Tube vs. Solid

[Desmund Nichols]

A question for all my fellow Smith bass players. We all know how good the Smith tone is, and we all play out of different amps. My questions is: Do you guys prefer playing your Smith through a Tube amp or a Solid amp?

[Tim Bishop]

A question for all my fellow Smith bass players. We all know how good the Smith tone is, and we all play out of different amps. My questions is: Do you guys prefer playing your Smith through a Tube amp or a Solid amp?

This is easy Des. With Eden's Amps, you get the best of both worlds in their hybrid heads (i.e. tube in the pre-amp stage) and IMO they are THE best. The WT-550 is my favorite Eden head through any combination of Edens XST or XLT cabs. Particularly since the WT-550 can pull 750W at a 2-ohm load! :)

To answer your question: I prefer the warmth and punch of a tube in the mix any day. Pure solid state is too sterile for me.

For me though (and yes, I realize this is more than you asked, but I can't resist), it's the QSC-PLX 3602 Power Amp with the Alembic F-2B Pre-amp (the F-2B is a stero tube pre-amp). I recently ran it with 2 Eden 410-XLT's from channel 1 and Eden's 212-XLT and 115-XLT from channel 2. These are all 8-ohm cabs, so, at 4-ohm loads per channel, I get 1800W of pure devastating bass! I guaroantee! ;) IF I wanted to run each channel of this rig down to 2-ohms, I would be pulling 3600W! BUT, that would be adding a couple more 8-ohm cabs to each channel and I doubt that will happen. I gotta tell ya, I would love to hear it though! LOL! :) :D

Sorry, for the additional rambling. :p

[Desmund Nichols]

Now I have 2 rigs that i play out of. I have a demeter hbp-1 and an eden wp100 preamps, and for cabs, I play a goliath iii, and an Epifani UL410. I do mix them up. I love the Eden sound, i think it suits my bass the best. I just bought the demeter hbp-1 a few days ago so I havent really got the hang of it yet. The demeter is pure tube and i havent gotten the hang of it yet. But so far, I really like the Eden preamp. I guess it is just personal preference.

[Bob Faulkner]

I have to say that my Smith produces such nice tone, I really don't want anything coloring it. I run all solid state with my Peavey Firebass 700 2, all controls set flat, and control all my tone from the Smith. It sounds so sweet..

[Albert Smith]

For me personally, it all depends on the type of venue I'm playing, if it's within the walls of my church I normally run the Ampeg B2RE solid state, but if I'm outside its going to be the all tube Ampeg SVT Classic. :o

[Nick Foster]

Tubes all the way. More power and better tone. My opinion anyways. I'll never go back to solid state.