Help please guys!!-two nooby questions about amplification!

[Trotters]

Hey all, I need your advice!!

Currrently I'm playing with a drummer and my 50w amp can just about cope with his caveman like sounds However I think I need to upgrade to a more powerful one....what size should I get?and what on earth are those amps which have a "head" on top of them, what are they for??

Finally, with regards to amplifiying a singer, what gear should I use.??...I'm guessing a guitar amp won't do but I'm too skint to buy a PA and I'm scared by them as I don't know much about them

Thanks for listening,

Trotters

[SteveB]

TRT - Tell your drummer to play softer! If you and your mate are playing in an enclosed space and your 50w amp can't compete with the drum sound, then there isn't going to be much left of either of your hearing in about a week. For God's sake, turn the thing down! Never equate volume with talent. Tell your drummer to use his hands or put towels on the drums.

The 'head' of a combo amp/speaker contains the amplifier. If you have the head only, then you will need the speaker cabinet, usually the BIG black box beneath the head. Hope that helps.

[Geir]

ahhh drummers eh ?

no way to silence them, unless they've grown out of their skin outfit and can be convinced to buy a digital drumset.

To you question : You're gonna have hearing-loss in a few years time !! But if that's acceptable .....

A 50w should be enough. You just have to place it so the speaker is directed towards you. Put it on a chair and tilt it upwards.

Alternatively you could buy a stack. You would then need at least one, preferably two, 4x10 cabinets and a head:



or to be sure to be heard over the drummer, something like this:




good luck.


..


just so you will hear this in a month :

GOOD LUCK !!!!!!.

[Trotters]

haha yes I don't play on max all the time ......

so with these stack things....I get what the speaker cabinet does (obviously) but the head??does that just contain all the knobs and stuff?

oh and any advice for the singing question??

[madrab]

I'd say there are 50W amps and there are 50W amps. An old 50W tube amp is really loud, but a transistor... The old fender super reverb was 40 or 45 I think, but it was loud.
The speakers matters alot as well.
And even the form of the speaker kabinet — open or closed back.
No one said it was easy.

[upsetminded]

For the singing question....If you are on a budget there are a few cheapo guitar amps (Line 6 and Vantage) that are under 100$ that also have mic inputs.  I find once you fiddle with the high, mid and low and a little reverb they make a fairly decent PA'ish sound for singing.....

Now that's coming from a guy who is really skint.  If you want a garage sound it works...If you are a pro ear you won't like it.

[launched]

A 50w should be enough. You just have to place it so the speaker is directed towards you. Put it on a chair and tilt it upwards.

I agree that 50W is all you need - and what Upsetminded said. Above that use a PA amp. 50W is tone stealing enough as it is. If you just want to play loud, then go ahead and spend your hard earned money. But from listening to some of your posts I can tell you want things to sound good. A used PA rig is a dime a dozen and much cheaper and can be used for all kinds of other things too. And Peavey makes a 1200 watt PA amp for under $600. It's tough built and sounds great, too.

Best thing you can do is put your drummer in Jazz mode - Quiet Down!! If you are bigger than he is, no problem. If not, get some earplugs!   Unless you are playing out, there is no need for him to kill the room.

But in the end, do whatever makes you happy...

[BossMicroBRew]

haha yes I don't play on max all the time ......

so with these stack things....I get what the speaker cabinet does (obviously) but the head??does that just contain all the knobs and stuff?

oh and any advice for the singing question??

Yes, the cabinet is just a wood box with some speakers screwed on the front. The head does all the work; you plug your guitar into it, it amplifies it and contorts it to how you set the knobs, then sends the signal to the cabinet.

If you were to saw the top of your 50W amp off, then place it back on top of your speaker, it would basically be the same thing on a much smaller scale (except non-functional)  

As far as singing...you could always use your 50W amp as your PA once you get your stack up and running. You might need a small and cheap Phantom-powered mixer($40 -$50 USD will get you one) to power your mic before sending to the amp though.

Might not be the best advice in town but it will get you up and running.

[Geir]

All good advice here, but what you really should do (if you're loaded at least) is to do as blooby. I've tried that too, except we used headphones ...and it's a bliss !!!

[launched]

All good advice here, but what you really should do (if you're loaded at least) is to do as blooby. I've tried that too, except we used headphones ...and it's a bliss !!!

I just did that with some friends up in Maine last weekend. The guitarist has a 100W dual rec Mesa Boogie and the drummer plays like Animal on the muppets. I have a Firebass 700W head that I leave up there so they can gig, but I can't hear anything when those guys are battling one another.

They have an 8 channel headphone amp, which made things much better. Direct drive on the instruments from the heads into the rack recorder, and we had the drummer play a little bit quieter. It worked pretty slick - If I could talk them into e-drums that would be great, but probably not. Maybe the cops wouldn't show up so much