Anyone here ever use a Blackstar Artisan 15w Head in bedroom ?

Telejester

Can it be done without wife aggro ? Beautiful looking and sounding head.

citizen68

No - not even on the 5 watt setting 

Wazmeister

Too loud

Telejester

That's a pity, Brett kingman on YouTube gets tones to kill for with an artisan 15

tone1

I used mine with a DR Z brake lite fitted..still bloody loud though but it sounded epic with pedals

bazxkr

I don't know about the 15w Artisan but l I use an Engl E650 100w head (most powerful one I own) with a Jettenuator through an Engl Pro V30 2x12 at very low home volumes and it sounds the best clarity out of all the amps I have. Yes, if I can crank it & take the tiles off the roof. But there is a full body of tone that is superior even at the low volume. A line 6FX pedal gives me any break up tone I want still at lowish volumes. So high power amps can be used at home levels.

Sassafras

Yes, just get your wife some earplugs.

Fortheloveofguitar

Buy a used Fryette power station that'll slay the beast and offer great tone at bedroom levels 

ecc83

The A15 being cathode biased does not chuck out more than about 20W at fill chat and top mains in.

This means a power soak can be of quite simple design and need be rated at no more than 50wattts. I know the company does not really approve of soaks but when the devil drives???

Maybe some enterprising bod here could knock you one up?

Dave.

thomasross20

Apparently you want <1W for bedroom use (?)

Teetonetal

thomasross20 said:

Apparently you want <1W for bedroom use (?)

As always, depends. You can't neatly pigeon hole this stuff.

I can gig with my laney cup 12 on it's <1W mode. It's very loud, sounds awesome cranked.

You are thinking about this all wrong.

Low watt does not mean it sounds any good quiet. It means it's easier to crank the thing and have THAT valve sound at a lower volume.

@ICBM has often said it's better to have a big amp turned down, for low volume playing as the amp itself imparts bigger body to the sound, plus you can use pedals etc for gain.. I many ways I have to agree. However, for people like me , who live in a very small flat, have a baby etc, almost any valve amp is too loud. modelling is a much better option, as are VSTs etc. 

After that factor in speaker sensitivity, quality of master volume implementation etc, etc

thomasross20

Yeah that's what I mean, sorry. Like... if they did a 1W plexi, you could crank it and actually get the plexi sound. 
I'm hoping the power scaling on my new amp does wonders for bedroom levels. But yeah, modelling is perfect for the bedroom!

Exorcist

I have a fuchs 4 aces that is too loud for bedroom levels without an attenuator (sounds glorious though) at only 2 watts, but my tweaker 15 sounds great at low bedroom levels. The master volume on that is very good. For £2-300 for the head IMHO it makes a great home amp. I do have a Laney AOR 100 and there is no way to get that down to home/bedroom levels without blowing your foundations out. Also a VHT special 6 on 3 watts still sounds pretty good at bedroom levels, but clean only (although takes dirt pedals like a boss)

ICBM

Of course you can use it at bedroom volume - just turn the volume control down, and the gain as well if necessary. OK, that may mean that you can't get the sort of overdriven sound you want… in which case use the amp clean and a pedal/preamp for the distortion.

Actual bedroom volume is more like 1 to 10 *milliwatts*, into a decent-sensitivity speaker.

1W into a typical 12" guitar speaker will produce around 100dB one metre from the cab. 10mW will still give 80dB. .1mW would give 60dB, which is 'conversation volume' - assuming the speaker is linear that close to the bottom end of its travel.

So forget cranking any valve amp, without some sort of power reduction or attenuation. Even my ZVex Nano - about 0.1W clean, 0.5W flat-out - was *way* too loud for playing in the evening without an attenuator.

http://www.gcaudio.com/resources/howtos/loudness.html

Dopesick

ICBM said:

Of course you can use it at bedroom volume - just turn the volume control down, and the gain as well if necessary. OK, that may mean that you can't get the sort of overdriven sound you want… in which case use the amp clean and a pedal/preamp for the distortion.

Exactly what I do. I can use a 100w Matamp clean (okay, on the 50w setting) with a distortion pedal at low volumes and the chaps downstairs will barely hear a thing.

thomasross20

Crikey, amazing!

Telejester

So if master and vol controls are set low could the artisan be used with drive pedal and get past the wife ?

ICBM

Yes. I used to use a 200W Marshall Major through a 2x15" cab in a flat at TV volume without annoying anyone.

bazxkr

Telejester said:

So if master and vol controls are set low could the artisan be used with drive pedal and get past the wife ?

If you have master volume even better...you can dial low volume/high master of high volume/low master to get different clean/dirty tones at low volumes. Alternatively...change wife. haha

ICBM said:

Yes. I used to use a 200W Marshall Major through a 2x15" cab in a flat at TV volume without annoying anyone.

Wow, do you still have the Major ? Weren't they supposed to very unreliable ?? Don't see many around. Thks to them in the 70's my hearing is not what it was LOL

Sassafras

ICBM said:

Yes. I used to use a 200W Marshall Major through a 2x15" cab in a flat at TV volume without annoying anyone.

You probably couldn't hear them screaming at you to stop playing.
  

ICBM

bazxkr said:

Wow, do you still have the Major ?

No, I sold it more than twenty years ago… to Gary Moore . (Via his tech, so I didn't get to meet him…)

bazxkr said:

Weren't they supposed to very unreliable ??

Not really, although probably a bit more so than a standard 100W Marshall.

Sassafras said:

You probably couldn't hear them screaming at you to stop playing.
  

I played it very quietly. I had an outboard valve preamp that I made with a 2203 preamp circuit in it, then through delay etc, then into the Major with the volume at about .001 . Fantastic stadium rock tone at TV volume.

The only time I ever got a complaint was from playing my 5W Marshall Mercury.

Like I said, it's easier to get a great sound at really low volume from a big amp than a small one.