Well really I'm only worried about the drummer. The two guitarist have smaller amps,not marshalls. If i need 300w to be heard I guess i'll just have to go unheard.
I have such an untrained ear for amps and how loud what wattage is because the only big amp i've ever owned was my old silvertone 200BXL which has 2 15s and 2 12s powered by a 4 ohm 100 watt head,but the thing was loud as heck and half volume I could easily hear myself over a loud drummer.
Here's where the wheels fall off the "Watts" concept.
Guitars don't need all the Wattage that a bass does. They are higher freqs and they seem to cover their spectrum of notes with a lot less Wattage.
Now a
bass - requires a lot of air motion to be 'felt and heard' - much more so than a guitar.
This is where the square-inches area of the physical speaker cones comes into play - you need radiating surfaces that are compliant with the notes you are hitting and then you need the power to move that cone boldly and repeatedly for your bass to be heard.
If you don't flap your socks with the notes, then you aren't getting to the audience and just a single 12 isn't likely to cut it either unless you issue everyone in the audience their own personal 12-inch driver to listen to.
Of course that's just not my opinion, although there may be some dissenters here. However I don't want to invoke visions of a Chamber Music String Quartet as a comparison.
But if you give a guy -
ANY guy - some sticks and things to hit with those sticks (eg:
a drummer) - you'll find that you are really going bear hunting with a switch (a very SHORT switch!).
In the end of course, you can very well do as you see fit.
I hate to see you pop $$ for a smaller amp/combo at only 180 Watts (
if their rating can be believed anyway) plus a dinky single 12-inch driver.
