What's the point of 100 watt amps?

[deeaa*]

One thing is cool, though, about a big amph through a 4x12 cab is the WHUMP. Turn that amph up, stand in front of the cab, and hit a power chord. The feeling when the sound hits you in the chest (the WHUMP, that's the best way I can describe it) is incredible. There really is nothing like it.

Exactly.

My Ceria can be halved 18/36W and the funny thing is, the 36W doesn't really sound any louder than 18W when played alone, BUT when I drop it to 18W, I just lose the bass punch and it won't cut thru the band no more.

4 me the 36W is quite perfect, the volume is just right for a loud drummer/band on almost full blast, at the point after which it starts getting ugly overtones already. But I would not mind a 50W or 100W amp for leads; I can't quite get a sufficiently clean and powerful sound I'd want for single strings with the 36W, because there is simply too much power tube distortion going on already.

Any amp, to me, should have at least 3 channels; cleaner, a dirty channel and a REALLY loud lead channel. Sadly, usually the lead channel just means more saturation which sucks. I like to play leads on a sound that is often cleaner than my rhythm sound, and it's a problem to get those to push thru the rest of the band, unless there's plenty of power in the amp.

Thus the need for 100W amps is in that sometimes less just won't do...with a loud band 50W will certainly be enough, but going for 100W will only add some more punch and headroom even at the same volume - if that's what you like. For very clean, unsaturared sounds LOUD you do need all the wattage you can get. At least something like 400W for clean clean bass sounds, and 100W is just perfect for a really punchy metal guitar sound that oesn't rely on power tube drive at all.

Furthermore, the usual speaker wattage is 75-120W still, making the classic Marshall 4x12" cab rated at about 400W, and it simply won't 'open up' with a lesser amp. I had a 60W Peavey tube amp and believe it or not, it failed to really open up the basic Marshall JCM800 cab when I used it in a studio! Hooked up a 100W JCM series and the speakers came alive.

So wattage can be a bit like horsepower. A farm tractor needs very little horsepower really with its low gears(have you ever checked out, they can be like under 100hp easily), but there's a whole different sound and feeling blasting a 400hp hemi truck, even if it can't pull even as much weight as the farm tractor....

[Eric***]

Exactly.

My Ceria can be halved 18/36W and the funny thing is, the 36W doesn't really sound any louder than 18W when played alone, BUT when I drop it to 18W, I just lose the bass punch and it won't cut thru the band no more.

4 me the 36W is quite perfect, the volume is just right for a loud drummer/band on almost full blast, at the point after which it starts getting ugly overtones already. But I would not mind a 50W or 100W amp for leads; I can't quite get a sufficiently clean and powerful sound I'd want for single strings with the 36W, because there is simply too much power tube distortion going on already.

Any amp, to me, should have at least 3 channels; cleaner, a dirty channel and a REALLY loud lead channel. Sadly, usually the lead channel just means more saturation which sucks. I like to play leads on a sound that is often cleaner than my rhythm sound, and it's a problem to get those to push thru the rest of the band, unless there's plenty of power in the amp.

Thus the need for 100W amps is in that sometimes less just won't do...with a loud band 50W will certainly be enough, but going for 100W will only add some more punch and headroom even at the same volume - if that's what you like. For very clean, unsaturared sounds LOUD you do need all the wattage you can get. At least something like 400W for clean clean bass sounds, and 100W is just perfect for a really punchy metal guitar sound that oesn't rely on power tube drive at all.

Furthermore, the usual speaker wattage is 75-120W still, making the classic Marshall 4x12" cab rated at about 400W, and it simply won't 'open up' with a lesser amp. I had a 60W Peavey tube amp and believe it or not, it failed to really open up the basic Marshall JCM800 cab when I used it in a studio! Hooked up a 100W JCM series and the speakers came alive.

So wattage can be a bit like horsepower. A farm tractor needs very little horsepower really with its low gears(have you ever checked out, they can be like under 100hp easily), but there's a whole different sound and feeling blasting a 400hp hemi truck, even if it can't pull even as much weight as the farm tractor....

So what I'm getting from this is a few points:

1. If you want a clean lead sound that has enough punch to cut through when playing with a band, you'll need the added power.
2. The sound/feel of playing a big amp is cool.
3. Sometimes you need the extra power just to drive the speakers and have them sound good.
4. The whole thing is predicated on playing with a band and without any extra monitoring to boost your amp volume

I think the key for me is point 4, maybe a little bit of 3. I assume that if you have a PA set up, you'll just run through that to normalize the volumes. I guess a big amp might be warranted if you're not micing the amps through the PA and you want some extra headroom. I think.

Did I miss anything? You had a lot of points in there.