The new wave of 15 watt guitar amps

Happy Face

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For some reason I received a Musician’s Friend catalog today. Must be because I bought something at Guitar Center? Anyway, I was thumbing though it while dinner baked and was pleasantly amazed by the number of 15 to 20 watt boutique guitar amps listed.

It fitted in with my own experience: Our killer rhythm guitarist just bought himself a Vox AC-15 and I must say, it sounds mighty nice. As he said, we’re either playing at a club with sound or we bring our own PA, which has at least 5000 watts available. He’ll get himself heard one way or another. Being that we are a harmony-heavy band, keeping stage volume somewhat controlled is a good thing.

Looking at that catalog and of Sam’s new AC-15 got me thinking back to high school days in the mid to late sixties. I semi-fondly recall playing in bands where the lead guitarist had a Twin Reverb. Or make that two Showmans with cabs. Or best of all, two Super-Reverbs stacked on top of each other, cranked up loud so they’d break up.

As a bass player with a humble white Bassman and then a Guild amp with a 2x15”cab, then a Traynor, it was a real chore to even be heard. The endless wars encouraged me and my main rival bass player to lend each other our amps so we could each use two amps to try and keep up with our guitarists. It also made us open to welcoming higher powered solid state amps, even if they did not sound all that great. It also influenced my technique to this day – I still yank on the strings too hard rather than employing a light touch.

Circling back to today, I called an old friend who knew me back then. He only took up bass in recent years but now kicks ***. I mentioned the MF catalog and teased him about his GAS problem. But then I wandered over to the topic above and he told me how his band, which has been actively gigging recently, had been forced to part ways with a really good guitarist. I’d heard him play = he was really good and is a fine singer. Plus I liked him as a person. But he was getting too loud at the kind of venues they play at. His amp? A Twin Reverb. I asked “Why doesn’t be just trade down to a Pro?” But I guess the guy is set in his ways.

A long story short = aint it nice that our gitards are finally figuring out that a lower power amp can be a better stage amp? I say “can be” because, if we are playing at an outdoor venue, I totally want and demand that our guitarists wheel out some serious amplitude. How else can I justify bringing out one of my big rigs? I do miss having my pants flapping in the breeze!
 
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bluesypicky

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Cool!

Now with that said, and having experienced both settings (the Marshall wall Vs the combo amp), it really all comes down to the PA system, and the guy at the main console. And the kind of music you dabble in of course.
With the power behind you, it doesn't matter as much what the guy does with the mixer at the center of the room. You just put the power reserve away to pull it out when you need it. Poor drummer better wear his ear plugs.
But I much prefer a lower stage volume with a great sound system and sound guy. Cleaner result up front and no one in the band tells you you were too loud, which tends to be a lead guitarist disease.
 

Happy Face

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Well, just like with dogs and children, it's a a matter of inside versus outside behavior, eh? If you want an inside dog, you want a little fella, right? That coon hound will drive you nuts!

When it comes to inside gigs, it's sure a lot easier for your legendary sound guy if the guitarist(s) have low power amps they can crank up to get a nice tone. (In fact, not long ago, we were told to keep our volume low enough so that folks across the room at the bar could converse.) But many or maybe most bar gigging bands up here in Maine travel without a sound man. He's one more mouth to feed. So those small amps are a good thing.

I know and respect all that. And almost accept it when I can barely hear myself over the acoustic drummer on stage.

But, I really prefer it when it's outside time! Thanks to the long focal length of wave sound waves, your bandmates don't suffer and your sound-nazi guy may not even notice how loud you are either!
 

Zelja

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A 100W amp may be just the ticket of you are needing some clean headroom. If you always play with a bit of breakup then a 15W amp is probably ample (assuming a small room or if miked through the PA). I know I always got told to turn down my Vibrolux, even on big stages, and it was only set at around 3...
 

Default

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Smaller amps are easier to mic, lighter to carry and can be cranked without killing your ears. I've been suffering with a pinched nerve in my back for a while (just had it diagnosed, d'oh) and I'm not taking my Vibrolux anywhere. Heck, I might have to switch to kazoo for a while...
 

Happy Face

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Yeah Default, smaller amps sure do make life easier. And you are not sacrificing your tone! Don't they say that Jimmy Page used a Princeton Reverb or a small Supro when recording the first two Zepp albums?
 

gilded

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FWIW,

I used to use a Vibrolux Rev and some British stuff; Marshalls, Hiwatts and Vox AC-30s. That was then....

Now, I use a '67 Princeton Reverb for gigs. I park it next to the rug the drums sit on and use a plexi glass 6 piece shield to surround it, with a sound absorbing panel on top. The sound guy puts it through all of the other player's monitors (that want to hear me, that is). If I'm using a new sound guy, or a club sound guy, I tell them that I'm gonna use the surround shield and panel, unless my friends in the audience tell me they can't hear me, then the shields go away and the Vibrolux comes out of the Van. It's remarkable how co-operative the Sound Guys are when you give them a chance to have a low volume thresh-hold on stage.

If the monitors are spotty, for vocals only, or non-existent, I'll move the absorbing panel off of the top of the shield box, until my drummer tells me he can hear me 'enough'. The bass player stands by me, so he hears me, too. The reason all this works is that my drummer isn't loud and the keyboard and bass player are running through DI boxes. Oh, we use a bass amp, but it's only so the drummer and bassist can hear each other. There is another guitar player, but he uses a small amp and a shield and top panel as well.

By the way, I don't have any headroom with the Princeton, but it is a Great Sound. It sounds best with my Strat with 'vintage +' pickups and my '02 Corona BluesBird with the Seymour '59 pickups that look like HB-1s. I'll set the volume on 5 for the Strat. The BluesBird gets 6 on the volume, but the guitar volume pots are turned down and I'll pull up the volume from the Guitar until it sounds good with the band.

As I said earlier, I used to use Marshalls, Hiwatts and Voxes. My favorite sound was a mid-'70's 4 hole 100 watt Marshall with EL34 tubes, a slant 4x12 cab with G12-65 speakers, the same Strat and a bunch of pedals. I used a THD Hot Plate and cut the wattage down to 50 or 25 watts for inside gigs. I also had an early '69 Plexi 50 with a full stack, along with an early '70's Hiwatt 50 with another stack. I think I liked the Hiwatt best of all, but it wasn't possible to play gigs at the sound level it sounded good at, at least not in the '90's. Those days were over by then, at least for me. Alas:)
 
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