Now what people fail to realize with hendrix was that his live playing of the guitar was atrocious. Absolutely terrible, out of tune, out of time stoned nonsense bar a few divinely influenced moments. Far more a performer than a guitarist onstage.
His live playing of the amps was absolutely unequalled though. Something you cant do unless you can feel them amps hitting youlive and studio. Note also Claptons golden era was when he was playing with a ton of wattage hitting him in the chest. Even the beano album was recorded with that bluesbreaker on 10 in a confined room. You can hear it in the piano and vocal tracks too apparently.

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No no and no

You know this is the age old discussion, tone or watts! Whjen a lot of player go into the studio, they tone down the watts and go for pure tone. they can get a lot of great sounds with just 15 watts of tube. If your home, you don't need a high wattage package, but something that will allow you to work on your tone and ability. I know, I never practice with my Blues DeVille 410, but when I hit the stage,. no matter the venue, it';s the amp I bring. Though to be honest, it never gets over 4 in most bars.

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Lite Ash Tele, Partcaster Black Nashville Tele with Jason Lollars, Blues DeVille 410, Lunchbox 200 Watt Amp, Martin RTGE 00016 Acoustic

With valve amps of a certain size a lot of tone comes with the wattage. Yeah a maxed out 40 watt amp sounds great as does a maxed 5 watt. Neither performs or leads you to perform like a maxed 100watt stack, not half stack. You need those 12" speakers at ear height to really suffer it. Theres a lot of the amps tone in the stress placed on the speakers too. Something thats quite peculiar to bigger wattage amps. We never see a champ fitted with a 3watt 10" do we. You see plenty of stacks fitted with celestion 25's or vintage 30's. I know the combined eeffect of the speakers means they can handle the amp but its a lot closer than modern production uses. The old term for it was cone cry.

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No no and no

If you need more volume from a 15 watt tube amp have it mic'ed. It's much easier on the back . Just another reason why people don't need a 100 watt Marshall all the time.

This day and age has moved the PA Systems into the affordable zone.. You can go low watts get great tone and mike it up for the volume you need..

That being said I must say I am Old School.

Go Big Or Go Home……..Better to have more than You need and not use it then be left hanging..

Pile the Cabs up and crank the Heads to 11………LOL

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(80’s Hair Metal) = A snapshot in time before Grunge ruined Rock & Roll forever!!!!

When you see Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - an undeniably rocking band - playing live, Mike Campbell is standing in front of a very groovy-looking wall of Super Beatles, representing 300 watts of Vox madness.

Representing is all they do. His actual guitar sound is coming from low-wattage amps sitting offstage. Here's a quote from Mike on his current stage rig:

"We've gotten to a point where we've realized we can get a better sound if we keep the overall stage level quieter. So what I've been using on the last couple of tours is just a Fender Princeton positioned up in front of the stage and facing me. Behind me, I have a Fender Deluxe and my old Vox AC30 which are facing out from the side of the stage. I "feel" those amps more than I hear three amps in the house mix and blend them at his discretion. Mostly what I hear on stage, though, is the Princeton."

15 to 30 watts offstage, and a Princeton as a monitor, all mic'ed and blended to make the sound. For STADIUMS. And some of you fear that your 100-watt half stack might be insufficient for a bar gig?

BTW, mad props to nikininja for having the intelligence and chutzpah to speak the truth, which is: as a live guitar player, Hendrix usually made Jimmy Page sound like Julian Bream.

I use a 100watt marshall jcm800 with a power attenuator lowering the overall volume to around 10 watts for live stuff. That really is all you need when your serious about sounding good.
BUT I just cant deny the feeling of playing a 100watt stack at full tilt. Its a magical experience that everyone who wants to rock needs to try atleast once. Its useless outside the realms of self gratification, but does provide a lot of pleasure.

On Hendrix his playing live suffered because of showmanship in his earlier years. I can only assume drug use caused its decline towards the end of his career. I'm not seeking to bash the guy in anyway, im quite the hendrix fan. As i said previously no one before or after him played an amp like he did. He wasnt always bad live, look at the ready steady go clips of voodoo chile and sunshine of your love. Sunshine is a classic impromptu masterpiece performance. If you look at the rainbow bridge era of his performances they were shockingly bad. Lack lustre, horrible sounding affaris.

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No no and no

Hence my disdain for the Hendrix legend. I don't temper my opinion of the music just because he's some kind of Dead Icon.

But, to stay on topic: those 70's bands we were all in, when we all had the big stacks and at least 100 tube watts on stage... c'mon, fess up: we sucked, didn't we? WAY too loud, poorly balanced, pure "D" crap. Even big-time touring pros did little better than create a huge, unintelligible noise ("Dude, I think they're playing 25 or 6 to 4!"). Today I note that, while "rockers" are often satisfied with making that same noise, musicians wish to be heard. Lower volume, better articulated amps, being able to freakin' HEAR each other... that's how music gets made.

I can't imagine being able to use more than 20 watts live, even in the biggest local venue.

Wow. 'Did not expect this many replies. Thanks for the amp input, so to speak.

Mentally standing back, the music room just plain LOOKS better with some "visible" squre footage of amps with hip dials and glowing stuff and grillecloth staring at one than literally, some nano-amp of single-digits square inches dwarfed by the coaster for the glass of bourbon.

So, IF you COULD get a for example, Fender Micro-Twin or Micro-Super-Sonic or Micro-Bassman which delivered 250-square foot room beaucoup tres hip mongo supa-fine tone and volume from an amp-something, half the size of a size of an Ipod...

...WOULD YOU BE WILLING to part with ALL your overpowering (albeit delicious-looking) amps for home use?

(Playing-out gear is not up for discussion, here. If you fancy 3 jumpered Dual Showmans for promotional playing of songs on your new CD of death metal lullabies at the local Babies-R-Us on Saturday afternoon, have at it, let's talk home playing space for now)

Huh?

The sound reinforcement systems are just so much better today. Years ago PA systems just sucked so you needed high wattage amps to play bigger venues. I have my Twin and I have my low wattage amps too. I'll never get anything but clean from my Twin without pedals. My Champ or Dano DM10... that's another story.

If you play loud, do yourself a favor and use ear plugs. I developed Tinnitus from years of playing in high powered bands from the 70's to the mid 90's. It no fun and sometimes the whistling in the ears just drives you crazy.

Small amps are great if that's all you can afford. My Carvin V3 is 50 or 100 watt switchable. At home it's usually set at 50 watts. When I take it "out and about" it's set at 100!

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"Life is like eating jalapenos. What you do today may burn your arse tomorrow"

That's hilarious! "All you can afford." Very, very funny.

You should look up the price of a 20-watt Fuchs Overdrive Supreme and then compare it to the price of your Carvin.

If you play loud, do yourself a favor and use ear plugs. I developed Tinnitus from years of playing in high powered bands from the 70's to the mid 90's. It no fun and sometimes the whistling in the ears just drives you crazy.

The person that wrote this is the wise one. I have the same issue, and lots of amps for whatever the occasion calls for. From Pignose to infinaty(sp?)!

I read the Spinal Tap link & totally agree and I love my '59 Champ for living room, studio & live. Ever seen Clapton "Nothing But The Blues"? Take a look at what they are using. I'll bet the avg wattage per amp on stage is less than 15. However, I love by Bassmans. It depends on the room! Oh I forgot, I'm just a harp player...oops...I'll shut up now. BUT A LOUD GUITARIST CAUSED MY TINNITUS and I fell into that trap to mach his stage volume. Funny, it only took a '59 Bassman to match his Boogie.[/quote]