I honestly have no idea. I started playing when I was 12, and my uncle had given me and my brother a Kay SG-style guitar, and some bass amp I think. I think it had tubes, because it got really hot..but I was a complete gear ignoramus at the time. Eventually I got a 15 or 20 watt Gorilla. And I remember having one of the 1st series 15 watt Marshall Valvestate (no tubes on the original), and a Marshall MG15R. I moved up to an 80 watt SS Crate amp with chorus, GREAT cleans. Then I got a 20 watt SS Fender, that I ran on the clean channel running a Korg AX30G processor in front of; gigged for about 3 years with this setup I'm embarrassed to say now :lol: My first REAL tube amp wasn't until about 6 years ago, which was a Carvin Legacy. Then the Carvin V3 (great amp, just don't play the heavy heavy stuff anymore), which I'm selling to fund the Express 5:50 I have on order.