The old low watt amp discussion

EricTheWeary

I might have a bit of bias here but something like the Laney Lionheart 20 maybe something inbetween. Actually may be too much into a 2x12 but at band levels I am pushing my Lionheart 20 combo enough to get it cooking without running it flat out. About right on budget too.

ennspek

shaunm said:

An interesting thread as I have been wondering if I could live with a 10 watt amp? I probably can but I keep thinking - what if I need more???

Nail. Head. Exactly how I feel.

shaunm

ennspek;564470" said:

shaunm said:

An interesting thread as I have been wondering if I could live with a 10 watt amp? I probably can but I keep thinking - what if I need more???













Nail. Head. Exactly how I feel.

Exactly, I can't work out if I just take the plunge and get a 10w amp or go for an 18w?

streethawk

What about these Marshall 1watt amps?

Danny1969

Well an 18 watt won't really be much louder than a 10 watt so I don't think you will see much difference

It goes kind of 5 watts is loud enough for some - 40 watts is perceivable to some as twice as loud as 5 watts - to get a lot louder than 40 watts would probably take about 300 watts. This is only a general guide and assumes all the above are going into the same cab

The response of our ears isn't linear in regard to changes of power to produce  volume or frequency response 

Jeremiah

What about the Vox Lil Night Train, Hayden Lil Mofo, or those Mooer mini amps?

Edit: also, the H&K Tubemeister 18 has 5 watt and 1 watt settings

richardhomer

Dave_Mc;564362" said:

How loudly can you play? Unless your bigger amps are just very slightly too loud, if they're too loud there's a fair chance 5 watts cranked up are too loud too.

Switched to the 5 watt setting, my Lone Star Special is still massively loud for home use.

As I've said before, if you need 'proper' clean sounds in a live situation, most small amps are useless. I'd always prefer to have too much, rather than too little power on tap.

Dave_Mc

^ Yeah 5 watts is still way too loud for most home situations. Even if you don't have neighbours close by, you're limited by your own ears unless you're willing to wear ear protection or have a massive room.

rlw

My Cornford Harlequin at 6 watts is way too loud for normal home use but the master volume seems to do a good job of keeping the volume down but the noise up, if you see what I mean.

BluesyDave

Fender silverface or tweed Champ?  Five or six watts of hand wired loveliness.  

Tuscan777

Hmm, thanks again all. There is a Cornford Harlequin going near me at the mo (just a few miles up the road), so I may go and give that a whirl.

Only slight concern is that I had two of their Roadhouse models when they came out, both of which went pop very quickly. I vowed never to go near a Cornford again, but maybe I should!

menamestom

I'm thinking of making the Ampmaker WF-55 at some point.  It's a really simple build and a great circuit, would be good for recording although would still be too loud cranked at home.  The NX5 looks good and has power Scaling and different valve choices, that would be a great home amp.

richardhomer

BluesyDave;565096" said:

Fender silverface or tweed Champ?  Five or six watts of hand wired loveliness.  

I tried a Silverface Vibro Champ a few years ago - the idea of a small Fender for home use/recording really appealed to me.

To be honest, I thought it was unremarkable. Even with a humbucking guitar it remained pretty clean at levels too high for home use - and with a Strat it lacked the 'air' and warmth of (even slightly) bigger Fenders.

At the prices they now command, they just don't offer enough to my ears.

Drew_TNBD

Personally I think anything below 50watts is a waste of money. Modern high powered amps with good master volumes sound infinitely better than 10-30watts of EL84 crap.

Chalky

To get poweramp distortion at home volumes you are talking well below 5 watts or attenuator or power scaling. And you may not like what you hear I'm about to put together an Ampmaker N5X kit so I can test power scaling - so far, the low wattage and attentuators I've had have certainly been quieter but not as lush as the higher wattage amps in full deafening voice!

BigMonka

Danny1969 said:

I started using a 5 watt amp about 3 years ago. Now 4 of my friends playing in bands have followed suit and everyone seems happy. They are cheap, light to carry and don't take up much room. Sometimes though it's hard at some venues to get even a 5 watt amp loud enough to make the power section start cooking if you use one with a sensitive speaker as it's just too loud. 

That makes it sound like there would be a market for a really inefficient speaker which still has a decent character, interesting concept.

ourmaninthenorth

Drew_fx said: Personally I think anything below 50watts is a waste of money. Modern high powered amps with good master volumes sound infinitely better than 10-30watts of EL84 crap.



Wish I'd have spoken to you before I'd wasted so much money....

Drew_TNBD

ourmaninthenorth said:

Drew_fx said:

Personally I think anything below 50watts is a waste of money. Modern high powered amps with good master volumes sound infinitely better than 10-30watts of EL84 crap.

Wish I'd have spoken to you before I'd wasted so much money.... Relax. Your purchases are nothing to do with me. It's just my personal opinion. No need to get defensive. I know, it's difficult.... I just did exactly that with someone in the 'show your pedalboard' thread.

But again... relax. No need for it really.

p90fool

Drew_fx said:

Personally I think anything below 50watts is a waste of money. Modern high powered amps with good master volumes sound infinitely better than 10-30watts of EL84 crap.

You're absolutely right, they're much better for that 90s-style crushing gain/totally clean compressed-guitar-as-synth-substitute preamp thing.

Some of us like more of a tactile, acoustic-like response though, y'know for writing songs that chicks dig etc.

thermionic

Chalky said:

To get poweramp distortion at home volumes you are talking well below 5 watts or attenuator or power scaling. And you may not like what you hear I'm about to put together an Ampmaker N5X kit so I can test power scaling - so far, the low wattage and attentuators I've had have certainly been quieter but not as lush as the higher wattage amps in full deafening voice!

I built one and all of the above is true. The power scaling works well up to a point - you can't turn it down to TV-sort of levels because it only works on the power amp valve voltages. At the the very low end of the scale the output from the preamp valve is much higher than what the power amp input can cope with at that point and you get a nasty compressed, squished distortion. The power scaling can be modded to work on both valve stages though, but judicious use of the power scaling in conjuction with the master volume gets you a range of nice valve distorted sounds at reasonable volumes.