High wattage guitar amps?

  • Thread starter Thread starter ScreamingHead69
  • Start date Start date
S

ScreamingHead69

New member
Here's a question for my guitar player.

I'm getting ready to upgrade to a 750 watt bass amp (Mesa Big Block 750 in case you were wondering). My guitar player's amp is dying, and want's somthing with a ton of power, but can't find any heads over 200 watts, maybe 250. The only explination I could think of is that it takes mre power to make bass sound really good, but I pretty much made that up. Does anyone know the reall reason you can't really find a higher wattage guitar amp?
 
I never really had a need for that much power, since it's usually mic'd anyway.

but If you can find a Cab. that can handle that power thry getting the head you wan't and throw an extra power amp to boost it to your liking.

hope this helps
 
Yes, it takes much more power to make bass sound good. Get those monstrous wattage ratings out of your head when you're thinking about guitar. A 100 watt tube amp is plenty powerful.
You might find some solid state head that is 200 watts or more but it won't be much louder.
 
fucking hell!!!!!!!!!!

what are you guys up to????

when the jimi hendrix experience played venues with a capacity of several thousand people in 1966-67 they used no PA and jimi and noel reding managed with 300-500 watts tube power each!

750 ?
 
Its madness isn't it?... solid state ratings mean nothing.

I've used 1200w and 1400w SS bass heads.... neither were close to being as loud as my valve 300w Sunn.
 
ScreamingHead69 said:
Here's a question for my guitar player.

I'm getting ready to upgrade to a 750 watt bass amp (Mesa Big Block 750 in case you were wondering). My guitar player's amp is dying, and want's somthing with a ton of power, but can't find any heads over 200 watts, maybe 250. The only explination I could think of is that it takes mre power to make bass sound really good, but I pretty much made that up. Does anyone know the reall reason you can't really find a higher wattage guitar amp?
Click to expand...

You crazy man. Both of you should look at an orange Thunderverb. And ear-plugs.
 
The hell do you need that much power for? If the bass is overpowering a 50 watt tube guitar amp, then turn the bass down. Besides, the drums are probably drowned out at that volume anyway. You'll be mic'd if you need to get louder. I really hope you're not playing these things in a small area without earplugs.

Not sure what sound you're looking for, but I'm sure either a Marshall or Mesa tube stack will get you that sound. 100w is more than enough for guitar if you're running a tube amp.
 
My mesa DC-5 (50watt) will smoke a jcm 2000 (100watt). Imagine what the DC-10 (100 watt) could do.
 
gcapel said:
My mesa DC-5 (50watt) will smoke a jcm 2000 (100watt). Imagine what the DC-10 (100 watt) could do.
Click to expand...


Yep, my DC3 is ungodly loud. Even at the lowest volume settings but keeping a good tone the neighbors complain.
 
gcapel said:
My mesa DC-5 (50watt) will smoke a jcm 2000 (100watt). Imagine what the DC-10 (100 watt) could do.
Click to expand...

You need to plug into the same cab. The speaker efficiency is 1000000x more important than the amps wattage for volume.
 
(Metalhead aside) I'm the only metal guy here arn't I? That's cool. When I switched from 4-string passive basses to 5-string active, it became clear pretty quick that my 150 watt Ampeg doesn't handle my B string very well, and if I set it up so that my B string sounds good I loose the bite from the higher register notes, especially when I'm tapping, which I do a lot. I don't need 750 for the volume, but having all that power there give me the low end I need while still allowing the high notes and tapping to come through. So far I've only been albule to play the think at GC and even with the volume at 3 or 4 it sounds better then my Ampeg does at 8.

TellePaul: Didn't they stop making Orange amps? And yes, we're fans of earplugs!

Anyone who was wondering why we need that much power: why not!
 
ScreamingHead69 said:
(Metalhead aside) I'm the only metal guy here arn't I? That's cool. When I switched from 4-string passive basses to 5-string active, it became clear pretty quick that my 150 watt Ampeg doesn't handle my B string very well, and if I set it up so that my B string sounds good I loose the bite from the higher register notes, especially when I'm tapping, which I do a lot. I don't need 750 for the volume, but having all that power there give me the low end I need while still allowing the high notes and tapping to come through. So far I've only been albule to play the think at GC and even with the volume at 3 or 4 it sounds better then my Ampeg does at 8.

TellePaul: Didn't they stop making Orange amps? And yes, we're fans of earplugs!

Anyone who was wondering why we need that much power: why not!
Click to expand...

I can understand a bass rig needing a ton of power, but what kind of amp does your guitars use right now? Generally you can't find anything for guitar over 100-150 watts of tube power. A 50-100 watt tube half stack will sit well next to your bass rig you are going to get.
 
ScreamingHead69 said:
Anyone who was wondering why we need that much power: why not!
Click to expand...

Well, speaking for guitars and tube amps, when the amp is not cranked, it doesn't sound like it was designed to sound. Excess power is good for solid state, but crappy for a tube amp.
 
Outlaws said:
I can understand a bass rig needing a ton of power, but what kind of amp does your guitars use right now? Generally you can't find anything for guitar over 100-150 watts of tube power. A 50-100 watt tube half stack will sit well next to your bass rig you are going to get.
Click to expand...

His Peavey is about to die due to old age so he's looking into a Martial JCM 800. It's not really a case that he needs more power, we were just a little suprised that we couldn't find anything higher then 200.
 
ScreamingHead69 said:
His Peavey is about to die due to old age so he's looking into a Martial JCM 800. It's not really a case that he needs more power, we were just a little suprised that we couldn't find anything higher then 200.
Click to expand...

Nobody needs anything more than 200.
 
Yeah the only amps that I've seen that are over 100 or 150 watts are solid state, like Randall makes a 200W SS amp.

But don't be surprised that you can't find anything over that wattage because its pretty much useless. If you're playing a venue where 100 watts isn't enough power for your guitar, then you should probably be micing it and sending it through the PA system anyways.

If you're looking at tube amps for guitar, 100 watts is ungodly loud. I mean like permanent hearing damage, can't play it inside the city limits or the neighbors will call the cops, blow your hair back kind of loud. Unnecessarily loud. Plus when you factor in the fact (like mentioned above) that a tube guitar amp sounds its best when its near its upper limits of power output, you really have to crank it to get the sound you're after. That's why so many of us play low-wattage tube amps that you can crank and not go deaf. Then if its not loud enough, mic it.

Good luck in your search, and good luck convincing your guitarist that he doesn't need 200 watts to be loud :D
 
ScreamingHead69 said:
His Peavey is about to die due to old age so he's looking into a Martial JCM 800. It's not really a case that he needs more power, we were just a little suprised that we couldn't find anything higher then 200.
Click to expand...

I take it his Peavy is not tube. Trust me, there is a difference.
 
Ill give you a real life application from my personal experience this last weekend. We played a medium size club with a really bad PA and they only had one poweramp and two monitors for vocals. So that means no guitar to bring back through the stage monitors, so that means i was totally relying on my amp for any and all of my sound for what i could hear on stage.

I play right next to my bass player who uses an 800 watt David Eden amp with a 18" cab and a 4x10" cab together. That is alot of clean power that allows him to have huge tone at a lower volume if that makes sense. but it is loud as there was no bass going throught the pa. I stood no more than 2 feet from his rig and i played guitar all night long with my H&K 20watter with one 12" speaker and had no problems hearing myself and that was not even at full power. I think i ran it at about 1/2 it power output.

our music is anything from 80's hairmetal to newer lighter xrock like foofighters, to beatles with a harder edge. you name it I can do it on only 20watts of tube power. 200 watts is utterly recockulous IMO.

Get a really good low watt tube amp and never look back. This is from first hand experience in the last 3 days.

good luck, hope i helped
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

RedStone
  • Sticky
A Quick Guide to Before Getting Started with Audio Production
Replies
0
Views
10K
RedStone
RedStone
Snowman999
A New Tactic
Replies
5
Views
838
rob aylestone
rob aylestone
CoolCat
Behringer UMC1820
Replies
4
Views
8K
CoolCat
CoolCat
A
What I got vs What I want, and Do I need? Home recording drums / band
Replies
10
Views
16K
sparky123
S
Dave Holmes
Couple guitar purchases - small budget.
Replies
10
Views
3K
Dave Holmes
Dave Holmes
Back
Top