Hi, mattyj from Sydney, Australia here. Just stumbled across the site last night while I was lusting over guitars.

I play left-handed, playing an Epiphone Sheraton II, through a Laney Tube Fusion 65w amp. I think it's called the TF200. When I bought it (I payed for it with an insurance cheque that I got for a Marshall Bass head that was stolen), the shop guy told me that the Laney is a 'solid state amp with a tube in the pre-amp'. Does anyone know anything about these amps? How do they work?

The clean channel sounds like a typical solid state amp. Which I'm not a fan of. The first 'drive' channel I have the gain on 9-10, which I use as a more distorted rock kind of sound. With fresh strings, it's nice and smooth with nice sustain. Once the strings get a bit yucky, it sounds really muddy.

The second 'drive' channel I have the gain 3-5, and it gives a nice clean-ish, warm tube sound, especially with the spring reverb wound right up and playing through the neck pickup ... probably a bit more overdriven than a true tube amp though. If i turn the gain up to 9-10, it has a very heavy metal kind of distortion, tons of sustain ... but I'm not into heavy metal.

This is all with the 'vibe' button turned on. Off, it sounds terrible.

So my questions:
1) does anyone else play anything like this amp? I've plugged into other 'fusion' amps made by other brands that have a tube in the pre-amp, but they don't sound anywhere near as nice.
2) even though there's a tube in the pre-amp, it's not a true tube amp is it?
3) how much of the 'sound/tone' of guitar amps is linked to the speaker? I tried DI'ing my amp through a big sound system (from the 'line out' jack in the back), but it sounded cheap and nasty, completely different to what was coming out of the (british made) speaker in the amp. I now stick a mic in front of it, and it sounds lovely and warm through the PA.
4) do tubes ever need replacing?

cheers