how many watts do you need to jam with a band?

Without knowing the size of the room

My guitarist plays a 100 watt amp
My drummer is loud

I am pushing about 530 watts out of a 8 ohm Avatar 212 Delta cab and have enough power.

 

200 - 300 W bass amp/combo (either 4x10" or 2x10")

if the guitar amp is about 100 - 120 W

and you can tame the drummer.


general idea
my €.02

 

I would say a 100 watts indoors if everybody keeps the volume down, but knowing how jams go 300 watts would have you covered indoors or outdoors. Anything under a 100 watts is going to sound like a fart if people start cranking up.

 

It really depends on the room and how loud everyone is. I can rehearse with my seven piece band (horns, keys, guitars, drums) in a basement with a Hartke 60 watt combo no problem. It all depends on how loud you all get.

 

That should do it. Make sure the drummer is not playing too loud, and make sure that the guitar player is not turned up to insane volumes. If one stupid person gets the idea to play too loud, then everyone joins in. You should all be just loud enough to balance the drummer, and your drummer should not be playing full on hard. And don't feel like you need to turn up the "bass" of your amp. If you turn up the volume and then pull up the "bass" frequences, your sound could turn muddy and unclear and give you the incorrect impression that you need more wattage.

 

I would say 200- 350 would do, Also IMO it is better to have more then enough power with some headroom and just turn down if needed rather then pushing a unit to it's limit and getting a bad tone and distortion.

 

Kind of off topic, but it seems like overkill to me to have a 100 watt tube amp with a 412 cab for a garage/living room jam

 

I play in a living room with a markbass LMII so 500 watts though 410s and one 18 both cabs at 8ohm, and my guitar player and his 3/4 stack(fender twin 2x12 combo and marshall 4x12) and his 100 tube watts and my loud ass drumer (with his 28''x20'' bass drum)cant over power me, and i can go as quiet as I want, plus gig with this same set up Id recommend it

 

sheer genius seriously listen to this guy if you can get your band to sound good quiet youll only sound better piss loud

 

My band practices at club volumes. Great for practicing your string muting. At lower volumes you dont pick up the string noise.

 

Yea, That and a dozen pedels.
Kids!

 

One of my guitar players has a small 1x12 combo, and a 4x12/100 watt tube head. I prefer the sound of the 4x12 and some tubes at ANY volume. A good guitar player should know how loud they need to be, and when they need to not be loud.

 

are you going combo or head/cab?

if you have the money i wouldnt even bother getting a combo.

if you play rock/metal with a hard drummer and 100 watt tube amps you are going to want some power behind you.

 

Raising the amp to ear level works wonders for me... I practice in a 20 x 10' room with drums and guitar (playing through Mesa and Fender combos) and use a 200 W 2x10 Yorkville combo on top of a 18 + 2x10 no name cab that happened to be there, and I get all the volume I need. I actually don't run my bass at full volume!

 

I'm in a similar situation. 280w will only get the job done for a little while, if you're gonna be jammin, go as many watts as you can and you won't be sorry.

 

30 works for me.

 

eleven.