Why Guitar Players STOP Using Tube Amps and START Using Virtual Amps 

Nobody will ever know if their first amp sounded good because they didn't know wtf they were doing

The noise complaint issue is relatable - I am exclusively using plugins at home now for the same reason. But even without that, virtual amps are such a great practice and recording tool, and a great way to inexpensively explore more tones than you would be able to in the "real" world. As evidenced by the pro-quality tones you pulled from a $700 guitar and a $100 plugin, it is a great time to be an electric guitarist!

I'm 61 and have been playing for 52 years, most of those years as a pro studio and touring guitarist. I love your humor videos, but you dropped some serious knowledge on your contemporaries with this one. Big ups!

First amp I've owned was also a Roland Cube... the clean sound and built-in effects were actually pretty good given the price tag. As a matter of fact, I know some pro musicianers (mainly jazz cats) who still use that tiny amp for gigs.

Gain staging is the most important and most annoying thing about anything digital. Definitely a good lesson to learn haha. Well done man!

You are quickly becoming a favorite YT follow. The content is quality, but you come across like a real person wanting to share real experiences. Much appreciated.

An amp is an amp, whether its digital, solid state, or tube. There's pros and cons to each, you just have to know how to work with what you have. At home, I like to play through my collection of tube amps during the day and through digital stuff like NeuralDSP and Bias FX at night. When I jam with friends, I tend to use whatever is laying around in their practice space which is usually some kind of digital solid state combo like a Line 6 Spider or Boss Katana.

Solid state is kinda underrated tbh, you can get them all analog and good ones have some good tones, and the ease of maintenance is really nice.

I learned with a $10 irig, the free tonebridge app, and a $75 Amazon strat knockoff. Got tones that someone from 15 years ago would pay thousands for, learned quickly, and did it all on a shoestring budget. What a great time for us.

The first (electric) guitar I ever used is sitting right next to me along with the first amp I ever used. My parents brought me to a shop when I was 10ish and asked me to pick out a guitar I thought looked cool, (from a wall that only had cheapish guitars) and I selected a ceramic blue SGR superstrat thing(unaware that I was actually making a big choice). A few weeks later I unwrapped the beauty for my birthday, along with the original fender mustang amp(not the guitar it's a modeling amp). I love them both and use them every day, even after getting more expensive gear recently.

One of the best ways test a rig is how it sounds when you roll your guitar volume back. This is the magic of vintage tube amps - ESPECIALLY Plexi-JMP Marshalls. Dime up your guitar vol for searing solos, then go to 7 for crunch rhythm and down at 3 it's much cleaner and still fat. I've tested high dollar digital processors but they can't deliver hard rock tone & dynamics for live performance.

My first amp was an Ibanez bass amp that came from a kit. It definitely made a sound. After that I got a Bassbreaker 007 combo which sounded good, but it had to be loud to sound awesome so I got rid of it and got the Neural DSP Cory Wong plug-in. That's currently my sound (apart from my pedalboard and whatever amp the rehearsal room or venue has).

My go to amp has always been my 77’ Princeton reverb, I have had it since 1991 and it has worked for me playing at home or playing in concert. I play a 91’ American made Strat and a Takamine acoustic electric thru it. When playing on stage I play thru a Lr Baggs para acoustic DI into the house system.

Great video! I'm just starting down the virtual amp path myself, and I found this really encouraging, so thanks!

Mike, you are an inspiration! As a budding home recorder, this is extremely helpful. Thank you!

In the last couple years, I started learning and using plugins. For decades I used room sound. You can see on my video history how recent it has been from jamming to something with a room amp, and a mic propped against it, to using plugins that can get any amp and effect sound I want. The room sound sometimes sounded good.

I love tube amps...i build tube amps from scratch, just because I enjoy it. Virtual amps are great too, but understanding that you are running through multiple pre-amps (interface preamp, and virtual amp preamp stage) is critical.

this makes me very grateful that I'd done a lot of audio production before I ever used amp simps, sure it sounded a bit like shit at first but it was always acceptable and then got to being really good over time as I improved. Good video, enjoyable watch. Using plugins is so convenient and easy, especially at night or if you get the urge to play out of nowhere.

So glad I found your channel. Great story telling. I love self-deprecating humor and you do it so well! Nice playing too (in this and other vids)!

I was learning how to be an audio engineer while learning guitar, so when I came to interfaces and plug ins, I got used to how they run. Now that I'm in a house though, I will go back to micing my amp. Not even because my tone is crafted around it, but because there is still something just slightly off about a true sim compression over mic and di balancing. Most people listening to modern music on stream sites or RU-vid on their phones won't be able to tell the difference, but I do and I just hold myself to a higher standard. But amp sim tech has come a long way. Gigging wise, I would easily trust an amp sim.

This video is very well made and made. Liked and subscribed. I own a Fractal FM3, and I have a Landry LS100G3 and a PRS MT15. The Landry has an incredible master volume on it that allows me to get very saturated tones at bedroom volumes. Even the MT15 produces great tones at low volumes. Whenever I’m home I always use my tube amps, and I’ll never give them up. I play with some local musicians in a classic rock covers band just for fun. We don’t gig publicly. When I go to band practice I always take my FM3 and a powered FRFR cab. It’s just so much easier than hauling a tube amp, cab and my big pedalboard around and setting all of that up. At home, though, it’s definitely all tube amps and pedalboard. It sounds glorious. The gear does, not my playing, lol.

I have a quad cortex and it’s great, but my go to physical amp is my JC-40, the cleans are amazing and it takes pedals like a champ! It’s solid state so I don’t have to worry about swapping tubes out and it only weighs like 30lbs so it’s extremely portable. The nice thing about it being solid state is the tone doesn’t change no matter the volume. I can get bedroom levels and still sound good, also this amp can be mega loud, like really loud. Obviously distortion and overdrive don’t sound like tube, but to my ears it still sounds really good. If you’ve never tried SS amps I’d highly recommend checking out the JC-40 or 22 depending on your needs!

Actual thing that added to the problems with virtual amps in the past… The first gen Focusrite Scarlett were often malfunctioning where the “INST” input is too hot no matter what guitar you use. Until I fully switched to the LINE mode (and applied high shelf on eq before all the virtual amps and such to compensate for the impedance difference), I was struggling BAD to try and figure it out, like why is it clipping… And just by how popular those interfaces were and pther testimonies, I’m pretty sure I wasn’t the only one with such conundrums. Nowadays everything works better.

Amp sims are a game changer for metal especially. It's possible to get good tones for cheap, but it's certainly not easy. Save for a small handful of notable exceptions, solid state stuff doesn't hold up well at high gain. But now I can just plug into my interface, pull up the Fortin Nameless Suite and melt faces pretty much instantly. So much clarity and punch, the kind of tone you'd need to spend hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars chasing with actual gear.

For me it's a convenience issue. I'm tracking all day for composers (film, game and TV) as well as producers and for my own writing. It's easier to save settings, saving them to folders for each composer or project. I am going through an API 512c into an Apogee convertor. I wrote and played Justin Bieber's ETA direct into a basic Guitar Rig amp with a $99 Squier Strat. I will track fairly loud though paying attention to the nuance between my fingers/pick and the strings.

MIKE C. You break down stuff amazingly well. Fantastic actually!

Great video mike! Lots of helpful info for players out there

As a brand new guitarist I’ve literally been looking for a video like this to explain why it sounds like I’m hearing things through a cup to my ear. The little clip around 3:00 min is basically what I’m hearing with direct to interface + random plugins

Great video man! I'm lucky that I live in a detached house and can crank my Fender Princeton any time, day or night. But, I'd love to learn more about the virtual stuff too. Maybe a small video series that goes more in-depth on your current setup and recording process?

You’re a great storyteller. This helped me a lot.

Such a solid conversation piece man. 👏 👏 👏

I love my 5150 II . Here is also something you can do with loud amps. Get yourself a JHS little black amp box. It’s an attenuator and you put it in the loop. I basically use it as a master volume/tone knob. You get all the gain and feeling, but can play as quietly as you want.

My first guitar amp was a Roland JC 120. My jazz teacher sold it for coke money. He was a monster player. Died at 35. I brought it over to his house one day and left it there knowing I would come back for it. A couple weeks went by and my amp went bye-bye. I wasn’t mad though. I learned so much from him.

Great narration Mike! 🎥🎙️🏆

Great video! I love Amplitube. One of the great things is that you can get a good take down and then go back in and tweak the amp and effects to your liking.

My first was a solid state Guerilla... and it was horrible, but I was too, so it helped me learn. My first good amp was a Marshall and it was great, but not for the type of music i was playing at the time. There are good solid state amps, modelers, and plugins, but there is nothing that sounds and feels like a great tube amp in the room... So Now I have a Mesa Boogie Lonestar Special and a Morgan MVP 23, with a pretty absurd stereo pedalboard, and I couldn't be more pleased.

I started playing electric guitar at church 5 years ago, and didn’t use an amp for the first 4 years. I just couldn’t, it was too much to carry it out and most stages I was on didn’t have space. I had a pedalboard and just sent that straight to the sound desk, and it honestly wasn’t that bad. But this year I discovered a small pedal called a cab simulator, and it’s changed my sound immensely. I’m sure one day I may get an actual amp, but for now I’m very happy being oblivious and just using a pedal cause it sounds great.

I have this Fernandes FA15 solid state amp that is single channel with a built in effects loop that is enough to piss the hell out of my neighbors without even cranking the volume up. It may not be a great amp for most players but knowing it's my first amp, it really did help me learn electric guitar stuff like dynamics and articulation. Great one Mike I wish you the best.

Great info. Great playing. Thank you !

Funny, my first "real" amp was a Fender Champion 110. I actually kinda miss that amp, for what it is it actually sounds pretty good.

My entire rig consists of a Mooer GE100 multiFX pedal and a Fender Champion 100 amp. (I have a soft spot for the number 100.) Guitars are an Epiphone Les Paul, Squier Affinity Strat and Teles, and Chinese-made ES335 and SG copies. And headphones to plug into the Champion 100 for late-night practice.

I really enjoy your content and subject!

Ancient 70 yr old player here... Awesome Mike!!! I always enjoyed your short vids and humor. But this is still you and the content I seek for meat and potatoes progress. Thanks a bunch... player for 60 years, just a really slow learner!

Man… I LOVE this. And it’s so true now. The idea of taking a small pedal bag to a gig instead of a giant rig?! THE best now. 😆

Your a fantastic player man, keep up with the longer videos like this, always try to teach or explain your personal take on things, it’s great.

Man, after watching Tomo play a hundred dollar guitar through a Fender 10G, I just don't care anymore.

thank you, thank you, thank you my brother! I haven't even bought my first amp yet and have been experimenting exclusively with DI's and plugins...I've been getting close but I now know that I just need to keep dialing it in. After watching this video, now I know I can get there :)

Thank you Mike Cole, I love your video's man.

DSM & Humboldt’s Simplifier is really good if you spend some time with it (I have the DLX) and Quilter amps are amazing. I love my Quilter Micropro Mach 2 stack. Both are fully analog with the exception of reverb and take pedals exceptionally well. I still own tube amps, but I only use those amps for their specific characters.

I got lucky. A couple of months after I got my first squier, my uncle gave me one of his Twin Reverbs. It weighs a ton...but it got me through my first many bands. At school I used a Roland JC. I liked it fine too.

I’m glad I subscribed to your channel. You give really good advice. 😊

You are forgetting those of us raised by boomer dads, who owned tube amps and would sit around drinking beer at night and jam with us classic rock and roll and we cut our teeth on our dad’s tube amp and classic guitars with our dad teaching us classic rock riffs. It was just how we grew up, and all we knew was dad had that awesome guitar amp that sounded really cool when you turned up that one knob that said “gain” and when you bumped the amp it sounded like a loud thunder sound (the spring reverb). Ahhh, I guess not everyone has that experience……

For silent recording a tube amp the Two Notes captor and somesort of audio interface will do the job. Plugins are just great because it is easy to change settings after a recording, instead of having to also record the input signal and re-amp the track. Although plugins can sound really good it's the difference in feel and response for me that has kept me using tube amps for recording.

My first good amp was also a Fender Champion 20 and I really liked it, and while I do still use a lot of physical amps when rehearsing with my band at for college (the rehearsal space my college uses has a Vox AC30 (which is usually the amp I go for because I love the sound of those amps), a Marshall JCM900 (which I also use sometimes when I'm not on the Vox), Fender Deluxe Reverb (which is what our instructor plays through sometimes) and an Orange Rockerverb 30 but because I do a lot of recordings on Logic Pro I always use the visual amps. There's such a great selection of tones from Vox AC30s to Marshall, Fenders, Orange, Hiwatt, Mesa Boogie and plugins for a Diezel VH4, ENGL, Ampeg, GK and the list can go on. I guess long story short what I'm trying to get at is that whatever situation you're put in (be it playing through physical amps or recording with virtual), there's always something for everyone that's looking for the tone they want for that song

Loved the video! Do you think you could make one on how to make virtual amps sound better?

Mike, you're one of my favorite guitar RU-vidrs. Thank you for making this video! I've switched over to emulations exclusively and this is encouraging, brother!

My first Amp was the Peavy Bandit 112 (red stripe) from my Brother and it‘s hands down the best sounding amp i ever had (maybe because of sentimental reasons) I‘m so happy that it‘s still in my collection and my go to amp

I grew up with everyone coveting Marshall stacks. I just hope that these bedroom/basement guitarists, who are by all rights extremely good guitarists, will experience even something small like a Fender Blues Jr. at full crank. Listening to myself play guitar through headphones has never had the same effect as when actual AIR is being pushed into your chest by the amp.

I'v been fu**ing around with DI for years now and you are spot on, again, wise beyond your years, keep doing what you are doing it is much appreciated!

Loving the new style of videos.

Virtual amps do take some fiddling to get a good sound out of. But, man, having dozens of sounds and effects at your disposal for the prices is amazing. I can play whole shows on a boss gt1 multi effects pedal and play any style so long as I've tweaked them into decency.

I love my Hughes and Kettner Tubemeister, but my Boss Katana also sounds amazing. Most notably, either of them sound good when I focus on playing well, and playing to the settings on the amp.

Very relatable story, keep it up man!

Bro I love everything about this ❤️

When I first got an Axe FX I was confused for a few months and only used presets that only sounded okay to me. Then I really started getting an idea of how to dial in the tone. In hindsight, it wasn't hard to learn at all, I can throw together patches in minutes, but that initial hump had me thinking I wasted my money.

As someone who is currently living out this exact experience can you make a video on how to properly set up your audio interface and audio software to get those tones? Or can someone point me to a video on how to do it because I have the same issues where everything just sounds like a tinny compressed nightmare when I try to go all digital.

My first real amp was a Roland Jazz chorus…so yes, my first amp sounded amazing. These days I use tube amps for larger band gigs and an Ampero Stomp II in my solo looping rig. The tube amp def sounds better when you can play live, but sometimes it’s just too impractical.

Thank you! This is great information and you're an awesome teacher.

I'm looking into these and other options. I'm 55 now and my arthritis has gotten HORRIBLE. I've lugged around a big Polytone 104 for years... It's always been a great amp. PLENTY of clean headroom and it's got reverb to rival any Fender tube offering. It's got a PERFECT built on Tremolo effect. But it weighs like 975 pounds and I just can't lug it around anymore.

1. Overloud TH-1 was released somewhere around the year 2008. Even back then you could achieve any tone with it. Virtual guitar amps didn't get night-and-day better since then, they just started to come with better presets and pre-processed impulse responses that eliminate most of the work, which, back in the day, you had to do yourself. 2. Solid state amps are legit insane. Sometime in the future they'll get fashionable and everyone will be after that solid state tone quality.

great video and great playing !

Thanks, I really needed to hear this.

My only issue with virtual amps is too many options..I find it hard to find a tone I'm satisfied with.. I need that limitation

I used a fender super champ x2 for the longest time, it had tubes in it but with digital effects. Very very cool and I still have it, I love it but it sits in the corner now. Now I have a deluxe reverb reissue and it’s an absolute dream. Great for pedals too. I’m only 21 and I already have my dream amp, I don’t need another one 🤣

Thanks for the tips my man! You’re a really great guitar player too

This was great man. Can’t wait to check my gain stages now, haha

Great video! and I totally hear what your saying. There are a lot of good things about the digital amps...But as many have said throughout the comment section, and the reality that I have come too after many years of experience is that........here is absolutely..nothing like the sound, feel, warmth, dynamics of a tube amp. In my humble opinion there is no digital tone that can replicate it. It's for that reason that I believe Tube amps will always be around, and there will always be a premium demand for them

Mine was some old 90s solid state Fender 1x8 or 1x10 that sounded pretty decent tbh. The other day I hauled my old Ibanez Thermion TN120 out of the closet, hooked it up to my bass 4x10, and then blew my hair back and went "how the hell did I ever play this thing this loud??" lol... thanks for sharing! I love your Strat and I normally dislike most "bursts" but I think the maple neck really makes it :D I've considered getting a DI like the Walrus Canvas; I use a 3rd gen Focusrite 18i20 and while it has an improved instrument DI over the previous gen, it's still just part of a $500-tier interface vs a dedicated $250 Neve DI. The 18i20 is useable, but there are times when I clip the input with especially spicy instruments even with the pad engaged. My Zoom B6 has a DI output with 4 emulations of various DIs and it works magic on my bass :D

Really like your content man, rare to find a likeable RU-vid guitar vlogger !!

Love this new style of video my guy keep it up

I like what you have to say. I'm a tube guy but I take pride in being able to find a good tone in whatever rig presents itself to me. It's a challenge that makes me better and it's fun to get outside my comfort zone. Great video!

My first amp was a litte solid state Crate with a Yamaha Pacifica guitar. It was meant to learn on, and It served its purpose well

I agree, as an apartment dweller, I’m considering letting go of my 75 twin reverb, and a fairly large (half stack) Marshall valvoline), and just pick up a smaller solid state combo. I’m mostly done playing live, so I don’t need volume. Good video!

Outstanding video! I’m 68 years old, been playing electric guitar nearly 60 years. Tried every amp out there, big and small. Don’t like lugging big, heavy gear especially at 3AM after consuming a few adult beverages. Been using Fender Tonemaster Deluxe Reverb about 3 years. All digital and only 23 pounds. Sounds great! Use Fulltone OCD for high gain tones. The best overdrive/distortion pedal out there in my opinion!

Tube amps are at least repairable. Modelling amps generally aren't at reasonable cost. Discrete solid-state amps are usually pretty easy to repair.

I had the opposite approach. I started with a "beginner's amp". A Crate 1x10. No one ever told me that a tube amp sounds better. They told me to learn more and just keep playing. Now that I have 11 years of guitar under my belt, I have played virtual amps. I have played nice solid state amps. I have played great tube amps. The truth is that tube amps are always going to sound better. Virtual amps are nice if you don't know what you are doing (in the recording and video-over aspects especially), but a tube amp will always sound the best live.

First amp I tried was a Fender Princeton Reverb, a tube amp. And maaaaan it was so silky smooth, I loved the sound of it. Next one I tried was a Vox AC15, and again I adored the sound. So I got myself a little Blackstar 5w tube amp and I adore it. However, I never mic it for recording, I just go straight out of the cab simulation into my interface. And it sounds perfect, I hardly have to do anything to make it sound good in a mix. The amp is really just for my own practice and fun.

My 1st was a David Bogen tube p.a. amp. 12ax7 preamp and twin 6L6 based. It was 25 or so watts. Cranked it had a P.T./Leeds tone when I used an old LPB-1. The amp was from the late 50's with a (if I remember correctly) Electro-Voice speaker. It was my dads old accordion amp. He changed the input jack for me. This is where I learned to re-wrap the flat copper windings of the output trans. To this day, I wish I still had it. I had 2 other tube amps in my 62 years o' life. One was a 100 watt Peavey 2 x12 when I was in a local band. I didn't like the metal cone drivers, and didn' t know about trying different tubes to get more warmth. Had a nice phase shifter. Got out of the band and traded it for my 1st real Strat (needed work, but when I 1st picked it up, it just felt perfecto!) and a small silver faced Fender 10-15 watts with a tremolo in it. I cut the head off and drove a separate, better cabinet. My roommate just started playing and always borrowed it, so when he got engaged I gave it to him. Other than that, I've had solid-state. All I can say 'bout them is if you can get components cheap/free, replace the green chiclet caps with film type, and the carbon resistors with metal ones. Makes a world of difference. And find a better speaker.

The most prevalent argument I see against amp sims is that they don’t “feel” good. Even if I had the money to drop on the gear I want, it turns out my fiancé and cats don’t want to “feel” my playing. Got a volt1 and Neural DSP’s Archetype Rabea and I’m set.

Thank you for making this. I thought i was crazy here with my solid state.

First amp I used was a solid state Orange Crush 50w bass amp that I had been using for my electronic drums lol. Sounded like the most bland, clean, reverbless solid state amp you could ever imagine. A buddy of mine who kinda stopped playing guitar had a tiny little 1x8 Behringer solid state amp that had distortion on it that I used for a little bit. Then a few months later I got a 40w fender mustang modeling amp and used that one for two or so years. When I actually got serious about playing I got a Vox AC15 and still have that bad boy. Still sounds absolutely phenomenal and I still use it at a jam session I go to every week. Started my first band in college and wound up getting a 40w Tweed Blues Deluxe 1x12 that I used for everything up until a few months ago. I also now play in a club band most weekends, and after wanting something with a bigger cab, I finally decided on going with the Fender Tonemaster Super Reverb. It is an absolutely great amp and I really love everything about it. The built-in attenuator lets me get a great tone at seriously any volume level, plus it only weighs 30 pounds. So I went from solid state to digital to tube, and now regularly use a mix of digital and tube. Haven’t delved into the plug-in realm yet, but I’m sure I’ll dip into it at some point. I think I’ve always been pretty open minded towards amp technology, so I’m not really ruling anything out. Especially now since I am a true believer in the Tonemaster series. The technology has gotten to a great point and is basically becoming impossible to ignore.

My first amp was (naturally) a Line 6 Spider IV. It sounded like shit but it was a very affordable way to learn about basic effects. Eventually I graduated to a lovely tube/cab setup...a Marshall Jubilee reissue with a Vox 2x12. This is my home/studio rig now. Once I started gigging regularly, I wanted nothing more than to lean out the 150+lbs and $3000+ of gear it took to make sounds in a small shitty bar. I moved to a Line 6 Helix and have not looked back since. If you're an active gigger, tube amps do not make the most economical sense. Sure, your tone is slightly better with them. But once you're in a mix playing live those extra 2 pennies of tone don't make up for the back pain it takes to schlep those big heavy amps.

The first amp I ever played through was my Dad's jcm 900 on his old '70 sg, it was such a special experience at the time for me ,even though i had no idea how to play, just the feeling of the kick of that huge amp is what ended up making me want to play guitar forever. I think headphones and preamps are such a useful thing (I use an old beat up line6 pod xt) nothing to me can compare to that huge gut punching power of a tube amp with a ton of bass and a tone bender

Roland Cube 20 too, it sounded okay. I later gave it away and for a couple years after that my only amp was a tube amp with three knobs. Still love that amp, but could only fit one in my apartment so I got a newer/nicer modeling amp. They both sound great. It's just about what's practical/works/vibes

This is such an amazing video thank you

My first amp was a Traynor YCV40. So... A great sounding amp. That said, I have a ton of sims and I love them. Pro tip : get a Tone Captor and crank your tube amp through it.

I’m a big fan of virtual amps for home playing. I’m a hobbyist who plays in their bedroom in a small house. The tones you get from modeling are far superior than using a small amp that just barely is putting signal through the speaker. The technology only continues to get better. I don’t gig so I can’t speak on gigging with something digital but I would imagine it would be pretty darn close to using a real tube amp not to mention more reliable and much easier to transport

CONGRATS ON 100K SUBSCRIBERS!!! YOU DESERVE IT

Really funny and honest! I've decided to start a music-related RU-vid channel and yours is a big inspiration!

I will never stop using tube amps! 🙃🙃🙃