do tubes rock ??

Try an amp with el-34 tubes. I've owned amps with 6550, kt88, and kt99. The el-34 is great for rock. Tube amps in general do not have the authoritative bass of a solid state though. They do get the sound and growl of electric guitars right.

Got me ALL riled up ! I think the el-34 is THE more definitive rock sound. A little 5881 vs el-34 comparison. I've only seen the 5881 used in the Mesa Baron high end amp which has an 'upgrade' to the el-34. My friend who owns one claims this is a much better sound. Anyway, I have heard/played direct comparisons of these tubes in guitar amps. The 5881 is the classic fender sound (Stevie Ray Vaughn (SRV), Buddy Guy) which is very clean with a beautiful sustained ringing echo tone. SRV playing 'Lenny' or 'Tin Pan Alley' is a great example of this sound. This sound is great for jazz and clean played blues. I use a fender deluxe w/these. The el-34 is the classic Marshall/British Rock sound (Hendricks, Led Zeppelin, Van Halen, AC/DC, Beatles-Vox w/el84). It has more of a gutsy distorted crunchy character. Examples are: lead notes to On The Road Again (Metallica), the intro to Hells Bells (AC/DC), Whole Lotta Love(Zep), and All Along the Watchtower(Jimi). Those sound like rock (or at least a good argument for) to me

Hey Trelja, Glad to see we politely agree to disagree ! Can you use a mesa baron as a guitar amp ? How would you connect the outputs of the guitar into this ? Now that I'm thinking of it, I'm going to retube my fender with some alternate 6L6 tubes. I've always used stock issue groove tube 5881's (aka Sovtek 5881WXT), but I want to experiment. The sonic descriptions of the sovtek 6L6WXT+ and even more the Svetlana 6L6GC look interesting.