while new equipment can be fun, it can also be expensive and unnecessary. however it's started, the material is always worked upon by us playing live and together with each other, which helps keep things organic and natural sounding - we don't really want to record stuff that we can't play live. however it's hard to say whether solid state is any more "reliable". i guarantee the whistling on “he’s a liquid” is on tape. stay tuned for the years ahead. not cheap, but money well spent. anyone coming here is usually following a comment i may have left somewhere else. 