15-22watts is a basic range for most modern venues or rehearsals if you want to get power tube distortion. If you have enough time when you can play an amp loud then go for it, but get a good one that will last you years and be loud enough to gig with. The lower wattage generally means less clean headroom. Low wattage amps are still designed to be played turned up loud. Learn from my experience and mistakes.ĭon’t get a tube amp for playing quiet. Hi, I’ve clocked a lot of hours with vintage and modern tube amps of various brands, digital modeling amps and solid state amps.

that or perhaps get a big preamp voiced amp with gain, volume and master volume controls and run that through a 4x12 cab - it won't sound the same as if it were turned up to 'drummer volume', no, but the right amp can sound nice through a big cab at ultra low volumes. That is just physics: The least sensitive guitar speaker delivers ~93 dbSPL at 1 watt, so that ½ watt still delivers 90 dbSPL.And if you want that drive thing that tube amps do, you'll need to turn it up until the whole thing is close to its operating limits, which in turn will be way to loud for quiet home use.įor the truly volume constrained (kids, ultra thin walls, nonunderstanding significant other) digital is the choice for actual good tone at conversation volume levels. That out of the way, here comes my pet peeve: There simply is no reason whatsoever to buy tiny tube amps for low volume home use.Įven just 1 or 2 watts through a proper guitar speaker will be way louder than conversation volume. That is because there is no such thing as ' true tube tone' IRL - only online marketers would want you to believe that such a thing exists. First of all: Most people wouldn't recognize ' true tube tone' if it hit them between the legs with a wet towel.

Vox amps little