If you don’t know much about tube amps, you’re starting out at a disadvantage! When I first started playing, I tried all kinds of amps, from solid to hybrid, and finally settled on tubes. Pricing can be a bit challenging, but trust me – after trying 10+ cheap solid state amps trying to get that great sound, it’ll be cheaper with tubes to begin with!

Sure, these little mercury-filled vacuum pups aren’t cheap, you must have them skewed when swapping out, and general amp ownership and maintenance aren’t as cheap as a solid-state amp, and they’re a bit heavier, but the sound well worth it.

There are hybrid versions, containing power tube preamps and giving you some of the warmth of a tube amp with no real “downsides” as described above. But there is still a significant difference in the tone of a preamp vs. a tube amp.

Unless you’re playing large venues, a combo amp should work just fine. A simple 30-watt Vox or Mesa (albeit relatively expensive) will give you jaw-dropping tone at reasonable volumes … tones that absolutely cannot be matched by solid-state amps. Tip: give Craigslist a try. A few weeks of searching for good deals and you will find an incredible Class A amplifier for a price similar to many solid state amplifiers. You can switch tubes to fine-tune your sound, giving you more versatility than with a solid-state amp.

Tube amps are similar in reliability to solid-state amps (as long as you don’t mix them while the tubes are hot). Yeah I know, when I got my first tube amp I did this once and had to get new tubes.

Think small size, big sound, go tube!

Nothing beats it.