I've never gigged with an amp over 50watts. I don't need loud cleans. Even though I didn't gig with a loud amp, I still got asked to turn down from time to time. This was the reason I went to the Jubilee amp for gigging, because I could strike a balance between pushing the output stage a little bit without being too loud, and not being too dependant on the preamp. Even at 25 watts and the master tuned down to 4 you would still run into people thinking your too loud.
Yes the world has changed, but it's getting to the point of the absurd! I'm mean really; when you can hear pool balls klinking on gig tapes and people talking over the band at tables ten feet away! Do people want to be able to talk on cell phones 20 feet away from a live band? Live bands, even the most accomodating, are going to be louder than juke boxes or DJ music through the house PA. That's a fact of life. If they want live bands to be no louder than a karoke machine, then what's the point? What they want is totally unreasonable.
Most Drummers are much louder than they need to be, but there is a limit to how soft a drummer can play, and play well. There really is. When you carry this "turn it down" thing too far, the cymbals overide everthing and the band sounds too tinny-and it's still precieved too loud. I've heard of guys using Hot Plates on Blues Jr's to keep club owners and band mates happy. LOL
What gets me, is how loud acoustic bands get away with playing acoustic guitars and vocals through PA's. Usually, it's darn loud; so loud that the acoustics start to sound like banjo's. I played electric (through an eventually totally cranked super champ) with an otherwise acoustic band at a gig once. I could not hear myself, and I was two feet from the amp! Honost. However, if you show up with a Marshall they immdiantly assume your going to be too loud, even if your not. Sometimes people judge loudness with their eyes instead of their ears.
