Originally posted by canuck7
yeah, i heard that solid states are a bitch to fix.

Any circuit built on a printed circuit board is going be hard to repair or modify. And that includes a lot of modern tube amps. Point-to-point wiring has to be done by hand, and that is an expensive process. From a service point of view, the transistor amps are much more reliable. Tubes deteriorate with use, and even the highest quality tubes with the most careful bias maintenance will eventually wear out. Tubes tend to break down slowly, which gives you some time to schedule some service. Transistors tend to work well, or not at all, which means that if bad things happen, they happen suddenly.

I have both kinds of amp, and they have different specialties. When you are about to pick just one amp to do everything with, it makes choosing one over another hard to do.

If you're going to be dragging your kit all over the country, small size, light weight, extremely reliable gear is actualy more important than getting that perfect tone. Quite frankly, by the second set, most bar audiences aren't going to notice that your tone was borrowed from the angels. But if your rig quits four songs in, you ain't gonna have a third set!

If you're looking to spend most of your time recording, or jamming in the garage with your buds, you can focus on ultimate tone.