The quest for the holy grail in guitar amps (SS amps that mimic tube amps) has been going on at least since the 70's when companies such as Gibson, Peavy and Yamaha offered such products. You can now buy a tube Fender Deluxe Reverb or its lighter, more affordable, SS counterpart. There are also numerous guitar effects pedals that aim to do the same. Kemper seems to be very popular with pro guitarists, currently.
A Black Box to Solve Everything
Tubes vs. solid state?? There's a thread out right now about this exact question (there always is), but I didn't want to take it off subject. So my question is; is there a device that could go between the preamp and amp that has variable harmonic distortion capabilities? I know there are tube buffers, but they are not really addressing the point because they use line level signals and don't have the distortion of a good 300B tube being pushed beyond its limits. My thinking is that of a black box with switches and knobs to adjust harmonic distortion to mimic different tube types. It would also have to have a bypass switch so we could readily and quickly A/B the thing. Any ideas?