Minimum wattage for a gigging amp

Cirrus

ICBM;201629" said:

I can never get that big sound I like with a small amp, even mic'ed. It's not the volume, it's something to do with the combination of the tone and the feel - you can put all the bass you like on at the desk and it still doesn't sound like a big amp. I even found that with a 50W 1x12" once - on a big stage, it still sounded a bit boxy even through the PA.

Stands to reason - a little amp is going to squash your transients right down, distort the bass and in all probability limit the bandwidth - once that's done there's no amount of processing after the fact that's going to give you anything other than compressed squashy bass that the amp gives up on as it runs out of power.

And 1x12s just don't work for me. They sound small because they are small no matter how many watts you pump into them, and that one speaker having to do all the work on its own gives you even more compression.

I'm not saying that small amps are intrinsically worse, it's all preference!

Danny1969

bigdawg said:

Danny1969 said:

5

is correct - in a rehearsal room youre in a small room and so many times everyone is just trying to overplay everyone else.

Ive played pub gigs with a tiny terror on 5watts, against a loud drummer, through a 2x12 loaded with 25w greenbacks, the amp was volume was about 3/4 way round, no one had a problem hearing anyone.

Yes indeed. 

This discussion comes up a lot on here .... I think the true answer is to use not enough watts behind you to damage your hearing and then mic up ... always mic up if you want to maintain good hearing through your 30's and 40's. 

But that's if you gig a lot .... some people on here only gig once a month and they can get away with a loud amp blasting behind them sat on a stand pointing at their ears

So how many watts do you need ? depends on how many gigs you wanna do and whever you want to go deaf

PS If you prefer a larger rehearsal room come and rehearse at my place, both our rooms are this size

koneguitarist

Cirrus said:

ICBM;201629" said:

I can never get that big sound I like with a small amp, even mic'ed. It's not the volume, it's something to do with the combination of the tone and the feel - you can put all the bass you like on at the desk and it still doesn't sound like a big amp. I even found that with a 50W 1x12" once - on a big stage, it still sounded a bit boxy even through the PA.

Stands to reason - a little amp is going to squash your transients right down, distort the bass and in all probability limit the bandwidth - once that's done there's no amount of processing after the fact that's going to give you anything other than compressed squashy bass that the amp gives up on as it runs out of power.

And 1x12s just don't work for me. They sound small because they are small no matter how many watts you pump into them, and that one speaker having to do all the work on its own gives you even more compression.

I'm not saying that small amps are intrinsically worse, it's all preference!

If you are mic'ing up you are still only mic'ing one speaker, sure sound is different on stage if you have a 2x12 or 4x12  compared to a single speaker combo or cab. But to me it's not about watts or multiples of speakers it's about design. I have heard 2x12 cabs put out a tighter harsher tone than a single 12 or even a 1x10 in the right cab. I know we have been through this before ! But each to their own.