ah, the good old SS vs tube debates. i love em. having played and used many tube amps(for those interested i've owned: Marshall Superbass Head, JCM900 combo, 1964 Vox AC30, Marshall 30th Anniversary head) i have to admit, they sure sound ace. big, meaty, not meaty.... they can do it all really. they are the amp of choice mainly because so many of your favourtie bands use them. that what people do, they look at the players that have good sounds, look at what they use, and try their hardest to match it. everyone has bought at least one piece of equipment because one of their favourite guitarists use it. Dan bought his explorer based on seeing James Hetfield.... i bought my Tele because it was Kurt Cobain's next guitar of choice(it was actually) but getting back on track. do they sound better? to me.... yeah. but only in certain situations. would there be any point to me owning a tube amp in my current bandless, small shared house situation? probably not. they need to be cranked up to at least halfway to get them sounding good. yeah, ok, get an attenuator.... but their damn expensive for a good one, and they make you go through tubes a bit quicker. ever had to re-tube an AC30... a costly job i assure you. Attenuation also doesn't capture the best part of the guitar sound, which for me anyway, is the speakers fucking up and being put under strain. Yes, tube amps are ace if you have money, lots of use for them and a band thats gonna get the thing cranked at least a couple of times a week. and now for SS.... i now have myself a Line 6 Pod(shame on me) but, i find this little tool to be pretty damn good. it gives me all the amps i'll never use, plus all the ones i do. ok, there's a lot of crap on here i admit. but its not the vast sounds i'm after. i only use 3 sounds. clean, dirty and dirtier. all sounds i could get with any two channel amp. the best part being, that i can get all the nice cranked high gain sounds through different cabs etc. some sound more fucked up than others. i'm actually beginning to like some of the sounds i used to really hate because of this little bundle of joy. the Mesa Boogie Rectumfrier being my current favourite. its a good way of finding out what sucks and what doesn't suck, although, its no comparison. i sit on the fence really. i can only name two main stream guitarists that i know using solid state amps(Johnny Greenwood and Dimebag). it doesn't mean the amps suck. its all personal taste.