Are Tube Amps Fighting a Losing Battle?  

Tube Amps Here 👇

The amp warmth is undeniable.

i have to say that both sounds great, but the response under the fingers that gives you a tube amp is on another level

I loved when he said “it’s guitaring time” and started playing the guitar

Didn’t know there was such a big difference between the two. But I think it’s all about the type of sound you’re looking to create for a particular effect. Not one size fits all

imo as long as you get the music you want out of it, it’s perfect

Either one is useful and a playing musician should have both. Whatever gets you to the sound you want is the right option.

Something about the sim just feels thin and artifiical, while the amp feels full, warm, and raw, which i love.

The good thing about sims are that you can get virtually any tone you want pretty easily. I still think I prefer a real amp there’s just something that’s more present with them. I’m actually about to start recording some songs and still deciding which one to use

It's amazing how you fit what other RU-vidrs would put into a 20 minutes video, in just a single short. Thanks for making these videos so simple and to the point!

There’s a brightness with Fender tube amps that simulators will never be able to replicate perfectly imo.

Omg what a good laugh bro. Thank you.

Very good comparison, personally I don't think you can beat the sound of the tube amp but for the slight difference that there is amp modellers can definitely be worth it for a lot of people due to the practicality. Would be interesting to see a similar comparison between a tube amplifier, an amp modeller and a solid state amp also. Great video!

This really deserves more love, man, keep it up!

Tube amps have so much warmth,love the sound

I feel like that simulated tone is gonna sit waay better in a mix

I guess with an amp, tube or not, it really comes down to how you mic/record it as well as everything in the chain; amp sims give more of an instant, ready to go sound that’s pretty good. In some cases better than micing an amp if you don’t have a professional studio at home.

Nothing beats the Tube amps, but it does have a pretty good tone.

Option 3: solid state

Beautiful playing

My top amp modeller… …a donner 😅

Honestly i feel like the amp sim has a bit cleaner and brighter of a sound definitely much better for a recording type of setting

I love the way tubes sound. I have a 72 American made strat and tubes are perfect for that guitar

I like the warmth and fullness of the tube amp it has the nice rich lows but to each their own and sometimes the versatility of a sim makes up for it not being real

Tubes feel like the guitar is talking. Everything else feels like the guitar is being translated.

i really like the warmth of the tubes,

I just love plugging into my nice tweed tube amp watching em glow up and then listening to the nice warm sound it’s so relaxing and nothing beats it

Nothing like the smell of fresh tubes when they get cookin' 😊

Why is this even a question? Tube amps all the way!

I think tube amps feel a lot better to play but an amp sim can get you a similar sound with the right eq and cab simulator

Tube Amp just sounds so smooth and iconic

Young man you have some of the best rhythm I have ever seen. I have been playing guitar for 58 years. Keep Rockin!

What chords were in the second phrase?

Speakers make all the difference, as well as the mix. You can make them both sound identical or totally different with editing the EQ. Tube amps are antique.

Both are great and it’s really the guitarist that is the deciding factor of what sounds better

Aight, I’m gonna need to know what that riff is from, holy that’s nice

No, the real argument is under $500 vs. $2500 to produce a near identical sound?

I didn't realize they were so different but the tube sound so much warmer and just more satisfying to me

Also nothing like the feeling of a very loud tube amp waiting.. with an occasional crackle..daring you to strike a chord that will all but blow the windows out..😎

Recording preference - digital Live preference - tube Boom this is settled.

Never ever will the sound of a tube amp be replaced by something programmend... an amp is like a living organism... and thats what makes it unique... like a human able to express feeling..

I have all the best of both (I’m 53 so just like the internet I’ve lived big portions of my life before and after) sure there’s no substitute for the things a tube amp can do just like there’s no substitute for the things sims can do. If you ever had to schlep a half stack up two flights of stairs to play in front of the bartender and 2 or 3 girlfriends…again…knows just how beautiful that quad cortex is. As someone who has played a thousand shows, everywhere from the VFW in Bozeman to Slim’s (SF) I promise 99% of the “lord golden ears” that claim they can hear a difference when the band is in kick ass mode is probably still holding on to their FTT too

I've never heard a Solid State amp that sounded like a tube amp, at least in person. I wish I could find one because tubes are almightily expensive

In my experience IR is great for bedrooms and recording, but as soon as you get on stage and start pushing 100db they thin out. Nothing feels better than a valve amp moving air behind you.

Tube no question about it👍

the tube amp just has this much fuller and deep tone

I could feel the solid state coming through the screen

Thank you for settling this debate once and for all lol

I’d like to see what speakers were being used, and then do a blind test so it’s truly a unbiased test.

Solid State, reliable and consistent. Two things a tube amp will NEVER be!

The first one sounded the fullest and most rich imo

I feel like this is entirely about preference and application but tube amps do have a distinct warm and beautiful sound

Tube Amps for Recording and Practice. Amp Sims for Touring

It's not only about how they sound, it's about how they react. Digital equipment can sound incredible, but they are consistent.

ngl, i love and owned tube amps, but that virtual tone doe 🤯

The Sim sounds cleaner than the tubes, but the tubes give it a certain twang and flavour that can't be beat... Both sound great

It's more about the way it feels. I loved my solid-state amps before I bought a tube amp... Now it's really hard to go back. Especially now that I have my Mesa Boogie 😬

Tube for life.

They both sound good in different ways

even though i despise how you play, this is real talent

Top of the line sim: DONNER?!

You can't match the interactions of valves , The swell, the ripples the colours. Sometimes my total gig is about how tubes are firing they dictate my approach a given days.Truly alive.

I was JUST asking myself if I should have gone with a positive grid instead of my blues junior. You made me glad I went with an all tube amp

Time and a place for everything. Use both 🤘🏼

Daaamn that fender sounds hella good

I’ll never say one is better than the other. They serve mostly the same purpose, with some notable differences. Tube amps are random and chaotic. If you run the exact same signal through a tube amp twice, it’ll react slightly differently each time even thought it’s the same signal. I really think this is something you can feel if you’ve been playing guitar long enough. You notice the tiny little bits and pieces of variety in the feeling of playing a tube amp. It’s what makes tube amps feel exciting and powerful. You don’t have total control. While you play the amp, it also plays you to some extent. There’s no perfect consistency. Amp sims are the other side of things. They are controlled and precise. They’re basically using a snapshot of what an amp sounded like at a single instance in time and duplicating that single instance infinitely. For people who love the chaotic nature of tube amps, this can make amp sims feel flat and dull. But I personally love it. You get exactly the sound you dial in every single time, and that makes it an extremely effective tool. We’re at a point where one doesn’t sound better than the other in terms of sound quality. Both things will produce the same basic effect. It just comes down to whether you like the chaos that you can’t completely control or whether you like being able to control your sound with great precision. I think both are really cool, but amp sims win for me because I can always rely on them doing exactly what I expect them to do. With that being said, there’s something so powerful about plugging into a tube amp and getting that feeling of the amp somehow creating more out of your sound than you even intended to put into it. It’s like it has a mind of its own in a way

That tube amp was just BEAUTIFUL The drummer for the band I used to be in has a tube amp than that thing is the size of a dresser, all tall and wide. It’s super cool and sounded great

To be honest, I would probably have had difficulty telling this was a sim on a blind listening test. So it's definitely a solid choice. I do like how the tube amp seems to have more dynamics in terms of breaking up, versus the more predictable and flat output of the simulator (which can be preferable sometimes)

Compared to the sim, the tube amp sounds like how old commentators sounded on sport and commercials in the 50s and 60s

I personally like the warm sound of the tube amp but all these sounds have uses and applications

the tube amp sounds more natural and raw the amp sim sounds good but it just sounds like ur going through a solid state amp with a pedal sim that makes the solid state sound like a tube

Love that tube Amp warmth

When it comes to your style specifically, tube amps sound leagues better. But for someone like Tim or pretty much anyone in that genre, amp Sims are a lot more practical since they can be molded to do virtually anything, even some stuff regular amps cant.

In my opinion, absolutely nothing can replace a mesa-engineering/boogie stack

I thought it'd be closer than that!

In my opinion, the main thing you lose with amp sims is the randomness that can come from micing a speaker. Moving your mic millimeters will change the sound. Changing to a different microphone or speaker (even of the same model and brand) will change the sound. There's so much that can change, so no matter what you do, you can be sure your tone will be at least a tiny bit unique. With amp sims, if you download the same amp sims and cabinet impulses as someone else, you will sound the same as them. There is obviously plenty of experimentation from combining different sims and changing settings, but most people will just choose a few that sound good and go with it. It's also just a lot more intuitive and fun to experiment with real stuff. So in my opinion, when practicing or playing live, there's really no need for real amps. You're probably playing bars with shitty sound systems anyway, so just go with whatever is most convenient and leave the 4x12s at home. But for tracking an album, that's when you bring out the real gear and experiment.

Sims make EQ and Frequency Balancing so much easier for mixing and mastering I can’t lie

Tubes react to voltage in a non linear curve giving you more expressions for details

Both have thier place. Great video

amp simulators will eventually sound as good if not better than tube amps but for now the much richer tone comes from the tube amp

Tubes got that sparkle

Digital for affordability and ease of use, tubes for tone you can FEEL

Questions like this always make me wonder if people in the visual arts ever talk among themselves and ask questions like what's the better color blue or green?

I can’t decide they both sound amazing

I have the answer: they both sound so good that it is hard to tell the difference.

In my opinion they both sound amazing and can be so useful for so many different applications. I’m so grateful that I have an amazing Amp Sim in my Boss IR-200 because I live in an apartment building and can’t turn amps on at all! So if I wanna do some home recording, I can get crystal clean amp sounds from that so easily!! But definitely there is some sort of “mojo” from standing in front of a Marshall 4x12 with a plexi head dimed on top! 🤘🏾

Much more life in the tubes! So much more depth!

Sims have an amazing clean sound that can't be beat, but tube amps have the crunch that is sometimes needed. Basically they're both great and are both tools for different jobs

the tube amp just hits differently

We Go Both ways in this endeavor only lmao

You should use a deluxe reverb sim next time you do a shoot out between the two

Did people realize that in the start he was just holding a neck?

It's like choosing between twinks and otters when all that matters is what is ready to please me now

The Tube AMp but you can always get that sound in post

Why did bro have just a neck in the beginning 🤣

Now here’s a little idea. What if you tracked them both?!?!? I know live that wouldn’t work so well but I’ve been planning on doing some stereo experiments live with a clean amp with a blown out amp so maybe if I get a modeling amp I’ll try this one out.

fender tube amps just have that warmth and comfy Hendrix type of sound

Love the evolution of guitar mics lol

Tubes are fighting a loosing battle. Every year sims are getting better, and they are more versatile, cheaper, easier to record and play live, and most importantly…. So much easier to travel with

IMO they sounded pretty much the only difference in my ear was that the Tube Amp had a bit more warmth and room which, depending on your settings is easy to adjust for.