The tone is great with the Tubemeister 36.

Other amps I own are a Marshall VS265 and a Peavey Triple X stack. I bought the Marshall new about 13 years ago, but joined a rock band shortly after that and it was more cool to have a stack so I got the Peavey. I actually really like the Peavey Triple X and have had lots of comments about my tone. But, my newer project, which is a cover band that covers popular rock from the Beatles, 80's pop rock (Mellencamp/Billy Idol), rockabilly, 80's hair metal, 90's pop rock, to current pop rock hits, and even a country song, I needed something with more versatility, and something easy to change sounds.

My setup had been, prior to this new band, separate floor pedals to the Peavey, and using the Peavey's distortion/clean/crunch, but that wasn't going to cut it anymore because of the wide range of music being covered. I did some research, narrowed it down between the Boss GT10 and the HD500 (I have an old Boss GT6, but wanted something that had a computer interface to edit and save). Reviews said the effects are better on the GT10, but amp simulations are better on the HD500, I went with the HD500 because I was more after the amp sims. The reviews are right, better amp sims on the HD500, but not as good effects as the GT10 - I would have to say that the effects on my old GT6 are better than some of the effects on the HD500 - the one that pops into my head is the tremolos. They are pretty bad on the HD500. Another project I'm in is a Chris Cornell/Soundgarden/Audioslave/Temple of the Dog tribute band and I use the tremolo effect a lot. I have a couple patches using tremolo I can get away with on the HD500, but I still resort to my stand alone Boss Tremolo pedal. Other than that, most of the effects I use are pretty good.

When I got the HD500, rather than using the distortion/clean/crunch on the Peavey, I ran all the sounds straight from the HD500 (ran the L 1/4 output to the FX Loop return on the Peavey head). This worked pretty nice because rather than switching the patch on the HD500, and then tap dancing to change the Peavey channel, I just change the patch on the HD500 - and I can have multiple patches with different amp sounds to cover all the different music we play. But, running everything through the HD500 does make your tone sound processed, because it is. Realistically, to the average person in the audience, they don't know the difference.

Anywho... I apologize for getting off topic, yes, the Tubemeister is sounds great. It cuts through really really well. That was part of the problem with all my previous rigs is that they never really seemed to cut through everyone else well. The Tubemeister does. Plus, you can limit the power out (the power soak feature, basically an attenuator) so you can get a 'cranked up' sound without having to crank it super loud - which is the problem with my Peavey. I have to crank my Peavey to get a good tone, but most clubs/venues don't like a huge stage volume. Plus it integrates with the HD500 real nice (using the 4 cable method). I can use the computer software HD Edit to move effects around before or after the FX Loop, which makes a big difference in the way an effect sounds and reacts. And, with the MIDI Learn feature on the Tubemeister, setting up a patch to work with a specific channel on the amp is easy, and the tone is much more 'real' sounding than processed.

I have played one show (last weekend) with the Tubemeister/HD500 setup and was very pleased. I would maybe like a little more 'punch' from the Lead channel on the Tubemeister, but that will take some time and more shows to tweak it to where I like it. Just like when I got the HD500 (I have had it for a year now) and it took some time to tweak to where I like it.

Also, because I'm playing about 200 shows a year so me not having to lug around a heavy stack is great - and, if I play a big venue, the Tubemeister 36 head actually sounds amazing through my Peavey Triple X 4x12 cabinet.