The New "What did you do with your Z today" (with off topic replies) XXXII

JLarson

Depends on what he's using it for. Playing live shows? Head is a good choice, although if they are small shows, he can probably get away with the 50 Watt. Bedroom jamming? Combo, head will be too loud. I'd recommend you listen to both though, because sometimes Combo amps with an open back sound much worse by comparison to a larger closed back cabinet + head.

Don't know how much experience you have in this area, so if I'm telling you stuff you know already, please feel free to ignore me! As you push tubes harder (volume up), the tubes start to naturally distort, getting a unique resonance and tone. Since that drastically affects the sound you're getting, it's really nice to have a wattage that matches your space and tolerance for noise. I find that even my 5 Watt tube amp is deafeningly loud when cranked up for bedroom jamming. In a practice space trying to play over a drummer and needing more head room, 45W or 50W may be a good choice. For a larger live gig, maybe you'd want 100W but even for small venues, 45 or 50W should be adequate. Note that this doesn't apply for solid state amps, for various reasons which I won't get into here.

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2014 370z Touring Sport Magma Red MT // BP Single Turbo 6467 // 63mm TB's // Z1 Ported Upper Mani // RJM Pedal // Zspeed Stage 3 Clutch // 526 WHP, 451 WTQ
2006 350z (Sold) // 1990 300zx (Sold) // 1985 300zx 2+2 (Sold)