Steve Stine Guitar Podcast

Tube or Digital? Understanding the Best Amp Choice for Different Playing Scenarios

• Steve Stine

Share episode

Send Steve a Text Message

What if the secret to your ultimate live performance lies in the type of amplifier you choose? Join us as we unpack the fascinating world of digital versus tube amplifiers with insights from a lifelong musician who has rocked stages since his teenage years. This episode promises a deep dive into how these amplifiers cater to different settings, with an emphasis on the irreplaceable sensory feedback and psychological benefits that tube amps provide during live performances. We also explore the innovative Synergy amps, celebrated for bridging digital versatility with the authentic warmth of tube sound, allowing musicians to tailor their experiences based on their unique needs and preferences.

Embark on a journey through the pros and cons of digital amps like the Kemper, IK Multimedia's ToneX, and Positive Grid's Spark Amp. While digital options offer low maintenance and consistent sound, they can't always replicate the authentic feel of tube amps at higher volumes. Our discussion tackles the evolving landscape of guitar amplification, recognizing the shift in trends as younger guitarists favor digital setups for their simplicity and reliability. Whether you're a staunch tube amp advocate or a digital devotee, this episode provides a comprehensive look at how both technologies coexist and how personal preferences shape the choices musicians make in an ever-evolving music world.

Links:

Check out the GuitarZoom Academy:
https://academy.guitarzoom.com/

Steve [00:00:00]:
All right, first off, I just want to say that when it comes to digital products versus tube products, I use them both. And I use them a lot for different situations. And so that's why I thought I would make a video talking about this. So my point here is in no way one is better than the other. Although in your circumstances that might be true. It just depends on what I'm using it for. So everything I'm going to talk about today is coming from the perspective of what I use them for and what experiences I've had. Being someone who is, at the time of this recording, 54 years old and has played in bands my whole life growing up playing in bands when I was in my teenage years and always playing tube amps that are quite loud in rock bands, that's the experience that I've had.

Steve [00:00:45]:
Now, that doesn't mean that tube amps always win. That isn't true at all. It depends. So that's why I thought we would talk about this a little bit. So the first thing we're going to do is we're going to talk about some of the pros, in my opinion, of tube amps. So the first thing we're going to do is we're going to talk about feel. Now, when I use, I use digital stuff for recording a lot, and we're going to get to the digital stuff in just a second. But when I play live, I still feel like, and this is because of the way I grew up in the history that I've had with live playing and things, I still feel like there's something missing in the digital realm that I don't get when I play an actual tube amp.

Steve [00:01:29]:
Now, there are many benefits to digital products, and again, we'll get to that in just a second. But when it comes down to it, the most important thing for me is if I'm playing on stage, that I am responding to the feeling that I'm getting from the band, from the audience, from the guitar, from the amplifier. And all of those things are psychologically very important to me. Everybody's different this way, but it really is to me. And so I've tried to use digital stuff on stage. I've tried using, you know, when you run digital stuff, oftentimes you might run into a guitar amp or a guitar cabinet, and then you might run into what we call an frfr and you might be running direct, you know, into in ear monitors, something like that. And if you're an in ear monitor person and you use in ear monitors a lot, I think either way would be great. But I can see a huge benefit to digital products in that aspect because you're not really.

Steve [00:02:31]:
If you're running in ear monitors, you might not be feeding as much off of the volume that's coming off the stage, the amplifier that's on the stage. And again, these are my experiences. I don't run in ear monitors a lot. And when I do run them, I run them incorrectly. I'll run one in and one out because I still like to hear the volume that's happening on the stage. If I'm playing in rock bands and that sort of thing. I like that in the moment thing with that volume that I get from my amplifier. So that's the bottom line for me is that I miss that if I don't have that.

Steve [00:03:04]:
And I'm running a digital product per se. So there's a feel element that happens both from the gear and in my mind. Now I played and still have. You can't see it, but it's sitting right over here. That's why I'm looking over there. I have a Kemper toaster sitting right there that I use for recording in my studio all the time. The marriage for me came when I was introduced to Synergy amps. And this isn't just a sales pitch for Synergy.

Steve [00:03:33]:
I'm just saying I grew up. Even if I go back into the 2000s, I was always really interested in this ability of being able to run different amps. You know, I could be on stage and I could run a Mesa and then I could run a Marshall, and then I could run a Fender Twin or something like that. And that technology really didn't exist. Although we had like Early Line 6 products that some of you might remember that kind of thing. But the technology really wasn't there yet. And certainly I couldn't afford all of those amps. And even if I could, I certainly wouldn't be lugging them around on stage.

Steve [00:04:07]:
So the marriage for me came. I used Kemper for a long time, but struggled with this on stage thing. So I would be using maybe my Mezzo Barba, which I love that amp, my hus and Kent, you know, my 5150 stuff, whatever it might be. But Steve Vai came to Fargo, where I live, Fargo, North Dakota, and he was playing Synergy, and I was like, wow, this is really great because you can run different preamps. They're called modules, and they're two. Everything is two. So you can, you know, take out a. You can use a 6505 or a Mesa or a Soldano or whatever you want, and you can swap them out.

Steve [00:04:48]:
I've got the head, so I can run two modules at the same time. So currently, I tend to run a lot of the. Their Fender one, and. Which is the T Deluxe, they call it, and the Uber Shawl, or the Soldano. They just came out with the Soldano 2, and I use that one a lot. But it's really great because when I was in the Kemper world, and again, I still use it, but I don't use 50 different sounds. If I'm recording right, Then what's great about the Kemper is I can go in and go, hey, I want this kind of amp, or I want this kind of effect or what, whatever, and I can grab it off that Kemper right away. But when I play live, I don't use 50 different effects and 20 different amp sounds and all these different things.

Steve [00:05:31]:
I use a clean and a crunch and a dirty, and I run a little reverb and delay, and that's kind of it. So the Synergy is great because I. I found a middle ground there of being able to have different modules for different bands that I play in or different moods I'm in. And I can still stay in the tube realm, but I have these different sounds. So being able to run, for instance, that Fender tone, you know, for. And then be able to move to the Uber shawl, it's just a really great thing for me. I can stay in the tube realm for my live stuff, and I can use these different modules that are vastly different from each other, but it doesn't require me to bring out the full amps and things like that. Now, there might be an argument made on both of these whether or not the Uber Sch really sounds like an original Uber shawl, or whether the Fender really sounds like a Tweed Deluxe or something like that.

Steve [00:06:35]:
And you're going to get that from anybody, whether it's in the digital world or in the tube world, unless you have the actual amp. For me, none of that makes any difference because I'm not sold by the name, I'm sold by the sound. Like, even when I was messing around with my Kemper all the time, I can pull up a sound that says it's a Vox or a whatever, and it doesn't make any difference because it's going to depend on how it sounds to me and how it feels to me. Right? I mean, that's the most important thing. Not the name, not the title that's on there, because Especially in the digital realm, when you have someone that. What we call profile. When somebody gets that sound, acquires that sound, you're getting that sound from them. And it's relative to the way they heard that amp, the way they set up that amp, the speaker that they used for that amp, the microphone that they used to profile that amp.

Steve [00:07:25]:
All of those things were something that in their mind, they listened to and went, that's the sound. But when it gets to you, you might hear it and go, that's not what I. That's not how I would set it up at all. Like, that doesn't sound. So I don't bog myself down with names of things. Just because it says it's a Marshall doesn't mean it's going to sound the way I want it to sound. And I found the same thing with these modules with Synergy. They all sound great.

Steve [00:07:51]:
I have a bunch of them. But there are certain ones that they just work really great with the way I play and the way I hear things. So that's the kind of the trade off when it comes to tube amps is I think stuff like this Synergy sits in the center and can service both the amp world, but the versatility that is the digital world. All right, so going back to tube amps for the first thing we had was feel, which includes, like your dynamic playing all of those things. I still think that that's better in the tube realm. You know, all compression, sustain, different kinds of things like that. It's getting better in the digital realm. But when you're lo.

Steve [00:08:32]:
I can sense that better in the tube route. Again, that's just me. But here's some cons to think about. They're usually pretty big and they're usually pretty heavy, and you gotta lug these things around. Lugging them around can means they can be damaged. You know, the tubes need to be replaced. If it takes a drop, you might need to replace more stuff within it, more than you would maybe a digital product. But changing the tubes on a regular basis.

Steve [00:09:01]:
I just changed a tube in this amp in the last week because it went out. Well, if I was playing live, that would have sucked. Now I always have a little backup. Actually, I have a digital backup that I use made by Positive Grid. But, you know, those are things that you're going to deal with a lot is the fact that it's bulky, it's heavy, requires more maintenance. Usually it's more expensive. You're oftentimes dealing with volume issues because in order to get your tube amp to sound the way it really does want to sound, you got to be louder. And so that's why you might go with something a little bit smaller, like a 20 watt or a 30 watt or a 40 watt or something.

Steve [00:09:40]:
So you can really push the volume of, for instance, that power amp section of that amplifier to really get the chiminess of what the tube amp has to offer the digital world. You don't need to worry about any of that kind of stuff. So there are issues with tube amps. I don't like lugging around heavy stuff anymore. I'm getting too old for that, and the digital realm is great for that. But I still. It's more important for me to get my brain in a place where I feel good when I'm on stage so I can play the way I need to play. And so the weight of the amplifier isn't as important as the psychology of playing the amp that feels good to me.

Steve [00:10:21]:
And again, I'm talking about myself. Your experience might be very different, and I actually would love to hear about it in the comments. Tell me what you think about this stuff. Okay, so now let's move on to some of the things about digital amps. Okay, the pros of digital amps. First thing would definitely be versatility. You have this box. Whether it's a Kemper, whether it's, you know, an Axe FX or, you know, whatever it might be, there's all kinds of different things.

Steve [00:10:48]:
Line six has the Helix. I mean, there's all kinds of different companies that have stuff, but most of the time, you have a lot of versatility because these boxes, if you will, can have a bunch of different products in it. So my Kemper, again, pointing over there, has just about every amp that you'd ever want, because I've bought so many of these packs, and some of them are really good. Some of them I don't like as much, but it has all kinds of effects built into it. You know, boosts, and I can run a Wah pedal and all kinds of different things into that Kemper. And it kind of does everything, you know, in one package, which is really great. The second thing is that they're not as heavy. They tend to be more.

Steve [00:11:31]:
Tend to be smaller, a little more lightweight, which is really great. That Kemper is not heavy at all, which is really nice. You know, the Axe effects, you tend to run in some sort of a rack if you were bringing it on stage, something like that. Again, it depends on what you're using it for. Low maintenance. The Kemper tip for Me has always been no problem. There's nothing to worry about with it sounds great at lower volumes. That's where the difference is with me is with the Kemper.

Steve [00:11:58]:
It's great in the studio because I can keep it at lower volumes and it doesn't need to be loud because I'm mixing and all that sort of thing. When I get on stage, there's really no benefit compared to the tubes. When you turn up the volume of, for instance, the Kemper, it's not like it starts to shine as it gets louder. It doesn't. It's more like a. Like a stereo that way. So turning up the volume, nothing changes about it. Where.

Steve [00:12:25]:
If you've really experienced and spent time with tube amps, you know that as you turn them up, something happens whether. Whether it's good or bad for you. If it's good for me, that. That doesn't exist in a tube or in a digital situation. So they built in effects, all that kind of stuff tend to be more affordable. They're still. They can get expensive, no doubt about it. But tube amps can get insane.

Steve [00:12:49]:
You know, you can spend 3, 4, $5,000 on an amplifier, you know, where the Kemper stuff and things like that. You can get into a Kemper for whatever, I don't even know anymore, two grand. But you have everything. Like you have all of these amps and all of these effects and all of this stuff. And you don't need to do a Kemper either. I mean, there's smaller stuff like IK Multimedia makes the Tonx, if you've heard of that pedal, a great little pedal. You know, Dave Friedman makes little pedals. There's a bunch of different companies out there that do a bunch of different stuff.

Steve [00:13:20]:
So, you know, depending on how much you need, you can spend very little money and get some really great stuff. I mentioned Positive Grid earlier. They have the Spark amp, which is a little digital amp. It's a great. One of the. One of my favorite amps for travel, playing in a hotel, that sort of thing is the little Spark Mini that I bring all over the place. So the other great thing about the digital amp is consistency. So it delivers the same sound every time.

Steve [00:13:49]:
And sound guys love that. You know, whoever your sound person is, your engineer, they're going to get the same sound all the time. Where when you bring out that tube amp, it's always a little bit different, right? And so you can see why bigger bands that travel all over the world tend to use. Sometimes will use digital products because they get consistency Night after night and they're playing all the time. You know, the voltage that changes through different countries and different venues, the power problems you have in different venues. Digital stuff tends to be more consistent on all of those levels. And so, you know, you can set up a digital amp for instance, to give you a particular kind of sound and still send a. A particular kind of sound to your sound person.

Steve [00:14:36]:
And it makes it easy for everybody. So there's a lot of really valid reasons why people use digital stuff, certainly in the studio, like I mentioned, but even live, which is great, it makes sense, it's practical. Okay, the cons. Well, again, I would say that the biggest con for me is the feel. When I'm playing at lower volumes, it's perfectly fine. But when I get out and I want to play at a louder volume, I just. This is again a personal thing, but it just feels like something's missing. Okay.

Steve [00:15:05]:
Sometimes they can be way too complex for people. Like you look at an axe effects and it's like a computer, you know, you're losing touch with turning knobs to adjust your gain and you know, low mids and highs and that sort of thing. They can get a little bit, a little bit confusing for people oftentimes and they're often dependent on software. So you've got to run, you don't have to, but it's beneficial to run a piece of software. Well, some people, people don't like that. And then there's the other thing of just authenticity. Does it sound real? Well, for some people they will say absolutely it does. And some people will say, I don't know.

Steve [00:15:45]:
Again, in my studio it doesn't make any difference. I think it's more than good enough. It's just again, because now I've run, started running my Synergy, My Synergy has a direct out that I can run into my computer. And that's kind of how I do everything now is I just run my Synergy because I have a clean and a crunch and you know, a main distortion channel. And that's all I really need for even the videos I make, things like that. So hopefully that helps you a little bit in understanding why you would want one. You know, studio versus live. Your experience, how much you travel, you know, whether you need that consistency, you, you worry about breakdown of a tube amp, that sort of thing, or whether you really need that authentic tone.

Steve [00:16:30]:
And again, I would really love to hear your thought thoughts in the comments about this because this is an ever growing world of tube versus digital and the digital stuff just keeps getting better and better. And, you know, the worry in the tube world is will tube amps survive forever, right, or are we going to run out of tubes at some point? Manufacturers just aren't going to make them anymore because there's really no reason. And we're all going to live in the tube world. The other thing is that trends have changed, the culture has changed. I mean, you have a lot of really, really, really great guitar players that are younger now, that aren't concerned with volume. That isn't their thing. They go on stage and they can run everything digital and that's the way they hear things. That's the experience that they've had.

Steve [00:17:13]:
Nothing wrong with that at all. I think that's amazing. It's just because of the old school that I come from. That's not the experience that I need when I'm on stage. But you see it all the time with new players that that's what they're completely comfortable with. So I would love to hear your comments on it and just let me know what you think. All right, so take care, stay positive and have a great day.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Steve Stine

Host

Podcasts we love

Check out these other fine podcasts recommended by us, not an algorithm.

Wong Notes Artwork

Wong Notes

Premier Guitar
Song Exploder Artwork

Song Exploder

Hrishikesh Hirway
The Motivated Mind Artwork

The Motivated Mind

Scott Lynch