Solid State Guitar Amplifiers

December 15, 2025 by MGRSTL

BUT – let’s talk briefly about Solid State Amplifiers…

They have their place. And in many cases – they can do things tubes just can’t. Yep, I said it.

There are some very famous players that have achieved their amazing tones via solid state amplifier circuitry vs. the tried and true tube flavors…

Dimebag Darrell. Yep, No tubes. Those crushing metal tones were all achieved with an amp that had no more glass in it than a block of wood does. He used Randall RG100’s and Century 200’s. The compression and sustain solid state can offer is often much more severe than our beloved glass.
Ty Tabor of Kings X made his amazing tines using a solid state Lab Series L5. Stupendous sound on the early Kings X records!
Andy Summers of The Police
Robert Smith of The Cure
Johnny Marr of The Smiths (No relation to Robert – ha!)
Even James Hetfield of the mighty Metallica has relied on the celbrated Roland Jazz Chorus 120’s for bold shimmering cleans.

Lots of modern players and not so modern touring acts utilize the modeling solid state amps like Fractal, Line 6/Helix and Kemper:

Misha Mansoor of Periphery
Jason Richardson of Born of Osiris
The Edge of U2 (LONG a VOX user has switched to the no glass world)
Adam Jones of Tool
John Mayer on the Sob Rock album with Ed Sheeran
Paul Gilbert
Kirk Hammett of some unkown band… Ha.
Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age
Dave Murray of Iron Maiden
And even the one and only Tony Iommi.

And, for beginners and novice players many things can make a solid state amp much more suitable to you:

Reliability
Ease of use
Breadth of sounds available]
And – They are virtually maintenance free…

So in summary – Solid State Amplification is great – and it can fill many places in our ears and hearts. And, while this author’s snobbery will always lend it’s ear towards the venerable tube – he does own and enjoy some wonderful solid state fare.

Here at Music Go Round St. Louis we have LOTS of them.
Inexpensive and on up. Come find your non-valve match!

MGR STL

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