Re: Why do so many people have huge amps?
Yes, I read the whole thread over again, because I was like "how did it get like this?"
. . . you can overdrive the pre-amp section of the low watt amp easily and get beautiful natural distortion w/0 blowing the windows out of 90% of the places you play. . .
Power tube distortion > preamp tube distortion, IMO.
I have an 18w combo with 2 preamp tubes (5751 and a 12ay7) that
barely distort, even cranked and that combo dimed is a sexual experience. With a GGG MBB clone pushing the amp, it sounds better, but if I were ranking things it would be dirt/boost + low volume (i.e. preamp distortion) < Cranked + no dirt pedal < cranked + just a little push from a dirt pedal
A lot of Page's recorded tones blow fat salami.
Just, no. This is what we call "missing the forest for the trees." All of zeppelin's stuff I've heard sounds great even though technically parts of it might not. An example being John Bonham's drums had, what - like three microphones total? And yet the drums always sound huge. Likewise, I prefer the raw zeppelin tones over Joe Bonamassa's almost-too-perfect live tone.
He sounds FAR superior live a la How The West Was Won.
I don't know if "far superior" is a correct categorization, but HTWWW is tied with Live at Leeds for my favorite live album ever. Oddly enough, my ranking of those two has nothing to do with the sound the guitarists got.
Maybe saying they "blow fat salami" was a bit much, but come on, you have to admit that his live tone absolutely kills his studio tone.
My only addition to this is that the live sound of good bands is
always better than the studio sound, because by definition a band that is really talented needs the freedom of spontaneity to really capture their 'essence' whereas a band like the black eyed peas will always sound "better" (note that I didn't say "good") in the studio because their music is a creature of process.
I think it is more about big bass transformers and cranked tubes to give the dynamics
most smaller wattage amps just dont provide both of these
I mean, yes and no - it depends on the SPLs you're going for. If you're in a small space then you can be much more dynamic than if you have people 30 rows deep trying to hear you. Carmina Burana O Fortuna goes from ear-bleed to nearly inaudible, and that's just human being vocal cords. There's a difference between 'dynamic' as it refers to minor shifts in playing technique, and 'dynamic' as it refers to the ability to achieve a wide range of sound levels within the context of a single song with multiple movements. Even then, it's all about context. A 22w deluxe in the right setting can get louder and softer at a single volume setting than a 100w in the wrong setting.
Because I love the sound of big amps. Maybe natural overdrive is preferred by some people, but I like a dirt pedal smacking the front of the amp and letting that 4x12 roar.
Unless the amp has a master volume, doesn't "smacking" the front end with a dirt pedal result in more 4x12 roar?
And can we suppose that owners of smaller amps are trying to match the size of something else?
I'm not, at least. I used to have a 100w (solid state carvin) 2x12 combo driving a 4x12 too, but it never sounded as good as my 18w 2x12 by itself. I'm not talking about spread here - clearly in that case the 6x12 was preferable, but the modest 18w non-MV amp with a good od/boost sounds
bigger, if not as loud. Given, it can't do clean sounds like the 100w could, but the sounds it can do, even with their volume-related deficiencies, are IMO much better.
