Arrested Decay
Member
I figure they'll go, but people will still hang onto them. People will brag "I still use an amp", like people who still record analog. I don't know.
High end audio guys and boutique tube amps will always be around and there will always be people who like stuff just because it's different, old, or collectible (just like a lot of other "obsolete" technology).
We are already nearly 5 years in. I give the valve amp 10 years Maybe less for most mainstream bands and guitarist. For the big concert acts? A bit longer. I can't see the big guys turfing marshall stacks out for a couple of FRFRs.
But then again, if Marshall come out with a mean FRFR stack? Well I'm in!
Wow... 7 year old necro-thread bump!We are already nearly 5 years in. I give the valve amp 10 years Maybe less for most mainstream bands and guitarist. For the big concert acts? A bit longer. I can't see the big guys turfing marshall stacks out for a couple of FRFRs.
But then again, if Marshall come out with a mean FRFR stack? Well I'm in!
I've got an Apple II hooked up to the TV in the living room. I've been considering looking for a rickety old TV tray to stand it on for extra nostalgia.I still have my Atari pong.
Wow... 7 year old necro-thread bump!
+1 on the Hallicrafters. I used to have one, and there was a real joy and nostalgia to firing it up, smelling the dust cooking inside, tweaking the BFO to tune the sideband, and just generally putting it through its paces. Then I bought an Icom solid-state job with a digital tuner. The Icom outperformed the Hallicrafters in every way, including audio quality and ease of use. It was more stable, way more versatile, and able to to do helpful things with a poor signal that the Hallicrafters couldn't touch. As fun as it was to tweak that 20-ton boat anchor, I never used it after I got the Icom, and I wound up selling it a few years later.
For a very minimal amount of money...
I have
1. A guitar processor that can emulate any sound ever recording on guitar pretty damn well
2. A keyboard with every instrument in the world sampled perfectly
3. Software and samples for anything/everything else
4. Software and samples for every kind of drum machine or drum sound imaginable
5. Software that in real time can add a billion dollars worth of signal chain into my microphone and emulate the best of the best outboard gear out there
And... it's so affordable for the price of a decent guitar someone else could have all of that...
And... we live in an age of terrible, awful music- new generations are looking backwards
I don't think a new band has come out to any real success in 4-5 years at least... and rock is basically dead
So... while tube amps will always be there despite being antiquated technology.... it's simple, easy, perfect.
BUT more options clearly doesn't do anyone any good.
A $50 interface gets you more tracks and recording possibilities than the beatles ever had
and- there isn't anything most of us can't do- BUT- with all we have- most people can't do shit with it.
So- it's the people, not the gear- that's the problem.
Of the yonger generations, as a sizeable population of players are female. When they hit their late 30s or 40s or 50s, how many of them do you think will be keen to heft around 30 lbs of amp and even 30 thru 100 lbs of cab? That will be the true tipping point for the amp industry when the machismo and luddite attitudes are removed.