Originally Posted by: marty farcal

manXcat thank you for the thoughts. I love the tone of a couple tube amps I have heard in years past. I currently have a Johnson Marquis JM 120. I read somewhere that tubes last longer nowadays. Don't know if it is true or not. I'm thinking 20 watts max. Guess I should probably put the guitars down and go on a demo run.

[br]Had to look that up (Johnson Marquis JM 120). Demo run plan sounds good.

I agree that tube amps sound sweet, so I get where you're coming from, but the tonal gap has closed a lot in recent years. I'm only going on end user reports myself from what I've read and seen that Tube amps are pretty reliable these days, and vacuum tube life is reportedly good, but am aware that they still need tubes replaced to a schedule every couple of years/(n) playing hours to keep sounding their best, unscheduled replacement occasionally, and design dependent, biasing. If you're tech minded and prepared to invest the time into learning to do it yourself and buy the couple of necessary tools so you can do it yourself, it's a minor expense and inconvenience. Typically many small tube amps only have a single preamp and power tube whereas a Vox AC30 has 3 preamp tubes and 4 power tubes although the majority of combos most fall in between these parameters.

Seriously, for scales and much other stuff including learning parts, much of the time out of sheer convenience I use just my 3W Blackstar Fly 3 running on batteries unless I'm chasing tone or trying to perfect a nuance e.g. swapping between the clean rhythm vs fuzz and booster pedals for the melody line of "Satisfaction" on the RF bypass channel of one of my amps with that feature, or simply just want to let loose for the pure enjoyment of it.

My TVP amp blew away any preconceptions about digital vs tube. I have both for direct comparison and, selected to 6L6 it's impressive beside the real thing. I like both, but the TVP is more versatile. It's grin factor is massive. If I had to choose just one amp, it'd be it. But I'd probably buy a Fly 3 or similar additionally anyway even if money was tight.

That said, the small tube amps are great too. Everyone makes one. Choose your preferred brand characteristic tone and tube, and just go with whichever floats your boat, especially if you can afford another amp or to change if it turns out it wasn't what you expected.

My ears must be easy to please, as I haven't bought an amp yet that I don't like respecting its expected characteristics, strengths and limitations, or which can't find some positive attribute in.