I've Got Way Too Much Wattage

[Skarekrough]

Re: I've Got Way Too Much Wattage

i see this happen more and more lately. people go into music stores and complain about the amp and the 'lack of gain' it has. they do this while they are plugged into a 50-100watt tube amp and are running it a room levels and dont realize these amps were made for much louder situations.

"This Marshall full-stack sounds TERRIBLE in my bedroom! What distortion pedal should I be using with it?"

It's a like a bad joke that keeps getting told around here.

 

[OlinMusic]

Re: I've Got Way Too Much Wattage

I agree with GEARJONESER AND SOME OF THE OTHERs

Sell a couple off at least, and just get a Dr. Z or something bluesy.

Other than that get a Hot PLate - I live off of mine!

Honest to god, I played a country gig with a 1x12 and a 100w Marshall - thanks to the hot plate. Funny thing, no one ever asked questions - they were just saying,"wow cool vintage Marshall". I got paid very well doing that gig.

 

[Pink Unicorn Horsey]

Re: I've Got Way Too Much Wattage

"This Marshall full-stack sounds TERRIBLE in my bedroom! What distortion pedal should I be using with it?"

It's a like a bad joke that keeps getting told around here.

But I'm really talking more about the AC30 and the Super Reverb.

 

[Pink Unicorn Horsey]

Re: I've Got Way Too Much Wattage

I agree with GEARJONESER AND SOME OF THE OTHERs

Sell a couple off at least, and just get a Dr. Z or something bluesy.

Other than that get a Hot PLate - I live off of mine!

Honest to god, I played a country gig with a 1x12 and a 100w Marshall - thanks to the hot plate. Funny thing, no one ever asked questions - they were just saying,"wow cool vintage Marshall". I got paid very well doing that gig.

I don't mind using a Hot Plate with the Mesas but I won't use one with the Vox or Fender.

 

[Lake Placid Blues]

Re: I've Got Way Too Much Wattage

A good cab to have around is a 1x12 with a low wattage speaker in it. An alnico will give you that early warm smooth speaker breakup that can be so essential. The sweet spot on an amp will be slightly lower with early breakup speakers too. Then you can use a 15-22 watt head or a attenuated 33 watt head.

You could build a 1x12 with the dimesions that allow you to stack some of your existing combos/heads on top of, too. You could just run attenuated through the single low wattage speaker cab. It's more work to haul around but it would look cool. Can you run your AC30 attentuated, on just one of it's speakers? That would require different impedance Hotplate though.

 

[Pink Unicorn Horsey]

Re: I've Got Way Too Much Wattage

A good cab to have around is a 1x12 with a low wattage speaker in it. An alnico will give you that early warm smooth speaker breakup that can be so essential. The sweet spot on an amp will be slightly lower with early breakup speakers too. Then you can use a 15-22 watt head or a attenuated 33 watt head.

You could build a 1x12 with the dimesions that allow you to stack some of your existing combos/heads on top of, too. You could just run attenuated through the single low wattage speaker cab. It's more work to haul around but it would look cool. Can you run your AC30 attentuated, on just one of it's speakers? That would require different impedance Hotplate though.

The AC30's speakers are pretty sweet -- blue alnicos. They're wired in series for 16 ohms, which is the load the amp expects. If I could get away with using just one that'd be good but the load wouldn't be enough. I don't like running the AC30 attenuated any more than 8 dB, but that amount of attenuation doesn't cut down on the volume enough. An AC15 may be the answer, although I've never tried one.

- Keith

 

[Pink Unicorn Horsey]

Re: I've Got Way Too Much Wattage

There comes a time when it's best to downsize into higher quality. If you narrow it down to 2 excellent amps, you'll have 2 amps that sound better than those 4, and also be more useable for your situation. I need to do that myself, but I can't bear to sell anything. Even still, It'd be best to have something like a Bogner Shiva combo and a Toneking Comet combo. Right now, I'm looking at too many 4-12 cabs!

Tone King doesn't make the Comet anymore. In fact, their only production model is the Meteor Series II. It comes in 15W, 20W, 30W, and 40W, the latter two offering a half-power switch. If I went with a Tone King I'd probably get the 30W 1x12 combo with EL84s. Of course it's tempting to go with the 30W head and run it into the 2x12 Celestion Blue Alnicos in my AC30. That would mean lugging around the AC30 though, and that thing weighs over eighty pounds. Ugh.

Quite a price tag on these babies!

 

[Pink Unicorn Horsey]

Re: I've Got Way Too Much Wattage

At this point I'm thinking I'll have to sell one or two of my amps to get a high-quality 15W-22W amp.

I have my Mesa/Boogie DC-5 head that I'm willing to part with, since I also have a Mesa Single Rectifier. Both are great heads but I can only keep one.

I'll also have to part ways with either my AC30 or my Super Reverb. It's really tough because I love the clean sound on each of them but they're both different. I'm leaning more toward unloading the Super Reverb, but if I do that I'll want to make sure the low-wattage amp I get is capable of the same sparkle the Super gives me; I don't want to lose that. And as I've said before, I want something that can also give me speaker break-up at bedroom/rehearsal/club levels and takes well to pedals so I can take advantage of my collection of treble boosts, fuzz boxes, etc.

- Keith