What the gay is a power amp?

[Rydock]

That's "moderat0r."

[Spaced Out Ace]

That's "moderator."

Damn second guesses!

[Oops-A-Paisley]

That's "moderator."

[Jesse G]

Yup, in most guitar amps, the preamp is the part with the gain and EQ that shapes the sound. After your guitar signal goes into and out of the preamp, it hits the power amp which is the part that makes it loud. Like, you could take a mesa preamp and then run it into a marshall power amp to get a specific sound.

 

When you hear about pre amp distortion vs. power amp distortion and yadda yadda, it's about getting gain from the gain knob vs. distortion that's being created in the power amp by pushing it hard(cranking the volume).

 

Some amps have power sections that are meant to do that and other amps have lots of available pre-amp gain and a really clean power section that doesn't distort.

[Shenaniganizer]

Damn second guesses!

I still lol at the thread title every time I glance at it.

[Sheik_Yerbouti]

If you ever get into a band that has a PA, you'll become well-acquainted with power amps. Power amps provide the actual electric energy that drives the speakers. Active speakers have their own built-in amplifiers and passive speakers require an external power source (amp) to drive them, usually found in the PA rack with the other PA equipment such as the mixer, effects unit, EQ, noise reduction/feedback control dbx units, etc.

Modular or "rack" guitar preamps like the Axe-FX, POD, ADA MP-1, Mesa Triaxis, Bogner Fish, etc., all require a dedicated power amp to power whatever guitar cabinet you're using, unless you're just running them straight into the PA & monitors and not using a dedicated guitar cab, in which case the signal from your guitar preamp (Axe-FX, etc.) goes straight into the main mixer and uses either the separate, rack-mounted power amps used to run the PA's subs, mains and monitors if they're passive speakers, or the speakers' built-in amps if they're active speakers. Most power amps used primarily for PA don't include any tone-shaping features of their own, while power amps designed specifically for guitar rigs will often feature some minimal tone-shaping functions.

As was already described, a traditional guitar amp, combo or head, comes with it's own built-in power amp section in addition to its preamp section.

[justcrash]

I honestly don't understand what is going on here (is he dumb? New? Trolling? I'm running on 3 hours sleep, so I don't know anymore if I combed my hair with a dilldo or not) but what I DO know is you may wish to check the amp forum rules here before you make another thread like this, prefaced with "what the gay".

Thanks!