The Tubes vs Solid State Challenge!

[@csiszerg]

I have no idea which was which but I pretty much liked the "piano lows" of that sick bass track on this :)

[@erhock92]

Seriously the bass sounded massive!

[@Durkhead]

He covered up the guitar with bass guitar and added effects to the guitar as well he could have played through a crate practice Amp and you'd never know

[@mozkuthehermit5909]

@@Durkhead Itsn't that what bass is supposed to do in mix?

[@216trixie]

Brand new strings on a bass will give you that sound.

[@csiszerg]

@@Durkhead what sounds good it is sounding good no matter what math was applied the background :)

[@mikal]

I'm reminded of Metalocalypse episode in which the engineer asked the band to comment on the sound of their album in digital vs. analog. They sounded exactly the same, but when they were told one was digital, they suddenly decided that one sounded like shit and the other one was great.

[@len9518]

good thinking. This happens a lot.

[@BillPinkNye]

Not going to lie. I went into this with the intention to try and hear the solid state. Not because my hearing is soooooo good, just wanted to see if I could do it. By the end of the song all I could do was appreciate what I just heard. That track was awesome.

[@jesseyasaitis9036]

I felt exactly the same as you Bill.

[@KelticKabukiGirl]

High Gain kinda cuts the toooooob sound in a mix, you can only tell by feel and attack. On a recording, very little difference with Orange SS ams

[@rockochenta]

Ditto!

[@rockochenta]

Ditto!

[@joeywilson5998]

Ditto

[@michaelrigby9871]

I wouldn’t be surprised if Glenn only used the orange crush for all of the guitar tracks!!! Honestly couldn’t tell but all sound great. Think I’ll be adding a crush to the purchase list!!

[@Catywampus_Kerfuffle]

I'll go one further on issuing challenges: pick out the solid state AND which tube amp is being used at any given point. While we're at it: what brands of tubes used in each.

[@BXGuitars]

Definitely NOS Mullards at 8:17 of the video. You can sense that traditional Mullard Trumpet Lows there easily. 😁

[@ZonkerRoberts]

Ah, that's how Glen stacked the deck! He used inferior brand tubes to unfairly handicap the tube amps! (Sadly, it's probably just a matter of time until someone suggests this seriously.)

[@TitaniusAnglesmith]

Muh tone-tubes

[@JC-fj7oo]

@@BXGuitars That's trumpet highs.... But with a milky upper mid tone and a warm onion attack. Extra pickle, hold the mayo.

[@somethingelsedoesmatter]

I wanna know what wood the fingerboard is made out of to get those piano lows

[@84slow]

I'm an electrical engineer of 8 years and a guitar player of 20 years. I promise I can make solid state designs do anything a tube design does.

[@devonboyer626]

how?

[@wallyedmonds8199]

Nope

[@LLMTest1024]

@@devonboyer626Because it’s all just physics. At the end of the day, it’s just signal in vs. signal out and as long as you know how the signal transforms from input to output you can re-create it. Tubes aren’t some magical thing filled with fairy dust and unicorn tears. They’re just the technology that happened to be available when those amps were first designed.

[@Not-Only-Reaper-Tutorials]

Hey Glenn, to be honest: I didn't spot any changes (I knew very well it's very hard, if not impossible, to distinguish them but I wanted to participate) BUT, yet there's a -but-, what struck me, is the beauty of that piece of music: composition, recording, mixing. Great job :-) Thumb up :-)

[@juan666q]

I love my super crush 100. A lot of bang for the buck, and I’ve been very happy with it. Thanks for featuring! Love your vids and your vibe!

[@daynedamage8919]

Glenn, I can't believe you've never heard of "Piano Lows." It's when you're in your late twenties, drowning in ennui from not living up to your potential, and drinking the nights away in a lounge bar. What that has to do with tube amps is beyond me, though.

[@alanerpington5698]

Man, what are you doin' here?

[@darkhill556]

...and the microphone smells like a beer.

[@shakeyoulikehaiti]

Damn dude, make me feel more depressed about my situation why don't you... lmao

[@AuntAlnico4]

​@@shakeyoulikehaitiwell 😅at least you ain't got any money !?

[@mitchfraser4440]

Well - that mix sounded good to me. Tubes or solid state? Who cares - good tone is good tone. Really enjoyed the track as well, great work guys!

[@VintageSG]

Ssshhh. 'Good tone is good tone' is guaranteed to get hollow-state weenies riled. Dave Simpson does some stellar 'sound like...' videos with his Orange amp. Orange should pay him. You are, of course, completely correct. Good tone is just that. A triode valve is just a FET with a pilot light anyway.

[@6stringstorulethemall967]

Every time I played shows, people would compliment my tone until they found out I was using a Roland cube (2011-2019) or now my helix. Then they conveniently started pointing out issues they didn't hear before or just walked away awkwardly. It definitely proved to me that people hear with their eyes. Especially for a couple of those shows when I was using someone else's $200 Jackson Dinky while my guitar was in the shop and people loved the "bite" from that particular guitar

[@Levisrad]

That's awesome! I just got myself a roland cube and was floored that it actually sounds good! Super cool to hear your story about that amp!

[@Cursingminister]

That's awesome. I played a live show where somebody let me play through a marshall stack. I used a rocktron metal planet pedal for the distortion . Nobody knew.

[@kingfisher7960]

Roland/boss makes good stuff since the 70s......

[@neonblack211]

ive heard the roland cubs are pretty sweet amps, at least back in the day people spoke very highly of them

[@donaldmcdonald3434]

Cubes are great solid state amps. To me solid state can sound just as good but it's different. I play stoner doom where not only you need tubes, you need either Orange, Matamp/Green, Sunn, Laney, or maybe Marshall but every time I hear a doom band use marshall i wish it was Orange. My TH30 is great but the clean channel is basically the less gain channel. I love Vox cleans and would love to have the real deal but their modelling practice amps have always sounded godlike to me so I think I'll pick one up. The Crush sounds really good hear but it sounds like hot poop for Stoner.

[@MTD1976]

I'm just sitting here in awe of that insane crazy badass bass tone you got in that mix! Holy crap! Screw the guitars amps and drums, that bass was killer!

[@aleksamrkela831]

The bass tone in this track is massive, topic notwithstanding! :D Love that gnarly pick attack.

[@JustSomeGuy]

I own the amp and I couldn't tell where it was. I couldn't even hear slight changes that you'd normally hear when switching amps. That's not just a testament to how good the Super Crush is, but also how well Glenn dialed in the amps.

[@pip5528]

Fancy seeing you here! I knew you liked metal but didn't realize you played or recorded metal guitar as well.

[@JoshBattershell]

I recently picked up a Super Crush 100 to round off my amp collection and have a good medium to high gain amp. I love it so far. I’m not much of a metal player, but it gets me pretty much the exact punk and alternative tone I want for recording. You’d never be able to tell the difference between this and a rocker verb in a good mix. Or if it has tubes or not.

[@SpectreSoundStudios]

Very nice!

[@werewolfmedialv]

The clean channel is a super usefull pedal platform as well!

[@robincefalo5804]

I also use the Orange Super Crush 100 in my live rig, into a Marshall 1960A 4x12. Sounds great. I use the clean channel as my pedal platform. I have to run a MXR 10 band EQ pedal in the amps effects loop to scoop the mids a bit because the amps EQ section on the clean channel only has bass and treble EQ knobs, no mid control.

[@jeremythornton433]

I used to play in a metal band here in Toronto and the lead guitar player used a solid state REX amp. It killed! I think that's what it was called. One rack space tall, 100 watts of death!

[@JoeBaermann]

@@werewolfmedialv Just like with the Crush 120, the dirty channel works pretty well as a pedal platform too, think most prefer that over the clean channel since it adds additional mids control, gain is best before or on the edge of breakup when used for that purpose.

[@Juiceboxbrian]

I made a little shoot out for my snobby band mate between my marshall mosfet, and a jcm 800 and a mustang modeler on the 5150 setting and my 5150. He got the mosfet vs jcm800 correct but he thought the mustang modeler was the real 5150 and said it was “the best sound by far” and he could “tell by the low end resonance and lack of woofiness”.

[@gp4236]

The more blind tests, the better. I’m with you, I don’t care so much what the test result is, I just care that I’ve learned something. You’re doing the lord’s work Glenn.

[@billvilla7799]

Absolutely loved the "your making bass player look smart" comment! That was just too funny! Keep up the great work.

[@katielowen]

Piano lows in this test are OFF THE CHARTS 🤩

[@jasonantbro]

We need a tutorial on this SICK bass tone, stat!! Honestly, this bass tone is thick in all the right places ^_^

[@morphine0000]

This here. I want to know which bass, which knob settings, and the signal chain. Sounds just massive.

[@Andyanddiana467]

He had an earlier video about this, if I recall.

[@KenTeel]

If it's sick, see your doctor.

[@AnimalJohn85]

Was worth the 7 1/2 mins to actually hear something played! Don't really care which one was the Orange they all had that glorious fuzzy goodness and the playing was top notch! Does prove the fact in a mix rube vs solid state does very little. Nice job sir.

[@davidjairala69]

If you like that fizz, then solid state is for you. That comes from information in the top end that's lost due to the harder solid state clipping. I personally prefer to minimize that, but it really is a matter of preference. Of course, people in my position are stuck with heavy expensive tube amps so there's always a tradeoff lol And tbh the JFET gain stages on that orange might actually be a decent solution to the problem I describe. Not totally clean distortion, but maybe better than any other solid state.

[@riangarianga]

@@davidjairala69 Solid state can clip as soft as you want to make it clip. That thought you mention comes from cheap designs from the early transistor era, where technology was simply new, hence not developed and its nuances waiting to be discovered, and went on a 1:1 competition against a mature technology like thermionic valves. Transistors were WAY cheaper, therefore they didn't initially invest in designs taking advantage from their characteristics. Then most practice combos since forever are obviously transistor to reduce costs, and to reduce that cost even more they come with a cheap speaker, which is the actual source of fizz everyone keeps mentioning. If you think it thoroughly, cheap digital stuff sucked even in the early 2000s, but 20+ years later we're at a totally different level, and only cork-sniffers say «this sounds so digital» to try and dismiss something they don't have/don't know how to use/don't understand (if they did, they would understand it's the algorithm).

[@JC-fj7oo]

@@davidjairala69 So you picked out exactly where the SS amp is in the vid right? ...right? You 100% sure about that?

[@gibsonman4]

@@davidjairala69 Your head is firmly wedged.

[@Kevin.Kelly.]

So let me get this straight… we’re suppose to pick out a solid state amp between 3 tube amps that have a solid state pedal circuit running through them the entire time? The answer is… the entire thing. Why not just run a single tube amp without any solid state diodes polluting it from a pedal? Then maybe we don’t have to distinguish when a solid state t by pppp

[@manuelpassarella]

Honestly, a great tone is a great tone. it doesn't matter how you make it.

[@algorithminc.8850]

Well - I can argue tubes are great high-impedance devices to build easy pre-amps - and solid state devices are great for low-impedance drivers ... but ... who cares. It's about the music and the sound done with whatever. Sure, good equipment matters - but it's no replacement for actually learning to play well. So maybe all I should have said here is that I really enjoyed the Full Mix Shootout - and thanks again. Cheers.

[@Lieutenant_Dude]

Solid state amp quality has really improved a lot in the past ten years or so. I think people say solid state sucks because their first solid state amp is something like a line 6 spider. And they just want whatever is the opposite of that line 6 amp build-wise, which is usually expensive tube amps. While I wasn’t a big fan of your tone on the first super crush demo, that probably has more to do with your eq settings. I have a boss mini katana, and it’s one of the best sounding amps I’ve ever played, full stop.

[@AD1978leo]

Not to be that guy but the spider is digital but that's irrelevant and I agree. Check out Tone Wars review of the Super Crush he does a good job with it. And that dude is a tube snob lol

[@Lieutenant_Dude]

@@AD1978leo digital is solid state, a subset at least. My boss is an analog solid state amp. So are the Randalls and Sunn amps that people love so much.

[@musicshade9049]

@@AD1978leo I think it’s important to differentiate between digital modelers and analog solid state amps.

[@chaptermasterpedrokantor1623]

Like with most things, most people get their opinions from 'the general consensus'. Other guitar players tell them the magic tone is in tubes, pickups and tonewood, therefore it must be so. Even more so when they have invested thousands into boutique tube amps, pedals and guitars. Woo to the heretic that dares to go against the grain. That's like an atheist at a Born Again Christian convention, or JK Rowling at a LGBT+ divided by 7 meeting. People don't like it when their most cherished beliefs are challenged, or godforbid, proven wrong.

[@earthsteward9]

Phillip McKnight said solid state amps may have a bad reputation because many were originally manufactured for those who couldn't afford tube amps, so cheaper speakers and other components

[@beornthebear.8220]

My solid state baby Marshall sounded like the real deal when I used an overdrive (without distortion), but it whistled and screamed very well. It was only 12 watts. I did overdrive the input. I could get a great Tora Tora sound. Because it was an open back combo. I put a hand towel in the cab to cut resonance. It sounded really good. I now a have a B-52 half stack, and if over driven, it also sounds really good. At 100 watts with a 4x12 closed cab, it sounds good. It uses 6L6s vs EL-34s like Marshals usually do. I mainly play bass, and my Mark Bass 800 watt head with an optional tube input sounds fine to me. In fact. Sunn Coloseums sounded good when Chris Squire used them. With modern replication of sound, a lot of solis state drives sound just as good to me. Piano lows are for bass. One of my friends who used to repair amps is to tell me that there is much more to the sound than solid state or tubes. I can use my guitar and bass pedal boxes right into the amp, and no one can tell the difference,

[@DBSG1976]

Glenn! Thank you for making this video. I'm in the middle of shopping for a new amp, moving up from my Fender Tube amp. Love the timing and thanks for all your hard work.

[@PippPriss]

This entire discussion is becoming more and more obsolete with amazing technology like the ToneX pedal and great preamps. I personally use a MXR M77+AMT P-Lead into s Harley Benton GPA100, and people are floored when they give me compliments for my tone and I show them what I use. While the P-Lead has a tube, I am pretty sure a pure solid state variant of that pedal would also yield in great sound. Regarding your test, I could not hear a difference if my life would depend on it - stellar job!

[@JoeBaermann]

Think the AMT is low voltage on the tube, so main drive is diode or something else doing the clipping, still sounds good tough. Funny fact, quite a few high gain tube amps make use of diode/ss clipping too. Tried a VT999 recently, with some drives stacket in front of it it can get pretty close to a lot of them 70-80 hardrock/metal recordings done with Marshall amps, that with both a Crush 120 and a Pedal Baby used as power amps, most important part is which speaker/IR that is used, and it doesn’t even have to be the exact same type of speaker, just needs to be able to cover around the same frequency responce, since that will allow to fine tune to target via eq. String gauge also adds some change, just went to a set with the 3 lighter string being thinner, had to take a bit of treble and presence to get back to match, yet it sounds like it cuts through better (will hear that with the band tommorrow) and adds more sustain on my highest fret bends, which mainly is because the thinner string is easier to handle, for my fingers at least.

[@lordoftheelements2112]

There is no difference. I really like these shootout videos because playing music is 100% all about using your ears. The riffs and solos in this video are awesome as well, and that’s one of the things I look forward to when watching one of these.

[@jacekfz99]

I loved my H&K Black Spirit 200 Floor, can't say I miss tubes at all. It sounds amazing and so versatile.

[@soundman1402]

I had to back this video up many, many times to replay the various change points to be sure I didn't miss any. (Became a lot harder during the lead portion.) I probably got my letters mixed up in a few places. I won't lose any sleep over that, though. The amps are close enough in sound that it probably doesn't matter which one you pick for a record. 7:34 a quality amp (A) 7:37 a different quality amp (B) 7:40 another quality amp (C) 7:44 some other quality amp (D) 7:49: A 7:54: B 8:01: A 8:04: D 8:09: A 8:12: C 8:16: B 8:19: D 8:23: A I think the Super Crush was D.

[@flotenn3351]

I second that Orange = D, but I didn't hear alll these changes tbh

[@soundman1402]

@@flotenn3351 I mean, yeah... It's hard to tell! I think this makes Glenn's point: it doesn't really matter which head you're using, since they all sound pretty similar. TBH, I've lusted after gear in some of these KZbin reviews because they used it to make a particularly good demonstration song. What I was really lusting after was the SONG! ("With this gear, I can make a dope song like this!" Except... I suck at songwriting, so it doesn't matter what gear I have. My songs are going to be shit. Haha)

[@NickLeonard]

glad you time stamped it, since that's a lot of work haha I'm guessing A is the Revv, B is the Soldano, and C is the 5150 because C sounds like it's got the most of those special block letter mids and B is similar to that but less pushed. D is probably my least favorite here just because it's a bit dark in the mix. Orange amp eq tends to be on the darker and more mid-heavy side in my experience and that could be it. I'm also guessing Glenn mixed the SS amp a little darker so people don't assume the brightest amp is the "fizzy solid state". All good tones though, I quite like solid state when it's done right!

[@tylerscott9329]

A sounded the best to me

[@errollloyd6721]

I definitely heard the change at 7:44 or 7:46 (before reading this comment that is). That pops out pretty clearly I'd say. A few tonal changes before that too, don't know exactly how many but your estimates here seem right. They're all good, but I prefer the tones before 7:46 to those after 7:46 (at least until the next change ... I kinda stopped listening hard after I caught one change). I don't whether the 7:46 amp is the orange or not. It has less of the fuzzy goodness the ones before had though.

[@darwinsaye]

The Beatles and Stones - solid state Voxes. Wilko Johnson - solid state HH amps. BB King - Lab Series. Allan Holdsworth - Lab series. Robby Krieger - Acoustic Control. Albert King - Roland JC-120, Acoustic Control. Frank Zappa - Acoustic Control, Pignose, Rickenbacker Road 440, Brian May - Deacy Amp. Andy Summers - Roland JC-120. Jimmy Page - Vox, Rickenbacker Transonic. Neil Young - Baldwin Exterminator….

[@janosmaiden8219]

I tend to turn on my super crush 100 before any other tube amp that I have. And in the mix, I couldn't hear which one that was the Orange. So I'm more than happy with my purchase!

[@zebardyn]

I think it's all Super Crush 100, and I also think the guitar tracks were low passed more aggressively than usual just to be sneaky.

[@stubbz9]

Are you sure there are four different amps in this shootout? Maybe I just got stuck on that rhythm riff that I want to hear more of. That was some soul-crushing goodness, Glenn. Keep it up!

[@paultorbert6929]

Jason Gwin, what are the odds that all the guitar tracks is through the Crush100 ? 😂

[@soundman1402]

@@paultorbert6929 he probably just moved the mic!

[@DoubleBarrelDarrell]

I love these videos. Glenn is slowly taking down one myth after another and absolutely nails it. I'm running a Chug pedal through a PowerStage 170 with Celestions (V30 & G75) and so many people have complimented my tone. One was shocked it was not a tube amp. Funny it did not sound as good to him when he learned it was a pedal! LOL Perception is reality, I guess.

[@demondik]

I did a gig with another metal band and the guitarists had two tube amps (one Fender and the other was 6 Line) full stack cabs and I had a Zoom G2.1u into a Peavey DECA 512 digital one unit rack power amp with a marshall A1960 cab (HalfStack) and both guitarists asked me what I used for the show and I held up my Zoom pedal and they thought fuck! I laughed my ass off! It takes time, learning and your ears for something!

[@kitko33]

Def Leppard recorded Hysteria using a Tom Scholz Rockman, which is basically an early preamp/modeller.... :) And it's one of the greatest rock albums ever.

[@Defleshuary]

I remember finding out their guitars were through a headphone amp/preamp and being blown away.

[@mikewallace1270]

That is true. It was also highly modified. That is according to mutt Lange engineer Mike Shipley but still solid state.

[@KandyMan90]

I'm listening on really good headphones and genuinely, it all sounded like 1 amp to me, I couldn't hear any changes in tone. I guess a good amp is a good amp regardless of how it's built, who knew

[@tomtallic]

Great video, again, Glenn!! I wish there was a lower power or preamp version of the super crush. That would be even cheaper and home-friendly. Maybe with a built in ir loader...

[@davidmurray9193]

I have access to tube and solid love my Laney 120 iron heart full stack, and have the crush 120 which seems to take pedals excellently both do do two different things for me and could not live with out them, I'm not into the which is better argument, it's what ever floats your boat

[@JoeBaermann]

Both are solid amp choices.

[@sylvainnavarro5570]

Does the amp change at 7:46? If so they both sound great! With a bass sound that big and downtuned guitars, anything that distorts sounds monstrous anyway!

[@Coggler101010]

I want to say that the amp changes to the Soldano right there. It's really tough to say. I only say that because I think the amp has the most unique voice out of the four, but it'd be awesome to find out it's actually the Orange.

[@GardNRailCrucible]

Not a clue which was which, but the 7-string/down-tuned guitar’s mix seemed like it was wading through deeper sludge than it needed to for my taste, but that’s my taste. My dad had one of those GK ML250s too; great little amp! You’re right, though; it weighed half a ton at least.

[@guitarsgearandgoodvibeswit7306]

Okay the bass in that track sounded sick. It sounds like there are slight voicing differences, but not enough to really call it out. I have a Super Crush 100 because I couldn't afford a Rockerverb, and I'm more than happy with the Super Crush. It's a great amp.

[@aldersmoke1]

No argument: with that amount of gain, and especially adding in a chainsaw distortion pedal, no, you're not going to be able to tell them apart. Super saturated metal distortion masks most any amp's tone. I mean hell, speaking of the chainsaw sound, those early Entombed albums were recorded on solid state Peaveys. However: Ty Tabor didn't just use the Gibson Lab amps. They were blended with a tube amp, hence the natural chorusing. Solid state was part of the sound but not all of it. And yes, I'm a King's X fanboy dork.

[@kennyharke366]

It's one of my most favorite amps that I own, and I usually dislike solid state amps and have mostly tube amps.The cost of tubes and tube amps is ridiculous! I hope Orange expands on this technology with more Super Crush variations. It's awesome!

[@philiplombardo249]

I played a Mesa/Boogie Studio Caliber DC-2 for about fifteen years and I loved it. All those tubes make for great tones, but only at unmanageable and uncomfortable high volumes. The weight of the amp also made transporting it unpleasant and frustrating. Well, a few years after a critical back surgery in late 2008, I switched over to a totally solid-state Roland Cube 40XL and I’ve been completely happy with its tones and performance. I believe that tube emulation today has gotten to an excellent point, and players can be quite happy with the sounds and portability of the amps. Processors have improved significantly since about 2015 or so as well, and live performance is an easy breeze with one too!

[@jonesyfromtheblock9635]

Solid state is great, look at the jc-120! I’m very much convinced that what you say is true, that most of the chain makes little changes compared to the cab/mic. I would love to see a blind test how much of a difference all of those little things together make! Like one set up has cheap cables, cheap strings, a solid state amp, cheap pickups vs a normal tube amp like a 5150 with a mid priced import guitar and maybe throw in an absurdly expensive rig as 3th all using the same cab/speakers/mic. Love your tests man!

[@Jake_Sachs]

JHS Pedals did something similar to this, using cheap, mid-price, and expensive guitars, pedals, and amps.

[@Bawlstretchr]

First mix from you that actually blew me away bro, always liked your stuff but this is another level of Fricker

[@SpectreSoundStudios]

Ty!!

[@pureventrue2357]

Yup, definitely couldn't tell which was which, & honestly found it hard to even spot where the changes were. I've really come to love these blind shootouts you do cause yeah, I think we're all guilty of listening with everything but our ears at times & looking for anything that will validate a bias. Frankly I like the idea of solid state. No need to worry about failing tubes, they travel easier etc. I definitely used to hate them & was of the "solid state amps suck" mindset, but the reality is I'd probably just never heard a good one yet. Actually come to think of it, what's in most commonly used overdrive & distortion pedals? Not tubes. And correct me if I'm wrong, but I think Buzz Osborne from Melvins has also been known to go tube-less?

[@jdkimple]

Yep - King Buzzo has been team Solid State for a number of years. He gets pretty good sounds.

[@Komatik_]

We should all convert to tackle boxes and destroy the amp market.

[@Rolli6669]

So are you playing us? Are you just using the Orange and changing cabinets? LOL.

[@udmbfk]

Soo… the only Orange amp you have owned is the one you got for free and it’s all the evidence you need to make this argument?? Great point Glenn as always your logic is flawless!!!

[@metalzonemt-2]

No, the evidence has to come from us who are listening to these amps. Can you tell the time stamp for the Orange amp?

[@SpectreSoundStudios]

Don’t hold your breath….

[@halfie25]

As a solid state player (Tech 21 NYC Trademark 300), I can really appreciate this video. I'm always asked what model Mesa, or what tubes are in my amp... Haha! The look on their faces when I say it's solid state SansAmp circuitry is just priceless. Some even refuse to believe. Before this amp, I played a Peavey TransTube 100, and it was the same deal. I had to explain the "tube" dynamic was just a knob, and there weren't even any pre-amp tubes in it. It was basically a Bandit in head form with bells and whistles. LOL! All that being said, I think the third time playing through the riff was the Orange Super Crush. The top end is where you can usually hear and solid state or modeler separate itself, barely. Can't wait to see the results! Once again, thanks for this video as proof a solid state amp can be a monster!

[@jimfrancemusic4813]

Love your example of Ty Tabor of King's X! Great player, and great album. His tone epitomizes something different/special.

[@ericolson326]

Coincidentally, this very Orange Crush model is the one Ty tours with these days. I tried one for about a week and hated it, but naturally he makes it sound incredible. Curse my tone-deficient hands! 😄

[@chriscam23041]

I have been playing for 40 years. I was a sound designer, touring musician and composer for theatre, film and TV for 27 years. My opinion is this. Every tool for the job. If it sounds good and fits in the mix that is all that matters. I do like certain amps for their clean tones. But for high gain tones. Find a few amps that work. Stack them, blend them. Really doesn't matter if they are tubes or not. Marshall Valvestate, Crate , Peavey Etc. If you can make it work and it sounds good. It is good.

[@hooliganstreet]

With most people, if you told them the demo used just one amp, they likely wouldn't question it (judging by tone only of course).The differences are negligible AT BEST. Maybe you could hear tone nuances more with isolated guitars, but that's not what metal is. Metal is the WHOLE BAND, and really (for me at least) as long as the guitars aren't earsplitting, the way all of the different instruments sit together and contribute to the feeling of the song is more important.

[@MangoMeoww]

To me it's not so much about the sound but the feel. Tube amps reacts to not only what you play but how, they are more dynamic and alive than solid state in my experience.

[@TornSoul062473]

I couldn't tell. Sounded good all the way through.

[@TheBillStickers]

I've listened 10 times now and I can now discern without a shadow of a doubt with my rigorous tone experience that the amps in question do in fact change at 7:33 into killer metal tone. I know just my super hearing kicking in, right? \m/

[@michaelgarcia2050]

I have no clue which is the solid state Orange. It's also worth mentioning that there are Marshall (MOSFET), Orange (this one), and Vox (Pathfinder) make great solid state amps. Randall has always been near the top of the S.S. totem pole.

[@michaelcrane5070]

First off, great video! Coming from the perspective of an engineer: I've had a dude with a Helix on one side of the stage and another with isolated, stereo amps (Supro/DC30). No one comes up talking about how "great" the amps sounded or how "bad" the Helix sounded. People are always talking about how tight the band sounded. Doing your part as a musician and band mate to hone your craft and bring a good product will make a bigger difference on yours and everyone else's musical experience. At least more than this mysterious and nebulous point at which electrical engineering and magic intersect 🙄

[@michaelsondrol8205]

I think they all sounded great! Could not tell which was which. Got to love those piano lows!

[@SG-qm7to]

My first amp was a Roland JC50. Still have it; looking at it right now. It's great for clean or dirty; but, when i started playing with an other guitar player who was using a Marshal tubes combo, i couldn't hang with him. Even with a tube preamp, our sonds were incompatible. (I thought Ty used Randals). Solid state amps can be great, but sometimes, they just don't play well with others.

[@jgmopar]

I like both solid state and tube. I always took a solid state amp as backup when my old band used to play live. Just in case the tube amp crapped out.

[@Bill_Yarkakar_XVIII]

I couldn't hear anything change at all. I'm starting to wonder if you trolled us and that was all the Orange all the way through. Also, that was a fucking sick bass tone.

[@Eliphas_Elric]

Runs a test with a solid state pedal mixed with every single amp. Seems valid. 🙄 I'm a huge fan of the supercrush BTW. Just not sure of the methodology is right here. The main difference between solid state and tube amps is the speaker-output transformer reactivity that effects the amp's control over speaker dampening. Solid state amps have very fast dampening control over the speaker, which people perceive (mostly while playing) that the amp feels stiffer and like the lows and highs feel and sound sorta different. I'm not sold on the idea that you can tell the difference just by listening, but you can tell the difference in playing feel and response when you're playing the amp, especially if you're in the same room as the speaker cab. As far as gain characteristics, JFET clipping is nearly indistinguishable from 12AX7 clipping. Anyone thinking there's a major difference is fooling themselves.

[@Goldsteinphoto]

I am not close to being a sound expert but even when originally played through a tube amp we are hearing it from a solid state amp after recording and processing through various solid state electronics. So it stands to reason that the system used for processing and reproducing the music is the limiting factor and must be as good or better than the guitar amps for any differences to show up.

[@victorloya1590]

I can´t tell which is the SS because the great mixing, maybe that what most people is lacking here

[@connect2reality]

"I could be completely wrong. Hell, I'd like to be wrong..." Spoken like a true scientist. There's nothing more exciting than finding and exploring a result that's completely different from our expectations.

[@robertpakstis]

I own a Orange Super Crush 100 & I couldn’t tell the difference…. As well as a tube amp and other solid state …. Great mix by the way

[@mytimeinvested]

Whenever someone has a critique to how they think something sounds, i first have to ask...what were you listening to it on? Your phone? Next..

[@JJHarris-z6c]

Dude! Great video. Never seen your vids before. I was trying to sort out a practice amp to buy as a novice to intermediate player and came across your vid. Cool host. Loved the vid and obviously the mix was great too.

[@Grili561]

Hello sir, I’m a new subscriber and I’ve really appreciated your approach to the channel. I don’t play metal, but your advice for gear is still spot on regardless of style. I’ve been getting rid of all my tube amps, except the deluxe reverb my parents gifted me back in 2004 (it’s sentimental). I personally believe modern guitars with modern amplification or modelers work infinitely better in 9.7 out of 10 cases. Keep up the good work!

[@samuelswayze]

My ears aren’t very good and I don’t really care about tubes, but I’m betting the track has either all solid state amping or all tube amping.

[@locoberzerker]

I used to use a 600W Genz Benz solid state bass amp with tube preamp for my guitar rig as a power amp. It was small enough to fit in my backpack. It was the shuttle 6.0. I used it with a 4x12 Randall cab. Got rid of it because I got tired of lugging around the big ass 4x12 cabinet and opted for a pair of 2x12 combo amps that are set up in stereo.

[@alexwood8555]

Solid state isn’t bad, it’s the digital modeling side of things that don’t FEEL good. I can’t audibly discern any of it in a full mix, but if I had to choose to play something between modelers, SS and tube, I’d rather have the latter two options.

[@kokobily]

DUDE! We know it's a Metal Channel! we just enjoy playing GkBo (kissed by overdrive) AND watching your vids! And so we tend to comment. I know... we r f... Dheads! love what you do!

[@crazeyjoe]

*I demoed a Rockerverb MK2 100 vs the Super Crush 100. I was floored at how good the SC sounded. It has a tighter sound than the Rockerverb, They both had a very similar "feel." Needless to say, I purchased the SC and couldn't be happier!*

[@DevilMayCryVergil08]

Just heard this through Kindle Fire HD Tablet speakers and could not immediately hear differences. Will respond again when heard through better setups such as headphones or soundbar. Thank you, Glen for keeping it real.

[@ThisTruckingLife]

So this is the video that the "Piano Lows" came from I get it now LOL I've been watching the new videos

[@davidmarles9409]

With heavy post production in a mix it might be tougher to tell. In a room standing there it's easier to tell. You have to hear the raw uncompressed tone. It's what I hear that helps me play.

[@Levisrad]

Nice! These videos are really great at getting us to challenge our assumptions & actually think critically. My guess is that the shootout started with the solid state amp and then later moved to the tube amp. The difference is so subtle. I *perceived* a bit more treble in the rhythm guitar in the first section, and also heard a bit more "depth" & less treble in the rhythm guitars on the second section. If I wasn't actively listening for the change, I probably wouldn't have noticed the amps changing through the song. As for the lead, I'm less sure. I think it started with solid state and then went to tube after the fact. I felt a similar type of thing with the treble response. Honestly though I'm just shooting in the dark. This was a great vid! Thanks for this comparison!

[@DarkHorsePrime]

In my experience the key is finding a good OD/Distortion pedal for your SS amp, which is more challenging than finding a good match with a tube amp. Something adding a bit of warmth and depth to the sound helps a lot. I found the EHX Crayon is a great overdrive for the Super Crush as it works well with both the clean and dirty channels. I had a hard time finding an OD pedal that worked well with the Super Crush's dirty channel. Lots of people like the OCD, but I didn't like that combo at all.

[@greenlixr5442]

7:44 Sound got significantly worse by far 8:22 Sound got a lot fuller That's all I noticed! Sound was great, then at 7:44 sound was shit, then sound great again at 8:22. Idgaf about tube vs solid state, and idk which is which, just my observation.

[@dougniss]

Just chiming in for fun. Around 8:20, right near the end, it felt like the guitars became thinner. Not saying that's the solid state, just that is where it felt like the guitars had the biggest difference

[@bramdeschagt4687]

Hi Glenn, nice one ... Couldn't hear any difference, however I do confess I listened on my phone... Congratz on capturing that base sound, for some reason that did came across (through my phone).

[@LP808]

I just switched my live rig to an Orange Super Crush and a Crush Pro 4x12 cab loaded with Eminence Texas Heats and Swamp Thangs. Now, I did add a couple of pedals to my pedalboard to help the Super Crush. I did a blind test to my band and soundman during soundcheck. They all loved my tone! The true test was to my soundman because he is a Marshall JCM800 snob when it comes to tone. Needless to say, he told me that my tone sounded awesome through the PA in the mix. He was surprised when I told him it's a solid state amp.

[@Ferruidoblanco]

Solid state amplifiers with a subtle compressor at the end of the chain can sound like a valve amp, there's no breakup but you can use pedals

[@rayrayde]

As always great vid. I'm a huge fan of the super crush and love it's sound. I can't tell shit in the mix. I want to almost make a bet you didn't change anything except maybe a speaker or mic and left one amp on the whole time!

[@gearmortal9339]

When I worked at a music store. We had a customer walk in, who would try to pick out differences in the same fender amp (we had 3 of). An employee walked over and told him one was new, one had come back from repairs, and one was a return. The customer asked witch one was witch. The employee said I don't know. Man his face was priceless and they all sounded the same.

[@sunn_bass]

A Sunn Beta owner here too. I use it almost everyday for about 40 years. Sunn made great stuff. Mine is a Sunn Beta Bass combo but I modded the cabinet 30 years ago from a 1-15 ported to a 2-10 sealed cabinet. Since the Beta Lead and Bass models were basically the same circuit with the lead having reverb and a couple caps different, mine works great for both Bass and guitar. I for one like solid state since it's a lot more reliable and weighs a lot less when traveling.

[@SkogliJotunn]

I'm going to absolutely guess. That the very first rhythm tone we hear is the orange crush. Not that it didn't sound great either. I do hear subtle shifts in the tone when they change but everything sounds great.

[@stmboat]

NEVER STOP GLENN THIS IS BANGER MATERIAL!!! 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

[@The_Cadaver]

I don't know why people still give a shit about what's in the signal chain. Tube... solid state... physical amp... modeler... VST.... expensive... economical... why care? The heart wants what the heart wants. It's usually the shitty musicians that get snobby about it anyway.

[@lukebdawg494]

I’ve used Solid State, Tube and Digital amps over the years and I gotta admit, a lot of new Solid State and Digital amps are blurring the lines and that’s what we want. As guitarists, surely we want gear to be more affordable and less prone to breaking down, whilst still having excellent tone? I had a Marshall DSL100 and as much as it was a loud beast, it would break down all the time. These days I rock a Boss Katana and it’s everything I want in an amp. It’s reliable, easy to carry, loud, sounds killer and it’s super affordable.

[@BB-ft6nd]

I figured it out only because I own a SuperCrush 100 and the Northern Mauler, and I love them both...

[@Mark-zi6nt]

I want to know the bass setup, I love how it sounded

[@gt7150]

No matter what he tests he's not going to notice much difference because he runs everything through his daw "setup" choking the shit out of everything. Then it gets further smashed by youtube for the listener. Gonna have to pull up an EQ "pre" mixbus and look.

[@BanjoDemon]

I recently order the super crush to replace a broken Laney pro tube. I then saw this video and was very glad I couldn’t hear a difference in the mix

[@invujerry]

I listened to this in my car while I was driving to work, and at first I didn’t even realize there was a difference in the tones. I listened again and noticed slight changes but I couldn’t be Frickered to tell you which is which. They all sound great in the mix and that speaks volumes on your behalf. But the bass tone. Jfc what is that.

[@mjklein]

I own a Redmere Soloist, the word's first modeling amp. I was touring with Orange gear and we used the Redmere in the studio. The Redmere changed my mind. That was 1978. Don't ask me why but I think the entire mix you just played was done solely with the Orange.