Question for the high wattage amp guys here about playing at home

jchrisf

jchrisf

Well-known member
I love that the people here at Rig Talk are hard rockers and have some of the coolest amps. I'm curious for those of you that have all these cool, high watt amps.. what do you play at home? And if it is your big amp, how do you do it without making your ears bleed and does it sound good at home volumes?

I'd also be curious for those that have a mini amp along with its big brother which one sounds the best at home volumes?
 
I still play my high gain 100 watts quietly . I just add some boost to make up for the loss of tone so I can still practice and play quietly. I’ve taught on a Herbert for years quietly with out any boost as well
 
jchrisf said:
I love that the people here at Rig Talk are hard rockers and have some of the coolest amps. I'm curious for those of you that have all these cool, high watt amps.. what do you play at home? And if it is your big amp, how do you do it without making your ears bleed and does it sound good at home volumes?

I'd also be curious for those that have a mini amp along with its big brother which one sounds the best at home volumes?
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You can use an attenuator. You can run IR's with a load box.Some amps sound okay even at .01 volume. I use a Randall RD1 and it's perfect for home volume with a 4x12.
 
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I don't think I've found a high watt amp that doesn't open up and sound it's best above a what I think most people mean by home/bedroom volume. However, that doesn't mean many amp don't still sound good a low volumes. My EVH, Natas, and some Diezels & Cameron mods I've owned in the past all have nice master volume tapers and sound good at mouse fart volume levels. On the other hand, there are some amps you're going to need an attenuator or something like the Fryette power station to use at a manageable home volumes.
 
Depends what I want to play. Powerstation or clean amp with pedals or just straight into a cranked Brown Deluxe. The Deluxe gets loud-ish but nothing like 100W stack loud. The pedal board has a looper and every tone approximated for practicing.
 
I have pretty much always had 50w and 100W tube amps. Gigging and for at home. Stopped gigging about 15 years ago but still have 50W and 100W tube amps for home use. I always thought that I could get good tones out of them even at volumes under 100db but I do like the tones better now that I use a Power Station. Bigger amps just sound and feel better to me even at low volumes than most of the 20W amps that are all the rage these days.

Some of those 20W amps are really cool, and I have had four different models over the past 2 years, but something about the way the bigger power sections deliver are more appealing to me. I do still believe that I will have another 20 watter at some point but not sure which one it will be. The four that I have had are the mini Jube, 20SC, JJ Jr, and Bogner 3534.
 
I use a powerstation for wet/dry as a power amp, not an attenuator for my 100w Larry Dino and 4x12 😂😂😂


It's just about the designer/manufacturer implementing a decent master volume. And Larry isn't the only one who can do it. Dave Friedmans amps are also known for having a very usable, decent master volume.

The difference between 20 watts and 100 is very little in terms of volume, but huge in terms of feel and tone.

I can run my giant wet dry Larry live rig at home at very reasonable volumes and it sounds great 🤷

It's more about whether your large amp was made to have a usable master TBH
 
For anybody plugging straight into big amps and cabs and cranking them at home, and bothering the neighbors is a concern, it's basically this.

Move from left to right and pick the best path for you:

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Basically, start with an amp, then route it in one fo the following ways:
1. reamper -> cab
2. reactive load -> ss poweramp -> guitar cab
3. reactive load -> IR device (like an Axe-Fx, or DAW with plugins, or a Mooer Radar IR pedal) -> FRFR monitors
 
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jchrisf said:
I love that the people here at Rig Talk are hard rockers and have some of the coolest amps. I'm curious for those of you that have all these cool, high watt amps.. what do you play at home? And if it is your big amp, how do you do it without making your ears bleed and does it sound good at home volumes?

I'd also be curious for those that have a mini amp along with its big brother which one sounds the best at home volumes?
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Master volume. It’s really less about volume and more about the feel of the amp.
 
How?

Fuckin hook em all up. And slam it home.
It's literally ONLY a noise violation fine.
Pussy lunchbox mentality makes me sick. Throw that China junk away and buy American, Canada and English and quit supporting communists who support micro lifestyles. And small condoms. Even if they don't fit ya, buy a Magnum just to support the "too big" industry. Buy your neighbors and live in some earplugs. Turn your amps up and lay some pipe.

If pipe layin' is your thing, you'll already have known to practice low volume clean, get it all correct, then turn up. Those lunchbox and digital rigs are doing 0 fuckin service to technique, confidence and/or band settings. Save for Church.

Turn down in Church. But throw loud devilhorns to compensate.

Smoke Fuckin Dope too.
 

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Dopethrone said:
How?

Fuckin hook em all up. And slam it home.
It's literally ONLY a noise violation fine.
Pussy lunchbox mentality makes me sick. Throw that China junk away and buy American, Canada and English and quit supporting communists who support micro lifestyles. And small condoms. Even if they don't fit ya, buy a Magnum just to support the "too big" industry. Buy your neighbors and live in some earplugs. Turn your amps up and lay some pipe.

If pipe layin' is your thing, you'll already have known to practice low volume clean, get it all correct, then turn up. Those lunchbox and digital rigs are doing 0 fuckin service to technique, confidence and/or band settings. Save for Church.

Turn down in Church. But throw loud devilhorns to compensate.

Smoke Fuckin Dope too.
Click to expand...

OH and..Stop asking permission and fuckin turn that $10,000 amp UP. $10k in bedroom volume? Tell her to go visit gramma, and the neighbors oughtta feel lucky when you take days off. Period.
 
Go big or go home. I’d rather have an amp that has the ability to crush skulls, and happens to work at low volumes well enough, than buy a lunchbox amp that might sound a smidge better at low volume, but doesn’t have the nads to do anything when I turn up.
I have an attenuator for my 72 but I can also run it at 0 volume and with a pedal, gives me a decent enough ‘early ZZ Top’ thing at low volume.
 
fek said:
I have pretty much always had 50w and 100W tube amps. Gigging and for at home. Stopped gigging about 15 years ago but still have 50W and 100W tube amps for home use. I always thought that I could get good tones out of them even at volumes under 100db but I do like the tones better now that I use a Power Station. Bigger amps just sound and feel better to me even at low volumes than most of the 20W amps that are all the rage these days.

Some of those 20W amps are really cool, and I have had four different models over the past 2 years, but something about the way the bigger power sections deliver are more appealing to me. I do still believe that I will have another 20 watter at some point but not sure which one it will be. The four that I have had are the mini Jube, 20SC, JJ Jr, and Bogner 3534.
Click to expand...
The 20 watt heads sound so boxy and fake . They all this sound that never can be rid of . I agree they not the same .
 
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