Tips: Getting the highest clean headroom from your amp.

Sessionman

Hello, I haven't posted here for a long time.  As I was drawn here for another reason and because I am frequently asked about amp Clean Headroom - It seems a hot consideration these days - so I thought I'd drop this publication on you, hoping it might offer some help to those who struggle in that area:  http://www.award-session.com/pdfs/Clean_Headroom_1.pdf

Bare in mind though, that certain rock orientated amps can never achieve a clean sound!  Hope you find it useful.

olafgarten

I think the answer to Clean Headroom is a Vox AC30 or a Fender Twin.

ICBM

olafgarten said:

I think the answer to Clean Headroom is a Vox AC30 or a Fender Twin.

No, it's a Peavey Renown. 210 watts of the hardest, boldest solid-state power ever built into a 2x12" combo with very efficient speakers… literally painfully loud before it will break up. (And arguably worse when it does!) It will make your teeth hurt as well as feeling like steel spikes are being driven into your ears.

The AC30 doesn't actually have that much clean headroom, in fact.

Winny_Pooh

Its been decades since I've had too little clean headroom.

richardhomer

I reckon I could shout louder than the clean channel on my LSS....

Sassafras

I'm very tempted to get a Peavey Renown after that glowing endorsement from @ICBM ;
  
Best loud cleans I've had have been from a Twin. Great punchy sound.

Gassage

olafgarten said:

I think the answer to Clean Headroom is a Vox AC30 or a Fender Twin.

Hiwatt or getthefuckouttatown.

professorben

Gassage said:

olafgarten said:

I think the answer to Clean Headroom is a Vox AC30 or a Fender Twin.

Hiwatt or getthefuckouttatown.

Seriously no one of any merit used a HiWatt. 

ICBM

Gassage said:

Hiwatt or getthefuckouttatown.

True - Hiwatt 400. The two I've worked on put out around 450W, clean - the most powerful production valve amps I know of. The Fender 400PS bass amp may nearly match that too, although I've never had the privilege of working on one... an amp so heavy it came with its own wheeled trolley - for the head!

Voxman

ICBM said:

olafgarten said:

I think the answer to Clean Headroom is a Vox AC30 or a Fender Twin.

No, it's a Peavey Renown. 210 watts of the hardest, boldest solid-state power ever built into a 2x12" combo with very efficient speakers… literally painfully loud before it will break up. (And arguably worse when it does!) It will make your teeth hurt as well as feeling like steel spikes are being driven into your ears.

The AC30 doesn't actually have that much clean headroom, in fact.

+1 re AC30. Another great amp for clean headroom is the HH IC100. Insanely loud 2x12 combo with very cool brushed aluminium fascia that lights up green! 

Sessionman

Interesting comments, and yes, I'd forgotten about all those old amps you all mentioned!

Isn't it strange though, how people seem to go out and buy a small amp around 15-25 Watts and then say its got no clean headroom!  What should they expect is my thought!

On the other hand, there are all those bigger 50W+ dual channel amps with a channel marked 'Clean Channel' where the circuit CANNOT drive the power amp to full clean power before the preamp runs into distortion first!  What are these designers actually thinking when they come up with amp designs like that?

It's almost common practise to find emails daily now, asking about the clean headroom on my products.  So it's perfectly clear to me that the amp market WANTS amps that will play clean right up the point the power amps runs out of power!  Not at all a difficult ability for an amp designer TBH!

ICBM - Yeah I agree, the AC 30 is not really that loud.  But its two efficient 12" speakers delivering its 28 Watts can 'sound' like it's very loud in a confined space!

Voxman - The HH IC100 is an old favourite of mine too - power amp wise.  It was, back in 1971 as far as I know, the first guitar amp to feature 'Constant Current' (CC) speaker drive!  All the HH amps had it, even the PA amps!  This would account for their deafening loudness! 

CC has the ability to mimic exactly how an output transformer drives the speakers in a valve/tube amp.  Even to the point of allowing the speakers to overshot their travel back and forth by about 10-15%, which accounts for the legendary valve amp volume.  100 Watts of HH power was the same as 100 Watts of valve power in loudness.  I just didn't like their preamp designs...OK, but a bit rudimentary and as if a hi fi designer had been let loose on them!

57Deluxe

stick it up on a chair!