Rebel 20 - Help needed for purchase decision

[RockManiac]

Yes, get the Rebel and join the Eggie user family in Austria! I couldn't be happier with my M4 and RT2/50. And you seem to love blues rock like myself

 

[roadking]

I have a Rebel. The only legitimate complaint is that some users are having difficulties with some type of effects loop issues. I have no issues myself. Some of that is due to the effects being used. It's hard to make a loop that works for every pedal under the sun, and some people like to stick some very interesting things in thier effects loops. Jeff and Bruce will sort this out. (I should talk, being that I have run my Vox Tone LE for delays only for quite some time ... it sounds spectacular by the way, beautiful modulated, digital, multi tap and analog delays. It's a delay extravaganza!) Back on subject, buy a Rebel ... fear not ... tone will flow like lava from your speakers and you will not believe how good it sounds. Keep a towel handy

One more question:
I have no clear imagination what the "Watt-Knob" is for.
Posts in "thegearpage-forum" say, that this special knob reduces only the headroom and not the tone volume coming out of the speakers.
I thought it acts similiar to a power attenuator.
I need an amp for practice in my living room during the evening hours and not disturbing the neighbours, but at the same time playing with the same sound I get when playing at higher volume levels. With other words: I want to hear the same saturated power tubes distortion at low volume levels.
Hope you understand what I mean

 

[TheGrooveking]

Well saying the watt knob only reduces headroom is evidence of them not understanding how an amp works and what constitutes headroom and then applying loudness to the wattage thing. First off sound pressure level, i.e. db is logarithmic based, meaning you must square the wattage each time you want to double the sound pressure level. Doubling the sound pressure level is a 3db increase. So 4 watts is not twice as loud as 2 watts, 10 watts is twice as loud as 1 watt, 100 watts is twice as loud as 10 watts. Even though a 50 watt amp seems louder than a 10 watt amp, what we usually are noticing is headroom and can perceive a change of sound pressure level, maybe a 2db increase.

My Fuchs Lucky 7, Dr Z MiniZ, Bad Cat Mini II, Victoria 5112 and Top Hat Portly Cadet all have little headroom, as soon as you get to 2 or 3 on the volume knob they start to saturate at some level. So is a Rebel at 20 watts going to be twice as loud as the Victoria 5112 at 5 watts, no not exactly, it'll be a little fuller sounding, but you also need to factor in speaker efficiencies. A speaker that with 1 watt in at 1 meter may put out 97db of SPL and another may put out 101db, thereby doubling the SPL without increasing the wattage.

TheGrooveking

 

[roadking]

Well saying the watt knob only reduces headroom is evidence of them not understanding how an amp works and what constitutes headroom and then applying loudness to the wattage thing. First off sound pressure level, i.e. db is logarithmic based, meaning you must square the wattage each time you want to double the sound pressure level. Doubling the sound pressure level is a 3db increase. So 4 watts is not twice as loud as 2 watts, 10 watts is twice as loud as 1 watt, 100 watts is twice as loud as 10 watts. Even though a 50 watt amp seems louder than a 10 watt amp, what we usually are noticing is headroom and can perceive a change of sound pressure level, maybe a 2db increase.

My Fuchs Lucky 7, Dr Z MiniZ, Bad Cat Mini II, Victoria 5112 and Top Hat Portly Cadet all have little headroom, as soon as you get to 2 or 3 on the volume knob they start to saturate at some level. So is a Rebel at 20 watts going to be twice as loud as the Victoria 5112 at 5 watts, no not exactly, it'll be a little fuller sounding, but you also need to factor in speaker efficiencies. A speaker that with 1 watt in at 1 meter may put out 97db of SPL and another may put out 101db, thereby doubling the SPL without increasing the wattage.

TheGrooveking

Let me reduce my question to the minimum:

Is the "Watt-Knob" a power attenuator ?

Roadking

 

[3 Mile Stone]

I thought it acts similiar to a power attenuator.
I need an amp for practice in my living room during the evening hours and not disturbing the neighbours, but at the same time playing with the same sound I get when playing at higher volume levels. With other words: I want to hear the same saturated power tubes distortion at low volume levels.
Hope you understand what I mean

It does act the same. Power scaling & attentuation are all ways of reducing the volume while allowing you to send a hot signal to the power tube section so that you hear the power tubes. What difference does it make technically how this is achieved as long as the results are ther anyway? It works.

When someone says it reduces headroom it means it will not be as clean overall when turned up louder. Basically if what you want is an amp that sounds like it's screamming loud distorted and on fire at living room level, well yes, that is one of the things this amp accomplishes extremely well. With a master volume as good as the one egnater puts in thier amps, you don't even reall need the watt knob.