Mic-ing a LOUD guitar amp?

[Han]

why does the wattage even matter...?

but anyways i would stick with a 57 cuz they sound good, and well they are cheap.... and i dont have alot of money

Oh boy, you should hear the difference between a 421 and a 57 in front of a loud amp!

And wattage does matter, a 50 watt JCM800 sounds better to my ears than a 100 watt.

Sometimes I pull one of the EL34's out, the amp doesn't like it very much but it sounds better.
Don't pull one tube out of a 100 watt amp though! You need to pull two of them out, if I'm right (please correct me if I'm wrong) and the two inner or the two outer tubes.

 

[KingstonRock]

i dotn know about the mic you're using, but an sm57 can handle a whole shitload of soundpressure before any kind of distortion happens at the mic itself. I often record a mesa boogie dual rectifier at 100 watts, that thing is loud, damn loud, but not nearly loud enough to damage a 57