I like higher wattage amps. Always have. But we're all different, and I certainly respect other folks' needs and the differences in all of our playing styles. I wanted to get an open, honest, no-anger conversation going about the tradeoffs involved in choosing low-watt amps, and provide some insight into why I feel the way I do.
This isn't a prescription; what works for me, and why, may not work at all for you. So I'm not saying that anyone else should do what I do. I'm not trying to convince anyone to share my likes and dislikes. At all. This is intended more as food for thought, because I think the rage for low power amps might be based partly on perceived needs that involve compromises we may or may not want.
We're just having a conversation here, not an argument. With that said, here's my experience over many years of playing and having owned lots and lots of amps:
Dynamics
I'm going to define a low power amp as something less than about 30 watts. There are lots of 30 watt amps with very good dynamic range and headroom; the AC30 and Grissom 30 Watt amps come to mind. My Roccaforte 30 Rockie is another amp that really delivered fantastic dynamic range and could get quite loud, or play softly. It lives with my son in LA now.
Their design allows for headroom, dynamic range, and they can get very loud if that's what the player wants.
Dynamics -- that is, varying between loud and soft - is part of music, and adds to the emotion.
Part of my playing style is using an amp's dynamic range and headroom. That is, I want loud notes, played hard, to respond with power, and softs to be very soft. And I don't necessarily want to push the amp into flubby distortion and compression when I want a note to punch a little bit more. Low power amps tend to distort and get squishy as the guitar levels are increased, and in general, I think the playing dynamics are inherently compromised.
Granted, the blues giants who used 20 watt Deluxes used that to their advantage and certainly got great tones, so yes, it's certainly possible to do that! But my style is a bit different from, say, Albert King's. And today's blues players, like Bonamassa, are not using Deluxes, they're running more powerful amps, because music has changed. Albert King fronted a band with a piano and horns, acoustic instruments. A guy like Bonamassa is rocking out to a large house and has different needs.
I think having a wide dynamic range helps my playing be more expressive. If you have a powerful amp you aren't hitting the wall with the dynamic limitation of the thing.
Speaker Distortion
A higher power amp will also get you some nice speaker distortion. The lower power amps will let you hear power tube distortion, but unless you're running an Alnico speaker, you're not getting much distortion on the speaker with a ceramic magnet speaker that is designed to run with more powerful amps. The Greenback is about the lowest wattage Brit-style ceramic speaker I can find that will break up with under a 30 watt amp, and at that, the amp has to be dimed. Old Jensens will break up under lower wattage, too.
Low End Clarity
Clear, piano-like lows, especially clean, are another thing low power amps have difficulty reproducing. They tend to flub out, where something like my 100 watt Lone Star sounds like a freaking 9 foot Concert Grand, with a lot of tightness and clarity on a Low E. They flub out simply because they can't handle the full output of the guitar without distorting, and distortion = less definition in the low end (though of course, it can sound rich and fat). But most 100 Watt amps can also do a rich, fat, distorted low end, with judicious use of the master volume and gain controls.
The point is, it's nice to have a choice, instead of being stuck in one mode.
Master Volumes
It's my experience that a higher powered amp with a good master volume can play as softly as a lower power amp, and sound better doing it, because it has more headroom clean, and more dynamic range dirty.
Bottom Line -- For Me...
The DG30 can get very loud, and it's an amp designed for peaks that are probably much higher than 30 watts. So it has strong dynamic range, though it's certainly not going to give me the piano type lows of a 100 watt amp.
The HXDA 30 is an amp I mainly use fairly overdriven, so I can record with it quite happily and it's easy to get signal to "tape." I love my HXDA 30.
But the 50 Watt version of the same amp definitely had a more flexible dynamic range.
That was a trade-off I knowingly made, and I did it to have what it does for recording because I did tend to shake the room with the 50 Watt HXDA. However, I still would get another 50 Watt amp, maybe a DG50 just to have something with a little more dynamic range and "give." In fact, if PRS still makes a 100 Watt HXDA (it's a little unclear), I may add one down the road. Fortunately, with my studio gear, I can mess with the dynamics and volume, but if I was a live player, I'd want at least the 50 Watt, and probably the 100.
Whether I add to my rig or not at this point depends on the outcome of whether my ulnar nerve heals, or my hand continues to go downhill. There's no need for me to keep investing in guitars and amps if I can't play them!
And honestly, I'd feel this way as a so-called "bedroom player," given the quality of today's master volume amps. I posted in my thread about how happy I am with my rig, and that's true. But I make no secret of my preference for amps that can deliver a wider range of dynamics, because to me that means greater expressiveness.
This isn't a prescription; what works for me, and why, may not work at all for you. So I'm not saying that anyone else should do what I do. I'm not trying to convince anyone to share my likes and dislikes. At all. This is intended more as food for thought, because I think the rage for low power amps might be based partly on perceived needs that involve compromises we may or may not want.
We're just having a conversation here, not an argument. With that said, here's my experience over many years of playing and having owned lots and lots of amps:
Dynamics
I'm going to define a low power amp as something less than about 30 watts. There are lots of 30 watt amps with very good dynamic range and headroom; the AC30 and Grissom 30 Watt amps come to mind. My Roccaforte 30 Rockie is another amp that really delivered fantastic dynamic range and could get quite loud, or play softly. It lives with my son in LA now.
Their design allows for headroom, dynamic range, and they can get very loud if that's what the player wants.
Dynamics -- that is, varying between loud and soft - is part of music, and adds to the emotion.
Part of my playing style is using an amp's dynamic range and headroom. That is, I want loud notes, played hard, to respond with power, and softs to be very soft. And I don't necessarily want to push the amp into flubby distortion and compression when I want a note to punch a little bit more. Low power amps tend to distort and get squishy as the guitar levels are increased, and in general, I think the playing dynamics are inherently compromised.
Granted, the blues giants who used 20 watt Deluxes used that to their advantage and certainly got great tones, so yes, it's certainly possible to do that! But my style is a bit different from, say, Albert King's. And today's blues players, like Bonamassa, are not using Deluxes, they're running more powerful amps, because music has changed. Albert King fronted a band with a piano and horns, acoustic instruments. A guy like Bonamassa is rocking out to a large house and has different needs.
I think having a wide dynamic range helps my playing be more expressive. If you have a powerful amp you aren't hitting the wall with the dynamic limitation of the thing.
Speaker Distortion
A higher power amp will also get you some nice speaker distortion. The lower power amps will let you hear power tube distortion, but unless you're running an Alnico speaker, you're not getting much distortion on the speaker with a ceramic magnet speaker that is designed to run with more powerful amps. The Greenback is about the lowest wattage Brit-style ceramic speaker I can find that will break up with under a 30 watt amp, and at that, the amp has to be dimed. Old Jensens will break up under lower wattage, too.
Low End Clarity
Clear, piano-like lows, especially clean, are another thing low power amps have difficulty reproducing. They tend to flub out, where something like my 100 watt Lone Star sounds like a freaking 9 foot Concert Grand, with a lot of tightness and clarity on a Low E. They flub out simply because they can't handle the full output of the guitar without distorting, and distortion = less definition in the low end (though of course, it can sound rich and fat). But most 100 Watt amps can also do a rich, fat, distorted low end, with judicious use of the master volume and gain controls.
The point is, it's nice to have a choice, instead of being stuck in one mode.
Master Volumes
It's my experience that a higher powered amp with a good master volume can play as softly as a lower power amp, and sound better doing it, because it has more headroom clean, and more dynamic range dirty.
Bottom Line -- For Me...
The DG30 can get very loud, and it's an amp designed for peaks that are probably much higher than 30 watts. So it has strong dynamic range, though it's certainly not going to give me the piano type lows of a 100 watt amp.
The HXDA 30 is an amp I mainly use fairly overdriven, so I can record with it quite happily and it's easy to get signal to "tape." I love my HXDA 30.
But the 50 Watt version of the same amp definitely had a more flexible dynamic range.
That was a trade-off I knowingly made, and I did it to have what it does for recording because I did tend to shake the room with the 50 Watt HXDA. However, I still would get another 50 Watt amp, maybe a DG50 just to have something with a little more dynamic range and "give." In fact, if PRS still makes a 100 Watt HXDA (it's a little unclear), I may add one down the road. Fortunately, with my studio gear, I can mess with the dynamics and volume, but if I was a live player, I'd want at least the 50 Watt, and probably the 100.
Whether I add to my rig or not at this point depends on the outcome of whether my ulnar nerve heals, or my hand continues to go downhill. There's no need for me to keep investing in guitars and amps if I can't play them!
And honestly, I'd feel this way as a so-called "bedroom player," given the quality of today's master volume amps. I posted in my thread about how happy I am with my rig, and that's true. But I make no secret of my preference for amps that can deliver a wider range of dynamics, because to me that means greater expressiveness.
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