What's the smallest valve amp you have successfully gigged?

revsorg

Adding to the comment by @p90fool and following on from a conversation I had with Denis Cornell about a custom amp, but two amps is an interesting idea to pursue . Really small gigs you might just bring one, but if you have two relatively small amps you have a wealth of possibilities. Your total Wattage increases, you have broader sound dispersal, you can play around with stereo, have different amps for different sounds... etc. 

english_bob

Cornell Romany Plus. 10w, 1x12". Stays relatively clean with single coils if you're gentle with it.

xscaramanga

Fender Princeton for me too, but only when mic'ed up. Smallest rig I've used without going through the PA is an AC30 had into a 1x12 cab.

TTBZ

revsorg said:

Adding to the comment by @p90fool and following on from a conversation I had with Denis Cornell about a custom amp, but two amps is an interesting idea to pursue . Really small gigs you might just bring one, but if you have two relatively small amps you have a wealth of possibilities. Your total Wattage increases, you have broader sound dispersal, you can play around with stereo, have different amps for different sounds... etc. 

Being the lone guitarist in my band I've really been interested in running a small stereo setup. The idea being to just switch to one, more scooped sounding amp for verses and quieter parts, then kick in both amps (the 2nd set to a fuller, middier sound) for choruses etc. In my mind it would work well but not sure if that sort of thing is really noticeable to an audience. Kind of trying to emulate that with pedal stacking now (rat being boosted with a TS) but it's not really the same. 

I like the idea of having 2 of the Marshall Mini Jubilee combos in stereo

To answer the OP I gigged my 40w HRDx 1x12 a lot but definitely prefer the 50w into open back 2x12 I use now. Not really louder but definitely fuller and less boxy.

Modulus_Amps

I used to gig with a 10w amp all the time, but it depends on whether you want huge clean headroom on the stage or not and how your drummer plays.

ChrisCox1994

10w hagstrom 310, great for small bar gigs playing lead with an acoustic/singer type stuff. 

timhulio

Lebarque said:

Yep, agree with the above. 12-15 watt amps are great for gigging as long as they have an efficient 12 inch speaker.

Wisdom'd! I used a silver face Musicmaster Bass amp (12w) for guitar for ages. It's fitted with a Celestion Century Vintage speaker. Neodymium so it's also really light. 

olafgarten

I gigged a 5w Blackheart Little Giant with a V30 and No Mic at a small gig I did. It was plenty loud enough, even considering the other guitarist was playing through a Peavey Special 212.

Surprisingly, I was the one told to turn down!

jaytmon

Bad Cat Cub III 15R into a Port City 1x12 cab, plenty loud enough & sounds awesome too. 

Lent my old Lionheart 5w to a dep guitarist for a gig. Cranked it was loud enough for rhythm (mic'd) but I needed to turn him up on the desk for any solos to cut through. 

I used to use a Laney LC15R with 10" speaker for pub jams, just stick it on top of all the other amps. With a Marshall Jackhammer that little thing could really sing!

Grumpyrocker

The irony is I've never actually gigged my big Laney Ironheart 60W head. I've never needed to play a gig that required me lug round anything that big.

firepaulmusic

I used Koneguitarsts Fender Excelsior (1x12" converted) mic'd and had a great gig. Also used a Fender Pro Junior successfully.

menamestom

1 guitar band - 5 - 18 watts

2 guitar bands - more than the other bastard. Usually levels off around 200w

Danny1969

Literally hundreds of gigs with an HT5 , from the smallest pub to Portsmouth Guildhall. Like others have said, sensitive speaker makes a huge difference 

midlifecrisis

laney cub 12r upgraded speaker to eminence red wizard, un miced pub band loud drummer .. although it probably doesnt count (not strictly a valve amp) ive gigged a micro terror through a 12" un named cab, loud enough but no clean headroom

Cirrus

Smallest I ever ever used was a Vox Night Train NT-15 head and the matching 1x12 greenback cab. I can't say I particularly enjoyed it but that wasn't a fault of the power rating - it was just that I didn't particularly care for the tone of that amp. I'm sure a different 15 watt amp that was more up my street would have been just fine.

So I guess that wasn't exactly successful, though it depends how you define that; on the one hand, nobody died. On the other hand, I've never been carried out of the venue by a rioting crowd in Paris. The smallest amp I've gigged with and been totally happy with was an AC30.

Collings

I've used a Mesa Boogie Express on the 5w setting on a club gig mic,d up and also a Marshall Mini Jubilee set on 5w for an un mic,d pub gig. Had no problem on either occasion and the Mesa was set for clean.

TimmyO

2 different '18w' rated valve amps - a Marshall and a Dr Z, although the Dr Z was a fuck-ton louder than the Marshall. 

impmann

Successfully, regularly with a 20w Lionheart head - two guitar band and very noisy drummer, but good PA and pet soundman.

I also did a load of gigs with a WEM Clubman - I believe that they are 5w. This was unmic'd and playing to backing tracks with a singer/acoustic player.

Rocker

I played with a trad Irish & Country group in the early 1970s. I forget the name of our P.A. Amp but it was described as '15 Watts RMS output'. Speakers were two 2*12 cabinets and a single 1*12 for monitoring. We had 3 Shure microphones and a pickup fitted on a fiddle going into that little amp. I had a small separate guitar amp. The P.A. was powerful enough to fill a medium sized pub with sound. These days IEMs probably have more powerful amps!

mburekenge

5watt Victoria 5112