I've heard about these amps that are solid state but have a tube in them or something like that. but ive also heard that the tube does nothing but look pretty in there. has anyone used these amps before? is it a gimmick or what?

These are cool amps. They use a 12ax7 preamp tube to add some warmness.

Thank you brian. that helps

I'm not sure if it's just one or more preamp tubes but the same thing applies......Better Tone

I just bought one of the Vox Valvetronix amps. I got the AD30VT, and it is absolutely incredible. It's a hybrid amp, but the distortion sounds incredibly close to real tube distortion. The only distortion I've heard that's better is from the Fender DeVille. This is an amazing amp, and it only cost me about $250. It gives 11 amp models and 11 effects. The AC30 setting is very realistic. I never thought I would be able to afford something this good.

I listened to the sound samples for these amps and they do sound incredible. If my Fender Blues Junior doesn't work out I'll probably go with the Valvetronix.

Just finished a new cd with the Valvetronix...
click here to listen to the samples.

with these amps you do get what most people consider tube distortion, strait up, not a copy... when you turn up the gain on a tube amp you're just turning up the preamp distortion. The tube(s) are in the preamp in the valvetronix, so you get genuine tube distortion in this sense. You need to actually play full volume on an all tube amp to get power tube distortion... i have a epiphone valve junior 5w tube combo amp that has that great sounding powertube distortion when cranked... Its only 140 and it sounds a hell of a lot louder than 5w... much louder than usual room level when cranked. I'm thinking about getting a 1x12 cab for it and then a/b'ing between that and my fender hotrod deluxe for distorted to clean tones.