Ultimate Rhoads

From Robert Renman's site:

"Is 50 watt half as loud as 100 watts?

No! It is a common misconception. I often hear people talk about how a 50 watt Marshall is more appropriate for most people, since it's half the wattage. Really? It sure isn't half as loud!

The perceived volume difference between 50 and 100 watts is actually very small.

Here are the Wattage Facts

10 watts is half as loud as 100 watts.
1 watt is half as loud as 10 watts.
0.1 watt is half as loud as 1 watt.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how this decibel/loudness/wattage thing works."

I found this all quite enlightening.

One might ask, what do you get with 100 w vs 50 w. The answer is more head room. Also your tubes won't distort quite as much at higher volumes with 100 w.

I like 100 w heads because of the head room.

I like running my 5w blackstar through a 4x12 (160watts) and cranking the hell out of it....I almost feel sorry for it . The reality is with 5W once you hit about 5.5 on the volume it doesn't get any louder it just starts breaking up more

sytharnia wrote:I like running my 5w blackstar through a 4x12 (160watts) and cranking the hell out of it....I almost feel sorry for it . The reality is with 5W once you hit about 5.5 on the volume it doesn't get any louder it just starts breaking up more

I've got a 10W Fender amp that I never use above 2! There are a couple combo amps at the pawn shop down the street I have my eye on... a Fender and a Marshall, the reason being is they are tube amps and my current Fender is solid state... I miss the tubes!

I like my 5watt Blackstar because it doesn't **** my ears up!

On the side; In my experience Class A always seems a bit louder than ClassAB watt for watt. Any opinions?

Rob

Paul Wolfe wrote:I miss the tubes!

but do you miss the "oh man it sounded better yesterday" thing

sytharnia wrote:

Paul Wolfe wrote:I miss the tubes!

but do you miss the "oh man it sounded better yesterday" thing

No, I definitely don't miss that!

Got a confession to make, though... I always thought my amp was 10W but I checked the back this morning and it says 38 watts!

if I remember correctly, Ritchie Blackmore used to use 200W Marshalls