minimum watagge for jamming/gigging?

300-500 is the general consensus for SS or hybrid amps. 700-900 seems to be closing in though.

It depends how much clean headroom you want.

What are you going to use for a cab? Speakers play a bigger role in volume than wattage.

 

depends on the cab/cabs, the type of music and so on. an 8x10 is going to get a lot more volume for you than a 1x12. i was in one band for years that played loud punk with a metal edge. the drummer was so hard-hitting that i had to trade my 600 watt head in on a 1000 watt head (i was using a 1x18 and a 2x10), but these days if i can't play along with 500 watts, i'll move to another band.

 

$$$? Do you: a) need head only. b) need amp and speakers. c) Want combo. d) NO want combo.

 

I'd feel happy with 500 watts.

 

500 watts and a GOOD cabinet should do well for you in MANY situations. There is not really a "minimum" to hit, and it really depends on the cabinet you are using. Some people bust out the GK MB200 and blast it through an Ampeg 810e. That should get plenty loud, but the amount of low end and ability to play dynamically will be severely limited. Still, it may be plenty loud for a stage monitor and that's all some of us really need.

 

Speakers are going to play a larger role in overall volume than the amount of watts in your amp.

Type of band, style of music and the aggressiveness of the drummer will in a large part determine how much volume you need.

I sometimes use my SS 100 watt combo.............
Other times I use my 600 watt Mesa.
It all depends

 

200 watts with couple of 2x12 or 2x15 cabs. More cabs, more volume.

Btw, I still have a Sunn 2000 (120 watagge) and the big Sunn 2x15 JBL cab that I giiged with for many years in all types of venues w/o a problem sitting in the mix.

 

For myself in a 2 guitar rock band at moderate to loud levels. 200 watts into a 115 or 210 is the bare minimum, maxed out volume just to scrape the surface.

300 watts into a 410, 2x210s, or 2x115s is more comfortable, but there's little headroom if the cab/s are inefficient.

450+ into 2x210s, 2x215s, 212,610,810s is the most comfortable.

Your cab needs can be dictated by the sound reinforcement you may or may not have at a gig. I always build my rig to give me adequate volume with NO PA support.

I've been at several gigs where the less than adequate sound guy blows a monitor, has too much bass in the monitors, or just plain has no clue what he/she is doing. In those instances, I can fill the room myself and drop out of the monitors to give the rest of the band a better opportunity to hear.

 

Aren't the Watagge a nomadic tribe of lemming herders?

 

I would say the minimum is 200w. Depends on your needs though. I regularly gig a GK MB200 into a 4ohm Eden 212 playing smooth jazz, funk and r&b. I'm plenty loud in genres that are bass heavy in the mix.

 

100 watt head (tube preferred) should be plenty, through 2x15s (or a 4x10) for most rock.

An open mic I used to frequent had a Hartke B90 (or B900, I forget) SS 90 watt 1x15 bass amp combo that worked quite well for that room, with loud drummers! But more speakers improves volume.

 

Cab(s) with more/larger cones will require fewer watts. A pair of 112s and 500 watts is a pretty sweet spot, but a 115 and 200 watts might work well, and 100 watts with an 810 will as well.

 

Completely agree. IMO, in the grand scheme of things, I'd say that 400-500w into two 12s is a great middle ground between watts and speakers.

From there, less watts will need more cone (as noted), or less cone will need (lots) more watts. You could likely make do with 250w into a fridge, or use 1000w into a modern single-woofer supercab. Just a matter of what balance works best for your sound, back, and budget.

 

Amen to that.

 

I once tried running an old Ashdown MAG200 combo into a Marshall VBC412 cab instead of the builtin 2x10 speakers. It was FAR louder, it reached unpleasant sound pressure levels without being maxed. I agree that speaker surface matters more than watts.

 

The Wattage were a nomadic tribe of Minutemen, from the Boon-docks of San Pedro. They would hurley themselves around while jamming econo.

 

I use a GK MB800 into a 8ohm 410. So 500 watts most of the time. For large gigs I have another 410.

 

Every amp is different, but looking at heads 300 watts @ 8 ohm/500 @ 4ohm is the area I look. For just casual some of the micro heads are good, but I would not want to depend on them without FOH support.

 

I run about 300watts minimum for my 8ohm cab amp runs at 500 or so watts for my 4ohm 6X10. plenty loud never goes much past noon.