From experience [30 years playing time]I have found that unless your playing at a stadium, or outdoors, low wattage amps are the way to go, Im talking about basement, garage, or small venue, which the majority of people playing are usually in this type of situation, not in front of 80,000 people. With the smaller wattage amps you can turn it wide open and get the tubes sizzeling to full saturation, and if needed you can mike through the pa.system. I have a 50 watt marshall, a 100 watt marshall, and a marshall studio 15 watt, I finally got the sound I have looked for, for small venue gigs without having to use attenuators to screw the tone to hell and back, the smaller wattage amp.well now I have stated my opinion, so let me hear what your input on this issue is, Im sure theres plenty out there.
[ ROCK ON ] Guitarmanxxxx

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guitarmanxxxx

Yeah, running a good small amp through a P.A system i have heard is good but how much is that going to cost to set up and is it easy to move around? Surely the smaller amps cant compare to a nice half stack or stack amp... i mean why not just buy a half stack and run that through a P.A system ?
Ok i'm just asking questions here cuz i dont know much about this stuff i'm not critisizing you for your ideas !

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By virtue of their electrical properties, tubes generate a special waveform when they're saturated, which is why tube engineering has tremendous tonal advantages over solid state or DSP solutions, particularly for crunch and lead sounds. Tubes enter the saturation zone gradually or softly, which lends tube-driven tone its trademark yet totally unique character.

Death 55, Im not saying a half stack or full stack is bad, I have two 4x12 cabinets and the high power amps myself, but in a small venue playing situation, I can't get the tone Im wanting because I cant turn up the amps high enough to get the tubes cookin without blowing eardrums and causing stuff to fall off the walls. If I play outdoors, hell yeah break out the big guns. I have had no luck using attenuators, or keeping the master volume knob turned down, its just not the same. for the record I read where jethrol tull recorded three albums in the studio with the studio 15 and most recording is done with lower wattage amps in the studio's. If you have a place to practice big enough to turn a 100 watt amp on 8 or 9 your very fortunate, and should crank the hell out of it.I dont play out anymore, I get together with the guys in a large basement and jam, and I will assure you the drummer can't drown me out.Have a good one and [ROCK ON] Guitarmanxxxx

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guitarmanxxxx

I think I made my position clear back in 2001.

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Lordathestrings
Guitar Tricks Moderator
www.GuitarTricks.com - Home of Online Guitar Lessons

I think it's more of a personal prefence than anything else, and there's some other stuff that has to be taken into consideration, like details. For example, you can take a decent 15w practice amp from fender or gibson or ibenhad and I can guarantee a decent stack is going to rip its balls off and skin them. On the other hand, you take a bad cat 15w or a carr 12w and PA it you're probably going to have way better tone than if you just blast the place with marshalls. A 15w hot cat model from bad cat might even have way more/better gain than some marshall stacks (can't say I've ever owned either).

My view is similar to guitarman's except I haven't had the pleasure of playing guitar (or being alive) that long.

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"If one has realized a truth, that truth is valueless so long as there is lacking the indomitable will to turn this realization into action!"
-A.H.

Well help me out here guitarmanxxxxx, because right now Im a bedroom guitarist and I have a full marshall stack! Ive tried every size of marshall and the stack has been the best, perhaps the 100 watt AVT marshall combo thru a marshall cab was close but its still not my stack.
I really dont get what people are talking about. Its all theory to some of you guys.

Tell me how to get a better tone as a bedroom guitarist!

I see what you mean. Maybe your amps are not good enough. I have heard some high wattage amps can give you a really good tone at a low volume as well as when you have it at a high volume. E.g the 5150 II. Thats why i'm thinking of getting one because i will hopefully be able to have it at a lower volume and still get the nice tone. I know my friend was saying about getting a lower wattage amp and running it though a P.A system. I have read in a previous post about really famous bands running lower wattage amps through a P.A. I guess its a personal opinion. Some high wattage amps you will never get that great tone at low volume.

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By virtue of their electrical properties, tubes generate a special waveform when they're saturated, which is why tube engineering has tremendous tonal advantages over solid state or DSP solutions, particularly for crunch and lead sounds. Tubes enter the saturation zone gradually or softly, which lends tube-driven tone its trademark yet totally unique character.