Comments on: Rethinking Guitar – Drones and Tone – Guest Post http://www.effectsbay.com/2010/01/rethinking-guitar-drones-and-tone-guest-post/ Talking about guitar effects Wed, 08 Feb 2012 18:37:45 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Scott http://www.effectsbay.com/2010/01/rethinking-guitar-drones-and-tone-guest-post/comment-page-1/#comment-3219 Scott Fri, 29 Jan 2010 01:55:29 +0000 http://www.effectsbay.com/?p=1064#comment-3219 Tone - another thing worth thinking about: use a head that's low wattage. 18 W is perfect for a class A amp. The advantage to this is that you can run the pre and post sections hard and get that beautiful clipping/saturation without killing everyone with volume. Think about it, with your marshall/mesa/fender 100w amp, when have you ever had the master above 2? The channel sounds great cos you're running it hard and saturating the small pre valves (usually 12AX7 or similar) but you can't hit the power section really hard because you'll drown everyone out. With a smaller amp you'll still have plenty of volume to compete with your drummer (especially if you have a 2 or 4x12) but you'll fit in the mix much better. Trust me, your sound man will love you for it and so will your audience. You can safely ignore the above ramblings if you're opening for AC/DC in a stadium anytime soon. Tone – another thing worth thinking about:
use a head that’s low wattage. 18 W is perfect for a class A amp.
The advantage to this is that you can run the pre and post sections hard and get that beautiful clipping/saturation without killing everyone with volume. Think about it, with your marshall/mesa/fender 100w amp, when have you ever had the master above 2? The channel sounds great cos you’re running it hard and saturating the small pre valves (usually 12AX7 or similar) but you can’t hit the power section really hard because you’ll drown everyone out.
With a smaller amp you’ll still have plenty of volume to compete with your drummer (especially if you have a 2 or 4×12) but you’ll fit in the mix much better. Trust me, your sound man will love you for it and so will your audience.
You can safely ignore the above ramblings if you’re opening for AC/DC in a stadium anytime soon.

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