TylerDeadPine wrote: Mon Apr 21, 2025 12:03 pm I've been seeing flip tops for great prices - I don't know if it's because of modelers or what but they're kind of the perfect smaller bass rig, not sure what the deal is.

50 and 100 watt tube bass amp prices aren’t going up with the times, either. More for me

More for me!

Amps aren't selling at all right now. I've got inventory I've been sitting on for a month or so, priced to sell, and it's crickets out there. I think everybody is hunkering down given the current state of affairs.

Nate Dort wrote: Mon Apr 21, 2025 6:35 pm Amps aren't selling at all right now. I've got inventory I've been sitting on for a month or so, priced to sell, and it's crickets out there. I think everybody is hunkering down given the current state of affairs.

This checks out. I've been busy but largely with international orders.

Yep, no more big purchases for me. I've assembled a new main guitar, getting some setups and work done on those I have, and trying to get in the mindset of being happy with what I have. It's gonna get rough out there.

I made sure to take on whatever I was trying to achieve ahead of time, while there were sales and resale values were good. I'm about to offload a bunch of pedals, but that's about all the activity I have planned for the foreseeable future.

Nate Dort wrote: Mon Apr 21, 2025 6:35 pm Amps aren't selling at all right now. I've got inventory I've been sitting on for a month or so, priced to sell, and it's crickets out there. I think everybody is hunkering down given the current state of affairs.

Don't know it it is THE reason, but I work with a bunch of people about 10+ years younger than me and they almost all only use virtual amps. Either pedal based or actually use a laptop or a Ipad as an amp on stage. It's gross. One guy I know why is actually a pretty great guitar player and records some good sounding stuff said he has never once recorded a real amplifier for any music he has ever made. It's all software. I use software amps, but I'm a pervert and usually re-amp the signal and mic it when I'm done.

I think virtualization is the future. It's more affordable, offers more options, lighter physically and way cheaper to maintain. I think amps are going to become either a retro or boutique thing or maybe they'll come back in style if they become more affordable than modelers. But computers are cheap and easy to make. For the time being anyway.

cakes wrote: Wed Apr 23, 2025 1:38 pm I think virtualization is the future. It's more affordable, offers more options, lighter physically and way cheaper to maintain. I think amps are going to become either a retro or boutique thing or maybe they'll come back in style if they become more affordable than modelers. But computers are cheap and easy to make. For the time being anyway.

I think you are completely right. Big ol amps will always be pretty fuckin cool, but it is just getting hard to compete with the convenience/flexibility/cost of virtual amps. With a decent cheap little power amp into a speaker of some kind you can have like 50 amps on your pedal board for the cost of one tube amp. To a lot of people it seems dumb to just have one amp sound you are stuck to, and I've run in to more than one person that has no interest in recording a real guitar amp vs. just using software. My friend Josh has replaced endless amp tone patrolling with going through every DI on the market. So fucking boring, but to each his own.

I saw a band last night (Finom, from Chicago) and I think the biggest amp on stage was a Deluxe Reverb. Between the 3 bands, there was also a Champ, one of those little Orange Micro terror amps, and from what I could tell, a lot of pedal board amp sims I couldn't see. The kids don't care about dragging refrigerator sized cabs around anymore.

It looks pretty silly having amps the size of a shoebox mic'd up. Gulliver's Travels to Guitar Center.

The show sounded pretty good.

Kniferide wrote: Wed Apr 23, 2025 5:45 pm

cakes wrote: Wed Apr 23, 2025 1:38 pm I think virtualization is the future. It's more affordable, offers more options, lighter physically and way cheaper to maintain. I think amps are going to become either a retro or boutique thing or maybe they'll come back in style if they become more affordable than modelers. But computers are cheap and easy to make. For the time being anyway.

With a decent cheap little power amp into a speaker of some kind you can have like 50 amps on your pedal board for the cost of one tube amp.

I think this is a bug, not a feature. Like watching the end of 2001 on an iPhone mini or something. Yeah, all the pixels are there, and yeah all the audio is in your headphones, but it's still the wrong way to fully experience it. At least for me. If others get down with it, then get down with it.....it just ain't for me right now.

I've seen several bands with modelers or class d type setups and they sound like wet farts.