The problem is that a solid state amplifier will not compress a signal once the signal goes beyond what the design is created to handle. Tube amplifiers will round off, compress, and fatten a tone with lots of harmonics, and send this signal to a speaker and it creates this magical "guitar" tone that we know today. In a solid state amp, this signal is hard clipped. It turns a mountain into a mesa, with a fat top. You send this flat top signal to a speaker, and it makes the speaker want to destroy itself. Well, not really, but a speaker is designed to move in and out, not to move out and stay out during the "flat" part. This causes a speaker to malfunction.
Now why in the world would anyone want to use solid state? Well, they cost less. Their parts are manufactured for a myriad of electronic gadgets, so you can get the pieces and throw them together. They also are more reliable, as there is less heat, and more stable parts used, in general. There is another section of people that like them, and that is people wanting 100% clean tone.
The non-compressive nature of Solid State means that there are not a lot of overtones introduced to the signal, you have a pure clean tone. Sure this kind of sucks if you want a creamy, rich, bell tone from your clean channel, but if you're applying a lot of amp modeling, effects pedals, or computer modulations, then a solid state signal is the "blankest" of canvases.
Then there are the bassists. Bass takes A LOT more power to get the sound out into the audience than guitar does. Some bass amps with tubes get up to the 300 watt range, but that's pushing it. These monsters weigh over 100lbs without a speaker cab. While on the solid state front you can get into the 1,000's of watts for under 1,000 dollars and under 20 lbs. Now, 300 tube watts, when they are overdriven, can get insanely loud, but you're losing some of your "clean". Solid state provides the largest, cleanest, most defined headroom for bassists. There are other things to take into consideration, wattage is not a guarantee of volume, and the type of power supply will influence the sound as well, but in general bassists are much more accepting of solid state than guitarists. Because of that, bassists now have literal pocket sized amps with 500 watts, and 4x10 speaker cabs that weight under 40 lbs.
Day 23
I warmed up with my Guitarcade as usual. I also played some of the game based on Bending. While still kind of inaccurate, the game did prove to be fun. I think for a beginning guitar player, they should have stuck to the thicker strings further down the neck, because nothing will give beginners blisters faster than bending on the B at the 12th fret.
Anyway, I did the harmonics lesson. Harmonics on guitar seem dreamily easily. I wish they were this easy to do on bass guitar. In bass guitar, harmonic play is like a top tier thing, up there with piano-esque tap play. Jaco made himself legendary by making it a hallmark of his playing. On guitar they almost seem effortless. I know the lesson said that not every spot on the neck will make a harmonic, but it seems that just about any spot did. This is not true of bass either lol. Anyway, I got through the lesson pretty easily, but that might be because of my prior bass practice in the subject.
I did a lot of "amp" practice today, meaning I did it w/o Rocksmith. It is just easier for me to practice scales and the songs I know with my amp. I have a 25 foot guitar cord, and the amp is in a more convenient spot. So I start a movie on netflix, put the amp on clean, and practice scale runs while I watch the movie.
I am really feeling the need to learn more blues-rock and rock style playing. I keep doing the bluesy stuff I have practiced with for years, and I'm wanting to learn something new that I can improv in.
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