Valve Watts

[Lozz196]

Depends on the room/stage really. In general at noon but on a bigger stage to get the fuller sound I’d bump it to max.

[BassAdder60]

1 minute ago, Lozz196 said:

Depends on the room/stage really. In general at noon but on a bigger stage to get the fuller sound I’d bump it to max.

Yep mine is around 11 to 12 o clock max 

[Quilly]

On 25/04/2022 at 16:42, BassAdder27 said:

My Ampeg SVT CL 300w head was perceivably louder than my ABM600 head.

 

Ive always thought the V4B 100w head would be nice but I fear it hasn’t got the volume for a very loud rock band ( not using PA ) 

A 100W valve head through a good 4*10 is hella loud, dont worry.   

[Quilly]

This old chestnut, not all SS amps are created equally for instance I’ve had a few wimpy class D heads but then I had a beast of an old school trace head that really put the flap into trouser flapping , that being said my valve 30w little bastard valve head really packs a punch . I had a 100w Ashdown valve head but never really got to open her up fully 

[JapanAxe]

On 25/04/2022 at 23:06, ossyrocks said:

Does anyone gig a Bassman 50, I’m genuinely interested?

I’ve gigged an Ampeg PF-50T and it was plenty loud enough through a Barefaced cab. When pushed it just got ‘furry’, which was delightful.

 

I’m planning to build a head based on a 50W Bassman. I’ll start a build diary on here once I get things moving.

[ossyrocks]

17 minutes ago, JapanAxe said:

I’ve gigged an Ampeg PF-50T and it was plenty loud enough through a Barefaced cab. When pushed it just got ‘furry’, which was delightful.

 

I’m planning to build a head based on a 50W Bassman. I’ll start a build diary on here once I get things moving.

Ah, I would love to see a build. I’ve been rebuilding and reviving old Fenders and Marshalls on and off for decades. I have an early 70’s Pro Reverb in bits on the bench right now. If yours works out, I might be tempted at a scratch build.

 

Rob

[JapanAxe]

1 minute ago, ossyrocks said:

Ah, I would love to see a build. I’ve been rebuilding and reviving old Fenders and Marshalls on and off for decades. I have an early 70’s Pro Reverb in bits on the bench right now. If yours works out, I might be tempted at a scratch build.

 

Rob

I built a single channel Ampeg B15-ish head last year.

 

[Reggaebass]

3 minutes ago, JapanAxe said:

I built a single channel Ampeg B15-ish head last year.

 

That amp looks so good, I did follow your build ,  really nice work 👍

[ossyrocks]

5 minutes ago, JapanAxe said:

I built a single channel Ampeg B15-ish head last year.

 

That’s about 30 watts? With that cab, how loud is it? Would it stretch to small gigs?

 

I love the smell of dust burning.

[JapanAxe]

17 minutes ago, ossyrocks said:

That’s about 30 watts? With that cab, how loud is it? Would it stretch to small gigs?

 

I love the smell of dust burning.

I measured the output at 22.5W before power amp distortion set in. I built it for home use, I don’t think it would keep up with a drummer.

 

EDIT: I made it cathode biased like the earlier models. I could have got a few more watts out of it if I had gone for grid bias and/or a solid state rectifier.

Edited May 5, 2022 by JapanAxe

[BassmanPaul]

On 05/05/2022 at 15:55, JapanAxe said:

I’ve gigged an Ampeg PF-50T and it was plenty loud enough through a Barefaced cab. When pushed it just got ‘furry’, which was delightful.

 

I’m planning to build a head based on a 50W Bassman. I’ll start a build diary on here once I get things moving.

The Bassman doesn't get 'Furry' it just gets full blown distortion. If you're going to the trouble of building an amp why not build something that's actually useful?

[Chienmortbb]

On 05/05/2022 at 20:55, JapanAxe said:

I’ve gigged an Ampeg PF-50T and it was plenty loud enough through a Barefaced cab. When pushed it just got ‘furry’, which was delightful.

 

I’m planning to build a head based on a 50W Bassman. I’ll start a build diary on here once I get things moving.

I would not bother. Put an FMV tone stack in front of a decent SS amp and it will serve you much better.

[Chienmortbb]

I  have had a Vox AC30 Bass Combo and a Fender Bassman 50 in my day and by modern day standards they are crap.

[Downunderwonder]

Horses for courses. I had a 50w tube amp, a NZ 'Bassman' which copied the front panel but not much else. It was great for low volume use, really sweet tone. If I could have mic'd it up for gigs without a hullabaloo from sound crew, every single goddamn time, I would have gladly kept it.

[Bunion]

Try putting a 12at valve in the V1 position you get a little less gain but more clean headroom 

[JapanAxe]

14 hours ago, BassmanPaul said:

The Bassman doesn't get 'Furry' it just gets full blown distortion. If you're going to the trouble of building an amp why not build something that's actually useful?

 

9 hours ago, Chienmortbb said:

I would not bother. Put an FMV tone stack in front of a decent SS amp and it will serve you much better.

 

9 hours ago, Chienmortbb said:

I  have had a Vox AC30 Bass Combo and a Fender Bassman 50 in my day and by modern day standards they are crap.

Well thanks for the encouragement chaps! 😂

Edited May 8, 2022 by JapanAxe

[JapanAxe]

14 hours ago, BassmanPaul said:

The Bassman doesn't get 'Furry' it just gets full blown distortion. If you're going to the trouble of building an amp why not build something that's actually useful?

 

9 hours ago, Chienmortbb said:

I would not bother. Put an FMV tone stack in front of a decent SS amp and it will serve you much better.

 

9 hours ago, Chienmortbb said:

I  have had a Vox AC30 Bass Combo and a Fender Bassman 50 in my day and by modern day standards they are crap.

Well thanks for the encouragement chaps! 😆

 

To the OP - sorry for the thread derailment!

[Downunderwonder]

4 minutes ago, JapanAxe said:

thread derailment

It's not derailment when it's all about tube watts, merits or otherwise.

 

I got on fine with my 50w but it wasn't worth the fight to get my cab mic'd, even bringing my own mic.

[BassmanPaul]

The best 50W amp I ever owned was  Leak TL50+ that I bought for five quid. I built a single ECC83 pre-amp, powered from the Leak and it worked very well. When I left the band to work outside of the city the new bass player exchanged his Bassman head for my Leak set up. 

[Chienmortbb]

On 25/04/2022 at 16:58, itu said:

Watt is not the same as loudness (expressed in decibels, dB), although they are faintly connected.

If you put the power into the same cabinet, the relationship between power, quoted in watts, and the  SPL is logarithmic. So a doubling of power results in a 3dB increase in the SPL. That is assuming that there is little or no power compression in the speaker.

[itu]

2 hours ago, Chienmortbb said:

If you put the power into the same cabinet, the relationship...

I am very much aware of this.

 

At the same time when we mix cabs and amps, the end result (loudness) can be calculated only from the system, not from the individual parts. Smaller wattage, but better sensitivity may be louder, than lots of watts and low sensitivity. And then the flatness of the response, and lowest reproducible f, and so on. (But you, too, know all this.)

[Quilly]

One of the nicest amps i ever used for bass was a Carlsbro 50top 50w guitar amp . I’m so sorry I sold that but it was a big of a heavy lump. Seemed plenty loud to me.

[bertbass]

On 09/05/2022 at 12:45, Quilly said:

One of the nicest amps i ever used for bass was a Carlsbro 50top 50w guitar amp . I’m so sorry I sold that but it was a big of a heavy lump. Seemed plenty loud to me.

I can only agree.  The shop that lent it to me to try only had a 50w, if they'd of had a 100w, I would have bought!  Perfect in every way.  All good amps were heavy then, this was when transistor amps were coming in but that were generally no at all loud and pretty rubbish.

[bigjohn]

I play in loud bands. I started out using a valve amp (a lovely 100W Hiwatt with matching 4x10) ended up going through a few solid state amps over the years. Mostly Ampegs, and latterly some pre/power amp set ups. I've fried nearly every single one. Even a quality UK made 600W power amp died a death. Power transistors all fail and catch fire eventually with me. The only survivor is my C-Audio ST600. That's a proper tank but it's heavy. That's also 600W. I used most of these with a very early Barefaced Big One and before that a couple of Acme Low B2s. 

 

About 15 years ago I did spend a year or so with a Marshall JCM800 Bass Series. That survived and did well but I went back to solid state for the weight. I set fire to my very expensive class D amp very quickly, though that was diagnosed as a faulty pre amp that killed it. 

 

I now use a Handbox WB100 into a Barefaced Big Twin Gen 3. It's loud. MUCH louder than my 600W amps were. I also use high and low pass filters to really squeeze out the frequencies I want. 

 

TLDR - Valve amps sound MUCH louder and when looked after, don't die on stage as often

[BassmanPaul]

If you were playing multiple amps through the same speaker cabinet when they failed I would suggest that your cabinet was at fault as the common denominator. Were you using a speaker cable terminated with 1/4" Phone jacks?