i tried out an evh 50 watt head today .
It seemed decent, had a good balance of features and simplicity and it had the lead channel I was after .
Buy , it was a real high gain monster . The crunch channel on 10 o’clock was enough gain for me and I had the gain on the lead channel barely on .
It was a fun amp to play and it sounded great , but my concern was that if I’ve barely got the gain on am I using the amp for what it’s designed for, am I getting the best out of it ??!
Maybe i’d be better off with something lower gain ??
is there any point to using high gain amps at low gain settings ?!!!
Comments
The only problem is if it's too difficult to accurately dial in the amount of gain you want because the pot is so close to the end of its turn - but if so it's actually much easier and simpler to mod an amp for less gain than for more gain.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
I do feel if I had 50 watt or even a 30 watt version of the amp I could turn it up a bit more and get those tubes cooking.
It can actually be easier to get a bigger sound at low volume with a more powerful amp than a less powerful one, if neither is close to full power. Valves don't need to 'cook' to sound good, and the big sound often comes from bigger transformers.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Power amp distortion doesn’t help most modern tones, but valve dynamics can still sound more pleasing than solid state.
I prefer big wattage for high gain sounds myself, regardless of volume give me 90-120 watts every time.