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Old June 1st, 2009, 01:21 PM   #14 (permalink)
muchxs
Tele-Afflicted
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: New England
Posts: 1,217
Quote:
Originally Posted by wetland10 View Post
That's the "problem." You can't hear it clean at all. Once you dime a 5 watt amp it starts to strain, if that is a good way to describe it, and become all farty and bassy. Not the tone I want.
Most "5 watt" amps were and are built to deliver 5 watts max. We can juggle the numbers, peak, program, RMS but the signal path inside an amp is a like a chain and a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. The typical 5 watt amp has enough weak links to eliminate any hope of good tone at any volume level. You won't get cleans at any substantial volume. A "farty" distortion tone indicates that one or more things are sub-optimum, frequently inadequate power supply, less than ideal gain balance through the audio stages, a crummy little speaker and a short list of lesser variables. Little SEs are very sensitive to minor tweaks so if you make a change in the wrong direction you're less likely to compensate for it somewhere else in the amp.
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