Brian May has firmly sided with tube amps in the ongoing debate over tube amps versus digital modelers.
While it’s increasingly common for artists to switch from tube amps to digital modelers for touring and sometimes recording, May revealed in an interview with Guitar World that he has no intention of making the switch.
Asked if he’d ever tried digital modelers, May responded via Ultimate Guitar: “I’ve tried modelers, and there are some very good ones now. There’s a great simulator; it’s a pedal [Catalinbread Galileo] that really does a very good job of simulating my sound.
“But, of course, there’s nothing quite like the original when it comes down to it. In the heat of the battle, all those tiny little peculiarities count, and when I’m at top level and top volume, there’s nothing quite like those amps.”
May emphasized the physicality of tube amps as a major appeal: “They have a personality of their own, and I couldn’t swap it for anything. I wouldn’t like to be on stage with the amps someplace else; I need my amps to interact with my guitar – physically, in the air – and interact with me because I feel it in my body as well. I don’t think I could do the modeling thing live on stage.”
May, a fan of Vox AC30 amps, has used some for decades. He explained their significant role in shaping his sound: “I love the [Vox] AC30 sound; to me, it’s perfect.
“The moment I first plugged into an AC30 with a treble booster, I knew that was me. That was my voice. That was my sound. The only problem with them has been that they’re not very road-worthy, so you have to keep on top of them, maintenance-wise.”
The amps May uses today were made in the ’70s but have been completely rebuilt. “You have to ventilate the valves, or they get too hot, and then performance suffers and eventually they peg out. The guy who does it for me now is a genius. He’s really rebuilt all my AC30s, so they have all the original character, but I think you could probably drop them from a plane and they’d still work.”
