Pilutiful Posted April 14, 2020 Share Posted April 14, 2020 My next project in my little studio is to get a guitar amp. I read somewhere that a 15 watt is enough (which is good news because they are cheaper). Is this true? Anyone has experience with this? Currently looking at Vox AC15 C1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starise Posted April 14, 2020 Share Posted April 14, 2020 I've used those. Still too much for my room when cranked up. I would go ITB. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Byron Dickens Posted April 14, 2020 Share Posted April 14, 2020 15W tube amp is still PLENTY loud. A 5 or even 1 watter will be enough. Not very much cheaper, though. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craigb Posted April 14, 2020 Share Posted April 14, 2020 We've got a 5-watt BlackStar here that can easily get too loud. I've also used a wonderful 5-watt Egnater that I wish I had now! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starise Posted April 14, 2020 Share Posted April 14, 2020 Word has it Led Zepplin used a Pignose for some of their recordings. The inventor gave them out as prototypes to some of the big bands back then. This guy apparently was able to get pretty close to that sound here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StudioNSFW Posted April 14, 2020 Share Posted April 14, 2020 (edited) Thurogood uses a Fender Princeton Reverb as a stage monitor - 15 watts in a guitar amp can be a lot, particularly in the studio... Get me drunk some time and I will tell the tale of the guy who insisted he needed his Mesa-Boogie Triple Rec-tum-fier and 2x4-12 cabinets in the studio to "get his tone..." Only time I have ever played through an (Honest to gosh, all tube '72) SVT in a session...Not for "My tone" but because I couldn't hear myself otherwise... Years later I was introduced into the miracle of Amp rooms... Amps and guitars are something I would want to audition, rather than just buy on-line. Make sure it produces a tone that you find appealing, and hopefully has a line out and effects loop as well. Edited April 14, 2020 by StudioNSFW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craigb Posted April 14, 2020 Share Posted April 14, 2020 29 minutes ago, StudioNSFW said: Get me drunk some time and I will tell the tale of the guy who insisted he needed his Mesa-Boogie Triple Rec-tum-fier and 2x4-12 cabinets in the studio to "get his tone..." That would be a big "Nope!" from me too! ? Loved this thing. Direct recording too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bristol_Jonesey Posted April 14, 2020 Share Posted April 14, 2020 3 hours ago, craigb said: We've got a 5-watt BlackStar here that can easily get too loud. I've also used a wonderful 5-watt Egnater that I wish I had now! I've got a 5 watt Blackstar as well - it's far too loud for a bedroom studio Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StudioNSFW Posted April 14, 2020 Share Posted April 14, 2020 1 hour ago, craigb said: That would be a big "Nope!" from me too! ? Loved this thing. Direct recording too. Even that makes my eye twitch ?. I can't look at that "Rec-tum-fier" script logo without PTSD. Probably a great piece of gear tho. When I was wheeling in the SVT (rather than the standard and awesome old Bassman 10 that suited every other session perfectly and never got complaints) he looked over and saw that SVT and said "YES! THAT is the sound I want!" I looked down at the amp for a second, thought about it, and replied..."So, you don't need me to plug it in?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mettelus Posted April 14, 2020 Share Posted April 14, 2020 +1 to the above, I have a 100W Carvin set to 25% power output that is rarely used above 2 on the volume setting... guitars do not put out full frequency spectrum, so 15 W concentrated on just what a guitar is outputting is rather loud. If you have the chance to try one a a store, you will understand. Another side question is are you planning to mic the amp for recording or just jam on it at home? The speaker size (going from a 12" speaker to 8" speaker) will affect tonal quality at volume, but lowers cost dramatically. If not planning to mic the output, they often come in varieties up to 20W, which are fine for jamming, and you can record ITB as mentioned above. Oddly enough, most pawn shops around me have more quality amps than guitars by far. A few years ago this video for a "Dual Duty Talkbox" caught my eye, so I ended up nabbing a megaphone on clearance while walking out of a department store one day for like $6. Tubing was $10, and a 20W practice amp was $40 (closed-back Rogue, so not high quality). That amp is not the greatest standalone, but I had zero qualms putting holes in it and wiring it up similar to the video. Another side comment... ITB can also be a cheaper solution with jamming in most cases, since amp sims have a larger arsenal of FX at your disposal with no intermediate noise/signal loss. I have a 200W PA system connected to my audio interface, so actually jam more through the PA than the amp these days. It is also the same setup for recording, so is nothing more than arming/recording the track you are already on rather than dealing with mic'ing a cabinet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gswitz Posted April 15, 2020 Share Posted April 15, 2020 I love life with my Rivera Rock Crusher. This makes my amp so much fun to play with!! No second amp required. In the studio, weight doesn't matter. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
haydn12 Posted April 15, 2020 Share Posted April 15, 2020 I have the 15 watt Egnater Tweaker and this thing gets quite loud. Nice thing though is you can overdrive it and turn down the master volume to tame the loudness. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pilutiful Posted April 15, 2020 Author Share Posted April 15, 2020 (edited) Wow many replies, thank you very much! The music shops are closed bc of Corona, so this is very helpful. For clarification it's mainly for recording. It's a bedroom studio, but I would like to get fairly pro-sound. From I understand even a 5 watt could be enough? Edited April 15, 2020 by pilu Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pilutiful Posted April 15, 2020 Author Share Posted April 15, 2020 4 hours ago, pilu said: Wow many replies, thank you very much! The music shops are closed bc of Corona, so this is very helpful. For clarification it's mainly for recording. It's a bedroom studio, but I would like to get fairly pro-sound. From I understand even a 5 watt could be enough? What I mean is if you lose anything when you choose lower watts instead of higher watts. Is there a trade-off? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StudioNSFW Posted April 15, 2020 Share Posted April 15, 2020 (edited) Less volume generally speaking but moreover the amp will "break up" (distort) at lower volume levels (generally speaking). There is more to it than that, like what sort of Amp it is (class A etc) and what sort of transformer was used in the amp. My beloved Bassman 10 has one of those ultra-linear late seventies transformers and refuses to distort - which has frustrated a few guitar players who have borrowed it - but it is awesome for *my* bass tone which is pretty clean and piano-esqe. There is also a whole thing about "Tube watts" vs "Solid state watts". Despite an arsenal of olde tube amps here, hearing tube amp aficionados argue about the merits of tube amps makes me want to either drive an icepick through my eye or set my hair on fire to distract myself from the conversation. My two cents is that for Bass I do want a Tube preamp stage for the tone, don't really care about a Tube power amp stage because I personally am trying to avoid distortion....well, except for Social Distortion. Edited April 15, 2020 by StudioNSFW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bapu Posted April 15, 2020 Share Posted April 15, 2020 (edited) 1 hour ago, StudioNSFW said: My two cents is that for Bass I do want a Tube preamp stage for the tone, don't really care about a Tube power amp stage because I personally am trying to avoid distortion....well, except for Social Distortion. I use my Alembic F-2B dual channel preamp to get that tone. Coupled with either my Rick 4003 or my Alembic Series I, I can get some pretty good 'DI' tones. Of course any of my mono basses can get great tones from it too. Edited April 15, 2020 by Bapu 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StudioNSFW Posted April 15, 2020 Share Posted April 15, 2020 (edited) MMMMMmmmm....Alembic. Damnit! I forgot about the F-2B. /me shields eyes while muttering "idontneeditidontneeditidontneedit" Somewhere around here is my old DI- a one off thing a friend whipped up (He was the guitar tech at Bartolini and built a few offboard boxes of his own design) that is really sweet, Basically a Bartolini single channel version of the F-2B....with three parallel output so you can drive a stage monitor, go to the PA, and have a tuner all in parallel with super low noise floor. Edited April 15, 2020 by StudioNSFW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bapu Posted April 15, 2020 Share Posted April 15, 2020 6 minutes ago, StudioNSFW said: Somewhere around here is my old DI- a one off thing a friend whipped up (He was the guitar tech at Bartolini and built a few offboard boxes of his own design) that is really sweet, Basically a Bartolini single channel version of the F-2B....with three parallel output so you can drive a stage monitor, go to the PA, and have a tuner all in parallel with super low noise floor. Naiz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bapu Posted April 15, 2020 Share Posted April 15, 2020 10 minutes ago, StudioNSFW said: MMMMMmmmm....Alembic. Damnit! I forgot about the F-2B. /me shields eyes while muttering "idontneeditidontneeditidontneedit" You know you want it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StudioNSFW Posted April 15, 2020 Share Posted April 15, 2020 Want it, don't need it ;-> I wouldn't cry if one landed in my lap but otherwise... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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