Why are vintage amplifiers so expensive?

Vintage audio equipment is expensive partly because of rarity (a lot of vintage gear has been discontinued) and partly due to the inherent quality and design required for its longevity. A vintage piece of gear must be of the highest quality to perform at the highest level decades after manufacture.

Are JJ tubes any good?

JJ EL34 tubes are very reliable and sound good too, but be careful to get EL34 tubes and not E34L tubes unless your amp was specifically designed for them. Tung Sols are good but a bit more expensive. The JJs are very reliable, a little more expensive, and sound pretty good.

Are Fender amplifiers good?

Fender Tube Amps are not suitable for metal because their amps have lots of ‘headroom. ‘ Meaning they are not designed to distort and saturate at low volumes. Secondly, Fender amps are voiced to produce transparent tones; hence why they are excellent for clean guitar tones and not high-gain metal.

Why are Fender amps so expensive?

Sure, the actual bare bones parts are not that expensive, but guitar amps do actually take a lot of specialized parts like tubes and transformers, that arent really used anywhere else, which makes them more expensive.

What can I do with old sound system?

Disposing of old or broken home theater systems

1. Give it to Goodwill or the Salvation Army.
2. Recycle broken equipment.
3. Check out Greener Gadgets.
4. Use it as a backup system.
5. Sell it on eBay.
6. Build yourself an internet radio.
7. Continue using the speakers.
8. Sell the equipment yourself.

Can I throw away a guitar amp?

You can take the speaker and amp portions and bring them to a recycling center that accepts electronics. Maybe put the speaker on craigslist for a minimal amount, so it stays out of the landfill. The wood parts can go into the normal trash.

Who makes JJ amp tubes?

JJ Electronic, s.r.o is a Slovak electronic component manufacturer, and one of the world’s remaining producers of vacuum tubes. They are based in Čadca, in the Kysuce region of Slovakia. Most of the products that JJ offers are audio receiving tubes. These vacuum tubes are mainly used for guitar and hi-fi amplifiers.

What are some cautionary tales about buying old amplifiers?

The best cautionary tale that comes to mind is that of elderly musical instruments, especially guitars and amplifiers, which are held in absurdly high regard. Old guitars and amps may look, feel, sound and even smell amazing…

Are old guitars better than modern guitars?

So many great old guitars have better top wood than modern guitars. And you can be sure that when you hear an amazing sounding vintage guitar, it owes its tone in large measure to a great top, whether by happenstance or someone’s skill.

Why upgrade to a more modern amp?

A more modern amp’s guts. The move to circuit boards might upset some purists, but it’s certainly much easier to build a consistent sounding batch of amps with more modern production methods.

Why do amps sound different over time?

And on top of those tolerances attributable to relatively crude assembly methods, vibrations and temperature-induced changes tend to add up so that an amp’s tone can change markedly over time. This explains why two identical amps can sound so different.