I think the Almighty gave us transistor amps to relieve pain in our our backs.
I started using transistor jobs from about 1977- after years of humping big heavy valve amps...never looked back.
Talking of clean amp sounds, my first amp ever was a large 2x12 combo called a Maestro GA46T made by Gibson, it was a 60 watt valve job with the whole unit on casters- it gave a crystal clear sound even when turned up to 10...which I DIDN'T want at age 17- I wanted to sound like Hendrix, Clapton and Jeff Beck..I recently found out that this amp was made by Gibson- for use with ACCORDIANS....
