Guitar & Musician Forums

I mainly play at home and occasionally record demos. I like the feel of valve amps but I can’t always turn them up enough to sound their best. Are modern solid state or modeling amps good enough these days for tone and feel?

It really depends on what inspires you to play.
If a modeling amp lets you plug in quickly, experiment with sounds, and practice more often, that’s a bigger benefit than chasing a subtle feel difference that only shows up at higher volumes.

I still prefer valves for recording, but I use an attenuator to keep the volume manageable.

Modeling amps have come a long way. For home use, the convenience of headphone outputs and built-in effects is hard to beat.

We develop an affinity to working with the response of a valve amp at it’s limit. This is a hard-won exercise.
You owe it to yourself to buy a quality attenuator if you wish to approach practice at bedroom levels.
That’s not to say that you can’t learn a lot by playing unplugged with a metronome, but when you plug in - it’d better always be in anger.