Personally I've never needed much more than 300 watts into 4 ohms. Right now I'm running a 500 watt combo and it's fine. Unless you're playing stadiums, get the one that sounds better.
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500 vs 900 watts
- Thread starter Titanium
- Start date
I heard a good country act in a bar/restaurant. The bassist had a vintage '57 P through the originals small 2x10 Ampeg Portabass gear. Not only wasn't prominent enough to drive the band it actually sounded poor. When we discuss this our words don't express did the 100, 200, 500, or 900w sound good or just a distorted fart? Subjectively was the distortion edge and grind purposeful or the bassist doesn't know how to gain stage and use the eq.? I say that because one visit to a GC on a Sat. or many gig spots and you hear the same sound regardless of the amp manufacturer. This is why I think some folks say it doesn't matter.
My take? Watts give you headroom. Know your ohms and utilize the cabs to get the most out of your gear. Personally I'd prefer my grind from my hands or pedals. If your amp just does it how do you play clean? Some tunes require full beautiful bass tone. If your style of music is all grind that's cool. If it has variety or you play with different folks sometimes in one night your gear has to be able to do both.
I grew up playing when we had sub 100w piggyback Fender Bassmen so I never want to be drowned out again. I might take huge watts to a singer song writer gig. Pure big boom can add wonderful emotional dynamics to an acoustic performance where edge and the perception of volume would not be appreciated by the audience. IMHO YMMV.
My take? Watts give you headroom. Know your ohms and utilize the cabs to get the most out of your gear. Personally I'd prefer my grind from my hands or pedals. If your amp just does it how do you play clean? Some tunes require full beautiful bass tone. If your style of music is all grind that's cool. If it has variety or you play with different folks sometimes in one night your gear has to be able to do both.
I grew up playing when we had sub 100w piggyback Fender Bassmen so I never want to be drowned out again. I might take huge watts to a singer song writer gig. Pure big boom can add wonderful emotional dynamics to an acoustic performance where edge and the perception of volume would not be appreciated by the audience. IMHO YMMV.
Depends on the head IMO. Some heads break up in a musical way so overdriving them a bit can be advantageous. To get that breakup might mean pushing the 900w amp to extreme volumes. That's why lots of people prefer the GK700RBII over the 1001RBII. Quite honestly, if you buy really good cabs, pushing them with 500 watts is plenty for all but extremely loud bands. If you have a really good 4 ohm 410 or 4 ohm 212, same holds true. Pushing the volume past half will get you yelled at by the soundman.
I couldn't have said it any better. I'm too old for this stuff. I have a 200 Watt combo and it usually stays home. I usually play a 50 Watt combo with Line Out to the PA system. No problems being heard or felt.
I got a 900 watter, it was the only model Darkglass had at the time. I have come nowhere near 10 ‘o’ clock on the volume knob, but it also doesn’t break a sweat and sounds great doing it. The DI also sounds phenomenal
Double check the quotes you take from the web. A difference of 3dB when you’re getting 100 dB in the face, won’t pass unnoticed.
The monitoring is great if you’re the headliner and get a real sound check. But for most of the bands just playing a throw-and-go set during the day the chance of getting useful bass monitoring in the wedges is slim to none. Also bass in the wedges can end up fighting your cabinet instead of adding to it, and that phenomenon is frequency dependent as well as a function of the distance between cab and monitor.
It’s always better if I can avoid cluttering up my monitor with bass. The monitor is for everything else besides my bass.
I’m looking at Darkglass actually…. I’ve heard a ton of demos on the distorted tones, but it’s scant out there on clean tone. What’s your take on it? Can it get warm, and can it do that clean growl too, or is it flat and cold?
A Tone hammer 500 weighs the same or a couple oz"s less than a AG700...bring the 7.
The 900w will give you a bunch of extra headroom, but it's not necessarily "louder".
This is the way I feel also. I want to hear my amp on stage,, not the monitors --- which usually don't sound that great.
The upshot on clean tone (I have the Alpha/Omega 500). The clean tone sounds nice, but there are better amps for a specifically warm clean tone. The clean tone isn't cold, but it doesn't specifically shoot for warm the way that some amps do. I a/b'd my Darkglass extensively with a MarkBass LM Vintage, and there's no question the MB had a warmer, more classic sound, but the DG still sounds really good clean. It can definitely do the clean growl. It doesn't sound flat and cold, but the EQ is fairly flat. It has a really nice compressor, which makes the dynamics sing. But it doesn't go for the the old-school Ampeg sound or anything, unless you add in some overdrive from the Microtubes preamp. The reason I chose it is because I really liked the way you could always get a solid, responsive low end to poke through. I play it clean all the time, and I like it.
I sometimes gig out with my Hartke 410 with 300 watts.
Plenty loud!
I’m always curious if my cab was a 4 ohm and allowed my head to hit at 500 watts, would it really make a difference?
Plenty loud!
I’m always curious if my cab was a 4 ohm and allowed my head to hit at 500 watts, would it really make a difference?
I just played an outside festival, wide open spaces with my Mesa WD800 and a Subway 115. It was plenty loud and punchy enough for me on stage to enjoy. However, in FOH I was loud... I guess that was because of the (4) 18 inch subs on either side of the stage pushing 2500 watts. That's what I call headroom. )
You can verify this because it has been a long, long time ago that I read......... that as we double an amp's output, we get 3 db more loudness.
Now, isn't 3 db like 30% louder?
If this info is true, when we go from a 500 watt amp to a 1,000 watt amp, 3 db louder or around 30% louder.
Just found this with a Google search.............
People also ask
How much louder is a 1 dB increase?
A 1 dB change in a sound equates to about a 26% difference in sound energy (remember that a 3 dB difference is a doubling of energy levels). In terms of subjective loudness, a 1 dB change yields just over a 7% change. A 3 dB change yields a 100% increase in sound energy and just over a 23% increase in loudness.Jun 15, 2012
Now, isn't 3 db like 30% louder?
If this info is true, when we go from a 500 watt amp to a 1,000 watt amp, 3 db louder or around 30% louder.
Just found this with a Google search.............
People also ask
How much louder is a 1 dB increase?
A 1 dB change in a sound equates to about a 26% difference in sound energy (remember that a 3 dB difference is a doubling of energy levels). In terms of subjective loudness, a 1 dB change yields just over a 7% change. A 3 dB change yields a 100% increase in sound energy and just over a 23% increase in loudness.Jun 15, 2012
For many, wattage is not about volume.
IMO, if you need pure volume, then the answer is more speakers.
Wattage is about how the amp sounds and responds to dynamic changes - a lot of this depends on the amp design.
A 100w Ampeg tube amp will break up a lot faster than a 100w Hiwatt tube amp. The Hiwatt will seem louder and have more headroom - but they are both 100w. This is amp design. Watts is more about what you need out of your amp (and which amp you have).
A watt is a watt - but that is just one of thousands and thousands of components of any amp.
IMO, if you need pure volume, then the answer is more speakers.
Wattage is about how the amp sounds and responds to dynamic changes - a lot of this depends on the amp design.
A 100w Ampeg tube amp will break up a lot faster than a 100w Hiwatt tube amp. The Hiwatt will seem louder and have more headroom - but they are both 100w. This is amp design. Watts is more about what you need out of your amp (and which amp you have).
A watt is a watt - but that is just one of thousands and thousands of components of any amp.
- Feb 12, 2006
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- Development Engineer-Mesa Boogie, Development Engineer-Genzler (pedals), Product Support-Genz Benz
Remember that a doubling of power is a 3dB increase in power but only theoretical 3dB increase in SPL.
Why is this? Because there are 2 different models used to calculate it predict the SPL transfer function.
There is the small signal (linear) model which applies at low levels where the transfer function behaves linearly. In general, this is below about 1/2 the rated mechanical power of the speaker. At that point, the transfer function between power in and SPL out becomes quite non-linear and the large signal model is used to describe the transfer function.
The large signal model includes all the power compression elements that a real world speaker experiences. In this region, a typical speaker will transition from the linear 1:1 transfer function to as much as 2:1.
Why is this? Because there are 2 different models used to calculate it predict the SPL transfer function.
There is the small signal (linear) model which applies at low levels where the transfer function behaves linearly. In general, this is below about 1/2 the rated mechanical power of the speaker. At that point, the transfer function between power in and SPL out becomes quite non-linear and the large signal model is used to describe the transfer function.
The large signal model includes all the power compression elements that a real world speaker experiences. In this region, a typical speaker will transition from the linear 1:1 transfer function to as much as 2:1.
Man, this thread is great timing. I’ve been wondering about both the wattage and the clean tone of the Microtubes. Sounds like it’s great. I spent an hour playing one at Andertons the other day and I love the dirty tone.
