does anybody gig with low wattage amps?

[markD]

i have been digging the idea of getting a small, low watt head for playing tiny places. my band has been playing theaters and larger outdoor venues for a while, but we are looking to try and get back into playing some tiny bars so we can play out more. a theater show every couple of months is cool, but not enough to satisfy out desire to gig.

as many of you know, i use a 120 watt rivera rig for our usual shows. while it does give me the ability to bump down its wattage, the rig still takes up too much floor space.

the amps i have played that give me a sound that i like are the egnater tweaker and the vox night train. both have the sound i like, and the tweaker has an effects loop, but i am concerned if the amp will be loud enough. i know some of you will chime in about mic'ing the amp through the PA and stuff, but we are looking at venues that only have vocal systems, so the amp would have to hang on its own accord.

anyone use one of these little things and gig? what has your experience taught you? i am used to having a big rig, hahaha....

[catzodellamarina]

My experience has been that "little" is easy to define but more difficult to deliver. A 30-watt tube amp may sound little on paper, but in a small club w/cab it's still plenty loud. Maybe a rack setup with a Mesa 20/20 and play out of one side? Alternate channels per gigs to even out the tube usage.

[markD]

not interested in going rack. i am looking for something that will take up as little a footprint on stage as possible. i have killer shit for playing 90% of the gigs my band does. i mentioned those two heads because i can combine them with a 1x10" cabd i have and take up about a foot and a half of stage space with my rig.

i have several head choices:

rivera M60
rivera M100
rivera S120
marshall 2204

a few cabs to choose from:

rivera C112 (x2)
rivera C210
mesa rectifier 2x12
B52 AT412

i have a couple of combos to choose from:

rivera M100
fender twin reverb

in a worst case senario i can bring the rivera M60 along with a rivera C112 cab and get the job done. the M60 will lower its output to 5 watts. it isn't so much the wattage as much as it is the floor space.

we are booked into a dive-bar that has a stage that is 6'X8'. the last stage we played was 55'X25' with a 12,000 watt sound system when we opened for steven adler's band. the gig before that was 60'X40' with a 20,000 watt sound system when we opened for lillian axe, so moving into a bar is going to be weird for us....but we want more shows, so.....

thanks! and please keep the suggestions coming!!!

[roodyrocker]

Low wattage amps can be deceiving. I too gig with a few high power amps (Bogner Uberschall, Ecsatsy, and lately a non-master volume Marshall Randy Rhoads). My band plays local clubs and some are small. If I use the Marshall RR 1/2 stack, I have to run an attenuator with it no matter what size the club is because a non-master volume Marshall JMP amp is plain loud!
For the smaller clubs I use my Bad Cat Hot Cat 30 combo. This is where the low wattage issue can be deceiving. The Hot Cat 30 is a Class A amp and that 30w can hang with some pretty loud company. But it does have a small footprint on stage so I use it.
If you want an even lower wattage alternative, the Marshall Class 5 is a simple and tiny amp. Its a pretty loud 5w though and depending on how loud the rest of your guys are on stage, this might work for you. The distortion on it though is more vintage and if you need something else then a pedal in front of it might be in order. I have this amp at home and its a fun little amp! It has a speaker out and can drive a 16 ohm 4x12 cab if you want to use something besides its little 10" factory Celestion speaker. These are under $500 new.
The ultimate option would be an Axe Fx going into a powered monitor. I've use mine going into a powered QSC HPR 122i. The QSC is pole mounted near me and can sound great from whisper quiet all the way up to its 450w rating. If you need it through the PA as well, simply run another xlr cable out from it directly to front of house. This is expensive but it takes up little space, sounds great at all volumes, has all the effects built in that you could want, great clean or distrotion sounds, and sets up and tears down literally in minutes.
It all depends on how much you want to spend on the set up and how simple/complex you want it to be.

[Twitch]

i have been digging the idea of getting a small, low watt head for playing tiny places. my band has been playing theaters and larger outdoor venues for a while, but we are looking to try and get back into playing some tiny bars so we can play out more. a theater show every couple of months is cool, but not enough to satisfy out desire to gig.

as many of you know, i use a 120 watt rivera rig for our usual shows. while it does give me the ability to bump down its wattage, the rig still takes up too much floor space.

the amps i have played that give me a sound that i like are the egnater tweaker and the vox night train. both have the sound i like, and the tweaker has an effects loop, but i am concerned if the amp will be loud enough. i know some of you will chime in about mic'ing the amp through the PA and stuff, but we are looking at venues that only have vocal systems, so the amp would have to hang on its own accord.

anyone use one of these little things and gig? what has your experience taught you? i am used to having a big rig, hahaha....

My experience has been that most small bars dont have adequate monitoring to make a low wattage rig useful. In most instances weve found that we actually rely heavily on having our amps behind us for monitoring our playing. In these situations its a necessity to have at least a 50w amp to be able to hear our selves over the drummer who in these small bars is literally inches away from us.

[Grim]

i have been digging the idea of getting a small, low watt head for playing tiny places. my band has been playing theaters and larger outdoor venues for a while, but we are looking to try and get back into playing some tiny bars so we can play out more. a theater show every couple of months is cool, but not enough to satisfy out desire to gig.

as many of you know, i use a 120 watt rivera rig for our usual shows. while it does give me the ability to bump down its wattage, the rig still takes up too much floor space.

the amps i have played that give me a sound that i like are the egnater tweaker and the vox night train. both have the sound i like, and the tweaker has an effects loop, but i am concerned if the amp will be loud enough. i know some of you will chime in about mic'ing the amp through the PA and stuff, but we are looking at venues that only have vocal systems, so the amp would have to hang on its own accord.

anyone use one of these little things and gig? what has your experience taught you? i am used to having a big rig, hahaha....

No, but I attenuate my amps sometimes. Volume comes more from speakers than wattage anyways... aside from a higher wattage having more headroom. I gig(ged) with a 2x12 for bars, possibly a 4x12 for outdoor gigs (Which have not happened in a very long time.)

And also, always have NS-2s. Always.

[Grim]

not interested in going rack. i am looking for something that will take up as little a footprint on stage as possible. i have killer shit for playing 90% of the gigs my band does. i mentioned those two heads because i can combine them with a 1x10" cabd i have and take up about a foot and a half of stage space with my rig.

i have several head choices:

rivera M60
rivera M100
rivera S120
marshall 2204

a few cabs to choose from:

rivera C112 (x2)
rivera C210
mesa rectifier 2x12
B52 AT412

i have a couple of combos to choose from:

rivera M100
fender twin reverb

in a worst case senario i can bring the rivera M60 along with a rivera C112 cab and get the job done. the M60 will lower its output to 5 watts. it isn't so much the wattage as much as it is the floor space.

we are booked into a dive-bar that has a stage that is 6'X8'. the last stage we played was 55'X25' with a 12,000 watt sound system when we opened for steven adler's band. the gig before that was 60'X40' with a 20,000 watt sound system when we opened for lillian axe, so moving into a bar is going to be weird for us....but we want more shows, so.....

thanks! and please keep the suggestions coming!!!

Rectifier cabs are excellent. I've been using them for years. In fact, I still have my original 4x12 I bought way back when. It's a tank. And they sound great with ANYTHING. Honestly, I've never heard a recto cab sound bad.

[catzodellamarina]

How about THD stuff? Their heads have a small footprint, wide range of wattage, and I think some of their amps come with their popular Hotplate built in.

[markD]

funny that you say that. i was looking at the bi-valve and the jet city pico-valve today. that may be the route....

[bratfink]

I don't even practice at home with a small amp! I probably should though!

[markD]

i feel you. i practice at home with 100 watt amps running around 3-4 on the master.

we played the gig last night, and i brought my M100 1x12 combo. i put it on its side and it worked fine. it was weird though. the drummer used half his kit - normally he uses 4 toms, for this show he used 2. the bassist normally uses an SWR rig with 1x18 and a 2x10 cab. he borrowed a friend's little ampeg BA112. i used the rivera and no effects. surprisingly, we sounded awesome.

the drums and the amps were on the "stage". the singer, bassist, and myself stood on the floor in front of the stage. we brought our own monitor system, and it is a good thing we did!!! all in all, it was an ok show. it was fun in a "commando" kinda way.

i did end up running the rivera in triode/half power, which puts the amp output around 10 watts. i got to keep the volume in a good place and still got the power tubes juiced enough to sound the way i like them to. it was still pretty loud, but the sound was balanced.

hahaha, i have gotten spoiled playing killer gigs where my rig can be ultra self-indulgent. this was a great learning experience and i am actually looking forward to playing more small places now that i know i have a way to make it work.