Amps for stage use

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on July 1, 2012 at 7:33am

SD (izzat you, Vecchio?),

Depends on the venue and crowd size. A 100-watt ValveKing is waaaayyy overkill for squats and small clubs, plus being a beeyotch for load-in / load-out weight. A 15-watter is good for those situations, Class A or AB tubes if you want the vintage grind, especially mic'ing through a PA. Heck, there are 1-watt DIY tube builds out there that, when hooked to the proper speakers, can rival a Marshall half stack for tone.

I normally run my stage setup this way, indoors or out: I bring 4 or 5 small amps with me, the largest and heaviest (about 30 pounds / 13kg ) of which is my 15-watt Crate V-16 Palomino (3 12AX7s, 2 EL34s, spring reverb, 12" Celestion)). I also use a 200-watt ZT Lunchbox (literally lunchbox-sized, solid state, 6" speaker, loves my multi-effects Digitech GNX-1, which the Crate definitely does not), a Pignose solid state, a Roland Stereo MobileCube solid state, and a Fender Champ 600 Re-issue (1 12AX7; that has been modified with an 8" Jensen MOD speaker to replace the original Weber, and newer resistors and caps for more headroom). The Fender and Crate are equipped with AmpClamps, to which I attach a Shure SM 57 pointed slightly off axis. The mic goes straight into the house board and PA. I just line 'em all up behind me, and move the mic from one to the next, on a tabletop mic stand for the amps without AmpClamps, depending on how I wanna sound. I tend to play most with the ZT Lunchbox lately. I'm also experimenting with a Li'l Smokey amp that runs off a 9V batt with a 2.5" speaker, for living room venues. Doesn't really need to be mic'd, and dirties up real nice.

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Permalink Reply by Swamp Dawg Primal Music on July 1, 2012 at 8:27am

Yeah, it's Vecchio...

Yeah, the VK is great for punk/hardcore/metal with a powerful drummer. My little Crate 15 watt is great at home, and I think it'll be the right size for playing mic'ed, but I like tubes. I was leaning towards something along the lines of an Orange Tiny Terror (the high gain type) run through a 1X10 or 2X10 cab, and using the Crate for my stomp box. I'd be running everything mic'ed through the PA, so I just need stage volumes, and not having competition from a drummer, second guitar and bass, I can keep volumes low and go through the house system after the amp has defined my sound. I like nice, dirty hokum blues played super high gain with a slide. I'm waiting on my JuJu single coil, which should give me the dirt I'm looking for with a good amp.

Click here for Orange Tiny Terror info

By the way, Oily, thanks for the info about Filbo, he's a great supplier, and is eyeing my gits when I come for neck wood!

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Permalink Reply by Slowpaw Steve T on July 1, 2012 at 8:42am

30 to 50 Watt amps should be adequate, they say the lower wattage amps sound sweeter, and you could always mic a small amp up to a PA system, many of the "big" guys do this.

I've had great results with Orange's Dual Terrror 15/30 watt tube amps in the studio, pretty confident about using it live for the first time!

The Marshall 4 x 10" cabinet is smaller than usual (24" x 24") and is for projection rather than volume, though it's loud if it wants to be! (-;

 

 

Marshall ASD50D combo (2 x 8") sounds well clean with Flatpup 4 Humbucker.

 

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Permalink Reply by Swamp Dawg Primal Music on July 1, 2012 at 8:57am

Nice setup! I was pointing towards way low stage volumes mic'ed to the house system, so I just need to define the sound with the amp and reach volume levels that will be reasonable for mic'ing. I also want small, lugging my 100watt valve head and 4X12 cab down 2 flights of rickety stairs in an abandoned factory is getting old (like me), so I need to lighten up and slim down. I prefer separate heads and cabs out of habit, but would consider a combo. I'm also looking at this 15 watt 2 channel high gain amp kit: Click here for MadAmp kit specs

I'm thinking 15 watt because I can crank it to 11 with lower stage volumes.

I'm also thinking about a 1X10 or 2X10 cab, a bit more highs than a 12", maybe a bit more whiny and low-fi when pushed.

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on July 1, 2012 at 9:11am

Yep, that's how I run my 15 watter: lots of gain to get the tubes to overdrive, but relatively low volume, let the PA do the work for the house. This works well with the Crate, but really well with the Fender Champ (which only weighs about 10 pounds).

 

Just for reference, Neil Young gets his monster distorted stage tone from a single mic'd old Fender Deluxe.

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Permalink Reply by Swamp Dawg Primal Music on July 1, 2012 at 12:21pm

Yeah, with 15 watts I can pump both the preamp and power tubes and still be heard over them. I think it'll be good for live recording, too, since I may get less bleed by keeping the volumes down.

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Permalink Reply by Swamp Dawg Primal Music on July 1, 2012 at 1:01pm

What about cabs? I find 8",10"and 12". I'm kinda looking for a whiny lofi sound, lots of treble.

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on July 1, 2012 at 3:14pm

I tend to use combos for the simple reason they're all in one, thus easiest to schlep. But if you have cabs, the smaller speaker will reduce your bass response; however, I'd go with the 12" for better clarity and definition, all else being equal, and then EQ with the amp knobs. A15-watt amp can drive any of those speaker sizes, assuming you pay proper homage to the speaker ohmage ;-).

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Permalink Reply by Swamp Dawg Primal Music on July 1, 2012 at 4:22pm

I like the looks of a stack, but yer right, combos are easier to schlep, especially when you slap wheels on 'em!

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on July 1, 2012 at 4:29pm

That's why I bring 4 or 5 little amps; I can stack 'em on top of the combo, and everyone thinks I'm crankin' it through all of 'em. ;-)

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Permalink Reply by Swamp Dawg Primal Music on July 1, 2012 at 4:35pm

Anyone used VHT amps? This one's got nice specs and a great price: Click here for 20watt VHT info

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Permalink Reply by HOLLOWBELLY on July 1, 2012 at 4:54pm

I've used a 15 watt valve amp in the early days-even that was total overkill.Nowadays I use a Roland cube 30x.Light in weight,relatively light on the wallet,valves dont blow (there arent any) and distortion quality perfectly adequate.Dont much like the reverb but you cant have it all I guess.Played small clubs to large fests-it always goes out thro the pa as you stated,.so venue size isnt an issue for your amp-thats an issue for the pa.

                  if you definitely wanna remain valve go low watt-look at how many manufacturers are (at last) cottoning on to the fact that big power valve amps are an impractical waste of time..making their amps well below 10 watts..if I were going down that route? I'd go 2 watts-seriously.Vox/Blackstar theyre all getting onto the low watt valve train-and with good reason in my opinion.

       Just my pennies worth-aint written in stone :0) cheers HB

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