@@greatbingus Where did you hear that malarky? Sounds like so TGP drivel. The AC30 has a passive eq section like the fender. The values are different so they aren't identical but there is nothing additive about it.
The Vox with the Stratocaster is hands down powerful w/ amazing tone balance.......... They are all obviously powerful but can they equalize the tone at high volume........... My ear says the Vox / Strat combo. AMAZING!!@
@@greatbingus So you don't actually know how the amps work, you just googled some garbage and copy pasted a bunch of it to hide your admission that yes the vox eq is passive like the others. Just because the top cut is post P.I. doesn't mean it adds anything.
In my youth, I am now 73, I had two Vox AC30's, one stacked on top of the other. 2 x 12's in small separate cabs driven by a Marshall 50 head, and all connected together! Needless to say I am now hard of hearing, but the sound was just incredible. Interestingly I thought that the Vox had the best all round tone! In more recent years, I have bought all my gear from Thomann. Can't recommend it enough! Fun video guys!
you played two AC30s and (essentially) a 50w Marshall half stack at the same time? where did you play where that level of volume was even appropriate? genuinely curious
I think the JCM800 would have been a better choice for this than the SLO. The SLO is a great amp but it doesn't fit the theme as well as the 800 would have.
The Presence was down at 2.5, though. Not much amp section harmonics above ~1kHz. I would lower the Treble even more and increase the presence. The high freq response doesn't flatten out with the Middle cranked in a Marshall tone stack until the Treble is down to 1. Hendrix cranked all the knobs at first, but he mellowed his tone in later years.
@@tomminystrom And I agree with you Tommy! HOWEVER ,this was ABOUT running all those amps on 10/10 volume! But you're right, it probably WAS a bit flubby! SO was the Fender!
a twin reverb at full volume is something that everyone should experience. i played a few music festivals and the sound is something beautiful and powerful
Been playing and teaching for 40 years. Always told my students "you want to play loud, then practice loud." Amazing how your guitar and amp become living entities!
Very true! Also, if you want to play in a band and feel good doing it, you better practice standing up. Straps are our best friends. :) Cheers and thanks James! //Kris
It's so true that amps are a million times better when cranked. Anytime I cranked a Marshall type amp, it was amazing how great it felt to play and how much easier it was to play.
I used to stand in front of two Sound City 120 stacks in the 70s. The kick in the back on the first chord was what we lived for. I still have a HiWatt 50 which is really something beautiful at full tilt. I was so lucky my hearing was never damaged like many others of the day. It's brilliant to see these two guys in orgasmic mode over the old amps....great fun.
@@172turtla It was somethjing else eh? They were really under-appreciated in their day despite being pretty much a Hiwatt inside. Mine ran two 4x12 each with the top being a slant. I never really had any trouble with them at all....hard working amps with great control of the high end when on single coils. I think you get an addiction to that type of amp as I never really got on with Marshalls and Fenders.
I think you should do the test again but with each guitar playing all 4 amps. So we can hear the difference between the single coils and the humbuckers with all four amps. And yes do it with the smaller amps as well. To my ears the Vox had the best tone.
I used to have a HiWatt Custom 50 back in the days (some 35 yrs ago) and once had the opportunity to crank it all the way up in an empty ice hockey stadium (local club so it was a small one but still). We were all blown away by the sound and the experience ... and also by the power and volume that thing was able to deliver. We had about 30 minutes of fun before some neigbours showed up to complain. The thing is: they had their houses about 100m down the road but it was still too loud for them ;-)
I used to have a Fender Super Twin combo amp. we had training facilities in an old farmhouse, in the living room. once we tested how much noise it makes. had to stop when pots started falling out of the kitchen (!) cupboards 😂 The clean sound came from the 180w tube amplifier which was quite enough. no distortion.
Damn... had the opportunity to record with a cranked AC30 last year, it's a truly magic sound! On a side note, this works with the Neural DSP plugins, too. I mean, yes, it's only plugins, but if you crank the ToneKing one i.e., it reacts in the same way with a nice warm tube saturation, as the real amp would do. And you don't have to wear ear protection for that! 😀
Just bought one, but the more manageable 1x12 version. And now I'm shopping for attenuators to tame it down to AC15 volume for most things. But the bass and headroom is so nice to have, the . Not that my other amp, AC15 isn't awesome in it's own right, with the sparkliness, spring reverb and lovely tremelo. I love how AC10s sound, not so much clean, but really cranked too. At more manageable volumes, they're still proper snappy staffordshire bull terriers those.
That's awesome dude. Yes, if you want to go for real amps, an attenuator is a must-have nowadays :D. I'm using the Two Notes Torpedo Captor X. That one does a fantastic job at preserving the full, rich tube sound even at lower volumes. Using it for live with my Mesa Boogie Mark V:35 and in the home studio, it's pretty much a no-brainer. @@compucorder64
Story of Dick Dale having every Fender amp blow up (literally) at live shows. So he went to Leo and asked for something that could handle being cranked, and that’s where the 100-watt Dual Showman came from. Meanwhile over in the UK a few decades later Jim Marshall not only made the famous “Bluesbreaker” for Clapton that was so loud the rest of the band had to force him to put it in a separate room (it bled into every microphone in the studio), but also Pete Townsend wanted to be even louder and helped invent the Marshal stack for live gigs, (8 speakers in one tall cabinet. That got broken into the two half-stacks to save the road crew from needing a chiropractor after every gig.) Although Pete switched to HiWatt because they were more reliable on the road. Believe it or not, the Beatles were the ones to push Vox to make bigger and louder amps, the screaming girls at every show meant they couldn’t even hear themselves sometimes.
I own five vintage Marshalls and have cranked a pair of Superleads in a stereo setup, each running two cabinets, this setup being in my bedroom at the time. It was fun! It was also nearly as physical an experience as getting into a fight.
I love how the room mic cuts the fizz. Great episode! My brother and I play a Super Reverb, a Bandmaster with a mismatched ohms cab and a mid 60s Bassman in his garage. They all hit the same decibels as the Marshall, and sound amazing dimed.
It's worth pointing out that the volume difference between the 100w heads cranked and 20w combos cranked was at most -6db. That means that a 20w combo will absolutely be loud enough to play with a band.
Most people don't know that you need 10x the power to double the perceived volume. Twice the db equals twice the sound pressure but not twice the perceived volume. An increase in six db is significant but most of the time you won't need an amp pushing more than 80 db in a small to medium venue. A 20 watt tube amp or maybe even a 1 watt tube amp paired with a nice cab can get louder than you will ever need it to be. Solid state is a different story. Another interesting thing is watt ratings of amps are based off the point of break up through the speaker. Tube amps sound better pushed past that point and solid state tends to sound worse. The tubes heating up causes a natural compression and excites frequencies lending to a better perceived tone. It's called soft clipping. Solid state amps pushed clip hard and lack the tube compression and sound spikey and unpleasant and causes actual distortion through the speaker. The tube amps compress and tame the signal while enhancing at the same time so that creates natural overdrive through the speaker resulting in a loud but smoother tone.
Great video, Guys! Here is another idea: if you do a comparison between these and their smaller versions, you might as well try these with attenuation as well.
Here's my AC30 cranked doing Stevie Ray Vaughan. I absolutely adore a cranked AC30. I've got a lot of shorts on my channel just playing my AC30 cranked through Strats, Teles, and a Les Paul. th-cam.com/users/shorts1_MaN1gMwxk
Awesome video! Not many of us ever get to try something like this. The vox sounded incredible! I would have loved to hear the Les Paul in the Marshall, because after all, that's the sound of rock and roll, isn't it! So cool.
The Plexi gave me goosebumps. I used to play a 50W Plexi screaming loud back in the day, there's nothing like it. I know people today are more into modeling and IR captures, but the sheer brutal experience of playing an amp that loud is unique. It makes you play differently. It's almost an spiritual thing, the amp becomes a second instrument you get to control alongside the guitar. This cranked up Plexi is the perfect example of that. The dynamics, the feedback... Even through TH-cam and a couple of mics you get to notice that. Amazing, I miss the good old days.
Loved the video guys! This sounded great and I loved the room mic especially. Please do a Fender Twin cranked as well when you do another of these - that is an amp that sounds amazing loud in my opinion. Rock and roll!
This is what I do every day. I need to feel the cab moving the air in front of me. The day you do it for the first time, you become addicted. This is why I can't play Fractal, Kemper, etc. I need this volume to be inspired. My 1982 Marshall JCM800 Lead Series goes almost to 130 db, stronger than what you have just tested here. This is the scariest amp I've ever heard. And it began to crank at 2 !!! About the Soldano, you played the new one made by Boutique Amps. I own an original one made in Mike Soldano's workshop at Seattle, but never reach 120 db as you did. The pots go to eleven, yes Nigel. But with this amp, the more you push the master volume, the further you go into stoner/sludge/doom territory. Witch is cool. If you wanna shred, you have to stay under 7. I do the same with my old Rectifiers 2 channels, Rev D, F and G. High gain amps and old amps... not the same story. And guess what : old Rectifiers, new Rectifiers (3 channels)... not the same story, not the same amps. By the way, beware this dangerous volume. My doctor said : as soon as we exceed 80 db, we destroy our hears. I play since 1980 and had tinnitus around year 2009. Now I use molded hearing protections with filters at -25 db (Amplifon Pianissimo). Tinnitus disappeared. Last but not least. In France where I live, players going beyond 105 db are... outlaws ;) So I have an isolated room to do such a wild thing.
To my ear, both the Vox and Fender had more useful tonality at 10 than the Plexi. Clearly you guys loved it tho - I wonder if the mic positions had anything to do with that, but it just sounded kind of wooly compared to the prior two. The Soldano didn't show any wooliness, but had the least rounded tone of all of them. Again, could easily be how it was recorded, but you noted it lacked something.
Years ago I cranked my Johnson Marquis JM60 with the additional external speaker once. I had ear protection, no one was at home and the neighbours were at vacation. The 2x 60 W solid state amp packed quite a punch. When I played palm muted power chords, CDs and books rattled out of their shelf! I was quite shocked at first when something hit me in the leg from behind. When I realised that the vibrations moved stuff out of the shelf I had to laugh so hard! 😂 In recent years I didn't dare to crank my bass amp as it has 1000W with a 4x10" cabinet. About half cranked it made sand rain from the ceiling in our rehearsal room! Always wear ear protection when it's loud! It really helps. I use ear protection since my teen years and still have quite excellent hearing in my fourties now. Friends of mine did not and damaged their ears. Don't risk it!
That was great! Proving there really is something to opening an amp up all the way. The Soldano was my least favorite, the other 3 were all a tie for first place. That Marshall really had some special magic though! Id love to hear the small amp version of this test, with P90s and humbuckers involved along with a Tele and a Strat. Excellent work guys!
Agree. The Soldano was by far my least favourite. Loved the other three. I think I prefer the Vox AC30 to the Deluxe Reverb. I know these days so many people love the Deluxe, but the vox sounds nicer. And it's so much cheaper, at least in Europe. I just bought a Vox AC30, but the newer S1 type, to pair with my Vox AC15, for a clean stereo pedal rig at home, with a attenuator to put on the AC30. Planning to swop the speaker out for a Creamback. Also to have either for verstaility for recording/practice/pub gig with AC15; and then to have the AC30 for larger gigs or larger groups with loud drummers. Plus useful to have the clean headroom and FX loop of the 30 for when I want that. Those would have been my other choices, maybe a JTM and a Plexi 20 into very similar 1x12s.
Reminds me of the early eighties - our metal band Waxface had three guitarplayers : I had a JMP100 2203, the other a JCM800 2203 and the singer a 1987. The bass player also had a Marshall stack and we were playing full volume anytime, even on rehearsal, without earplugs of course. Don't even ask me why I'm not deaf, it's a medical miracle I guess.
Really liked the video, but I feel something was missing. Could you do a direct comparison between cranked and non-cranked settings, like, volume matched in post? So that we can tell what the exact difference in tone is
Gonna hook the TH-cam audio to a sound system at 120db just to feel close to what you guys are feeling… not! My hearing’s shot as it is now…😅 Great video chaps! I remember Pete Thorn getting various players to play through a cranked plexi at an event… and everyone had that same grin you guys did! 😂 Rock and Roll!!
Fun fact: I was at that event and saw Pete gathering people for that video. 😆 For this video we wanted to capture more the players experience in terms of recorded tone. That's why we used the crazy high-end Neumann head-mic. And yeah, these volumes are not recommended. It's fun for sure but only with ear protection, haha! //Kris
Used to have a Silverface Fender Twin as a kid so to get crunch with a ‘73 Fender Tele Deluxe I cranked the Twin to TEN! All EQ on TEN! It rocked! No clubs allow that anymore!!
Power tubes distort differently than preamp tubes. They also add another stage of distortion. The speaker also will distort when pushed hard. This is the Total Tone.
I enjoyed seeing this and reading many of the comments. Back in the days this was the way you did it to get the sound you wanted. I had a 70’s master volume Twin Reverb (not a wimpy Deluxe) that I always had cranked. Everything on full (except bass because of the coupling with the floor on the stage) plus the pull out boost engaged. THAT was loud. And of course it sounded glorious.
As a plexi owner for years (and many others along the way) I can say that nothing sounds like a cranked plexi. Other amps hits you in the chest, the plexi hits you in the soul. It almost rips it out of your body.
Now thats how you do it! AWESOME video 🥰 with my amps i meassure dB at 1m, My Marshall 2466 gets to 127.2dB, my AC30 went 122. with the 1x12's they flubbed badly, Rockerverb went 116 in a ball of flubb and my blues deluxe (Swamp thang loaded) went 118 but sounded so boxy. Purchased a tweed bassman last week, because more loud is more good!!
I've literally knocked pictures off the wall in my house with a Triple Rec. My wife came home and chastised me, asking "Do you REALLY need to be rocking that loud?" "Sorry about the picture babe. And yes, I absolutely do...."
The Plexiiiiiiii!!!!!!! OH MY GAHWD! I think I just wet myself. If I could choose which decade to live in, please guys, send me to the 60s to a Jimi show right away.
The deluxe reverb sounded awesome. This shocked me as I thought it would be my least favourite. Nice to see you guys using ear protection. Tinnitus is horrible. I speak from experience
I've done something similar in a guitar store. I put a Fender Deluxe Rev. reissue on 8 pushed by a Maxon OD808 with the level full and drive off and played a Les Paul Classic with a 500T in the bridge. Glorious heavy guitar sound! You should do the same test with these amps but with a humbucker equipped guitar and a TS-9 boosting each.
I have a JTM45, running into a 4x12 cab that I removed two speakers from, making it a big 'open front' 2x12, and as a slight attenuation (and DI) I use Palmer PGA 04 load box in parallel with the cab (one speaker out to to cab, the other to Palmer) so the cab gets 15 instead of 30W. That glorious cranked Marshall sound at 'half' the volume technically, yet looks the part. Still loud though :D
The Vox is a great example of why you shouldn't mic your amps too close, and that you should at least blend close mic and room. I really liked how it sounded through the room mic. The Fender amp sounds better through the close mic to me. The Marshall sounds amazing with the close mic, but even in the room mic it's really really nice! Blend is also awesome, all three are very useable. The Soldano sounded a bit fizzy through the close mic, but it's a beast!
1977 Rainbow Blackmore Cosy Powell wonderfully beautiful sound there is nothing like the thrill of volume, whole body was being pummeled by Ritchie's, Marshall stack.
To my ears the two small Amps, especially the Fender, sound really nice and still dynamic. The Marshall demonstrates 100%, how Hendrix got his signature sound. The Soldano sounds surprisingly disappointing... at least fully cranked.
I think it's important to think about the amp's design. Soldano and other modern amps create a lot of the distortion in their preamp. The poweramp should not saturate too much, otherwise they loose what's so special about them. That's very different for all the old-school amps, where power amp distortion plays a big role in their legendary tone. The Soldano was incredible at half volume (and still way too loud for most situations, haha), that's where it does its magic. Cheers //Kris
I should be sleeping But I could not pass on this one Yes please, do more of those Gated fuzz? Yes please I wonder if it would be possible to play all 4 at once? Or make them into two cranked stereo rigs. Just to max the dB meter
i do high gain on the uafx 65 dream, double boosted w active pickups.... i bought it for clean fender tone, but i was just as suprised as you are here with gaining the reverb deluxe...
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The Vox sounded absolutely killer.
@@greatbingus Where did you hear that malarky? Sounds like so TGP drivel. The AC30 has a passive eq section like the fender. The values are different so they aren't identical but there is nothing additive about it.
The Vox with the Stratocaster is hands down powerful w/ amazing tone balance.......... They are all obviously powerful but can they equalize the tone at high volume........... My ear says the Vox / Strat combo. AMAZING!!@
@@greatbingus So you don't actually know how the amps work, you just googled some garbage and copy pasted a bunch of it to hide your admission that yes the vox eq is passive like the others. Just because the top cut is post P.I. doesn't mean it adds anything.
As they do 👍👍
0@@greatbingus o111ñ9ó
Yeah do this again with the smaller amps!!!
In my youth, I am now 73, I had two Vox AC30's, one stacked on top of the other. 2 x 12's in small separate cabs driven by a Marshall 50 head, and all connected together! Needless to say I am now hard of hearing, but the sound was just incredible. Interestingly I thought that the Vox had the best all round tone! In more recent years, I have bought all my gear from Thomann. Can't recommend it enough! Fun video guys!
you played two AC30s and (essentially) a 50w Marshall half stack at the same time? where did you play where that level of volume was even appropriate? genuinely curious
@@stefannita3439 who said anything about appropriate
@@Milobolo it's a good question though. There's very few venues where you could use that much power.
I think the JCM800 would have been a better choice for this than the SLO. The SLO is a great amp but it doesn't fit the theme as well as the 800 would have.
@@michaelfoley906 Just answered Stefan's question!
That Marshall sounds absolutely glorious when cranked. No wonder they cranked them back in the days.
The Presence was down at 2.5, though. Not much amp section harmonics above ~1kHz. I would lower the Treble even more and increase the presence. The high freq response doesn't flatten out with the Middle cranked in a Marshall tone stack until the Treble is down to 1. Hendrix cranked all the knobs at first, but he mellowed his tone in later years.
They WERE the PA!
They had to
@@tomminystrom I think you MISSED the point!
@@tomminystrom And I agree with you Tommy! HOWEVER ,this was ABOUT running all those amps on 10/10 volume!
But you're right, it probably WAS a bit flubby!
SO was the Fender!
I haven't watched the video yet, but my neighbours already know that amps sound better cranked...
Lol
I'm watching this video now and I know amps sound better cranked
Yeah my neighbors love me!
a twin reverb at full volume is something that everyone should experience. i played a few music festivals and the sound is something beautiful and powerful
I have. Indeed awesome!!
A bassman at full volume makes a bomb sound quiet. I saw Ted nugent in the 70’s and it was beyond loud
Yes, almost got sacked from my own bbband for turning the twin up with an ice cube in the b bbb ack.
@@Louzahsol Ted used twin reverbs or super twin reverbs. Never used a bassman live as far as i know
@@gordonhuskin7337 it was a combination of both. Bassmans were more in the amboy dukes era
Been playing and teaching for 40 years. Always told my students "you want to play loud, then practice loud." Amazing how your guitar and amp become living entities!
Very true! Also, if you want to play in a band and feel good doing it, you better practice standing up. Straps are our best friends. :) Cheers and thanks James! //Kris
i smiled the whole 18 minutes.. great episode 🎉
That's awesome buddy! Yeah this was special for us too. //Kris
It's so true that amps are a million times better when cranked. Anytime I cranked a Marshall type amp, it was amazing how great it felt to play and how much easier it was to play.
I used to stand in front of two Sound City 120 stacks in the 70s. The kick in the back on the first chord was what we lived for. I still have a HiWatt 50 which is really something beautiful at full tilt. I was so lucky my hearing was never damaged like many others of the day. It's brilliant to see these two guys in orgasmic mode over the old amps....great fun.
Whoa. I had a Sound City 120 in the late 80's. That was the best clean amp I have ever tried, loved that sound.
@@172turtla It was somethjing else eh? They were really under-appreciated in their day despite being pretty much a Hiwatt inside. Mine ran two 4x12 each with the top being a slant. I never really had any trouble with them at all....hard working amps with great control of the high end when on single coils. I think you get an addiction to that type of amp as I never really got on with Marshalls and Fenders.
@@breifne555 too bad that nobody makes anything like it now
How would you describe the Hiwatt sound ? thanks
Nice. The Fender held better than what i was even expecting. The AC sounded like what i expected. But that Fender really shocked me on fully cranked
RIGHT? Same for me. I was shocked by how awesome the Deluxe sounded. //Kris
@@ThomannsGuitarsBasses I have a Deluxe. I’m not at all shocked. It’s a glorious sounding amp when it’s being pushed.
I think you should do the test again but with each guitar playing all 4 amps. So we can hear the difference between the single coils and the humbuckers with all four amps. And yes do it with the smaller amps as well. To my ears the Vox had the best tone.
Ha! The little mushroom cloud coming out of the Plexi when it was switched off 😂 !
Yeah our editor colleague went all in here, haha! Please raise your hands for Manos and someone give him an Emmy Award already. 😆🙌
//Kris
Awesome upload guys, I look forward for the next installment. Thanks again to you both.
I used to have a HiWatt Custom 50 back in the days (some 35 yrs ago) and once had the opportunity to crank it all the way up in an empty ice hockey stadium (local club so it was a small one but still). We were all blown away by the sound and the experience ... and also by the power and volume that thing was able to deliver. We had about 30 minutes of fun before some neigbours showed up to complain. The thing is: they had their houses about 100m down the road but it was still too loud for them ;-)
I used to have a Fender Super Twin combo amp. we had training facilities in an old farmhouse, in the living room. once we tested how much noise it makes. had to stop when pots started falling out of the kitchen (!) cupboards 😂 The clean sound came from the 180w tube amplifier which was quite enough. no distortion.
Damn... had the opportunity to record with a cranked AC30 last year, it's a truly magic sound!
On a side note, this works with the Neural DSP plugins, too. I mean, yes, it's only plugins, but if you crank the ToneKing one i.e., it reacts in the same way with a nice warm tube saturation, as the real amp would do. And you don't have to wear ear protection for that! 😀
Just bought one, but the more manageable 1x12 version. And now I'm shopping for attenuators to tame it down to AC15 volume for most things. But the bass and headroom is so nice to have, the . Not that my other amp, AC15 isn't awesome in it's own right, with the sparkliness, spring reverb and lovely tremelo. I love how AC10s sound, not so much clean, but really cranked too. At more manageable volumes, they're still proper snappy staffordshire bull terriers those.
That's awesome dude. Yes, if you want to go for real amps, an attenuator is a must-have nowadays :D. I'm using the Two Notes Torpedo Captor X. That one does a fantastic job at preserving the full, rich tube sound even at lower volumes. Using it for live with my Mesa Boogie Mark V:35 and in the home studio, it's pretty much a no-brainer. @@compucorder64
Story of Dick Dale having every Fender amp blow up (literally) at live shows. So he went to Leo and asked for something that could handle being cranked, and that’s where the 100-watt Dual Showman came from. Meanwhile over in the UK a few decades later Jim Marshall not only made the famous “Bluesbreaker” for Clapton that was so loud the rest of the band had to force him to put it in a separate room (it bled into every microphone in the studio), but also Pete Townsend wanted to be even louder and helped invent the Marshal stack for live gigs, (8 speakers in one tall cabinet. That got broken into the two half-stacks to save the road crew from needing a chiropractor after every gig.) Although Pete switched to HiWatt because they were more reliable on the road.
Believe it or not, the Beatles were the ones to push Vox to make bigger and louder amps, the screaming girls at every show meant they couldn’t even hear themselves sometimes.
The amp volume wars started with Elvis in the 50s, Scotty Moore had to use twin 25 watt amps that grew to more amps as Elvis' popularity grew.
Love the tag line "cranked to 11
so you don't have to!" 😵💫🤣
I own five vintage Marshalls and have cranked a pair of Superleads in a stereo setup, each running two cabinets, this setup being in my bedroom at the time. It was fun! It was also nearly as physical an experience as getting into a fight.
Loved it! Yes please, I'd love to hear an AC15C1 vs the SC20C vs a Blues Junior and SuperSonic 22
I love how the room mic cuts the fizz. Great episode! My brother and I play a Super Reverb, a Bandmaster with a mismatched ohms cab and a mid 60s Bassman in his garage. They all hit the same decibels as the Marshall, and sound amazing dimed.
the room mic's captured the real tone that you would expect. i thought the close mic's sounded ordinary. blended was really nice.
The room mic on some of these amps sounds so much better (IMO) than any close mic will ever sound
close micing guitars is for women
It's worth pointing out that the volume difference between the 100w heads cranked and 20w combos cranked was at most -6db. That means that a 20w combo will absolutely be loud enough to play with a band.
Yes but don’t forget that + 3db is twice the level of sound, so the number is similar but the difference is huge.
Also don't forget that the 20w combo will have a lot less headroom.
Most people don't know that you need 10x the power to double the perceived volume. Twice the db equals twice the sound pressure but not twice the perceived volume. An increase in six db is significant but most of the time you won't need an amp pushing more than 80 db in a small to medium venue. A 20 watt tube amp or maybe even a 1 watt tube amp paired with a nice cab can get louder than you will ever need it to be. Solid state is a different story. Another interesting thing is watt ratings of amps are based off the point of break up through the speaker. Tube amps sound better pushed past that point and solid state tends to sound worse. The tubes heating up causes a natural compression and excites frequencies lending to a better perceived tone. It's called soft clipping. Solid state amps pushed clip hard and lack the tube compression and sound spikey and unpleasant and causes actual distortion through the speaker. The tube amps compress and tame the signal while enhancing at the same time so that creates natural overdrive through the speaker resulting in a loud but smoother tone.
I always liked the term; "Riding the lightening". Dang... Right outta the gate, the Strat with the Vox sounds amazing.
I felt that one in my chest!!! 🤩♥
Great video, Guys! Here is another idea: if you do a comparison between these and their smaller versions, you might as well try these with attenuation as well.
They all sound great, but the Marshall gave me actual chills!
I like how the cranked Fender made you play Zeppelin and the Marshal made you Black Sabbath
A cranked fender with a fuzz will do the zeppelin sound surprisingly well.
Queen on AC30
Nice! Marshall and Soldano sounded the best for me. Thanks for a awesome review
So hard to choose. Lead lines sounded great on the SLO then on the Plexi... But Queen riffs on a cranked AC30 - not sure it gets much better??!!! 🤘🏼
Here's my AC30 cranked doing Stevie Ray Vaughan. I absolutely adore a cranked AC30. I've got a lot of shorts on my channel just playing my AC30 cranked through Strats, Teles, and a Les Paul.
th-cam.com/users/shorts1_MaN1gMwxk
Surprised by the fender crancked tone, it got balls ! Different type of distortion than Vox but beautiful
Those room mics sounded fantastic
Awesome video! Not many of us ever get to try something like this. The vox sounded incredible! I would have loved to hear the Les Paul in the Marshall, because after all, that's the sound of rock and roll, isn't it! So cool.
Thanks Mark! Check out our TH-cam Story, you'll find some LP into Plexi action in there. Glorious, needless to say. 🙌 //Kris
The Plexi gave me goosebumps. I used to play a 50W Plexi screaming loud back in the day, there's nothing like it. I know people today are more into modeling and IR captures, but the sheer brutal experience of playing an amp that loud is unique. It makes you play differently. It's almost an spiritual thing, the amp becomes a second instrument you get to control alongside the guitar. This cranked up Plexi is the perfect example of that. The dynamics, the feedback... Even through TH-cam and a couple of mics you get to notice that. Amazing, I miss the good old days.
Dude, all the hairs went up with that Marshall. It just touches you different
Loved the video guys! This sounded great and I loved the room mic especially. Please do a Fender Twin cranked as well when you do another of these - that is an amp that sounds amazing loud in my opinion. Rock and roll!
This is such a wholesome and happy video I love it
The Fender was amazingly clear with both close mic and room.
Yeah absolutely. I was so surprised how great it sounded fully cranked. 🙌 //Kris
Love you guys! Literally the best channel and music website out there!
Thanks soooo much!! 🙌
//Kris
It would be interesting to test this amps at low volume, to see if they can also sound awesome at bedroom levels or not
This is what I do every day. I need to feel the cab moving the air in front of me. The day you do it for the first time, you become addicted. This is why I can't play Fractal, Kemper, etc. I need this volume to be inspired. My 1982 Marshall JCM800 Lead Series goes almost to 130 db, stronger than what you have just tested here. This is the scariest amp I've ever heard. And it began to crank at 2 !!! About the Soldano, you played the new one made by Boutique Amps. I own an original one made in Mike Soldano's workshop at Seattle, but never reach 120 db as you did. The pots go to eleven, yes Nigel. But with this amp, the more you push the master volume, the further you go into stoner/sludge/doom territory. Witch is cool. If you wanna shred, you have to stay under 7. I do the same with my old Rectifiers 2 channels, Rev D, F and G. High gain amps and old amps... not the same story. And guess what : old Rectifiers, new Rectifiers (3 channels)... not the same story, not the same amps.
By the way, beware this dangerous volume. My doctor said : as soon as we exceed 80 db, we destroy our hears. I play since 1980 and had tinnitus around year 2009. Now I use molded hearing protections with filters at -25 db (Amplifon Pianissimo). Tinnitus disappeared. Last but not least. In France where I live, players going beyond 105 db are... outlaws ;) So I have an isolated room to do such a wild thing.
Good lord, they all sound amazing! I was holding my breath with excitement!!!
To my ear, both the Vox and Fender had more useful tonality at 10 than the Plexi. Clearly you guys loved it tho - I wonder if the mic positions had anything to do with that, but it just sounded kind of wooly compared to the prior two. The Soldano didn't show any wooliness, but had the least rounded tone of all of them. Again, could easily be how it was recorded, but you noted it lacked something.
Years ago I cranked my Johnson Marquis JM60 with the additional external speaker once. I had ear protection, no one was at home and the neighbours were at vacation. The 2x 60 W solid state amp packed quite a punch. When I played palm muted power chords, CDs and books rattled out of their shelf! I was quite shocked at first when something hit me in the leg from behind. When I realised that the vibrations moved stuff out of the shelf I had to laugh so hard! 😂
In recent years I didn't dare to crank my bass amp as it has 1000W with a 4x10" cabinet. About half cranked it made sand rain from the ceiling in our rehearsal room!
Always wear ear protection when it's loud! It really helps. I use ear protection since my teen years and still have quite excellent hearing in my fourties now. Friends of mine did not and damaged their ears. Don't risk it!
That was great! Proving there really is something to opening an amp up all the way.
The Soldano was my least favorite, the other 3 were all a tie for first place. That Marshall really had some special magic though!
Id love to hear the small amp version of this test, with P90s and humbuckers involved along with a Tele and a Strat.
Excellent work guys!
Agree. The Soldano was by far my least favourite. Loved the other three. I think I prefer the Vox AC30 to the Deluxe Reverb. I know these days so many people love the Deluxe, but the vox sounds nicer. And it's so much cheaper, at least in Europe. I just bought a Vox AC30, but the newer S1 type, to pair with my Vox AC15, for a clean stereo pedal rig at home, with a attenuator to put on the AC30. Planning to swop the speaker out for a Creamback. Also to have either for verstaility for recording/practice/pub gig with AC15; and then to have the AC30 for larger gigs or larger groups with loud drummers. Plus useful to have the clean headroom and FX loop of the 30 for when I want that. Those would have been my other choices, maybe a JTM and a Plexi 20 into very similar 1x12s.
The Marshall and Soldano sounds glorious. All of them are amazing.
Reminds me of the early eighties - our metal band Waxface had three guitarplayers : I had a JMP100 2203, the other a JCM800 2203 and the singer a 1987. The bass player also had a Marshall stack and we were playing full volume anytime, even on rehearsal, without earplugs of course. Don't even ask me why I'm not deaf, it's a medical miracle I guess.
Really liked the video, but I feel something was missing. Could you do a direct comparison between cranked and non-cranked settings, like, volume matched in post? So that we can tell what the exact difference in tone is
the room mic is a must be in all gear videos ! thanks !!!
Gonna hook the TH-cam audio to a sound system at 120db just to feel close to what you guys are feeling… not! My hearing’s shot as it is now…😅
Great video chaps! I remember Pete Thorn getting various players to play through a cranked plexi at an event… and everyone had that same grin you guys did! 😂
Rock and Roll!!
Fun fact: I was at that event and saw Pete gathering people for that video. 😆 For this video we wanted to capture more the players experience in terms of recorded tone. That's why we used the crazy high-end Neumann head-mic. And yeah, these volumes are not recommended. It's fun for sure but only with ear protection, haha! //Kris
@@ThomannsGuitarsBasses I can see you and Guillaume were having so much fun.. poor Francis though..🤣
Used to have a Silverface Fender Twin as a kid so to get crunch with a ‘73 Fender Tele Deluxe I cranked the Twin to TEN! All EQ on TEN! It rocked! No clubs allow that anymore!!
Love this video idea and i love this duo
Aww and we love you!! 💛
//Kris
@@ThomannsGuitarsBasses Kris you're my favourite
The Marshall on the room mike - oh my... Great to see the two of you giggling like kids in the sweet store :)
Really awesome…. Please compare with smaller version…. Great video!!!
Try them all !!! I love these kind of stuff ! Thank you guys
Power tubes distort differently than preamp tubes. They also add another stage of distortion. The speaker also will distort when pushed hard. This is the Total Tone.
I'm surprised by how focused and tight the SLO actually was. I was expecting it to be way more squished.
I enjoyed seeing this and reading many of the comments. Back in the days this was the way you did it to get the sound you wanted. I had a 70’s master volume Twin Reverb (not a wimpy Deluxe) that I always had cranked. Everything on full (except bass because of the coupling with the floor on the stage) plus the pull out boost engaged. THAT was loud. And of course it sounded glorious.
As a plexi owner for years (and many others along the way) I can say that nothing sounds like a cranked plexi. Other amps hits you in the chest, the plexi hits you in the soul. It almost rips it out of your body.
I am liking the VOX and the Soldano the most.
I enjoyed it very much!! Another idea for a vid, comparing harley benton cabs to other brands!
Glorious. All gear tests going forward need to have a "cranked" tests, pedals, guitars, everything. Any excuse for an 11.
It's crazy I can hear the acoustic strumming from the guitar at around 13:50!
You guys should repeat this with the 30 watt versions. Be interesting to see what the decibels are.
What a fun video! What a great celebration of what makes us guitarists happy 😂 thank you guys
Their reaction after playing the Marshall was priceless lol I wish I could be in that room
It’s funny how that kind of volume makes you smile uncontrollably.
Now thats how you do it!
AWESOME video 🥰
with my amps i meassure dB at 1m, My Marshall 2466 gets to 127.2dB, my AC30 went 122.
with the 1x12's they flubbed badly, Rockerverb went 116 in a ball of flubb and my blues deluxe (Swamp thang loaded) went 118 but sounded so boxy.
Purchased a tweed bassman last week, because more loud is more good!!
I've literally knocked pictures off the wall in my house with a Triple Rec. My wife came home and chastised me, asking "Do you REALLY need to be rocking that loud?" "Sorry about the picture babe. And yes, I absolutely do...."
Damn! That was intense! Now we need a video of Julia and Susi doing the same thing with bass amps! Ampeg SVT cranked!
That Plexi killed it.
Playing at that volume is a very different experience and it definitely takes getting used to.
not playing at that volume is what takes getting used to.
Great demo guys! All sounded excellent. For my taste I liked them in the order AC30>Deluxe>Plexi>Soldano. Keep up the good work!
The Plexiiiiiiii!!!!!!! OH MY GAHWD! I think I just wet myself. If I could choose which decade to live in, please guys, send me to the 60s to a Jimi show right away.
Yes to the juniors! 🤘
The deluxe reverb sounded awesome. This shocked me as I thought it would be my least favourite. Nice to see you guys using ear protection. Tinnitus is horrible. I speak from experience
I think the Marshall sounds awesome cranked! Another great video
Back in the days Marshall even produced a 200 Watt Plexi… Maybe worth another “crank it up” test video with even higher powered amps. 😂
Great clip!!
The Deluxe Reverb sounds 10x better if you throw a Jensen P12Q in there. Some of the best overdriven Tone i've ever heard once you do that
I've done something similar in a guitar store. I put a Fender Deluxe Rev. reissue on 8 pushed by a Maxon OD808 with the level full and drive off and played a Les Paul Classic with a 500T in the bridge. Glorious heavy guitar sound! You should do the same test with these amps but with a humbucker equipped guitar and a TS-9 boosting each.
I have a JTM45, running into a 4x12 cab that I removed two speakers from, making it a big 'open front' 2x12, and as a slight attenuation (and DI) I use Palmer PGA 04 load box in parallel with the cab (one speaker out to to cab, the other to Palmer) so the cab gets 15 instead of 30W. That glorious cranked Marshall sound at 'half' the volume technically, yet looks the part. Still loud though :D
Would have loved to hear them with a Les Paul!
Here's my AC30 cranked with a Les Paul. Humbuckers and a CRANKED Vox are awesome!
th-cam.com/users/shorts1_MaN1gMwxk
Would love to hear all of them thru the same cab/speaker set up. Nice job.
Loved it!!😁
Would of loved to heard all of them thru the LP.
Hey Jerry, check out our TH-cam Story for some LP into Plexi love. //Kris
Plexi straigh on and all the way.
Legendary level: 11!
120db on the plexi is roughly like standing too close to a jet taking off. At 8db louder than the others, it's more than twice as loud as the others.
Great episode ! so yeah agaiiiiiiiiiiin
Thanks man! //Kris
All amps together would have been interesting ;)
The Vox is a great example of why you shouldn't mic your amps too close, and that you should at least blend close mic and room. I really liked how it sounded through the room mic.
The Fender amp sounds better through the close mic to me.
The Marshall sounds amazing with the close mic, but even in the room mic it's really really nice! Blend is also awesome, all three are very useable.
The Soldano sounded a bit fizzy through the close mic, but it's a beast!
Gotta love music equipment science. So awesome to see a icon Vox. Any excuse to jam at ear piercing levels I'm all for. 😂
I like the room mics better than the close mics. So essentially the audience would hear something different on the PA system?
1977 Rainbow Blackmore Cosy Powell wonderfully beautiful sound there is nothing like the thrill of volume, whole body was being pummeled by Ritchie's, Marshall stack.
To my ears the two small Amps, especially the Fender, sound really nice and still dynamic. The Marshall demonstrates 100%, how Hendrix got his signature sound. The Soldano sounds surprisingly disappointing... at least fully cranked.
I think it's important to think about the amp's design. Soldano and other modern amps create a lot of the distortion in their preamp. The poweramp should not saturate too much, otherwise they loose what's so special about them. That's very different for all the old-school amps, where power amp distortion plays a big role in their legendary tone. The Soldano was incredible at half volume (and still way too loud for most situations, haha), that's where it does its magic. Cheers //Kris
@@ThomannsGuitarsBasses Well said and good job! Thanks
I should be sleeping
But
I could not pass on this one
Yes please, do more of those
Gated fuzz? Yes please
I wonder if it would be possible to play all 4 at once?
Or make them into two cranked stereo rigs. Just to max the dB meter
We appreciate the not sleeping brother! Haha! Those 4 together? Must be the most glorious sound in the universe. 🙌 //Kris
i do high gain on the uafx 65 dream, double boosted w active pickups.... i bought it for clean fender tone, but i was just as suprised as you are here with gaining the reverb deluxe...
What’s a hell!
Vive la Lorraine en passant…
The Deluxe is really impressive!!!❤