Re: Do pedals have overdriven tube dynamics
Alright-alright, But I use HBs guitars with vintage output pups so I'll still give it a try. Will a 40 watts amp with single 12" 100db speaker be loud enough?
lol yes!
i use humbuckers too! it will be louder than you need by a mile!
I should explain something about speakers:
if you have a 40watt amp putting out 40 watts of power then one speaker on its own is transferring that 40 watts of power into sound energy. As long as the speaker has enough headroom, then it will be pumping out just as much volume as two speakers of the same type.
Ok now imagine the same 40 watt amp pumping out the same 40 watts - but this time thru two speakers. You still have the same 40 watts of power, but this time the two speakers are getting half each. The perceived volume will be more or less the same - its just that two speakers are sharing the 40 watts so they are only getting half each.
40 watt amp into 4 speakers? same again.
Its not louder - it just means the speakers don't have to work as hard.
When you see a wattage rating on a speaker, it is not an indicator of volume. It is an indicator of how much wattage (i.e. energy) the speaker can safely dissipate without risking burning out the coil. Some speakers have very lightly constructed parts so they move freely without a lot of energy (wattage) needed. These speakers are usually low wattage. They tend to have a brighter sound.
With heavier construction, speakers are able to absorb more energy and dissipate the heat created from moving quickly. These speakers have a higher wattage rating, but generally tend to sound darker.
Efficiency is another matter again. That tells you how loud the speaker will be (in terms of decibels) per watt of energy.
Some speakers gain their efficiency by using big, powerful magnets. Some by using high quality parts that can move quickly and efficiently but not heat up. Some do it by having thinner or more flexible cones. All maufacturers have different standard for their db ratings, so they are useful comparisons between speakers of the same brand, but not between manufacturers.
Efficiency however is not always a desirable thing for us guitarists. We tend to like to run our toob amps at the point where the electrons in the tubes are running freely and the amp is cooking nicely to get a fat sound. With super efficient speakers, we often find that buy the time we get our amps operating at a level where we like the sound, the sheer volume (db's) coming out of the speakers is too much for the venue or for other members of the band to be comfortable. This effect is compounded with bright speakers because it takes more energy (wattage) to reproduce bass notes than treble notes due to the fact that the speaker cone needs to travel much much further. Also, our ears pick up treble very easily so a bright, efficient speaker seems louder than perhaps the decibel rating tells us. Sometimes it is better to have a speaker with less efficiency rather than more because it will let you turn the amp up an extra knotch that might be too loud with a more efficient speaker.
So what does all this mean? It means that a 12 or 15 watt amp can still be too loud depending on the efficiency and eq curve of the speaker. The thing is tho, thae even tho an amp might be ear splittingly loud, it might not have enough fat low end to satisfy - which is why many players still like to have higher wattage amps. Is 40 watts enough for fat bass? Undoubtedly yes - but it will be way too much power to hope for the "power tube breakup" that many people seem to crave. The best way to get the grit and sustain you want is either by preamp distortion (such as the dirty channel on a hot rod) or by keeping the amp clean and using pedals. Both approaches have their pros and cons.
Re wattage vs decibels: take a 50watt amp (lets say a marshall jcm) and then get the same amp with the 100w rating. Plug them both into the same speaker load and you will probably only measure a 3db increase. Why? because speakers are not perfect. They lose a lot of energy in the form of heat - also all that extra wattage might be used to reproduce bass frequencies, so while a 10watt amp might have a fatter low end, it wont necessarily seem much louder.
40 watts into a single 12? It will totally do the job and then some! Hot rods and blues deluxes are loud as hell - even with the hideous stock gold fender/emi speakers. All of the modern fenders are totally gig worthy, road proven and popular amps in the world for a reason. They do the job.
The trick for you is to find where the sweet spot is where you have a nice balance between headroom, volume, sag and presence. I've been thru the same process you are considering now and i've been gigging regularly since 1989. There has been a lot of amps and speakers and cabinets in that time. The more you play, the more you will get a feel for the kind of amp and speaker combination that lets you do what you do best. However, there is a lot of experience here from some of the forum bros. many of whom have used a lot more of this gear and done a lot more gigs than me, and if you read thru you will find pretty much everyone says the same thing : you can do a lot better than jensens without breaking the bank. See how you go with stock speakers for a while, and after getting a feel for whats in there, and working out what to do/don't like and perhaps what youd like to hear more/less of in a new speaker, the bros can help steer you in the right direction.
I'll take a listen to the speakers you mentioned
