I have a Fender Frontman 25R and I love it. I'm planning on eventually picking up a used one to tinker with. The reason I want to mod it is I want it to handle my pedals, distortions specifically, better on the clean channel. I've been told that tube amps handle pedals better than solid states. Is there a way that I can replace the transistors with tubes? I understand that to do this it could very well be labor intensive and I will also have to mod my filters and upgrade my power transformer, which i wanted to upgrade to a 60 or 80 watter anyhow to run through a 4x10 cab. anyway, just wanted to find out if this was even possible.
In this case, modding will be by far the most complex, long and expensive way.
Much more than buying a new amp, go figure.
If you dare, build an SS 50/60W power amp and drive it from your existing Frontman 25.
Use it to power your 4x10" cab if you wish.
Solder U, honestly you can drive a 4 x 10" now if you just add an external speaker jack to your amp (assuming you have a newer 25R, the older ones already have it).
As far as a tube amp "taking pedals" better, that's basically a load of bull. The only difference really is that with a tube amp you can turn the volume way up on the pedal and overdrive the preamp tubes so that you are actually getting your "grunt" from the tubes, not the pedal. In a SS amp you are getting the pure sound of the pedal with no other distortion involved. In that vein, an SS amp is better at taking pedals than a tube amp. Just get/build better sounding pedals!
As others have mentioned- tube/ss has nothing to do with how amps take pedals.
Normally I have found that it's the speakers that determine this- for example my JC-120 does not take O/D pedals well because it has speakers with aluminium dustcaps. It makes most pedals sound fizzy. In saying that- I have found a o/d pedal to work with it (a boss od3).
I would suggest trying different pedals (and different amps) and see what works for you. Converting your Frontman to a tube amp is not worth the effort. You might as well build a little 5watt tube amp from a kit, and use the Frontman's box.
Agree and add: it´s the way you use them.
This myth, which like most usually has *some* truth in it, started because tube amps , when used "live" (not in the garage) are normally close to clipping, or just plain distorting by themselves.
Tube amps used in Clubs, Pubs and such are typically 30 to 50W and their volume set around 6 or 7 , the beginning of crunch.
They are used so to match the drummer's volume on stage.
*Loud* guys, from Hendrix/Clapton/Blackmore/Page on, have used their 100W Marshalls on 10.
In both cases, the distortion you hear is *TUBE* , and a pedal, even if distorting, loses its own sound and only provides extra sustain and grit.
Even poor pedals "sound well" in this case, although you are not strictly hearing *them* ;)
The classic case is Hendrix's Fuzz Face.
By its own it´s *horrible* (just build one and see, it´s very simple) but driving 3 100W Marshalls, everything on 10, driving 24 x 12" Celestions, open air in Woodstock or Isle of Wight ... stand back !!!
http://youtu.be/KI5IthRfnik
At 2:13 he turns the distortion off, so you can compare what the pedal actually did.
The example to the contrary: Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia, used an MXR Distortion+ , driving a ton of (obviously tube)Twin Reverbs "bright and clean"; the sound is (for me) unbearably buzzy and "SS".
http://youtu.be/4hPCxqkmBuw
See that the Twin is already on the edge of crunch (check at 1:00 , still with distortion off) and even so the pedal is quite buzzy.
So as you see it´s all in the way you use them.
Modern distortion pedals have been developed to the point where they can sound good, no matter where you plug them.