Many people love the tube amp to get that classic pure sound. What many do not know about the tube amps is how to get the pure sound. If you want the tube amp to be at the purest or best sound the volume has to be on at least a four. You could get away with the volume being on a three but that is not the best thing to do. Many do not know this so if you are buying one of these you need to ask yourself what kind of venues are you going to be in? If you will not be in big venues you do not need to buy a big tube amp. I have the Fender Hot Rod Deluxe. The really big one! When I say this thing is loud I mean REALLY loud. If the volume is set at two the neighbors two towns over can hear it. Haha! It is soooo loud! Unless you are doing studio work, or venues that have around 1,000 people, give or take, I would go with the smallest tube amp you can find to enjoy the purest sound. Most people do not play in places that large. I may play in a couple of places a year that big and normally you still want the amps away from the stage, off to the side, or in a different room because it is too loud for the other band members unless they are all wearing in ear monitors. Now one common mistake people make with tube amps is they turn the volume down low on the amp and bring up the volume knob on their guitar. While this does work for none tube amps this does not work for tube amps. If someone does this they are showing their inexperience and they do not know what they are talking about. This will cause the sound to be worse. If you have to compromise it is better to have your amp louder and bring the volume on your guitar down or find a common middle ground for both volume knobs on your amp and guitar. Trust your ear. You will know what sounds better. Music is based on the listener.
If you get a tube amp you will also have to replace the tubes. I have had mine for about 4 years and I have just gotten to the point of replacing them. They are sensitive so you have to baby them. No leaving it in drastic temperature changes or banging it around. There are 3 types of tubes: 6V6, EL34, and EL84. I will not get into those. The basic thing to know once you decide which type of tubes you want they come in two basic sizes which I just like to call the little tubes and big tubes. If a small tube goes out you can just replace that one tube. If one of your bigger tubes goes out you have to replace the whole set. It can start to get a little expensive replacing them. Just keep that in mind before you buy a tube amp. Look up how much the tubes cost to replace. It is not hard to replace believe me. There are tons of YouTube videos out there.
Hope these tips help on when you are deciding to get a tube amp or how to make it sound at its best. Remember when you are trying to get a better sound in anything most often it is not the big things that make a difference but the small ones. In this case making the volume on your amp higher instead of your guitar. Something so simple but often missed and prevents players from having a pure sound.
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