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20 watt tube amp


JimiPage

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Would a 20 watt tube amp be loud enough to gig with? I was looking at the AXL Akita model.

 

 

Yes. You'll usually be miked up at a gig, to an extent you're probably better off using a smaller amp. As others have mentioned you might struggle for clean headroom, so if you need really 'clean' guitar tone you'd probably be better going for something bigger - particularly if you intend using it un-miked for rehearsals and small gigs. If clean tone isn't an issue, just buy a 20 watt amp.

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20w is plenty. I regularly gig with a Priceton Reverb which is like 12-15watts. Another guy in my band uses a Blues Jr without issue.

 

We don't really play anywhere where the bar owners want us to cranck it anyway, so something like a twin reverb or 100watt marshall would just be overkill.

 

I guess it depends on what and where you play though.

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I went over to a friends house with a tweed Champ clone. We were all set up in his living room. Basically a drummer, bass, vocalist through the PA, and this guy with a solid state 30 watt Behringer...and me with this little 5 watt Champ. No pedals. No effects. Just me straight into the amp.

 

Anyway you might not believe this... but when everybody crank up to jam, I could NOT HEAR MY AMP AT ALL. No one else could either. That student/practice amp with it's 5 raging watts was totally overpowered by the other guy's serious stage gear. Hard to believe but it's true.

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When it comes to volume, speaker size is probably more important than wattage. The Akita looks like it will be good to go.

 

I'm all about mic'ing amps anyway. You get better spread and more flexibility when it comes to volume/gain levels.

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i have to turn my 120 watt amp up pretty loud in my band to get over the drummer. But i play metal music and theres a lot of crashes being hit. If you can go for more then go for more. If you got a pa system then it will be loud enough but its all about if you like that kinda sound. I don't like the sound of one speaker being pushed. SOme people think speakers sound better when they are pushed but I don't. I like the clarity.

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speaker efficiency is probably the most important factor here. If you don't need a lot of clean headroom, then you could play through something like a 12" Eminence Wizard, which is rated at 103 db, and it would be plenty loud enough. If i'm not mistaken, volume gets noticeably louder to the human ear in 3db increments. So a 103 db speaker would be noticeably louder than a 100 db speaker...or something like that....someone elaborate, if necessary.

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For some perspective.....a 120 watt amp is NOT twice as loud as a 60 watt amp. It would take approx. 600 watts(again, if im not mistaken), to be twice as loud. The advantage of the 120 watt amp is the clean headroom, if you need it.

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well it doesnt sound as pushed. A 60 watt tube amp is plenty loud enough but i can still tell a difference. I make my 5150 60 watts when playing bymyself and recording so it hits that sweet spot earlier on the tubes. I can still play with my drummer at 60 watts but its just not quite there. It sounds better at 120 watts. Again its if you liked that pushed sound or not. But 20 watts wouldn't be enough for me but if i played another genre of music it might would be.

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For some perspective.....a 120 watt amp is NOT twice as loud as a 60 watt amp. It would take approx. 600 watts(again, if im not mistaken), to be twice as loud. The advantage of the 120 watt amp is the clean headroom, if you need it.

 

 

This is correct. The human ear percieves sound in a logarithmic fashion. That is why decibel are used as the unit of measure. You need 10 times the power output to double the percievable volume. This means a 50W amp sounds only twice as loud as a 5W, however you'd have to have a 500W to go twice as loud as a 50Watter. 3db corresponds to a doubling of power, "not loudness".

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This is correct. The human ear percieves sound in a logarithmic fashion. That is why decibel are used as the unit of measure. You need 10 times the power output to double the percievable volume. This means a 50W amp sounds only twice as loud as a 5W, however you'd have to have a 500W to go twice as loud as a 50Watter. 3db corresponds to a doubling of power, "not loudness".

 

 

Yes and no.

 

Volume is logarithmic to the multiple of 10. But wattage is not a measure of signal output, just heat dissipation. There are other factors involved as well.

 

In the hi-fi world, the rule of thumb is approximated to:

 

100 watts is twice as loud as 20 watts which is twice loud as 5 watts which is twice as loud as 1 watt. Roughly a factor of 5.

 

But with guitar amps, you also have to figure in the fact the a tube amp is a full RMS wattage at it's point of maximum headroom, as the power amp gets saturated you exceeding the maximum wattage rating until you peak (a tube guitar amp can peak at 150% to 200% it's rated wattage).

 

20 watts RMS is definitely enough to keep up with all but the most heavy handed drummer, but it doesn't allow clean headroom, the amp will be running hot. 40 watts RMS is generally considered better if one needs to play clean with a drummer. 12 watts RMS is definitely enough to gig with with an efficient speaker, I can say that from experience. And if you have a PA and can mic an amp, 1/2 watt will do or even no amp at all (direct box/modeler).

 

But the type, size and efficiency of the speaker(s) can make a huge difference, one speaker can actually be twice as loud as another.

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thanks for the input, everyone. I will just be playing blues and rock, no metal, so I think 20 watts will be ok. I keep reading that tube watts are louder than solid state watts - is this correct?

 

 

No. A watt is a watt.

 

But as I noted abive, tube amps have RMS wattage *and* peak wattage. SS amps are limited to RMS wattage.

 

I just deleted 3 long paragraphs, there has to be a simpler way of explaining it.

 

RMS wattage is the maximum number of watts an amp can put out consistently without wavering. It is also the point at which a power amp breaks up.

 

So, with a 20-watt tube amp, it's at 20 watts at it's maximum *clean* poweramp output (preamp settings aside), but that poweramp can be overdriven and pushed to produce peaks of higher wattage (in some amps up to 200%). So, a 20-watt tube amp that is cranked could actually be peaking at 30 watts or more.

 

With SS amps, poweramp overdrive is considered harsh and unpleasant, so manufacturers make sure the amp can't exceed it's RMS limit and you rely on the preamp for all of you distortion needs. So, a 20-watt SS amp will rarely, if ever exceed 20-watts.

 

There are always exceptions, the old SS amps of the '60's -- Kustom, Lab, Vox, etc. -- allowed SS powermap overdrive...and they sounded mean and gnarly and quite cool.

 

And then there is always speaker efficiency, which has a huge impact on output.

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