Tu-Be or not Tube - Nasville Notes with Andrea Benz

Photo credit: Jorg Schnebele

CONTRIBUTING EDITOR | GEAR SPECIALIST | GUITAR THRILLS MAGAZINE TAMPA, FL U.S.A

Andrea Benz

Andrea Benz is a professional Swiss guitar player and singer/songwriter based in Nashville, TN. She has a degree in Jazz/Pop guitar and her playing style is a unique blend of 90ies country chicken pickin´ style and the earlier jazzy western swing style. She has been touring with Karen Waldrup, Farewell Angelina and Mark Blomsteel all over the United States. The telecaster aficionado is currently playing for various artists in Nashville and out on the road. She´s a member of the CMA Country Music Association, a Fender affiliate and part of the artist team at Seymour Duncan.

In 1949 when Leo Fender dropped the Fender Deluxe 50-watt tube amp onto the market it would cause a shift in the tectonic plates of the guitar world. Let’s go back… of course there were tube amps before the 49 Deluxe but they were much smaller. I´m talking about 5 or 10 watts. These little guys were fighting it out in the big band set up with horns, percussion, the audience and who knows what else. It was in this moment quite by accident that distortion was born. In a futile effort to rise above the swell of the big band, guitar players would often turn these little guys up past their limits causing the tube valves to overload - distortion. Fender wanted that sound to be heard and gave the world the 49 Fender Deluxe. Of course there were other problems to overcome as well. The clunky hollow body guitars of this era with the “you add it on yourself” pickup wasn’t cutting it either, so it was no surprise that 1949 was the year that the first solid body guitar prototype was on Leo’s workbench. The Broadcaster was ready for national distribution in 1950 and after bitching around with Gretch about the name for a while, things finally settled down in 51’ The Telecaster … Boom! 

That all being said… here we are 73 years later being faced with a dilemma. Tu be or not Tu be. Early in the 60’s engineers here in the U.S., in Japan, in Germany and everywhere else were working on a new thing Ta Daaa.. the transistor. Bye Bye tubes of yesterday. Combined with the popularity of Rock and Roll and America´s boundless thirst for new gadgetry transistor amps were taking over the guitar world. Vox, Peavey and a host of others were pumping out new Transistor amps left and right. Fender dropped its own in 1966, but something was missing. The solution was clear… enter the hybrid, solid state preamps with tube power stages. 10 or so years later with the advances in transistor tech the Roland JC 120 became the leader in the race and almost overnight became the industry standard for every festival stage rider in the galaxy.

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Meanwhile engineers had a new bun in the oven Digital Signal Processing (DSP). The digital age made it possible to replicate the tone and the warmth of the iconic amps of the past… well sort of. The purist´s claim that the beloved tones of the vacuum era could never be replicated was gaining ground despite the fact that now in the 21st century DSP was able to offer trillions of downloadable effects allowing the end user to make his or her amp sound like anything or anybody.

Modeling amps, digital pedal boards, huge racks on tour filled with artist`s rigs along with the people who know how to operate them are the new norm. Everything said and done right?

Not really. Claims that tube powered amps provide a warmth and tone that DSP is not able to replicate are a big problem for the purist camp. Tube amps actually react to how you play the guitar forcing the signal through the tube at rate that is determined by how hard the note is played. For whole legions of players this dynamic response is sacred. Emotions are what the artists want to expose, and music is the medium through which those emotions are portrayed.

Solid state amps have made incredible breakthroughs and will continue to do so in the future. Not only are they more reliable and less maintenance intensive, but in many cases less expensive and lighter, and if you have ever gotten to your gig and desperately had to organize a replacement for your tube amp like me a couple weeks ago, you will understand why lots of touring musicians leave their tubes at home and take DSP on the road… not me. There is nothing in my music or my performance that wants to play it safe;-)

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A RECAP OF WHAT YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED

• Heartland Pickups - "Thick and creamy tones with a modern clarity."
• Tu-Be or not Tube - Nasville Notes with Andrea Benz
• The Super Guitar Hero? A hero emerges from most unlikely places..."Thalia Bellazecca".
• The Knaggs SSC Steve Stevens Signature Model is a masterpiece in Purple Burst.