Small bar gigs .. 200W enough for stage volume?!

[two fingers]

It depends on a lot of factors, not the least of which is the acoustics of the room/stage.

These days I usually carry my Ashdown LB30 (30W tube head) and an older EA 2-10. They get the job done plenty. I do put the whole thing on a mixer stand to the 10s are hitting me in the shoulder blades while I'm standing directly in front of it. But even 15 ft away when I'm singing I hear it fine.
Watts alone are only a small piece of the pie that will determine if your rig is enough.

 

[edbass]

2000s Spec Sheet View attachment 679578

Here's that rig "in Person".

150 pant flapping, vision blurring watts that will blow the walls out of even a massive bar venue, Sunn put this label on the back for a reason...

All you have to do is schlep it to the gig.
And own/rent/borrow a van.
And have stage crew or be genetically gifted with core body strength and/or work out a lot.


This 225 watt rig has more than I've ever needed for any bar venues, even without PA support and regardless of how hard the drummer hits.

Not exactly portable I suppose, but an ultralight mini rig compared to the 2000S. As D.M.N. posts, that 215 cab with a 60 watt head gets the job done in small-medium bar venues

Both examples of 200 watts being way more than enough for stage volume.

 

[DoctorDistorto]

Great thread! I love all the stories of relatively low powered tube bass rigs being more than adequate for live performance.

About 20 years ago my band played at the Tuff Rock Music Festival in Bishop, CA. We were an R&B group and I was playing a Rickenbacker 4004 Laredo through a ‘71 Fender Dual Showman Reverb (…might have been a 100w ‘69 Super Bassman…I brought both amps just in case one failed…) powering a Road built JBL 4530 “scoop” cab that housed a single K140. The venue was an old rock quarry and the stage area was hewn out of the rock face which helped project all the sound forward. At any rate, the sound guy opted not to run my bass through the PA, which was a pair of self-powered Mackie 18” subs and a pair of Mackie 15” mains. There was about 400+ people there, but I was told by our friends in the other band that my bass could be heard all over the place, in spite of not going through the PA. I’m sure the long-throw effect of the 4530 cab really contributed to that. It was basically designed to be the low end of a 2-way sound reinforcement system. I wouldn’t necessarily expect that same performance from a smaller ported cab with the same speaker.

I’ll admit it wasn’t an overly loud show. More laid-back, earthy hippie crowd. But I wasn’t running the amp hot by any means. Just goes to show what you can do with a little power if you have an efficient speaker in an efficient cabinet. I gave that cabinet away a little over a year ago, but kept the JBL. Wish I still had that cab! Really interesting sound! I’ve never felt and heard the bass guitar through any cabinet quite like that. Here’s a pic: