Tube preamp reliability vs SS?

 

It is easy to refurbish and maintain classic tube gear for decades while a lot of solid state gear is MUCH harder to find replacement transistors, ICs and op amps.

Isn't *that* the truth! The hardest part about keeping older solid state gear alive is finding the semiconductors! The irony is that many semiconductors are far more obsolete than most vacuum tubes...

You can't abuse a tube preamp via the input signal :)

I play in a band as well and while I have technical skills, the idea that a semiconductor is going to fail on the road is not a happy thought- that bit of equipment is going to have to be dealt with in a shop, not on the road. OTOH a tube can go and its simply a matter of plugging in a new one.

I play metal and heavier music at home and find that tubes do that extremely well. Just a FWIW- electronics generally speaking does not care what material you put through it- if its properly designed it will be as good for metal as it is for classical. 

Corrosion is something that affects semiconductors that does not affect tubes. This might take a few decades, after which its a very good bet that the device will be obsolete. Anyone that services audio equipment knows this all too well!

Gain is not a tube or solid state thing. Its easy enough to deal with that either way so I would not use that as a criteria.