I hear some people say that the don't get the best out of their guitar amp unless they are really cranking it.
Which begs a question. If you have a very loud amplifier, when would it ever be appropriate to crank it? I'm taking about an AC30, a Fender Twin, a Marshall 100W full stack etc.
Thing is, one of those, at full chat, is deafeningly loud. So, you can't do that at a small to medium pub gig. If you're at a larger venue, a big club etc, then you'll need to mic up the amp anyway for the audience - so no need for earth shattering on-stage volumes. In fact, any time in experience of being on a stage of any size, the other musicians start to complain when you turn up your own back line too loudly.
Also, if you're doing a larger gig on a larger stage, your going to have monitors and quite probably in ears too - so why the heavy back line?
Also, also ...... when doing a larger gig, the people in the mosh pit will get a confused sound from too heavy a back line if it is already coming though the PA. Won't they?
PS: I'm not trying to be controversial here. I'm genuinely asking if it is ever possible/appropriate to crank massively loud amps.
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just because you do, doesn't mean you should.
Just my non-player observations....
A 100W fixed biased amp is going to have a very different dynamic response from a 30W cathode biased one. Up to about 12-25W the 100 is going to be almost pure "class A" and have very low distortion so your "core" sound, middle dynamic is going to be very clean and 20W is still very loud thru 100dB/W/mtr speakers. The 30W CB'er on the other hand is getting pretty grimy.
Then, getting a good low end "wooumf" takes juice and big OPTraffs. Big amps also TEND to be better built and, to take the car analogy a step further, being less stressed (for a given SPL/mph) tend to be more reliable.
Dave.
I'll always love big amps though.
Minor point, but boxiness, or lack of, is nothing to do with power output.
There are boxy 100W combos too. Boogies , IMO of course, sound boxy, and Marshall made some 100W combos in tiny 1x12 cabinets that sound boxy. Conversely, a 5W amp driving a 4x12 can sound huge.
Although it's very rare you'd buy a high gain head and crank it. Amps that have very harmonically rich preamp designs don't need to be up at full (actually very few amps should be turned up full, if you get up full you've missed the sweet spot) to achieve the desired tone, one of the reasons I don't like low power high gain amps, especially with EL84s.
The point is a 100w head responds and sounds in a certain way, a 50w version of the same amp sounds different and so on. I like the sound and dynamics of a big amp into a big can at modest levels, personal taste and all....but then combos I like a smaller amp in a bigger cab.
And as has been pointed out an amp isn't boxy sounding, it's the cab.
"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 find you reach a point of diminishing returns when you get to a certain volume for higher gained sounds. Beyond a certain point (with a certain amount of preamp gain) the amp doesn't really get louder but it will compress more.
I agree, but there's 2 things I'd add. Firstly, obviously not everybody wants that 'authority' or directness, or immediacy, or however it's described. But then that's a given that we all have different tastes, and different musical styles.
The other thing is though that I'm not sure it's the power output per se that gives those qualities. I think the incidental effects of having a stiffer power supply and bigger output transformer are doing some of the things you describe. So, if you were to build a lower power amp (say 20-30W) with a larger, hi-fi style OT, and stiff power supply, and a lowish gain preamp, you get some of the same qualities of punch and authority.
There aren't many valve amps like that around, but I think that it's the reason Matamps have a reputation for being louder than their power output, for instance. Hayden might agree.