Peppermint4life

I recently got a new amp. A 1976 Twin Reverb with original speakers. I was just curious if this is enough for a small venue. Say, about 250 people? I'll be playing a sorta punkish-blues hybrid thing.

Dr_Rez

If im correct its a 100 watt silverface twin. That amp is so mother ****ing loud is absurd. People would not normally think this but it can hang with any marshall stack any day of the week. Unless you are playing a stadium you wouldnt even need to mic the thing unless you wanted to. I dont think you comprehend how loud and how much headroom a 100 or even 85 watt fender has. I hope you are using pedals because your not getting any breakup out of that amp unless your ears are bleeding.

Dont get me wrong though, a silverface twin is one baddass amp. My friend just got a 74 and the thing has the most beautiful clean sound you could ever imagine. And for a frame of reference I have a 15 watt tube amp that can be played overdriven or clean in mosts bars and clubs without being miced. People dont give tube amp rating enough credit.

Their is a reason people play hot rods, blues jr's, and other smaller amps than just them being smaller. They dont have nearly as much headroom so they can get that breakup at tolerable volume levels. If your playing dirty with a twin pedals are a must. But at least your clean tone will be unstoppable.

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Peppermint4life

I could always use my big muff pi for distortion. Or do you think that I should just play through my Egnater Rebel? Its 20 watts. My goal is to play without being miced, too. Something about it just doesn't set right with me. *shrug. :/

Dr_Rez

The egnator would probably be loud enough, If you were not sure just hook it up to a 4x12 and your fine.

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rnrloser_IX

Are you micing your drummer? If not, than any tube amp above 50 watts should easily be able to go over the loudest drummer. Here's a little hint: if you ain't micing your drummer, then you just found your maximum volume. And if you're gonna take the time to tediously set up drum mics, then call that sound b**** over and have him throw a dang mic in front the amp and call it good. Way easier than micing a drum. Besides, those tube amps carry. I have a small vox, about 1/10 Watt, 1 Watt or 4 Watts and its crazy loud and full on 4 watts and fills a room. Like RezZ said, you don't need much tube power to blow people's head off, I'm looking at going down from my 100 watt Peavey to an AC30.

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Dr_Rez

Take a look at Blackheart Hothead 100. It can go 100 or 50 watts and has a class a setting that goes all the way down to 30 watts. Really good quality, I would own one but my 15 watter is to loud as it is.

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rnrloser_IX

That's ridiculous. I've heard of Blackhearts but I've never actually seen one in a shop or anywhere to demo. What exactly is Class A anyway? I know my valveking has a texture knob on the back that shoots it from A to AB.

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GuitarBizarre

Wattage is not the same as volume.

Sensitivity of the speaker cone makes the difference.

Dr_Rez

Check this link out.
Class-A Amplifiers explained

No but it is a good gauge of how loud the amp will "sound" to you. While it may barely be louder 100 vs 15 watts yours ears will hear the extra frequencies being pushed through giving it a fuller sound tricking your ears into thinking its actually louder.

That is why bands with lower mids/bass heavy music use such high wattage amps. (besides just looking cool) While using a miced/unmiced 30 or even 50 watter you will get just as loud but wont have nearly the same full sound when the lower notes are being played. Now this is assuming of coarse all the amps have the same speaker rating and speaker size.

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GuitarBizarre

Thats bull****. Wattage only, 100% ONLY affects the amount of clean headroom you have before your amplifier starts to distort. Your frequency response will be exactly the same as long as you're matching up the cabinets correctly.

Metal bands use high wattage heads becase

1 - They don't know any better
2 - They're usually driving a 4x12 cab. THAT is where your extra bass and tonal range is coming from, the 4x12 cab.

And you can drive a 4x12 cab with lots of low wattage heads. There's people out there driving 4x12 cabs with 15 watt class 5 marshalls.