A truthful answer about 100 watt heads

  • Thread starter Thread starter BDuncan
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A lot of Drummers do have a problem with dynamics, however.. They start out all pumped up and beat the shit out of them. Then they start to fade and lay back. If they would pick a level and stay there..
Problem is all that shows on a recording. You need good hard hits on Drums to sound good and medium hits on Cymbals to not wash everything out with glass.. Sissy hits on Toms sound just like that when you play back.

But I still stand by at least 30-40 watts to hang with a Drummer I want to play with..
!00+ watters, like others have said give you headroom and a solid feel.
250 horsepoer on a 4-cyl is not the same 250hp with a Big Block..
 
BDuncan said:
I'm looking for an honest answer. How often have you had to crank a 100 watt head or combo?
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Any time I play it. Difference between 50/100 watts, decibel wise, is only about 3 decibels, btw
 
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Asking why somebody wants a higher wattage amp even though they won't be able to crank it is like asking why anybody would want to drive a sports car when the roads have speed limits.

I don’t play 100 watt amps because I need them to be louder. It has nothing to do with that.

I play 100 watt amps because at any given volume, they’re going to be tighter, clearer, cleaner, and occupy a wider frequency bandwidth than amps of fewer watts. Sort of like how people drive sports cars because they're more agile and responsive at any speed compared to most other cars.
 
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I need at least 50 watts, preferably more, to hang with my drummer. He hits like a gorilla.
 
Greazygeo said:
A mere seconds worth of fun there.
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yep.gif
 
I just did a test because this thread had me curious..
I play my deliverance D120 with the master at about 10:00 into a 16ohm 212 vertical Cab.
The peak watts came out to be about 43 watts. And it's good and brutal with a Rock Drummer.
So yeah, 40 watts or get out..
:ROFLMAO:
 
Depends what you consider “cranked”. I don’t think many 100 watters get all that much “louder” after 5 or 6 on the master.

My last band had a crazy loud drummer, I preferred the master on my Uberschall around 5 so I just used 2 4x12s to get a comfortable volume for me and the rest of the band
 
It doesn't feel right playing with a band with anything less than 50 watts to me, especially if it's harder rock and metal cause then I gotta push the master further than I want. I find the sweet spot on the master volume for most higher wattage amps is around 10 o'clock to 11 o'clock. I never crank a high gain amp into poweramp distortion,, just sounds like shit to me. I like it right when the power tubes start to compress a little bit and the tone kinda smooths out. There are very few exceptions though, as some amps have very gradual tapers on their master volumes so you can get away with it at maybe 2 o'clock on the occasional amp.
 
Aynirar27 said:
Depends what you consider “cranked”. I don’t think many 100 watters get all that much “louder” after 5 or 6 on the master.

My last band had a crazy loud drummer, I preferred the master on my Uberschall around 5 so I just used 2 4x12s to get a comfortable volume for me and the rest of the band
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They don't really get louder past 5 or 6, just shittier sounding. The tone starts to fall apart.
 
depends what music you're playing.

If modern rock/metal.. you're looking for headroom in the poweramp, not poweramp distortion.
So higher watt heads are better in this situation.

I've always owned 100w
 
midnightlaundry said:
I just did a test because this thread had me curious..
I play my deliverance D120 with the master at about 10:00 into a 16ohm 212 vertical Cab.
The peak watts came out to be about 43 watts. And it's good and brutal with a Rock Drummer.
So yeah, 40 watts or get out..
:ROFLMAO:
Click to expand...
Different frequencies peak differently and require different levels of energy to reproduce cleanly. The low end on that Deliverence is using a lot more than 43 watts to get out clear. If you’re just after a good rock tone 40 watts will easily do it as the mids and top end will get out loud and clear but the low end will not make it if the amp’s peak power is 40 watts. When you have 120 watts of headroom you’ll handle low end needs at almost any volume. It’s why bass amps are in the hundreds of watts usually.
 
I run a full stack so I can turn down a little. I would crank it if I had to run a half stack for some bullshit reason.
 
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