Amph output for bedroom and small gig?

[Radioboy950]

I suffered from "overkill" on my last tube amph, at 55 watts.
The amph stayed home all the time and I rarely had a chance to push it into the sweet spot, where the tubes are juiced and the speaker is movin!
Not everybody in the house appreciates the sweet spot:D
There's nothing better when you're "in the zone" with a tube amph, if you know what I mean.

So, now the question is:
When it comes to tube amphs, how much power would you need for a typical dive bar gig AND still be suitable for bedroom practice or home recording?
15-20 Watts...???

[Robert]

I'd say 4 to 15 watts... my 4 watt GEM could easily work for a gig for me.

Then again, I don't know what a "dive bar gig" is... ? :help

[Radioboy950]

I'd say 4 to 15 watts... my 4 watt GEM could easily work for a gig for me.

Then again, I don't know what a "dive bar gig" is... ? :help

Thanks Robert.
Oh, and from my friends at Urban Dictionary (always good for a laugh)
DIVE BAR
The term can describe anything from a comfortable-but-basic neighborhood pub to the nastiest swill-slinging hole.
You don't need to dress up; we're just going to the dive bar down the street.

Man, that place is such a dive bar... Don't go in unless you plan to burn your clothes afterwards.

[hubberjub]

I am currently using a 20 watt amp and could get away with less. That amp has seen gigs a lot larger than dive bars. Once you start playing reasonable sized clubs everything is going to be miced anyway. Even if you could get away using a 55 watt amp it's nice to be able to keep your stage volume fairly low so you can still hear everyone without deafening yourself. I can't see myself having an amp over 30 watts in my future.

[Spudman]

This kind of depends on your music style and how heavy your drummer is.

If you do metal you'll want more amph and speakers. Otherwise you sound like a bedroom player at gigs. If you're doing classic rawk then 15-25 watts should cover it. I'm running either a Peavey Delta 1x15 or a Bugera V22 (30 and 22 watts respectively) and the Peavey gets turned up to 3-4 and the Bugera master is on 6. I use the Delta around the house with pedals so I don't have to crank it. The Bugera is nice because you can set the amount of drive and then put the master where you want it bringing the overall volume to where it's comfortable.

[sunvalleylaw]

I use my Peavey C-30 around the house set at 2 to 2.5, or maybe 3 if no one is around, and use the guitar knobs and pedals. When I gig with it, it may stay at around 3 and a half, or may go up to 4 or 5 depending on the drummer, if I am being mic'd into the PA, etc. I think it sounds good in both places. I would say a 22 - 30 watter should do ya'!

[oldguy]

Do you only want to get the "sweet spot" you refer to w/ power tubes driven to clipping? That's the big question. I find the sweet spot, for me, involves pushing enough air w/ the speakers to FEEL the noise. That's usually what everyone around here doesn't think is cool, if I get too carried away.

I'd say .5 to 5watts IF you ONLY want to push it into power tube distortion, and mic it for gigs. If you don't mind preamp tube distortion or pedals for the crunch, 15-30 watts will get you loud. I like to crank an amph 'till the power tubes are chiming harmonics and getting fat 'n fuzzy, but I like a good preamp distortion or pedal, also.

JetCity 20w, gain set to heavy crunch, + Vood's ZYS=:dude(think heavy brit stack at listenable levels, no tinnitus).

The mighty Silver Jubilee was akin to a hot-rodded JCM800, plus, I believe, a clipping diode in the circuit to get over the top gain. They sound great at low levels also.

[Radioboy950]

I find the sweet spot, for me, involves pushing enough air w/ the speakers to FEEL the noise.

Now that's what I'm talkin' about.

[deeaa]

Well...

I have an 18/36W Ceriatone quad-EL84 'RP36' head that goes into a 4x12" loaded with 1976 25W Greenbacks.

It sounds great @ 18W and it is enough to play with pretty much any band for sure...BUT it hardly ever leaves the 36W mode. Why? Well, simply because while in 18W mode it does sound good, in 36W mode you _feel_ the bass end and it's just a different beast.

I also played a 15W all-tube amp for a while, and I must say - it was loud enough with a 2x12", yeah, but...it was too middy/driven when loud enough. And a 15W amp with just a single 12"...not a chance.

So my 2c is that it's often not so much about the amp but the speaker. If you have a 400W Marshall 4x12" it won't sparkle with anything less than 50W if that, but a lower-wattage, like my 100W 4x12" seems to thrive on 36W. 18 is not enough, though. I suspect 18W into a 50W 2x12" would be pretty nice, like the original bluesbreaker.

So---IMO 18W is fine with a suitable cab, but more like 40W is needed to get that real cuff-flapping 4x12" rock sound. It just won't move enough air under that.

But also IMO anything over 50W is just insane overkill ;-)

[Plank_Spanker]

Finding an amp that's pleasing at home as well as at gigs is tough. A big factor is what style of music you intend to play live. If you're playing tunes that require "in your face high gain gank", then it will be tough to find an amp that can be tamed to bedroom levels. Classic rock and blues - a good 15 to 20 watt amp should fill both shoes, but be aware that a good 15 watt amp can be pretty darn loud in the sweet spot.

Me? I gave up on trying to find an amp that works both ways. I either practice at home with my gig rig when nobody is home, or I use a Pocket Pod for silent practice through headphones......................I already know what my amp sounds like, so I don't really need it to do personal practice.

[ZMAN]

I have a Blues Junior special edition Jensen, and it is an amazing little amp and could pull any small to medium gig. I also have a Fender 65 Deluxe Reissue at 22 watts this is more than enough. Very clean and quite portable.
An often overlooked amp for both home and gigs would be the Marshal JCM 2000 DSL 401. 40 Watts of amazing tone in a small package. I am currently running mine into a 2/12 Avatar Cab with Eminence speakers and it is amazing.
Clean, gain, and more gain, reverb, and an effects loop. You can also use the internal Celestion 12 inch speaker.
After reading other posts I should qualify my statement about "home use".
I am retired and I have a fairly large home. I have a music room, and I have no back yard neighbors and my neighbors to either side are rarely home in the daytime. I can crank my amps as loud as I want. So my bedroom levels are much louder than most.
I asked my wife about the volume and she said it just sounds like a loud stereo, and it doesn't bother her.

[deeaa]

Yep @ home...anything can get too loud. The smallest I have had, a H&K Cream Machine is but 2W but still too loud. ValveJr. at 5W was wayyyyyy too loud.

SS amps for home use rule. Tech-21 my favorite.

[Tig]

Do you only want to get the "sweet spot" you refer to w/ power tubes driven to clipping? That's the big question. I find the sweet spot, for me, involves pushing enough air w/ the speakers to FEEL the noise.


You bring up a good point. We usually only think of how much power/volume/gain it takes to get the tubes to break up or distort, and ignore what it takes to get the speaker itself into it's sweet zone of desired distortion. That, of course, also depends on the speaker itself and it's wattage rating, etc.

[oldguy]

Yes, I like to get the volume to a certain level, not speaker distortion, per se, but a certain SPL where it gives the amph some thump. Even clean settings benefit from the right volume level, to my ears. I'm not talking deafening tinnitus inducing volumes, just a nice thump from the front of the cab.
That's why practicing through headphones will never sound as good to me as going through an amph. Just doesn't have the same "feel".

[Tone2TheBone]

My 15 watt Blues Junior gets pretty dang loud when I push it to the sweet spot. I told Algonquin that if I use my MXR Micro Amp on the amp I can get that same sweet spot at much lower volumes so you might consider that alternative too. Any good clean boost would work.