Are low wattage guitar amps BETTER than high watt amps?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 25 ก.พ. 2019
- A common misunderstanding is that if one is playing at "bedroom" levels than a low watt amp is better for their purposes since a 20w amp is half as loud as a 40w amp, right? Actually, well... no. We'll discuss this a bit along with other reasons that contribute to how loud a guitar amp is as well as which one could be best for your needs.
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Which do you prefer - Low watt amps, high watt amps?
Wampler Pedals my favorite amp is my own Series 1 Lonestar, but lately I’ve been experimenting with the Drive and Tweed modes a little. It gets aggressive in a hurry!
Low watts for me I use a few amps my main amp is a Fender deluxe reverb 22watts a Marshall DSL 5watt a Roland Blue cube Artist 0.5 to 80 watts Fender blues Junior 15watts and Yamaha THR 10C for the living room :-) please keep the videos coming really enjoy thank you Brian
Low they break up nicer besides we have iso cabs and front of house monitoring
Low wattage in the studio, unless I need a ton of clean headroom. High wattage on the stage, unless it's open mic night... I cant decide Brian, please tell me the correct answer.
I like higher wattage, but not for volume reasons. The bigger transformers keep the bottom end more "solid" sounding to me. Not more low end, per se, but more solid low end.
I love the way Brian describes difficult to understand subjects in an understandable way.
I prefer lower wattage amps for 2 reasons. 1. You can get “natural” amp distortion at lower volumes. 2. My back doesn’t break trying to carry, and load the sucker for gigs. I’ve never played a gig with my Fender deluxe 212 that I could get the volume above “2”. So I have to rely on pedals. My Pro junior I can get up to some natural break-up volumes (with humbucker pups).
In would like to say you are really providing great service to guitar community to de-mytholize and correct misunderstandings, provide clarity, and demolishing old canards by bringing experience, demonstration, knowledge and the resources unique to YOU, for the benefit of us. Great topic and video here. Thank you.
I truly enjoy your videos Brian. Great information.
I like how you presented this Brian. You presented the material in a way that anyone can apprehend the information. That the gain staging can make a huge difference was something new to me and explains why my Rivera Era Fender Super Champ is the loudest 18 watts I’ve ever encountered. Again, thank you.
I've been really impressed with the newer 15 watt tube offerings from both Vox and Fender. They sound fantastic!
Thanks for your videos Brian, always entertaining and informative. I think a lot of the time when people talk about 'loud' amps they actually mean sensitive amps: ones that are difficult to control. I had an 18w 1974x amp that was very difficult to play at low levels because it was so sensitive due I think mainly to no negative feedback like a Vox. This effect can also come from badly designed master volumes that give you everything in the first tiny portion of their sweep. I now use Power Scaled amps which give as much power amp headroom or lack of it that you want at any volume within their maximum power capability. They solve every problem I ever had with valve amps!
Thanks for getting straight into the explanation without filler. So many guitar videos with unnecessary discussion
O hey, Brian here talking about amps and the casual name drop to Syn haha! I love it dude! Especially since I see you more of a country guy with Brad and Brent.
I think someone talked about it but 3db louder is double the pressure. But that gets into the whole bunny trail of pressure vs perceived loudness which is for another time. Anyway, love the videos as always!
Anxiously awaiting the terraform!
Technically 3 dB louder IS double the pressure. It’s logarithmic. It doesn’t mean we perceive 2x as loud but based on physics +3 dB SPL IS twice as much sound pressure.
That's a good way to put it, my point in the video is that it doesn't sound like twice as loud, which is the measure that most guitarists are going to use.
Nope, +6 dB is twice as much sound pressure, +3 dB is twice the acoustic power (intensity/wattage), +10 dB is twice the psychoacoustic loudness.
You can easily calculate the psychoacoustic loudness: log10(dB * 10), so +3 dB is log10(3 *10) is about 1.477 times as loud for the human ear.
JerehmiaBoaz Exactly!!!
Another way to put it is; if you add a second violinist to play the same sheet you get +6dB.
No. It takes a 10db increase to double the SPL. You need 200w to get twice as loud as 20w.
Were all talking about wattage here, but is no one gonna bring up Brian is friends with Synyster Gates and was borrowing one of his personal signatures???
I'm glad I'm not the only one that caught that!
Love me some Avenged Sevenfold!
I was kind of thinking does Synyster Gates realize he gets to hang out with Brian?
Syntster Gates makes metal safe for teenage girls and soccer moms.
@@allfornaught0 not the biggest fan, but they actually are a pretty cool band once you get to learn about them, but they are pretty cringey at times lol
Great vid! I mainly use a single ended 6 watt amp these days and it's not that far off the volume of my dual rec 100!
Your videos are always inspiring....thank you!!!
I’m for low wattage amps, they are more confortable...
Everything sounded the same through my 5mm iphone speaker. :-/
Yeah, that will happen
Same here.
I can attest to little perceived differences with respect to wattage.
I had a mesa Lonestar, but mine had 5w, 15w, 30w....or something like that. I can't remember exactly.
I could not tell the difference though between any of the 3 wattages.
Granted, I never used the clean ch.
The higher wattage probably did have more headroom on clean ch......if I'm understanding whats been said lol
Love your channel almost as much as I love your pedals! My wife loved the post with you and your wife talking shop😉
I like fairly high powered amps with attenuation. My home setup is Twin Reverb and Tremolux (35w) into 2x12. It's the sweetest clean-ish tone I can think of. Never get tired of it.
I set up a stereo rig two years ago - to Oranges OR15, each with PPC112. Never been happier with tone and mobility. I still have my Rockerverb 50 and PPC212, though!
I have a similar guitar that a company that used to be in Nashville made. It's name is Les Tele. I like yours too. Sounds great!
The way that I think about dB is that it is like percentages. That is why dB is used to measure gain, sound as well as RF power levels. It just tells you how much bigger or smaller something is compared to some reference. Great video too. Nice to see the Lonestar too.
My last high wattage amp was a 100W Sovtek head that I ran through a 412 cab back in the 90's...it was LOUD. These days I have a Dr. Z Maz 18Jr 112 combo and a Fender Princeton - awesome tones, they sound great when used together and they're plenty loud. Plus...much easier to haul to a gig!
I'm using a PRS MT-15 and that thing will still rock your socks off. Clean to Dirty and the headroom you need. Love this thing.
I had a 50W EVH III head and that sucker was loud! I think it had 7 AX& pre-amp tubes in it. Good video :-)
I gave a thumbs up/like the moment you used the word 'ditty'. Also recently subscribed. Next i'll need to purchase one of your pedals!
Excellent Video. Very informative but would have loved to have seen a larger array of amps being tested. By the way bought a Velvet Fuzz for my pedalboard and its absolutely incredible as it sounds like a fuzz face going into a Marshall!
For live work I often used an old stereo tape deck with a single 7591 per side. So about 5 watts cleanish at most per side and two 2-12s or a 4-12 and a 2-12. Plenty loud for a 100patron bar. An Ibanez multiFX with Compressor, Tube Screamer,Stereo chorus KILLER. IT MIC'd up well to.
I'm digging your intros, very 90s MTV vibey.
I like to use the Two Notes Torpedo Captor 8 to provide a line out for an amp that has no fax loop to send out to fx then return to a stereo pair of amps. You can run wet/dry/wet easily that way or send the speaker simulator to a mixer and send the stereo fx to a mixer and get your wet/dry/wet silently blending the dry source
This common misunderstanding originates from all the music stores. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been told anything over 20 watts is overkill for home use. If fact I’m sure that many overs have been told this to the point were amp makers are now making 20 watt versions of their amps due to market demand. This video changes my perspective of amps now. Thank you for sharing with us.
I love the sound of my H&K Tubemeister 5 watt. Will it work the same way as a higher watt amp through the UA OX attenuator? Thanks.
Brian's Eupohoria Overdrive is still one of the best I have to this date. And I've had a lot.
I still have my old 100W combo amp, it's my only amp. Polytone MIni-Brute II. I played this all through high school jazz band. It's a pretty good pedal platform with the high headroom, but can get a little dark sounding.
Then again, if that amp was good enough for Joe Pass, I figure it's better than I need.
Bang on. I have a Mesa boogie 5:50. play it on 25 watts on 11 I can't hear anything on a drum kit right next to me. I also have a Boss Katana 100 2x12. on full at 100 watts in the same practice space I just make out the drums quite nicely.
I have an Orange Micro Dark. 20 watts. At about 2.5 volume, it's ear ripping through the 1x8 or a 1x12. I Want to try a 2x12 and a 4x12. It's supposed to push those pretty well, too. Anyone had experience with that?
It all comes down to how much headroom you want. Single-ended low-watt amps can drive a 4x12 and get you plenty of volume, but you will have no "clean" tone to speak of.
True I could jam with a mate with a Black keys blues type tone... But clean James Brown.. No way in hell.
As usual, great video!
I would love to hear the 40 watt hot rod deluxe tested against some other 100 watt amps to see how loud it is. I actually think it might be louder than some of them.
Good subject matter. If you look at guitar history. The way guitarists run their rig makes a difference as well. I’ve run twin reverbs cranked, but my guitar volume was barely cracked. So the amp was still cooking, but it was clean and reasonable volume. Also, the amount and type of distortion can change a listeners perception of volume. There are loads of factors to take into account when talking about perceived volume.
The headroom concept is really the main factor for me. I can't get a dual rectifier to sound right until it's pushing some serious SPL, but I can get some wonderful overdriven tones out of a 5E3 or my ceriatone son of yeti at much more manageable volumes. So there might not be much difference in volume when both types of amps are wide open, but that sweet spot with the gain will happen at wildly different dB levels. Just my 2 cents.
Good topic. Keep them coming!
Ahhh now I'm super on the fence on lowering volume for quieter use without losing much tone
To make use of my cab I could go with:
Effects loop and plug in an EQ pedal or a volume pedal or DIY it and just get a pot audio taper/jacks
or
Attenuator
Or use my monitors:
Use cab sims. Preamp-cab sim-monitors.
I got a Mark 5 25. That just crazy loud. My Messa cab is more of a display piece haha. I can use it if I go 10w, drop the EQ and have a slight nudge on the volume.
It also has a cab sim so I have used them with my monitors and that sounds great also.
For the effects loop I've used a volume pedal that has options for active/passive, high/low impedance, buffer, and a treble/presence type of option. That works also.
The easiest was just to use the cab sim and use my monitors. That's the least expensive since I have monitors and the Mark 5 25 has its cabclone sim. But then I mind as well just stick with my virtual instruments. But man there must be some frequencies I'm getting or not getting cause I probably can't tell the difference but I know there's a brightness thing in monitors that makes it sound and feel fake but can't never tell the difference if I closed my eyes.
But it's a bummers to not use my cab. So I was using a volume pedal but should I just get an attenuator???
Too many options.
I do know the vibe I get when I use my amp/cab or an acoustic/classical guitar and I just get lost and jam away for my soul. Using virtual instruments and the whole deal was kind of cool but it feels like a video game.
As Brian says - have a listen and pick what you like.
I would generally add that more output tubes are probably better sounding than larger output tubes for a given db level.
They are fatter and fill a space more due to the slight differences in each tube.
e.g. 4x 6v6's vs 2x 6l6gc ditto or el84 vs el34.
I might also depend on whether you want transformer and/or speaker distortion or not and whether you want clean sounds or not.
Think of a watt as a measure of consumption. not "output".
things that can effect output:
1) A poor performing speaker will output less as it consumes some of the energy (3db difference in a speaker can be huge).
2) Biasing can drastically change consumption (you can bias a 6l6gc from 12w to above 30w )
3) Given most larger amps are class AB, the output stage has a component of fixed "amplification" and is consuming watts whether it is outputting loud sound or not. output volume is dependent on input signal.
4) Typically amp designers bias pre-amps lower if more bass frequencies are to be allowed through.
Bass requires more power to hear the sound, making the amp sound quieter overall.
Usually smaller wattage amps dont do bass well as they dont have enough watts to play with.
5) Many amps are rated on the tubes/biasing used, not on the actual watts output measured at the speaker.
A 6550 can run solidly at 4x it's rated output due to cycle usage. Many 15w amps run 18w or 20w.
Many 30w amps run 40w (slight differences in reality but not for marketing).
It's all fun and games.
Keep up the great work Mr Wampler
Brian! I just noticed the t shirt you're wearing. Love it! I have a couple of them myself. Guitar Effects Pedals in Nashville is great. I've found some amazing pedals there and Ryan is a really awesome guy as well.
😂😂😂😂😂😂 stupid 😂😂😂😂
Cool video. Does this also pertain to solid state/modeling amps?
I've actually used speaker efficiency (or deficiency?) to quiet down an AC-15 when I had one, and it was quite by accident lol. My band always mics our amps live, and with the size rooms we were playing, getting it to that sweet "on the verge of breakup" spot was just way too loud. I bought it used and it had an Epiphone speaker in it for some reason that I didn't even notice til I got it home. I bought the cheapest alnico speaker I could find, which was actually an old Heppner speaker that came out of an old Hammond organ. I think I read somewhere the efficiency on those was around 90db, whereas the ephiphone speaker in it was probably around 95db. That decrease in efficiency let me hit that sweet spot quite a bit quieter, not to mention that speaker had a nice breakup to it.
Your videos blow my mind. But I still watch them. Sooner or later it'll sink in, right?
You’re great, and this is excellent (and so’s my Tumnus).
Interesting topic... what I would also be interested in, apart from actual db loudness in the room, is the perception of loudness in a recording/song when played back. Some small amps can sound big if set up properly while large amps do not necessarily translate so well. Is it something you've encountered and thought about before? What would be the science behind it? Not sure if it makes sense at all hehe
Great job,as usually and thanks for not washing your demos with reverb!
exactly!
I would love a speaker efficiency video. Maybe using a deluxe reverb as the baseline. 100 watt speaker vs 25 watt perhaps.
Hi. I have a Blackstar One Watt Amp and I love it, but I'm a bedroom guitarist and it can get really loud at least loud enough for me. I have heard that I can patch that amp into a more powerful speaker cabinet and it should sound incredible.
Can you tell me anything about this? Why a 1 watt amp sounds so powerful, etc?
Thanks, Brian I love your pedals.
Hmmm, will the torpedo captor's 20db reduction really make those amps quiet enough for home use, cranking the amp till the edge of breakup? Will the captor be affected by the 50/100 watt switching, or will the Captor affect the tone and how so?
Dose a volume peddle help for keeping a super reverb sounding great cranked but controlled by volume
I use a 100w head Peavey Valve King 2 on clean channel, you should hear it with the Dracarys! - +positives - more headroom than I know what to do with . - negatives - don't ever really get passed 2 on the volume and you have to balance alot of volumes on your pedalboard to ensure consistency... but overall I love a big w amp to give the flexibility and clarity when needed.
I like to hav plenty headroom as well n for what i do a dsl 40 with a volume pedal n the fx loop sometimes is more than enuff . And of coarse pedals with the W circuit . Gotta lov em .
Just bought the 6505 20w. Running a Keeley compressor plus, east river drive and isp decimator 2. Nothing is turned up past 12:00 as far as gain and goddamn. Only minor thing is slight hum so i my run a different noise gate through the effects loop. Should i run both gates or switch out the isp?
Hi Brian, thank you for all your videos. I follow them regularly and have learned a lot. I would like to make a suggestion about this video; you should change its title to "Are low wattage guitar amps LOWDER than high watt amps?" Although the video is great, I was expecting your feedback on the "sound quality" as a comparison value instead of loudness. Hope you can do someday the real comparison "Are low wattage guitar amps BETTER than high watt amps?" leaving out the loudness. Thanks a lot for your work; keep on keeping on Brian!
Hi Brian, my name is mariano from Argentina. Witch amp do you recommend me to use with pedals and play from John Mayer to heavy metal. Is for home playing
Volume pedal in FX loop also work great for getting down the volume of distorted amp without loosing quality of the sound.
I have a mesa dual rec and a JMP 50 lead. both used in a bedroom setting haha. thank god for my two notes torpedo reload!
Haha!!!
I have a JMP #2204 50 watter that just kills!!! Couldn’t imagine diming it at home… ITS LOUD! But, that great master volume does help tame some of the LOUDNESS without sacrificing too much tone.
I do however have a really “magical” 2204. Everyone who plays it wants it. It just has something I’ve never heard in any other one that I’ve played… 🔥🔥🔥
Enjoy! ✌🏼
@@Stashmanfpv nice! Mines a 4 holer, so I need the attenuator or I'd kill my neighbors playing it
Done a lot of experimenting with low wattage and high wattage and I’ve basically determined that high wattage amps almost always are better for me. They tend to just sound a lot fuller. Also, anytime I go to local shows, it’s the guys who crank up that have the best sound. One of my favorite local blues rock players plays a 100 watt fender showman on 10 with a plexi glass in front and it still sounds perfectly balanced with the band and vocals. But the guitar is so dynamic and alive compared to guys I see playing little fender combos
Yea I agree, I always try to use the highest I can get away with, but in the sweet spot. That means 20-50 watt most of the time. I do use the 100 watt amps sometimes for outside or something but If it's mic'ed I don't really care, I use whatever I'm feeling at the time. I don't know it's just what I do, not right or bad one way or another, it's just what works for me and what I do I guess
Gotta ask what I’m I using it for coffee house or heavy metal club or maybe studio use
Question about switching between power modes. I read somewhere that you're supposed to power off the amp before doing that. I worried that I had been damaging my Origin 20 after reading that, but then I saw you switching on the MB.
What's the deal? is it no big deal? I'd be interested in you explaining the technicalities of it.
I always put my 6505mh to standby for a wattage change but idk if you need to or not...
@wampler Actually every +10db after 20db is a doubling of perceived loudness. So going from 25db to 50db is 4 times as loud not just double.
what amp attenuators does an EVH 5150 lbx 2 can handle? i mean i want to double that 15 watts..any suggestions?
That TS9 sounds incredible!!
I'm used to 50 watts but I've got a 20 watt silver jubilee and a mark v35 both are loud enough for me. I think there's a sweet spot that you can't put a wattage label on, and that spot is the point where the is compressed enough to push some air and give sustain. Pre amp and speaker/cab will give the flavoring. I'm happy in the lower wattage range. I feel like 100 is overkill for my needs but the attenuator is a wonderful solution even to a lower wattage amp that gets loud
The received wisdom from the audio/sound-reproduction side of the world is that, with the same input signal and speakers, one requires 10x the wattage to result in double the sound-pressure level. So, 100W = twice the loudness of 10W. In theoretical terms, that holds true. In amplifier terms, however, not quite so much, simply because wattage tends to be associated with a bunch of other things about amplifiers that will also facilitate higher SPLs, like speaker size, speaker efficiency, cab size, etc. So, a higher wattage amp will have larger speakers, and generally more of them (not very many 4 x 10 dual 6V6 amps out there). And more and larger speakers will necessitate a larger cab volume, which will provide more oomph per watt. I'm fortunate enough to own a pair of '59 tweeds - a 6W Princeton and a Bassman - and though I long-ago replaced the stock 8" Jensen in the Princeton with a more efficient JBL, there isn't much getting around the fact that the Princeton cab is a mere fraction of the Bassman, and not simply "half as loud".
Let us also distinguish the *dynamic* response of an amp from its sustained level. Higher wattage amps have more headroom, as you correctly noted. That allows the initial pick attack to be noticeably louder and brighter. But once you're holding a sustained note, or letting a chord ring for a bit, and the strings have simmered down from the peak, wattage differences will start to matter less than things like speaker properties, gain saturation and amp settings, and the guitar's sustain properties. Wattage won't be *negligible* but it will be easier for a lower wattage amp to compete, providing the speakers, etc., allow it to.
Finally, you focus on *guitar* amplifiers. There is absolutely nothing wrong in that. But it needs mentioning that power requirements for bass are generally higher than that for guitar, simply because bass strings push more signal out of the pickups, requiring greater headroom from the amp if you don't want it to grunt too much. The same is also true of pedal-steel, where having all those strings results in a hotter output. One tends not to see all that many 1x10" 20W bass or pedal-steel amps, unless they are intended for home practice.
Do you happen to know of any resources that deal with how different speaker arrangements, sizes, and impedance affect perceived loudness (amp wattage and the total load of the cabinet staying constant)?
@@lkbasgiohbasg Not off hand. But most speaker brands will provide information about the efficiency of different models, in the form of sound pressure level at 1 meter with 1 watt of power, generally at 1khz. This is often described as "Sensitivity". Note that since sound is pushing air molecules, those molecules will lose energy with distance. So the SPL at 1 meter will be greater than SPL 10-ft away. As well, not all speakers project/disperse in a uniform way, such that SPL "on-axis" may be noticeably greater than SPL at a 60-degree angle off the mid-point, and so on.
That said, at the very least, within brands, one can gauge the *relative* efficiency of speakers since they will likely be measured in the exact same way with the exact same mic and power amp, with engineers simply taking one speaker out of the setup and sticking another one in. For the typical 10"-12" guitar speaker, you can expect sensitivity ratings anywhere from 90 to 104db, which is a pretty big loudness difference.
Impedance shouldn't make much difference, since it should be appropriate to the amp's output transformer. However, where the amp's output is divided up between multiple speakers that provide a suitable load, the speakers are dividing up the power between them. Think of speakers like fuses. If so many amperes of current are fed through a single speaker, the voice coil may simply burn up from the heat generated. If that same current is divided up between multiple voice coils, each coil may get a little warm, but not burn up because the current is distributed. So a pair of 16-ohm 50W speakers in parallel will be able to tolerate more wattage than a single 8-ohm 50W speaker, because of that division of current. Will the dual-speaker arrangement be louder? Maybe, maybe not. Certainly the bigger cab needed for two speakers vs one will add a bit more bottom and oomph, but that too will depend on cab design, whether it is open back or closed, any porting, speaker mounting, baffle properties, etc.
Maybe not as full or authoritative an answer as you might have hoped for, but I hope this is useful. The american radio history website has scanned copies of a multitude of resources for deeper study. You can find some useful tools for understanding more about speakers here: www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Bookshelf/Bookshelf_Bernards_Babani.htm
@@markhammer643 Maybe not? Definitely seems about as fully fledged as a response can be in the comment section of a video. I'm surprised you didn't hit a character limit. Bravo good sir! Saved me the time and effort indeed.
@@markhammer643 thanks for the great info Mark. That really filled a couple of gaps in my never ending quest for more knowledge about the complicated world that is Guitar......
@@dcs2402 My pleasure. Us old farts may not be able to shred as fast as we used to, but we learned a thing or two along the way. Thanks to Brian for asking the sorts of questions that drag this out of me, and for dedicating himself to this series of videos. It's clear people find them useful.
Anything special to know about using the 2 Note Captor with a combo amp? I thought you would need a cab and head. I don't want to damage my equipment....
I would venture that speaker/driver sensitivity is the primary factor in the relative loudness of an amp.
Is there anything I can do to decrease the distortion on my crunch and lead channel? My clean channel has more headroom than I'll ever need (unless I want to knock helicopters out of the sky), I cannot get it to get that sweet feathery breakup (at any volume that doesn't involve a police report, in fact, this very head generated a police report on a farm where the nearest neighbor was 2 miles away).
My 2 channel, crunch channel, is just too distorted to get any note articulation out of it. I drop the gain to as close to 0 as I can, and use the master for actual volume but it is still beyond distorted. Can I change tubes, remove tubes (you can tell I'm married to this head for the time being) to clean the channel up? Sorry for the dumb Q, I know next to nothing about tube amps.
Great Vid Bry!!
Great video Brian!
IMHO, I like low wattage amps better, as you can dime them easily to get that great power tube distortion. And if you want to take your low wattage amp to gig with, you can always mic it to get your sound, without blowing the rest of the band (and listeners) away and keeping “your” sound…
Best! ✌🏼
Explains why I play my Fender Super Reverb on 8 with a ts9 and a THD attenuator
Will a fender hot rod deluxe be suitable for bedroom then? 😅
I have a Blackstar HT Stage 60 that I run through a 4x12 Vintage 30's cab ans its crazy loud, my son has a Hughes and Kettner Tubemeister 18 that he also runs through a Vintage 30 4x12 and that actually gets full band un mic'd loud but my Blackstar might drown it it if i cranked it side by side.
The bottom line, imho, is that "bedroom guitar" is really a different instrument vs driving an amp+speakers above ~ 95 dB@1m.
Mitigating the amplification/feedback phenomena at lower volume is a bit like plugging into a mixer directly without a good DI in between - flacid and sedate. [I guess that it is due in part that the resistance to line level is not matched by the guitar signal?]
Nothing, is better, or worse. Just different.
Cool video!
I personally, am looking into one of those fender champion 600s, for recording. Figure itll be easier to mic up, and crank more then my jcm 800 4x12.
The reason I love my marshall DSL100HR is cause that 100watts is great for cleans especially since I use hogh gain pups but still love glassy pristine cleans. Like you said roll back the amps preamp gaon or volume, or the guitars volume and you've got pristine cleans. I just set the preamp to have way less gain and but less volume and boost the master and I've got great cleans. Then if I want lots of gain I can get it from the jcm800 style crunch channel or the od1/od2 hot rodded jcm800 style channels. Not to mention dropping it to 50watts gets you less headroom/quicker breakup. The dsl100hr really can work with any pickup type an any output type. With it I don't ever have to pick one or the other. Best all around amp ever.
i'm less concerned with the overall loudness than with at which point the signal breaks up into distortion, which varies a lot by amp. i use my tiny crate vc 508 with the trusty 12ax7 tube a lottt
So my wife and I went "deep end" and bought a fat Mesa head from a "friend" on Facebook. 150 watts of Marshall-ized Tri-Rec known as the Stiletto Trident (Stage II!) Truthfully, it was like piloting the Space Shuttle to turn it on, wondering why I had no signal THIS time. And the volumes had SUCH a fine line between loud and quiet. It was meant to be blasted. Now I have 20w worth of EL84 over a cab that will handle 200. In my apartment, I still can't dime the master, but at least it's engineered to operate at lower volumes TOO. But that's an extreme example, and I still found this video quite educational.
Another thing to take into account is that part of the sound of a half stack, for example, is the sound traveling through the wood of the cabinet. There are so many little factors that make up the big picture. If you get close enough with a smaller amp, good on you. But at the end of the day, if you want your grandmothers legendary pound cake, just how she used to make it, you have to follow the recipe and use the same ingredients and the right amount of each. Same with gear, if you're going after a particular sound. But never forget, there are three rules to music: 1) does it sound good? 2) does it sound good? and 3) does it sound good?
So my blackstar has two dirty channels and it's kinda like your Mesa 50/100 setting. When I change feom channel 1 to channel 2 with both set at the same volume settings channel 2 is a lot louder.
You’ll probably have to set the master volumes at different levels, that’s common with different gain stages and circuits
Hey big brother, thanks for this video. I'll watch it one or two more times, but I don't understand the connection between watts and db. It seems 2x Watts should be 2x volume.
They just serve different purposes. I had a HW AC4 and a bassman next to each other at the studio the other day and even though I could push the bassman to a point that it ate up the ac4, for a lot of the volume spectrum the AC4 was just as loud. Now the bassman had so much more headroom/body and that boom that you physically feel whereas the ac4 didn’t have any of that but in terms of cut/midrange/dB peak, it could hang and was awesome for solo tones. Same with my Dr. Z Remedy, the 20 and 40 watt modes aren’t really all that different in volume but the 40 watt mode has a lot more body
Fwiw, one of the most painfully loud amps I ever played through was a Vox AC30.
I have a weber attenuator but changes the tone of my amp in a bad way and sucks !
Can you drive the Bravado into distortion, what does it sound like? Clipping character?
I've had this question several times actually, I'll have to make a video on it!
@@wampler_pedals yes please Brian. 😁
I had a fender vaporizer which is a 12 watt 2/10 combo and it was loud as loud
Another enjoyable video
I have a 30 watt Peavey classic 30 and it barely breaks up in most gigs, I don't go above 3/12 on the volume. I'd happily go down to 20 or 15.
I have a Marshall Origin 20 at the moment. At volumes required to be heard over the drums, etc, I find it breaks up. I'm after an amp that's loud enough for gigging and stays clean. I'm going to be playing gigs without the amp being mic'd up. Would you suggest the Peavey Classic 30 fits the bill? And does it take pedals well?
There is no "better". Only what makes you happy. For some that's a full stack. For others that's a VST. I love em all, but prefer low volume.
Heph333 I would say what makes an amp better wattage wise depends on what you need it for.
My 3rd amp is a Yanaha thr3 10w.
Pre "surround sound" update.
Its killer for "middle of the night when everyone is asleep" jamming.
The stuff to do with guitars and higher input gain is more to do with saturation and compression isn't it? Good video, but would have been useful for him to distinguish between perceived loudness and actual sound pressure. If you distort or compress something tonnes it's always going to seem louder in some ways due to all the added harmonics, then something clean that's putting out a higher SPL. The ridiculous amounts of limiting on alot of masters nowadays is another good example of loudness without volume.
Would have been interesting, albeit requiring alot of ear protection to hear the difference in some different poweramp wattages (although obviously some are rated more generously then others) when they were being pushed close to their limits though.
Hi Brian and Community.
I recently watched a TH-cam video where it was implied that a 100 watt amp at volume “4 power” would be proper power handling for a cabinet with four 75 watt speakers. Or, said another way, that a 100 watt amp at volume 4 produces 300 watts. Understanding that gain and effects pedals can impact the load output, I’m hoping to learn and understand this arithmetic; because, presumably, I can do the same math to make sure I don’t blow anything up if I purchase a new wattage amp and replace its speaker(s), or if I replace the speaker on what I already have.
How does the volume knob boost wattage? How much wattage is too much wattage (or not enough) wattage to get the best sound in a bedroom?
I’ve been rediscovering my electric guitar, but doing it in a small apartment with 2 kids. I have dusted off my Gibson SG Standard with humbucker pickups, and a 20-year-old Crate V Series 5112 VFX 50 watt tube amp. Most of the time nowadays I practice with a Torpedo Captor X (8 ohm) through headphones and the virtual cabinets… which is AWESOME and allows me to “hear” other amps and speakers. But using the Captor X attenuator on this amp still doesn’t cut volume enough.
I’m either looking to change out its stock speaker (a Celestion Seventy 80), or to replace with a new lower wattage combo amp or head/cabinet. I’m in the market because I’d like to have the occasional ability to hear my amp and speakers either attenuated with the Captor X, or even unattenuated.
I know this may not be realistic. But open to feedback. Thanks.
I had a 10 watt Marshall and gigged with it lol.
It was when they started making lower wattage combos in the 80s... Solid state.
Sounded god-aweful by itself. But with a band it sounded almost perfect, albeit a bit trebly
I have all high watt amps. I am in the hunt for low watt amp. Looking between 20 to 50 watts. I've been looking at the new Marshall studio 20 watt jcm 800 and the Orange Rockerverb 50/Darkterror 50 any thoughts?
All of the Orange stuff is somewhat dark to my ears. I was unable to get a tone I loved with single coils on those amps. The new Marshalls, I haven't played yet, but if its true to the JCM name I am sure theres no shortage of brightness to it and likely plays well with both single and humbuckers.
Black keys played guitarist Dan thru 5 tiny vintage amps back in the day . I enjoy the sound from old Danelectro harmonica amplifier's . Works best if you upgrade the speaker
5:30 What amp at home for quietness.
8:00 Two Notes Captor/ Attenuator.
Can a 15w Blues Jr keep up with an old Marshall Artist 30w Head w/2x12 Cab?
Rick Hill mine does a good job
In the video you say a low watt amp can be louder than a high watt amp, could you give an example , even better with a video. Thanks @Wampler Pedals - Brian for the videos