Can small amps sound big?

[MVI]

Re: Can small amps sound big?

I love vintage Fender champs, and my new 20 Watt Marshall hand wired JMP. Both can run through external cabs, and for studio, I don't think big amps make too much sense. Miking and speaker configurations can change everything. But I prefer small amps, and find 50W excessive for virtually anything I do. There's your grain of salt. For massive headroom cleans, old monster Fenders are hard to beat.

 

[JohnnyGuitar]

Re: Can small amps sound big?

You know, I think this is a question of "HOW SMALL"???

I think an amp like a Fender Deluxe with a 12" speaker or a Supro Thunderbolt with a 15" can get a HUGE sound on record.

A Champ with an 8" speaker can sound good...but I wouldn't call Clapton's tone on Layla "huge" or "big"...not Marshall Stack "big" anyway.

So I have not heard a really small amp (Champ or smaller) sound big or huge.

Although I think Zappa used to sometimes record solos with a Pignose...much as I like Frank Zappa, I didn't hear a tone from the Pignose that I would want to have.

I think that style is an important part of the equation. Big for blues is not big for metal, Clapton had full, amazing tone when he played blues licks on the champ... Neil Young uses small amps and gets big tones out of them, Roy Buchanan used small to medium sized Fenders.
But metal playing goes better with a 2X12 or something bigger IMHO...

 

[louthunder]

Re: Can small amps sound big?

I think that style is an important part of the equation. Big for blues is not big for metal, Clapton had full, amazing tone when he played blues licks on the champ... Neil Young uses small amps and gets big tones out of them, Roy Buchanan used small to medium sized Fenders.
But metal playing goes better with a 2X12 or something bigger IMHO...

+1 on the metal thing.That may be the exception to the rule. Even what I said about drummers on an earlier post, goes out the window. If your a metal drummer, you've got to hit those suckers. I hope you metal players have good backs, because your gonna need AT LEAST 2-12" speakers.