Telecaster Guitar Forum - View Single Post - reality check: 5 watt head in the rehearsal place

JohnnyCrash · June 1st, 2009, 07:45 PM

Other than speaker (sensitivity, frequencies, etc) and room - the most important factor is tone and band.

If you're in a punk or metal band, a 5 watt amp will not only NOT be loud enough, but its overdrive (even with a pedal) will not be there, nor will the bottom end.

I can get by with my 18w in my 3 piece - but it'd be a struggle at some (probably about half the local) clubs. I have since sold my 100 watt amps and the highest wattage I build now are 50w. Mainly because 50 watters have plenty of bottom end and I use gain/MV controls.

For recording, I don't use my 5-10 watt amps as often as I used to for dirty tracks. They often lack definition and bass. I do use them more for compressed cleans, weird vocal tracks, and sometimes even bass (yes, bass! HAHA). I've got pedals and attenuators, I've built all sorts of amps with VVR voltage regulators, master volume controls, PPIMV controls, and I finally built a 1x12" double layered isolation cab (its in the garage so the glue can dry).

5 watt amps have a place in every studio... then again so do 100w Marshalls :)

Live, a 100w (no attenuators or pedals) Marshall is painful (damn Chelsea Smiles) and a 5 watt most times wont cut it.

June 1st, 2009, 07:45 PM	#25 (permalink)
JohnnyCrash Poster Extraordinaire Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Fullerton, CA Posts: 8,744	Other than speaker (sensitivity, frequencies, etc) and room - the most important factor is tone and band. If you're in a punk or metal band, a 5 watt amp will not only NOT be loud enough, but its overdrive (even with a pedal) will not be there, nor will the bottom end. I can get by with my 18w in my 3 piece - but it'd be a struggle at some (probably about half the local) clubs. I have since sold my 100 watt amps and the highest wattage I build now are 50w. Mainly because 50 watters have plenty of bottom end and I use gain/MV controls. For recording, I don't use my 5-10 watt amps as often as I used to for dirty tracks. They often lack definition and bass. I do use them more for compressed cleans, weird vocal tracks, and sometimes even bass (yes, bass! HAHA). I've got pedals and attenuators, I've built all sorts of amps with VVR voltage regulators, master volume controls, PPIMV controls, and I finally built a 1x12" double layered isolation cab (its in the garage so the glue can dry). 5 watt amps have a place in every studio... then again so do 100w Marshalls :) Live, a 100w (no attenuators or pedals) Marshall is painful (damn Chelsea Smiles) and a 5 watt most times wont cut it. __________________ -- I constantly have to remind myself I'm a grownup and it's just the internet.