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Time For A New Amp


kh15

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im shopping around for a new amp and i cant decide wether or not i want a half stack or just i nice like 12x2 100watt amp? i dont gig or anything i just play for enjoyment and come up with my own stuff but every know and then my buddy calls me up to come over and play cause he plays drums, i just think if i get a stack i will never be able to use it to its full pontential?

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If you aren't going to be playing major gigs in the near future, save a bunch of money and buy one of the solid-state combos. I bought 2 Beringer Vintagers and can't say enough about the value involved in this purchase. Jensen sound and under $200! Go to stacks when you have a sound that is yours and buy an expensive head unit to express it. THEN buy cabs that will keep up with it. IMHO!

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Or get a small tube combo - but 100 watts is way overkill for anything, basically - a gig big enough to need it and you'll be using a PA anyway. A 100 watt amp you'll never be able to turn up loud enough in anything but a huge gig to get great sound out of it, you want something you'll be able to turn up without deafening yourself or pissing off your neighbors.

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could not agree more, a stack is overkill as is 100 watts.......if you must have that kind of wattage and money is not a biggie i have been lusting over my buddy's randall warhead combo........i love it, i have been using a 5150 stack for years, have not played out for over a year (long story, involves wife....lol) i finally sold it last week cause i felt bad how it was just sitting there in a room in my house......i agree with what was said before though, for the money and value berhinger makes some nice amps, peavey has a few nice at a good price too......but for your good really look at a stack if that is what you want and then think, hmmmmm do i really wanna have to move this around.........not sure your age, but i know how i feel at 38 and i have no desire to move one anymore.....lol besides, thats what they make a mic and p.a. for, mic that little amp.......lol

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Yeah, 100 watts doesn't make sense at all...unless you want to blow your ears out and get in trouble with your neighbors.

I just picked up an Ampeg J12T --only 15 watts and it's still TOO LOUD....and I play in a six-piece band. The other night at rehearsal, I had both the amp and my strat set to about 4 ... no problems making myself heard.

In fact, I kind of wish I'd looked around a little more for a 10-watter...or even 5 watts...but the Ampeg has tremelo, and I like that.

I have a Music Man 65 here too--that's being retired now, I don't think I'll ever use it again.

On the other hand--I just sold a Vox Cambridge 30...it's a hybrid-- tiny little tube for the preamp, and solid state for the rest. I liked the sound of that at low volumes, but you couldn't push it too hard--the speakers just turned the sound to mud. And you can't hear it when you're playing with a group --transistors just don't seem to cut through the mix like tubes do.

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Okay, first off, i was having the same problem about a year ago. I bought a marshall mg50dfx, which was one of the biggest guitar mistakes i've ever made. I used to jam with my friend until i got in a band and the other guitarist had a Marshall AVT50, half tube, half solid state, it delievered that great tube sound without all the tube cost. It was plenty loud, it blew away my friends drums and i would reccomend it to anyone whether playing at home or just jamming with a few friends, i would even gig with it.

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inoulose i agree i have an 8100 valvestate head which is 100 watt and a 4x12 cab (which when loaded with crap speakers sounded like poop but jensen mod 50's cleared that prob up) anyways this amp is very loud amd i must say on five or six the drums are needing a p/a badly! as for the vintage tube tone i have tweeked with effects and got pretty close but its no replacement for true tube tone and vibe. all togather though i am pleased with the tone. the untrained ear would never know the difference.

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Despite what you may believe, the laws of sound may surprise you. In order for a 20 watt amp to be twice as loud you need 10 time that many watts so a 200 watt amp is only twice as loud as a 20watt. that was my peice of knowledge for the day

thats very true. But It also works the other way. If you wanted a quite amp you would need like 1/4 watt per speaker. Even 1 watt per speaker is enough to make you go def and will get you evicted in an apartment.

So idch even if you got like a 5 watt tube amp you still couldent push it or you would still be getting WAY too loud. Auccually you would barley notice a diffrence betewwn a 15 watt and a 5 watt. One thing you can do to quite it down is to get a less efficent speaker.

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Despite what you may believe, the laws of sound may surprise you. In order for a 20 watt amp to be twice as loud you need 10 time that many watts so a 200 watt amp is only twice as loud as a 20watt. that was my peice of knowledge for the day

That's only sort of true. It's mostly true for a pair of amplifiers of the same general architecture running through the same number and type of speakers. However, a 100 watt head through a 4x10 or 4x12 pretty efficient cabinet (the most common sort of stack) will be a lot louder than a 40 to 60 watt combo amp running into one or two speakers. Will it still be too loud for practicing in your house or apartment at full blast? Of course. Will it be as much too loud? Not even close.

That said, I'm currently running a sixty watt all tube combo amp into one over-impedance 12 inch speaker (dropping output to around forty watts) and if I could get the same amp in five watts I'd jump on it in a heartbeat.

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I think your first priority should be to purchase the best quality over the biggest sound. Since you're not so much a gigging player and may only need to get over the volume of a drum set every once in a while, I'd suggest purchasing a smaller but higher quality amp. Even Angus Young gets most of his sound from an old JTM 45 combo under the stage stuffed inside a roadcase with a mic. Large, high-output amps are just insane to control in most situations.

It's going to depend on how much money you have and what style you like to play. You can't go wrong with Marshall, Mesa, Fender, or even Peavey, but it's all going to depend on what you like to play.

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hey guys i agree that 100 watts is way overkill for a practice amp. but i keep reading these comment about 15watt amps being way to loud for a practice amp. a 15 watt tube amp does get loud but the tone at those levels tends to (as i might say) float. much in the same way lifters do in a v-8 motor when too many rpms are reved. so if you do ever intend to play with a drummer i suggest at least a 30watt tube combo. this amp size amp will definitley get loud enough for a drummer and still maintain good tone and control through out the volume level. if you can afford it i suggest the new vox 30 really sweet amp!

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Ive done small gigs with my marshall MG15DFX 15w amp, i had it at half volume on the OD chanell, plenty loud i tell you, so no problems there. This was with a drum set not rigged to the PA. 100watts is way overkill for practice as people have already said here. Id be tempted to go with that Vox amp, sounds killer.

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I have a vox valvtronic which is 30 watts valve and it was £159 and it sounds great plus it has 11 preset amps to model and 11 effects, the clean is good but the gain is awesome! 

just my 2 cents but its got great reviews!

Sure, if all you're going to do is play at home, then those vox's are probably really cool. But I can't believe a 30 watt transistor (the only valve in a valvtronic is in the name) can go head to head with a full band.

My little 12-watter handled things fine the other night--but we don't crank up when we practice, we're more concerned with saving our ears. At least I am...Anyway, I was nowhere close to pushing the limit on my amp. We've got a show to do tomorrow, we'll see how it goes.

But hey, peoria, that's interesting info...wish I had known that before I bought the new amp...well, okay, I really wanted some new gear and I got enough guitars for right now... :D

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I have a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe (40w, 1x12). That thing is LOUD. Seriously, I can't turn the thing up over 2 or 3 without blowing the band off the stage. Outdoor gigs, maybe up to 4, but inside, not over 3. And that's with my guitar at 3 or 4 and the volume pedal at maybe half.

I know another guy who has one(we play a lot of the same places), and he never turns his up any more than me.

The other guy in my band has a Peavey Classic 50 that's loud too, but not LOUD.

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I have a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe (40w, 1x12). That thing is LOUD. Seriously, I can't turn the thing up over 2 or 3 without blowing the band off the stage.

I have the same amp and it is definitely a loud one. I can never get it to open up all the way without killing everyone's ears. One way to go about lowering the volume without losing the overdriven tube sound from the preamp is to install a volume knob in the effects loop. This is not the best sounding method. Another way is with a hot plate. This is a device that dissipates the speaker output energy as heat. It goes in between the amp output and the speaker itself. It work good but they aren't cheap.

Here is a link to another discussion about this (scroll to Ken's post): topic: My Amp Is Too Loud .

Any one who builds a good sounding all tube channel switching 15 watter with an effects loop would have my business. I don't mind a solid state rectifier but the rest needs to be all tube. I am already looking into having one custom made since I can't find one on the market.

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I would check out ashdown amps. There peacemaker 20 looks mighty nice. It's 20 watts but you would barley be able to tell the diffrence from a 15. And since it has a 10" speaker it will probally be the same if not quiter than a 15 wat with a 12" speaker.

It also has a three band EQ and a gain and volume on each channel. Plus it has a foot switchable gain boost, a master volume knob (it's a volume for the output tubes not the preamp tubes) and it has reberb. Not to mention it sounds freakin awesome!

Plus your only looking at aroung $650. So it doesent cost as much as you might think.

Heres the link, peacemaker

Edited by Godin SD
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