Solid state amplifiers, nonetheless, have become the norm, and deliver startlingly good performance. Solid state electronics came into use, but did not entirely replace the vacuum tube, with high end units still being made with one or more dual triodes in the pre-amplifier, and being favoured for their superior warmth of tone. Until the 1970s the dominant active electronic component in guitar amplifiers was the vacuum tube. Early on, guitarists experimented with distortion by deliberately overdriving their amps, creating the first вЂњeffectsвЂќ which the guitarist now commands through his effects box, and by manipulating the pre amplifier signal.ДЄre made in two basic configurations вЂ“ the вЂњcomboвЂќ in which speakers and am are combined in the single unit, and separate arrangements where the amp stands alone and drives speakers at a distance. The modern electric guitar amplifier really came in to being when surf guitarist Dick Dale collaborated with Fender to produce the first 100 watt amplifier with the aim of producing вЂњthick, clearly defined tonesвЂќ, but at volumes previously undreamed of. The first electric guitar amplifiers were used to power the lap-steel guitars washed ashore on the US mainland in the great Hawaiian music craze of the 30s.

Dating your fender champion lap steel