https://guitarnoise.forum/live-sound/small-venues-how-many-watts/ Guitar Noise Discussion Board en-US Thu, 04 Jun 2026 20:48:32 +0000 wpForo 60 https://guitarnoise.forum/live-sound/small-venues-how-many-watts/#post-220192 Sat, 06 Jan 2007 21:43:11 +0000
To play gigs, you usually want a guitar amp at least 50 watts if solid state, and at least 30 watts if all tube amp. You can use smaller amps but you will run out of clean headroom. What I mean by that, is you want lots of "clean" volume. Even if you are in a Rock band, you are going to want to play some songs with clean guitar (no distortion). But if you have a loud drummer and bass player you are going to have to crank that little 20 watt solid state amp to max to get above them. The amp will distort and you will lose your clean tones. So this is why you want a powerful amp for gigging, so you can get clean tones at big volume. You can always get distortions with the amp's distortion channel or a good pedal. And as Kingpatzer said, if the other guitar player has a 100 watt amp, you are going to get drowned out. Guitar players tend to play as loud as possible no matter what. This is not good musicianship and will not make the band sound good, but they will play as loud as they can regardless. So if you have other players with powerful amps, you want something that can compete volume-wise.

You have already said your 30 watt solid state amp ain't cuttin' it, better get something like 100 watts. :wink:]]> Live Sound Wes Inman https://guitarnoise.forum/live-sound/small-venues-how-many-watts/#post-220192 https://guitarnoise.forum/live-sound/small-venues-how-many-watts/#post-219832 Fri, 05 Jan 2007 23:47:40 +0000 Live Sound GhostNoter https://guitarnoise.forum/live-sound/small-venues-how-many-watts/#post-219832 https://guitarnoise.forum/live-sound/small-venues-how-many-watts/#post-219831 Fri, 05 Jan 2007 23:44:59 +0000
You want to be in the same percieved volume band for everyone in the band if you're going to be playing a small venue iwthout a PA.

If you have a 20 watt amp and everyone else is playing through 120 watt monsters, you'll have a hell of a time getting everything to sound right. Particularly if everyone is on all-tube amps.

Digital amps are a slightly different story . . .]]> Live Sound kingpatzer https://guitarnoise.forum/live-sound/small-venues-how-many-watts/#post-219831 https://guitarnoise.forum/live-sound/small-venues-how-many-watts/#post-219794 Fri, 05 Jan 2007 22:42:06 +0000 Live Sound GhostNoter https://guitarnoise.forum/live-sound/small-venues-how-many-watts/#post-219794 https://guitarnoise.forum/live-sound/small-venues-how-many-watts/#post-219665 Fri, 05 Jan 2007 15:29:02 +0000 I was at a concert, where the main act played his reso through a 10W Vox Pathfinder amp to a hall set out banquet style (you could eat and drink during the concert) with an audience of 300+. He was plenty loud (his secret? He miked it through the house PA).]]> Live Sound greybeard https://guitarnoise.forum/live-sound/small-venues-how-many-watts/#post-219665 https://guitarnoise.forum/live-sound/small-venues-how-many-watts/#post-219664 Fri, 05 Jan 2007 15:21:00 +0000 Live Sound leear https://guitarnoise.forum/live-sound/small-venues-how-many-watts/#post-219664 https://guitarnoise.forum/live-sound/small-venues-how-many-watts/#post-219474 Thu, 04 Jan 2007 22:21:08 +0000 Live Sound GhostNoter https://guitarnoise.forum/live-sound/small-venues-how-many-watts/#post-219474 https://guitarnoise.forum/live-sound/small-venues-how-many-watts/#post-219453 Thu, 04 Jan 2007 21:26:51 +0000
Larger venues will need a sound system to augment that amp.]]> Live Sound kingpatzer https://guitarnoise.forum/live-sound/small-venues-how-many-watts/#post-219453 https://guitarnoise.forum/live-sound/small-venues-how-many-watts/#post-219444 Thu, 04 Jan 2007 20:46:27 +0000
Thanks for the replys, ill porbely only ever need not that much, as ill only ever do small gigs but the smaller PAs will proberly do me.]]> Live Sound GhostNoter https://guitarnoise.forum/live-sound/small-venues-how-many-watts/#post-219444 https://guitarnoise.forum/live-sound/small-venues-how-many-watts/#post-219217 Wed, 03 Jan 2007 23:25:30 +0000
keeping in mind what is mentioned above, i said make sure you have enough power going to each speaker, this being said if you are trying to play for 200 people, a pair of 200W RMS speakers at 8ohms will most likely NOT do it too well....Give me info on your gear and all I can better help You]]> Live Sound leear https://guitarnoise.forum/live-sound/small-venues-how-many-watts/#post-219217