although I am aware that bass amps need more wattage to compete with guitar amps, i wasn't sure how much. I recently was playing with a guitarist who was using a 30 watt combo amp (line 6 spider II). I had to turn my line 6 lowdown 300 (combo) almost all the way up, although the channel volume was relatively low. Does anyone know of a ratio for bass-wattage-to-guitar-wattage? feel free to discuss similar situations.
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bass wattage vs. Guitar wattage
- Thread starter shortstack
- Start date
bongomania
Commercial User
Casual rule of thumb: use 10X their wattage. HOWEVER, the reality is that wattage does not directly correspond to loudness. If you want the "real deal" information, you'll need to spend some time reading both here and in the Amps forum, to learn the many techniques for getting enough loudness from your rig, almost irrespective of watts.
For instance, speaker area makes a huge difference, IIRC those spider II's are 12" and the lowdown is a 10"
The real issue is the combination of power AND the efficiency(sensitivity) of the speaker. Lots of power is no good with pig of a speaker and a really good speaker with high sensitivity is useless without any power.
Power + Sensitivity = Thunder
Whether it be guitars, bass, PA or whatever.
Read up in the amps forum here or the study hall section of Prosoundweb.com
Derek
Power + Sensitivity = Thunder
Whether it be guitars, bass, PA or whatever.
Read up in the amps forum here or the study hall section of Prosoundweb.com
Derek
