hmm maybe this isnt right but i was reading that there are 3 kinds of amps: tube-state, solid-state, and hybrid... maybe im wrong idk.. but anyway i was looking at a bass head and it says it has tubes... should i be cautious of this or something? what does it even mean?

would i have to take them out and clean/polish/etc to them?

whoa man, i have NO idea.

i didnt know that there were like, different kinds of amps. Like, i knew that they had different Ws and stuff, but i never heard of those tube amps. :confused:

where did you read that?

a bunch of sites

the brand i really want to get uses tubes but im worried i'll have to take them out every so often and clean them

Tube amps are waaaaaaaaaaaaayyyy better than solid state amps, but they're also waaaaaaaaaaayyy more expensive and they require a lot more maintainence. You wouldn't have to clean them or polish them, but you'd have to replace them periodically. If you can get a good tube amp, though, the sound is incredible.

Tube amps (or 'valve amps' as we call them in the UK) were all the music industry had to work with originally. They work by producing subtle levels of natural harmonic distortion which is very pleasing to the ear. This gives an apparently "warm" sound. After some time, people discovered that the more you saturate the tubes (by turning up the pre-gain) that the sound would gradually distort. Pretty much every famous band uses Tube amps. 90% of those 6-foot tall Marshall stacks are tube amps. 90% of the silverfaced Fender combos are tube amps. Mesa Boogie amps are tube amps. They are VERY LOUD, and the sound quality is excellent.

 

The downside with these amps is that they needed strict maintainance. Tubes frequently need replacing, and the amp needs servicing every so often. So amp designers came up with solid-state amps. These amps use transistors instead of tubes, and so they need hardly any maintenance. However, the overall sound is distinctly lower in quality as the harmonic overtones they produce are artificial, and the whole tone sounds a lot "colder". Solid state amps also tend to lose their "presence" in a performance more easily. When you buy your first amp, chances are it will be solid state.

 

Hybrid amps are a relatively new technology. There's no single description of how they work because every model is different, but the Marshall AVT2000 series has a single tube in the pre-amp section, and the power amp is solid state. This effectively warms up the signal before it is processed. This results in a sound much nicer than solid state amps, but not quite as good as tube amps.

 

Tube amps are by far the best if you can afford to buy them and maintain them. If not, go for a hybrid, and failing that look for a very good solid state.

 

For bass, you can easily get a superb sound with a solid state amp. As always, a tube amp will do wonders, but it's not quite as much of an issue as it is with guitar amps.

 

 

and well done if you read all of that.

i read all that

but how much does it cost to "service the amp"?

and how often would i know when to?

are tubes expensive to buy/ easy to put in the amp?

to be honest, i wouldn't know exactly, because i've never owned a tube/valve amp.

 

http://www.thetubestore.com has a list of prices for tons of different tubes. you'll know which ones you need when you buy the amp.

whoa thanks for your help it totally helped thx :cool: