players aren’t the only ones who use tubes. Don’t forget how often old trends come back in style too.
nothing can ever replace tube sound especially not modelers. i advise you to get some nos tubes for your amps .
Given the current geopolitical climate, I think it's relevant to point out that vacuum tubes are virtually immune to EMP - so while the transistor is superior in most applications, this scenario is not one. I read once that during the cold war, Russia's fighter jets were still being equipped with tube-based guidance systems for this purpose.
The danger of EMPs right now is less about disrupting societies tech, and more about disrupting the frequencies used in missile defense systems. If you launch a nuke into space the EMF interacts with the magnetic field and massively disrupts the radio frequencies used in missile defense. So you nuke space, and then nuke the country while it's open to attacks
If the power grid is destroyed your tube amp is just a paperweight as well. Get a good acoustic lol
I ordered a blues jr tube set from Amazon Sunday for my 4 year old Monoprice StageRight which still has the original cheap Chinese tubes I was worried the order would not get filled but I just got notified that they shipped. The listing now says currently unavailable...
As much as I love tube amps, this may be the final nail in the coffin for me, if I’m unable to replace mine once they go.
Modeling/profiling/plug-ins are so good these days it’s insane. In a mix nobody can tell, can’t convince me otherwise.
And live nobody in the crowd gives a shit lol.
But when I’m just standing in front of my tube amp, with no band, no other people at all, that’s where it wins, and always will. Nothing touches a tube amp in that regard. The moving air, the sag, the feel, hasn’t been replicated yet.
*whispers “Quilter Superblock” *
@@mooseymoose You know, I haven’t really checked Quilter out. I’ve heard of them but no real second glance, I’ll have to rectify that.
@@jaredt3985 Check out R.J Ronquillio’s demos. J. Leonard Jay too iirc.
@@mooseymoose I play a 50 watt Quilter 101 through a 2x10 cab in my surf band The Reverbivores. It handles cleans really well, it sounds great when I add dirt, and I can get warm feedback tones when I need ‘em. In rehearsal and bar settings it’s powerful enough and in larger settings, it’s going through the stage sound reinforcement PA. I highly recommend Quilter to anyone thinking about a solid state amp.
Hope they can find more manufacturers. I do use modeling on occasion but tube amps are my go to!!!
It’s not outdated technology if it is still being used. It won’t be outdated until a solid state circuit can actually FULLY cover the sound on all levels as a tube amp. Yes some of these have come a long way but it isn’t quite there yet in MY Opinion
Have you tried a Quilter amp? I have always been a tube guy - recently switched to a Quilter 202 Toneblock and cab and it’s great and light!
We've gotten to the point where modeling and emulation takes us the rest of the way there when it comes to the "true' sound of tube amps. The Boss Katana has really hit this home for me personally. Uses less power, way more versatile and sounds almost ALMOST indistinguishable to a real tube amp.
Not that it emulates the exact sound of a real Tube Marshal or something that's not what I'm saying the sound IS a little different. But to think people wouldn't be happy with if we were all denied tubes? Its a bit sad but also, everyone is going to be ok. Everyone. Will. Be. Ok. Solid state have become awesome the past few years.
The Katana still has too much fizz on the brown channel for my taste. To my ears the Peavey Transtube amps hit a lot closer to overdriven tube amp tone. I hear a lot of good things about the Orange CR120 as well.
If it doesn't have tubes it's garbage 🗑️
@@TheRosswise I agree the brown channel isn't all that great. I'm using it as a pedal platform and for time based effects on the clean channel. I've used it live and no one would everk now the difference the amp itself wasn't tube including me. And I've wanted a Marshall half stack my whole life but I'm starting to reconsider that idea. Its just not very practical.
@@SUPERBURLBOYROY I mean don't get me wrong tubes sound great and you're allowed to think they're better. But garbage? Your age is showing dude.
@@rokku87 your ears are showing. Yes it's garbage and if you had any ability to notice you would notice.
Well someone should take advantage and start making them in the USA again.
My understanding is that EPA regulations just don't make it possible to start building tubes in the USA - at least not profitably
@@40WattPodcast thats a shame…we cant make them because of pollution, but its ok if other countries pollute the shit out of the planet making goods we import…As long as we cant see it, its ok…its the ol’ “dont look over there, look over here” bs..
This is an important one. You communicated it well.
I have three tube amps that are 30+ years old with tubes that are 20+ years old. Not sure I am so worried about this. I also have matched set replacements for them so I am really not worried. These kind of videos will only create panic buying by greedy people. Way to go!
Exactly.
We still have JJ in Slovakia that makes a lot of tubes and now I would imagine there will be more of a chance of some small manufacturers popping up probably not in the U.S. due to labor costs and environmental regulations but maybe South America.
Tubes aren't just for guitar amps, there is also demand from pro audio which uses tube micpre's, compressors, eq's and as well a small high end consumer audio market for stereo amps, preamps, and headphone amps.
Sure Russia is a set back but I'm confident that many people will still want tubes for their gear.
As more people get into guitar around the world many will be happy with modeling and transistor amps as they are today but I think there will always be an interest even if it is a small fraction of the market to do amplification the old school original way.
@@7171jay JJ makes decent tubes. Have used them in many of my tube amps with good results. They even held up well in a VOX AC30, which is hostile towards EL84s. Also, Brimar UK is looking to go back into British manufacturing of tubes aka Valves.
I think this is a supply bump in the road while demand is still going strong. If vacuum tubes, a.k.a. valves, are still profitable, someone enterprising will find the materials, location, labor and technology to make them, sell them and distribute them.
Exactly my point also.
Very well said. Good job even during a bad time...
As of today almost everything is sold out. No power tubes anywhere. Some tube stores completely shut down till next week. Thanks for the reminder,I was able to order 2 quads of 6l6 tubes.
At one point do people start buying cheaper older heads to cannibalize the tubes to put in more upscale amp heads? I don't even want to think what it may end up costing to retube something like an SVT head
Haha. Reminds me of an uncle buying used televisions in the 70s for parts. The house was full of TVs with no CRTs and various other parts missing.
@@BellsCuriosityShop I can so see some of the crazed amp set stacking up their garages with gutted amp heads and oscilloscopes.
V4B kinda expensive, too!
Maybe the VST amp sims will just get so good that tubes won't be an issue.
@@offbeatbassgear Guys like the Guitairmoronologist are probably jumping up and down right now - if you've seen that guy's videos, you know he's got piles of junk strewn all over his house.
When he's not foaming at the mouth on one of his completely insane and baseless political rants that nobody but him cares about, that is.
I switched to a BIAS Guitar Mini head in spring of 2020 - and never looked back. The head weighs just over 5 lbs and delivers 300 watts @ 4 Ohms which powers my Blackstar 2x12 cab nicely. Line out for FOH so no clunky (sometimes crappy) mic on the cab. The head features 8 clean channels and 8 dirty channels, each highly tweakable. I built an Arduino-powered 6-channel MIDI footswitch so I am good there. I did keep my Marshall DSL40 combo though. 8) Love the channel man! \m| |m/
What do we do about the overwhelming performance gap between tubes and solid state and how we maintain the tone we love?
As someone who's never really gelled with modeling amps/software in general, I'm cautiously optimistic that this tube shortage will push the well-made solid-state amp to the foreground. I've been solid state pretty much from day 1 with bass and Orange has made me a believer on guitar as well. I know a lot of guitarists think solid state is a dirty word, but it's mostly because people made them cheap. Now if the big amp builders and boutique amp makers made the switch... this could potentially get us some really big sounds in really small packages (and easy on the budget to boot) while still maintaining a true all-analog circuit path.
My uncle has a little solid state Orange amp that’s like 15 or 18 watts and man, it sounds so cool! Solid states (as long as you’re not buying dirt cheap) are actually pretty, well, solid these days. Even the twin reverb solid state thing isn’t half bad.
But scarcity breeds ingenuity, and I hope this forces companies to really nail down replicating tubes both in modelers and solid state amps. I could do a modeler, but like rhett says there’s just something about having a cab in the room moving air that you just can’t replace
I prefer tubes for guitar and hi-fi There is also another topic involved in both some guitar players and hi-fi audiophiles prefer ceramic loudspeakers But some Prefer for guitar and hi-fi Old school high efficiency Alnico loudspeakers its ver similar to transistor VS tube I prefer tubes into alnico in both cases .
This is a big deal, to a very small group of people. Myself included. Call me a boomer but I don't think modelers sound as good as tube amps. Close? Sure. The same? No. I wish someone out there would invent a new method of tube production that isn't as harmful to the environment, because that's obviously a big deal. I would be really sad to see a world without tube amps. Playing though a tube amp is just one of those things that IMO can't be replicated. At least not yet.
Right on William! Tubes rule!
Why is tube production harmful to the environment? lots of things in life could be said to be harmful
Tube amps for life!
i am a older player and so i own lots to tube amps but my most used amps are 2x30 watt roland cube amps. the ability of these modeling amps to sound great with any guitar i use, is the reason. they are light and are loud enough to gig with. tube amps will not die. if there is demand for a product somebody will build it.
It's not a problem. It's a transition.
Things won't be as before... but what matters in the end is the music. Also: Acoustic instruments are awesome. Let's make music with whatever we have to hand.
I bought a full new set to refurbish my Vibrolux this summer (5Y3GT, two SV6GT's, two 12AX7's). After several phone calls, I was able to fill the order. Each type came from a different part of the country. Total cost was $200. Through some confusion, I would up with an extra set of 12AX7's (that I paid for). Even though I saw they were made in Russia and I knew about the war and the export bans, I returned them for $75. I think the high cost of tubes will make people think twice about stockpiling. Although deep pockets will almost certainly buy out the market. This could get weird when you just need a replacement tube and they want to sell you a new amp. I do think some other less environmentally conscious, more economically stricken nation would build factories to meet the demand.
Quit causing panic.
I stopped using tube amps years ago. Solid state and modelling options have caught up with tube amps decades ago and nobody noticed.
Kiko used the Quad-Cortex on the last Megadeth tour.
I usually prefer analog ss amps and HATE modelers. Anyway I needed to replace my analog amp sim(SansAmp knockoff) on my church board. We go direct to FOH so I did some homework and picked up the Joyo Preamp-House pedal with XLR output. I use the JCM900 model on there and It sounds great to me. Don't know if it perfectly mimics a JCM900 or not but I don't care. I just tried the different amps until I found something that worked good. To me the biggest problem with the older modelers was that slight time delay the DSP had back then. These ones now feel instant.
lol
@@yurimodin7333 I have a JCM 900 and I find most modellers get it close enough. My Mooer GE250 almost nailed it. Even my Digitech RP1000 got really close over a decade ago. But yeah the delay times between switching was a deal breaker back in the day, the newer stuff is almost instant unless you are using a ton of reverb/modulation effects at the same time.
My grandfather was a Ham Radio operator he left me all of his equipment and parts when he passed. I have about 4K tubes some still in boxes, no idea what they go to. I guess I need to start sorting...
Hey Rhett, Do you think either Vox's Nutube or Peavey's Transtube technologies will emerge as the next dominant tube technology for those that may not want to go the modelling route, at least for pre-amp stage? However, I do agree with you that digital modelling is the more likely heir apparent.
Nigel Barnes - Whilst I love my old tube amps, oftentimes my go-to gear is my Boss Katana with a Vox Nutube pedal in front. Works a treat! :)
The Nutube driven Voxes have already become my go to amps. Just out of practicality really. It's lighter and more reliable. This video has definitely given me a lot to think about. Maybe I just make the switch to all Nutube and modelling gear?
@@ruiseartalcorn Good on you mate! Full disclosure, the reason I posed the question is in part due to the fact that I have a Vox Cambridge 50, and a Peavey Bandit, so I have direct experience with both. The Cambridge 50 my go-to. It is a modeler, but I just use the AC30, and clean boutique amp settings. To my ear, it's a great pedal platform, and gets me pretty close to my HRD, and in some ways sounds better. It cost a lot less, it's plenty loud while staying clean and weighs next to nothing. I have no need to run it at maximum volume, so it's more than adequate for my needs. I'm sure people with more selective ears may not agree with me, but it sounds good to me. And as we've heard from our man Rhett and others, if it sounds good, it is good.
There will always be people who will only play tubes, whether it makes sense or not.
Check out Fender's Tonemaster Deluxe Reverb. I think that sort of technology is much more likely to become the next dominant guitar amp trend than the Nutube or Transtube
I think the situation will improve as iconic brands will remain in high demand. Demand will pressure innovation and we will get through this.