Help Please? 1W tube amp for church

Lfan · 2013-06-05T09:56:42+00:00

Hi there guitar guru's of the world. I am a church guitarist and I play with a mic'd 30w solid state amp with the vol about halfway. We use in-ear monitors...

Help Please? 1W tube amp for church

Visashi

Hi,

I also play in a similar setup. I use Fender hot rod 30w. I mike it up in a back stage room with an instrument mike. Works wonderfully. I would also recommend Orange tiny terror. Great for getting valve tone on low volume settings.

AlanRatcliffe

Duo wrote: My thinking is 15wats?

That's about the right range - about 50% of a SS amp, but it will depend largely on the amp and speaker. A Vox AC15 with a Celestion Blue is LOUD, while a Fender Princeton is relatively quiet (and most other 15 Watters sit somewhere between).

Even with a quieter amp though, there are things that can make it work. An amp stand will raise it off the floor and angle it right towards your ear (there was one in the classifieds the other day). Your PA is doing the heavy lifting anyway, so you just need to be able to hear yourself.

warrenpridgeon

Alan Ratcliffe wrote:
Duo wrote: My thinking is 15wats?
That's about the right range - about 50% of a SS amp, but it will depend largely on the amp and speaker. A Vox AC15 with a Celestion Blue is LOUD, while a Fender Princeton is relatively quiet (and most other 15 Watters sit somewhere between).

Even with a quieter amp though, there are things that can make it work. An amp stand will raise it off the floor and angle it right towards your ear (there was one in the classifieds the other day). Your PA is doing the heavy lifting anyway, so you just need to be able to hear yourself.

If you are running in ears then get your in ear mix sorted and you could play with a micro stack thing if you wanted... hehe... or those jackplug vox amps.

Lfan

Thanks guys!
Your insight is highly appreciated. The last thing I wanted to do is walk blindly into getting a valve amp without knowing the details and end up getting something completely wrong, seeing that they also cost allot.
Thanks again. With your help I may have avoided allot of mistakes.

warrenpridgeon

Duo wrote: Thanks guys!
Your insight is highly appreciated. The last thing I wanted to do is walk blindly into getting a valve amp without knowing the details and end up getting something completely wrong, seeing that they also cost allot.
Thanks again. With your help I may have avoided allot of mistakes.

I dig my Marshall DSL 401, but in hindsight I might have gotten one of the "lunchbox" type amps (5 or 10 watts) instead of the 40watt tube... I can't run it at the right level to get the tones I like on it... yes we have isolation boxes... but only at the one campus I play at... at the two others, which only recently kicked off, it's the old point it across stage thing... then also those hotplates and stuff cost over R1000... which is a lot to put on top of an R8000 amp...

bottledtone

My opinion is that you should establish what type of clean you want over wattage.
But bear in mind the sweet spot that valve amps have. Sometimes guys refer to running amp open to give best results but that's often to do with breakup. Sweet spot is where the amp is turned up and suddenly there is a "feel good" zone. Normally its louder but not wide open.
Sparklely clean. Fat. Warm. Rough. Do you like to dig into strings to get a snarl (if you are using ss amps you won't know this feeling unless you've played on some)
When you know that, the other should then fall in line.

Arno-West

1 Watt???? Pah! Still can't get my head around that concept. Sorry dudes.

AlanRatcliffe

Arno West wrote: 1 Watt???? Pah! Still can't get my head around that concept. Sorry dudes.

Only 1/4 the volume of a 100W amp...

Reinecke

The orange series of lunchbox amps are very cool, and they aren't that loud if you switch it down to 7 watts, I have a terror head which I use, but even the little micro terror is a really impressive amp, it's very cheap (Just make sure to get a 10" or a 12" speaker cab, because the 8" just lacks in everything beautifull!)
and it does the job! Yes it's only have valve and 20 Watt, but truely something special. I use it with a very loud drummer at practicse, and yes you have to push the amp all the way, but it does the job and just sounds beautifull! Otherwise just invest in one of the other terror series head, for a full valve tone.
Regards

selbydoodl

I use a Fender Champ.

Miked up this will fill Wembly Stadium, anc you can use pedals no sweat.

DDR4LYF

I am in a similar position. I have been using a bass amp up to now. What 15W will give the best clean headroom? I was keen on the Laney cub 12, but does that have good cleans?

RJN

The Laney have some cleans , but its Natural OD is awesome :woohoo:

arjunmenon

I haven't played a Laney Cub, but i know that the lower powered Laney Lionhearts are fantastic amps.

StefStoep

DDR4LYF wrote: I am in a similar position. I have been using a bass amp up to now. What 15W will give the best clean headroom? I was keen on the Laney cub 12, but does that have good cleans?

Take your guitar to a shop and go test one. With my LP my 15w Blues jnr breaks up quite early but with my SG I can push it a bit more before it breaks up. Make sure your guitar and amp is the right combo. Some amps just work better with some guitars.

AlanRatcliffe

I said it earlier, I'll say it again: Ibanez TSA15. Plenty clean headroom, sounds good with pedals, has an effects loop, switchable between 5 and 15W. Available in a head too, so you can mix 'n match with cab/speaker of your choice.

AlanRatcliffe

MikeM

Gotta +1 to Alan here.

Amp wattage is not the only thing that defines volume, however most importantly

A LOW WATTAGE AMP DOES NOT BREAK UP "FASTER".

How fast an amp breaks up is about how the preamp is set up. One can have a 1 watt amp that stays clean the whole time, it'll just be at a low-medium volume.

And again, 10dB (double volume) is requires an increase of 10x of wattage. Speaker wattages vary around 93-100. A 15 watt amp through a 90db speaker, will be the same volume as a 1.5watt amp though a 100db speaker. The output transformer also has an effect on the volume, so does the saturation of the power transformer.

Also remember going very low watt removes speaker drive which has an impact in good tone.

You're most likely best off with a 15watter like Alan recommends, it'll really sound the best out of most options. If it's still too loud for on stage use, get a buffer and a long cable, and mic it far away ?

Warren

MikeM wrote:
How fast an amp breaks up is about how the preamp is set up. One can have a 1 watt amp that stays clean the whole time, it'll just be at a low-medium volume.

My understanding is that low wattage valve amps exist primarily because players want to get power-amp drive from running the amp at full tilt at manageable volumes. I certainly haven't seen any low wattage amps that have their pre-amp set up in such a way that you can't get power-amp drive...

MikeM

ShreddySmurf wrote:My understanding is that low wattage valve amps exist primarily because players want to get power-amp drive from running the amp at full tilt at manageable volumes. I certainly haven't seen any low wattage amps that have their pre-amp set up in such a way that you can't get power-amp drive...

That is correct. I was using that as an example. But a 1 watt amp with an input sensitivity and impedance of lets say a Fender Deluxe, with a similar preamp, will behave the same, just at a lower volume.

It does not break up faster. If it breaks up at too low a volume, that's because you are expecting too much from a 1watt amp. If it breaks up too low on the volume control, put a lower gain tube in so the range you want becomes larger.

Saying "1 watt amps break up too fast" is the same as "100 watt amps take too long to break up". Ever seen a Dual Rec that takes too long to break up? However a Twin doesn't really reach full saturation with low output pups.

In short, the speed at which an amp breaks up, is not a function of wattage (unless you're using a vvr ?)

DDR4LYF

Thanks guys! This helps so much! I went and tested a TSA and it is awesome!!! Digging it so much! I think I get the power amp, break up thing a bit better now!