What's the smallest wattage tube and/or solid state amps for shows?

[wahwah]

Re: What's the smallest wattage tube and/or solid state amps for shows?

I've toured with an 18w Fender Super Champ for the past 10 years. Size of venue, stage, indoors or outdoors don't make much difference in my case, because I always keep the amp close to me. It's a great sounding amp (with a Celestion G10S-50 and late 50's RCA blackplate 6V6s and 12AX7) and I mic it with a Heil PR-30, so it sounds good in the PA and is always in the mix. It struggles on a small stage with a loud drummer and bass player and only a vocal PA, but I don't normally work under those conditions with the main artist I work for. If I do a local fill in gig under those conditions, I'll take a 30w Class A Ulbrick, and that does the trick.

The Super Champ usually sits with its channel volume around 7 and the master on 6, so both the preamp and power tubes are working in a beautiful optimal range for a Fender amp. Our regular FOH guy filters out the extremes, but always leaves the midrange completely flat on the console. I don't like the sound of guitar in foldback or sidefill, although the singer and drummer often have me in their sends.





Cheers...................................... wahwah

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: What's the smallest wattage tube and/or solid state amps for shows?

30 - 40.

Unmiced.

 

[guitfiddle]

Re: What's the smallest wattage tube and/or solid state amps for shows?

Lately I've had great success with a 20 watt amp into a 2x12.

 

[astrozombie]

Re: What's the smallest wattage tube and/or solid state amps for shows?

I used to have a 50 watt solid state marshall combo. it worked for me.

a friend gigs with an AC30 at medium seized venues and of course he's fine... i gigged with a JCM800 and it was insanely loud.

 

[philthis]

Re: What's the smallest wattage tube and/or solid state amps for shows?

I used to have a 50 watt solid state marshall combo. it worked for me.

a friend gigs with an AC30 at medium seized venues and of course he's fine... i gigged with a JCM800 and it was insanely loud.

I gigged with a jcm800 in these buildings and churches where there would be these weekend shows by bands like ours and a house PA for vocals. we also had are own PA for vocals. In that type of situation the Marshall half stack was good. it was laud and could be heard by drumer and bass player and audiance. there were guys that would bring full stacks but it was just to look impressive. However that being said, if you elevate your speakers off the floor to waist level or higher your amp will seem much lauder. your amp often times is realy your guitars personal moniter for you to hear. if your close to your amp and your amp is miked, it doesnt need to be that laud if everyone else is playing at the same volumn as you. if your tone is going to the house PA they will mike your speaker and the PA speakers will be the main volumn for the gig. playing big venues or outdoor stuff can be alittle more tricky. the stages can be large, you will be standing away from your amp towards the front of the stage and you will be trying to hear your amp over the bass, drumer and maybe anything else like a keyboard player and another guitar player. you will most likely be standing in front of a moniter but you will want to hear your guitar amp in back of you so at that point you may want more wattage so you can hear your self play. at that point you may want stacks of speakers but again a good PA takes care of alot of this. Indoors close to your amp.....50 watts is usually more than you'll ever use, 10 to 30 is most peoples playing volumn and if your going for clean headroom most 20 to 50 watt amps are more then plenty becouse at the volumn you will be playing at the amp will not break up. for distortion tones remember its often nice to drive the amp to get its best tone so you dont want to buy a massive amp unless it can sound good at low volumns say 5 to 20 watts becouse it will be miked anyway. alot of club players like distortion combo amps that max out around 20 to 25 watts becouse they can drive the tubes at a lower volumn to get the amps best tone. space is also somthing to consider. thats why alot of players try to get an amp that can sound good clean and dirty from the same amp, like a combo amp with an extension speaker. if your a garage band for now I would get a 30 to 50 watt amp cuz you usually have no PA and the drumer cant hear you with a small amp with the bass and whatever else going on at the same time. your just jaming anyway so the ability to turn up can be nice-just dont piss off the neigbors or you'll see cops knocking on the basement window or garage door

 

[crguti]

Re: What's the smallest wattage tube and/or solid state amps for shows?

+ 1x12" cab.

 

[Zerberus]

Re: What's the smallest wattage tube and/or solid state amps for shows?

WIth or without PA?

I always bring my marshall (50w Tube, 4x12) or at least my H+K combo (100w SS, 1x12) with me to a gig, but I´ve played gigs with a Marshall MS-2 ministack (1w) and a Mesa V-twin (0 watts) straight to PA, too.

SO the correct answer the way the question is stated is: somewhere between 0 and 300. :laugh2:

Clean tone isn't going to need as much power as distorted sound. .....

Perfect Fail.

It´s exactly the other way around. Truly clean tones (not that semi fuzzed newfangled "clean" bs) require one thing to stay clean at high volumes.

Headroom.

In other words, enough power reserves that if I go from barely plucking to sledgehammering it only gets louder, instead of starting to distort. On one end of the spectrum there are the 1w amps that are IME almost impossible to get a decent clean sound from due to lack of headroom but sound pretty good distorted, and on the other end are the 150 watt tube behemoths like the Tri-Rec or Roadking that even the most nuclear pick attack can not distort when properly set, but that will still easily flatten a house after drowning the keyboarder. But switch the channel and you can literally cause structural damage to your home and FEMA gets called in to aid the other survivors in your neighborhood :laugh2:

How does one acquire more headroom? More power amp wattage and more speaker surface area. In other words: Bigger amp and bigger cabinets.

It´s the whole reason many of us run around with a 50W halfstack or 100w combo. I can get a horrendously loud distorted tone with 1 watt, but that same volume clean needs at least 25 watts or so through the same speaker to get into the same SPL range.

Cripes this is easy as hell to test, too..... Insert earplugs, Take your amp, dime everything, play clean (meaning turn back if necessary until it´s truly clean even when you smack the strings), then play distorted, and honestly tell us which was significantly louder

 

[richard parker]

Re: What's the smallest wattage tube and/or solid state amps for shows?

I rarely get miked up but I'm more than happy with 30w tube amps but I don't play clean much. If you need a good amount of clean headroom I'd look at 50w for tube and more for solid state.

 

[dr.barlo]

Re: What's the smallest wattage tube and/or solid state amps for shows?

ive used a 15 watter at an outdoor frstival, but for me, to get the bottom end i like, i reckon 22 watts is minimum.

+1

B

 

[Markk]

Re: What's the smallest wattage tube and/or solid state amps for shows?

At the local jam session, once the volume wars start, my 60 watt TSL get's drowned. Usually the bass has some insane 4x12, and a Twin Reverb also gets pulled out...by the harpist.

I stopped playing a while ago and yesterday I went to the new place where it's being held. In a venue at least half the size of the previous one, the bassist still had his 4x12, the TR was still harpin' away, but there was another guitarist...with a H&K head and 4x12 again. Now I could definitely hear him.

But if someone were to step in and do some volume control, I'm sure even 50 watts would be overkill. Doesn't help that the drummer is quite loud, but how do you go about suggesting a screen/shield when you're essentially the noobie at the party? (if that would even help)

 

[blueman335]

Re: What's the smallest wattage tube and/or solid state amps for shows?

30 - 40.

Unmic'ed.

+1. In the typical local bar gig, you'll still have headroom. One 12" speaker is usually enough, although a 2x12 is fine too. Much louder than that and people in the audience have to scream in each others ears to hear anything, which makes it hard to carry on conversations, or order drinks and food.

 

[Diego]

Re: What's the smallest wattage tube and/or solid state amps for shows?

I've never played with my Cube 60 past half on the volume. Never ever.
Even in unmiced gigs at pubs, I've never had the need to do that.

But I never go crazy on the volume either. I like to keep the stage volume low, and blast it through the PA if needed. My ears appreciate that.

 

[lpmarshall]

Re: What's the smallest wattage tube and/or solid state amps for shows?

Most club gigs have had sounds systems, but I've also gigged at bars unmic'd with my 12W 65 Amps Lil Elvis.

 

[ratherdashing]

Re: What's the smallest wattage tube and/or solid state amps for shows?

Clean tone isn't going to need as much power as distorted sound. Id say 20 watts for a clean amp and cleanish breakup like a deluxe reverb ..
For heavily distorted stuff like a tweed, Id want two Tweed bassmans-one wouldnt cut it for me..I've tried.
For a Marshall thats crunchy and bright, 18 watts would maybe work.

I'd be more comfortable 60 watts of raw distored power, and thats why I love my Sunn amp.It does the tweed thing through a 4x1o Jensen cabinet with power to spare.
For a Marshall,liek a JCM, yeah, the 50 or 100 watts is ideal judiciously mixing preamp and power amp volume..

You've made plenty of flat-out wrong posts in your time, but this one takes the cake.

How many gigs have you played in the past two years?

 

[CapoFirstFret]

Re: What's the smallest wattage tube and/or solid state amps for shows?

I play out pretty regularly (read: anywhere from 4 to 10 times a month) and the main place I play has a house Deluxe Reverb amp and I've seen that thing regularly unmic'd in a bar that can hold 300+ people.

To me, it's all about having a band that knows how to play with intensity, but not volume. I'm not saying that things don't have to get to a reasonable level to be cooking, but I am saying that you should not have to be beating the hell out of drums/cranking amps up to 10 just to get good sound as a band. That's ridiculous.

As an edit, I played that place with my Dr. Z Maz 18 I had (that's right 18-22 watts) and definitely never needed a microphone. My Super Reverbs rarely get past 4.

 

[Kam]

Re: What's the smallest wattage tube and/or solid state amps for shows?

Much louder than that and people in the audience have to scream in each others ears to hear anything, which makes it hard to carry on conversations, or order drinks and food.

This is the most un-rock'n'roll thing ever posted here.

 

[Wattage]

Re: What's the smallest wattage tube and/or solid state amps for shows?

Wattage has little to do with volume at the end of the day.

I find this rather distressing....................:scratchch