Tube vs. Solid
 

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...
 

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

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.

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..

Best of Both Worlds
 

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

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