the thing about 5watt amps.....

Re: the thing about 5watt amps.....

I have to agree.........to a point.

My 100 watt Marshall Vintage Modern has the best tone of any amp I have ever played. And it gets great tone at any volume.

In the 70s I had a Fender tube amp rated at 435 watts. Again great tone.

But I also love my 40 watt Bogner for great tone and it has plenty of volume to drown out the rest of the band if I want.

I recently got an Egnater Rebel 30 which is a great little amp with great tone and lots of versatility.

I think just about every amp has its place (some, admittedly are just junk and should neber have been made). It just depends on how you use it, the quality of your gear, and how good of a guitarist you are.

But if I had to make a very general statement, I would have to agree that higher powered amps (over 30 watts, anyway) have the best tone.
 
Re: the thing about 5watt amps.....

MetalManiac said:
otherwise, I like low wattage practice amps, but for me, if Im using distortion, 30 watts is about as low as I wanna go
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+1. I don't see any point in going below 30 watts. You can get nice tones for practicing at home, and it's still loud enough for the average local bar gig. I think any amp ought to be able to do both. If your main amp is down, for whatever reason, is your practice amp able to fill in? Or are you dead in the water?

Yes, you can get more air moving, and more volume with a 4x12 cab for your 5 watt amp, but something just seems very out of balance that way. That's a lot of equipment to haul around for 5 watts. I'd much rather take a 30 or 40 watt amp with one or two 12" speakers. Better tone, and more headroom if I end up needing it. I won't get drown out by a wild drummer or anyone else in the band.
 
Re: the thing about 5watt amps.....

The only lunchbox I need is the one that holds my sandwich and drink.

If it's too loud, you're too old.
 
Re: the thing about 5watt amps.....

I got a little 5 watter as a impulse buy and...meh...I have a old 7 watt Fender and...meh,whatever,nothing I would brag about. Do I believe a 5 watt amp can replace a 100 watt rig? Not in a million years. If I was going over to a buddies house to jam I just might grab my 5 watt amp...maybe. Drag it to a guitar lesson with a 1x12 is more like it.
 
Re: the thing about 5watt amps.....

I use with full conviction 100 watt amps. why shouldn't I? as long as the VOLUME CONTROL works fine, it can do whatever I want...and thats the thing; guitarplayers should buy whatever works best for them.
 
Re: the thing about 5watt amps.....

I never was a fan of low watt amps cranked to the point where they sound like they're destroying themselves. People talk about high gain amps being one trick pony's but I feel the same about the lunchbox heads. People just crank them up until they're breaking up and thats it.

Headroom and a balance between preamp gain and power amp distortion for me!
 
Re: the thing about 5watt amps.....

Having done both (5w and bigger wattages) I see a benefit to both. They have very different uses, and IMHO the 5w's often get recommended to people based on their cork sniffer appeal over the last couple of years and the whole "Less wattage, more power tube distortion" attitude.

There's a whole lot of cork sniffing that goes on when it comes to the internet and amplification.

Ultimately people just need to have an open mind towards amps and actually put one through it's paces before laying down cash on them.

For most of the stuff I do I use the Single Rec. However I do like a smaller practice/living room amp. I cooked my Champ last year and I think I'll go for a Mesa TA-15 for a small practice amp next.
 
Re: the thing about 5watt amps.....

I just got a class 5 few weeks ago, at first it sounded muddy then i had to keep the bass pretty low then I hooked up my tube screamer TS 808 and that cleaned it up much better. Then I bought a NOS RCA EL84 and put my old Mullard in the v1 and a JJ high gain in the v2 sounds very good now. After about 14 hrs of high volume the speaker is smoothing up really nice with my SG!! very ac/dc tone easy. I have the bass at 3/4 now now problems but a tube screamer and good Mogami cables really help. I had 100 watt half stacks in the past and this satisfies me along with my vox. This amp isn't much a clean amp but a cranked Marshall tone. At the store I wasnt even looking to buy a Marshall but for the hell it was right behind me so I picked up a PRS and jammed it and it was like dam this sounds good, so im saying a nice Mahogany hum-bucking guitar will rock but even better boosted. Class A amp, Birch ply cabs help also:)
 
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Re: the thing about 5watt amps.....

I may not understand what all of the tubes in a preamp section do, but so few small amps use more than 1 or 2 preamp tubes. So it's not like your getting the thick distortion of cascaded preamp tubes. Also their controls are also pretty limited.

I guess I would rather have a small tube power amp with only a volume control. Then you could use whatever rack preamp for tone shaping.
 
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Re: the thing about 5watt amps.....

SirJackdeFuzz said:
Hey Gibson175...


...what do you think about this 7watt amp ?

Hardly louder than my Class5, (dpending on speaker eff.) and if you do not need any headroom/clean tones, i think this is a monster with BIG Amp tones in it.
Sure does not sound like a sub 10Watt amp to me.
YMMV

Click to expand...
All I hear is fart and fizz. If thats good tone, I'll keep my bad tone.
 
Re: the thing about 5watt amps.....

crguti said:
people don't understand the meaning of 3 dB. The dB scale is logarithmic, so it isn't the same going from 60 to 63 dB than 100 to 103 dB.
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3dB is just enough to notice that there's been a volume change, regardless of where it lands on that scale.
 
Re: the thing about 5watt amps.....

These little guys can sound cool, but they can't punch you in the chest like a good 50 or 100w baby.
 
Re: the thing about 5watt amps.....

gibson175 said:
I know that preamp compression is seen as the poor cousin of power tube saturation, but i have to say that one EL84 being beaten to death is not very exciting to my ears.
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Not all ultra low watt amps are supposed to have their power stage thrashed. Not everyone is shooting for that sound. I think the best designs have a preamp section that interacts well with the limited output. You get the compression/feel thing going on at low volumes without the single valve class A rattyness. Granted it does sound small compared to the big boys, I think it's a better compromise than turning a large amp down or running a dirt pedal into a clean amp.

However, to be fair to 5 watt amps....if i run them lowish (mostly clean) and roll off the treble, then they can give a pleasant practice sound...but then again if i wanted clean at lowish volumes , an amp with maybe 20 watts sounds so much better to my ears.
Click to expand...

I don't really see much point in using such a small amp if headroom is a priority. It's seems contradictory to desire something that was designed specifically to break up early and then wanting to use it clean.
 
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Re: the thing about 5watt amps.....

some_dude said:
3dB is just enough to notice that there's been a volume change, regardless of where it lands on that scale.
Click to expand...

That is how i undestand it too :


power-db.gif
 
Re: the thing about 5watt amps.....

ImmortalSix said:
Exactly --- exactly, exactly, exactly.

I had a Blackheart 5 watt head, and it sounded terrible cranked, terrible low, terrible clean, terrible dirty. I upgraded the tubes trying to get it to sound good (MESA SPAX7, JJ EL84), nope. I upgraded the speaker in the cab to try to get it to sound good (Weber Blue Dog), nope.
Click to expand...

I actually played one today at a music store. When store clerks ask me what I think of the products I played I try to be diplomatic (like guitar magazines [can you tell which thread I just came from? lol]) and say stuff like, "sounded pretty alright. I'll have to give it a thought".

But today I got truthful and straight up told the guy the amp sounded like a turd. I can't understand how so many people praise this amp.
 
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