Low watt amp club?

[Rocks]

Is there anyone else that gigs with amps under 200 watts? Myself I gig with a 130 watt Trace Elliot head and have played places with 400-500 people with no problem with no FOH support. I'm just curious how many others gig with under 200 watts.

[JimmyM]

i often gig with 25 watts. most of the time i have a good amount of headroom, too.

[Rocks]

Originally Posted by JimmyM

i often gig with 25 watts. most of the time i have a good amount of headroom, too.

what kind of 25 amp are you giging with?

[PostApocalypso]

Originally Posted by Rocks

what kind of 25 amp are you giging with?

I assume JimmyM is refering to the B-15 Portaflex.

[JimmyM]

Originally Posted by PostApocalypso

I assume JimmyM is refering to the B-15 Portaflex.

you assume correctly 1964 b-15n to be exact, most of the time with two 115 cabs.

[GianGian]

Originally Posted by JimmyM

you assume correctly 1964 b-15n to be exact, most of the time with two 115 cabs.

So where is the miracle? I am curious now.

[Jimmy Stump]

Originally Posted by JimmyM

i often gig with 25 watts. most of the time i have a good amount of headroom, too.

Do you play in a band with mimes?

[JimmyM]

Originally Posted by Jimmy Stump

Do you play in a band with mimes?

lol! no, just a band that has a good handle on volume and realizes that a good onstage mix where nobody is too loud is a lot better than volume wars.

[GianGian]

Originally Posted by JimmyM

lol! no, just a band that has a good handle on volume and realizes that a good onstage mix where nobody is too loud is a lot better than volume wars.

So it is used as a monitor. And it must be an all valve amp. It is getting better.

[JimmyM]

Originally Posted by GianGian

So it is used as a monitor. And it must be an all valve amp. It is getting better.

actually, it's not just a monitor since i mic one of the cabs and don't use a di.

[GianGian]

Originally Posted by JimmyM

actually, it's not just a monitor since i mic one of the cabs and don't use a di.

Same effect. I mean, the power is just used for the stage. You use support for the "front of the house" mix.

[dmusic148]

25 watts into 2 15's can get surprisingly loud. It's all about efficiency.

[JimmyM]

Originally Posted by GianGian

Same effect. I mean, the power is just used for the stage. You use support for the "front of the house" mix.

ya, most of the time, although i've done a handful of gigs without the instruments going in the pa and was quite worried when it happened the first couple times. shouldn't have worried, though. turns out what works well for the stage mix works out EXTREMELY well for the foh mix. i've done fairly large gigs in as big as an 800 seat theater with it using only stage volume and it rocked, and while we certainly weren't what most define as loud, we weren't quiet, either.

[Jaco D]

Originally Posted by Jimmy Stump

Do you play in a band with mimes?

I just snorted some soda out of my nose while reading thi.s

[Deluge Of Sound]

I use a Sovtek MIG100 and/or an Orange OR120.

Do I qualify?

[Pilgrim]

I've gigged with my Bassman 120 combo more than once. It's a single 15 with roughly 120W. It fits small venues really well!

[Sartori]

180 watts here. Mesa D-180.

[Bassman18]

Originally Posted by JimmyM

lol! no, just a band that has a good handle on volume and realizes that a good onstage mix where nobody is too loud is a lot better than volume wars.

+ 100 billion. I wish more bands would live by that rule.

[steve_rolfeca]

It's not rocket science to get by with less than 200 watts. Bands like Ten Years After and Cream used to give people nosebleeds in clubs with less than that, back in the day. I played most of my career with amps under 200 watts, and I only started going DI to the FOH in the late 90's.

I used high-efficiency E-V 15's until the mid-90's, which helped a lot. I was louder with 130 watts into those cabs, than I am now with anything less than 500 watts into modern 2 by 10 and 4 by 10's.

I find the three biggest secrets are using efficient speakers, adding cone area with owned or rented cabs to match the demands of the gig, and using sensible EQ. When sharing the same rig at festivals, I have often blown other bass players off the stage, simply by avoiding smiley-face EQ settings. Wasn't it Gene Simmons who said that the key to arena rock for a bass player, is 400Hz?

Even when I've had more than 200 watts, I've probably done a good 75 percent of my gigs with a single 8 ohm cab, which has pulled my actual output power below the 200 mark. Although I've had dozens of amps including a Carver-powered rack with 1200 watts and a Bose L1 with 750, these have been some of my gigging mainstays over the years:

Early 70's- played weddings with a Harmony 15 watt tube combo with a single Jensen 15, then an ailing Fender tweed bassman (yecch), then a Roland solid-state head with 120 watts.

Mid 70's- Gibson Les Paul bass amp, wildly over-rated at 200 watts and muddy as hell, then a modified Traynor Bassmaster (80 tube watts).

Early 80's- modified Traynor Monobloc 250 (bench tested at 135 watts into 8 ohms).

Mid 90's- Traynor Bloc 250, Marshall Silver anniversary (solid-state, probably about 175 into 8 ohms), SWR Studio 220 (benched at 130 watts into 8 ohms).

Recent- Fender Rad Bass (30 watts) for acoustic gigs, SWR WM10 (80 watts at 8 ohms, 100 with an extension cab), Eden ENX260 (about 140 watts into 8 ohms?).

[Big chicken]

sunn concert bass+4x10=loud