You guys who want to crank a 100w head on stage for a pub gig are nuts. My ears already ring any time I'm in a quiet room, and I can't get to sleep without background noise to distract me. It is nowhere near worth it for some monstrously loud cock-rock riffs.
That's the thing, man, I DON'T want to crank a 100 watt amp at a pub gig. I just want two channels and a clean solo boost or three channels, and a FX loop.
the whole point of the matter is that most people listening to you whether it be live or recorded is not going to be able to tell what kind of amp you are playing through nor do they really care. all they know is they know what they like and dispite how much you like the tone you are gettig out of your equipment of choice will not mean a thing if the paying audience is not buying your material.
oh and I did forget to mention that that mesa rig takes up a whole lot more room than a Behringer V-Amp Pro therefore that is why it stays in the trailer.
So, here's my question - you're right, I'm talking about an amp that costs botuique money. So, what if I was willing to pay botique money for a low wattage amp? What are my options? Again, Mesa is taking strides in this direction - I didn't like the Express series at all, but it exists, and the new Mark-V can be cut down pretty far between channel-assignable half-power modes and a pentode/triode master mode which further reduces wattage - I'll be very interested to play this amp.
As for the "the audience can't tell the difference" argument, that's crap. I can tell the diffrence when I'm playing, and I tend to play better with a tone that inspires me more. Additionally, I'll be the first to admit that I'm a Tech-21 fan - their Trademark-30 is the best practice amp I've ever played, and the Trademark 60 got me closer to SRV territory than most Fenders I've played. However, as much as I love the tones I've gotten from
the Trademark 30 (and it's a fun little recording amp, for sure), the problem is the touch sensitivity just isn't right - it's missing some of the natural compression inherent in a good tube amp. So, with my Recto I can run my gain fairly low, keep a relatively clean lead sound (which I like), and rely on power-amp sponginess to keep everything even, meaning my pick attack is free to vary the "gain" of the notes but that unless I ease way up on the attack they'll still jump out of the speakers evenly. The Tech-21, however, has a much more linear response, where if the gain's low unless I hit pretty hard then the notes just die. So, in order to get a fluid lead sound, I have to run the gain higher. That means less articulation which means it cuts less well, which the audience WILL notice. They won't notice it as bad tone, per se, but the lead guitar will tend to blur with the rest of the instruments a bit more, and they'll be saying, "yeah, he was moving his hands awfully fast, but I couldn't really hear what's going on."
So, I'm going to play better through my rig because I'm more comfortable with the tone, and additionally even a high wattage tube amp will have a very different poweramp response than even the best solid state combo I've played (and really, I swear by that Tech-21 - it's one of the best solid state amps of any size I've ever played, and I crack up whenever I plug into it becayse it sounds way better than by rights it should), meaning I can't dial in the sort of tone I'm after, which means it won't sit in the mix the wya I want it to.
I mean, really man, the only arguments you just put forward are "well, of course, your amp costs botique money" and "the audience doesn't care." For one, I'm willing to pay botique money for something I like that can at least be switched to low wattage, and for another, "the audience doesn't care" is just changing the subject. I don't care what the audience thinks - they're not paying for the amp nor are they playing through it. I care what they think about my
playing, sure, but not about my amp.
