Hey Neosho thanks for the speedy reply, I will take up your advice! I've never really though about it much, but I guess you're right, a lot of guitar players DO use tube amps!....I guess it all stems from the one bad experience I had way back when, I was with my Mom who traveled to Brantoford ON Canada with her church...i was the guitar player from the NY branch, and they didn't even have a guitar player up there! I didn't have an amp to play through so somebody went over to the Minister;s house, turns out he had one in his living room, it was a tube amp, and when they brought it I was elated! But after playing through it for two days I quickly became annoyed with it, it was too "mushy" when playing rhythm, it had an even worse lead sound....like a bunch of metallic bumblebees buzzing around a giant coffee can...so that one experience did it for me...but I tried throughout the years to fall back in love with tubes, it's just that after playing through some great sounding SS amps I can't go down that road anymore....as for how I use it....think: B.B.King....meets Metallica....meets Jimi Hendrix.....and that's kinda what I sound like...(at least to ME anyways!...LoL!) But I'm so jaded that I'm even willing to give tubes ONE more shot...I was checking out this amp called the VT55H made by Bugera....it looks like what I need....no menus...presets....sh*tload of effects etc....just a two channel amp with simple controls, and reverb.....AND it's got a nice price tag too.....so I might just give it a shot. My setup is pretty sparse but it works for me....it's:
Fender Squier Strat / Xaviere Guitars Tele into a (for now!) Crate VT212B 2x12 SS combo. I run the Barber TriFecta Fuzz... Boss MT2 Metal Pedal Dunlop Jimi Hendrix Wah and GuitarFetish Chorus Pedal all through the effects loop. When I do play live I use the Line out on the amp straight to the FOH......simple but effective......
Fender Squier Strat / Xaviere Guitars Tele into a (for now!) Crate VT212B 2x12 SS combo. I run the Barber TriFecta Fuzz... Boss MT2 Metal Pedal Dunlop Jimi Hendrix Wah and GuitarFetish Chorus Pedal all through the effects loop. When I do play live I use the Line out on the amp straight to the FOH......simple but effective......