Billy at 300 Guitars answers the question “how many watts should my amp be?” Like most things, the answer depends on how you will be using the amp. Performance at a noisy club? Practicing at home? Luckily, Billy provides a quick primer on the basics of amps and gets you started on the right path of picking out what works best for you.
“From the above definitions watts and decibels are two different things. You can have a relatively low powered amp that is very loud and would be able to keep up with a drummer on a stage with no problem. Just because you have more watts does not always mean you are going to be louder and the watts increase is not directly proportional to the decibel increase. Take for example two Marshall heads. Let’s say one is rated for 50 watts and the other 100 watts. By looking at the watts you would think that the 100 watt head would be twice as loud because it has twice the power right? Wrong! The loudness difference between the 50 watt amp and the 100 watt amp is only 3 decibels (dB) which is not really a drastic difference. It would take 10 times the power of the 50 watt head to be twice as loud as the 100 watt head which is 500 watts! Ouch…..!”
(photo by the yankee quido)
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
>Thanks for the post. I might just need a new amp.
>I'm just thinking back to the heavy metal spoof band that had their amps go up to 11 because that was loder than 10! 30 watts and above is my opinion. For gigging…probably 100 minimum.