GEAR OF THE YEAR A YEAR IN GUITAR
As digital guitar amplification continues to wow the market and guitar players alike, we ask – what will become of the legendary valve amp?
While amplified guitars were around as far back as the 1920s, it was the early K&F designs made by Clayton ‘Doc’ Kauffman and Leo Fender, followed by Fender’s original ‘Woody’ series of combos in 1946, that paved the way for the guitar amplifier as we know it today. Back then, all amplifiers used electron valves (known in the USA as vacuum tubes) – because if you wanted to amplify a signal, there was no other option. The arrival of rock ’n’ roll in the late 1950s produced an explosion in popularity for electric guitars and amplifiers, coinciding with the peak years of valve production.
During this time, Mullard’s famous Blackburn factory employed over 6,000 people turning out over six million valves a year, but Sony’s 1957 TR-63 transistor radio signalled the beginning of the end for most valve-powered products. Over the next two decades, valve factories gradually closed down as manufacturing switched to transistors.
Guitar amplification joined in the solid-state revolution, but it’s true to say that most guitarists still preferred the sweeter tones of valves. And while solidstate continued to improve, there was a missing link waiting to be discovered – and in 1997, it arrived in the kidney bean shape of the Line 6 POD.
Fast forward 25 years and affordable now means digital. It’s now possible to buy a great-sounding digital combo for a fraction of the cost of a valve equivalent, and a new generation of players can get all their sounds from pedals and plug-ins. For experienced and pro users, amps such as Fender’s Tone Master series have gone a long way to prove that modern high-powered digital signal processing, combined with the latest Class D power amplifiers, is not just as good as valves but often audibly better. Other manufacturers are integrating valve amps with digital cabinet emulation hardware, like Two Notes, for greater recording and live sound flexibility, creating a ‘best of both worlds’ solution.
However, with venues like Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry now relying on Tone Master amps for their backlines, and pro players using digital replicas of their favourite amps (The Edge used Universal Audio’s UAFX products for U2’s recent bash at the Vegas Sphere, for example), it’s clear that digital has finally come of age, offering reliability and consistency that valves will struggle to match. It’s an unfortunate truth that valves wear out, while DSPs don’t.
Valves will be
