Advantages of using smaller amplifiers
Submitted by: Al Loya In the Jar Studios
Stage volume has always a problem for musicians that play the
local clubs. In my 20 years of playing music and 5 years of
running sound, I have learned many things that I should and
shouldn't do as a musician. In the following paragraphs I will
discuss the advantages of using smaller amps.
As a guitarist one of my concerns was not being able to hear
myself on stage, even back many moons ago when I did use my half
stack. I noticed that many of the guitarist in other more
seasoned (veterans) bands were using combos and amps with single
speakers. I got the nerve to ask one of them the reason that he
used such a small amp.
His answer astonished me, and here is what he said, "I use a
small amp because I can over drive the speaker at lower levels
allowing me to get the sound that I want with out blowing the
heads of the people in the first few rows, it also gives the
sound man the ability to increase the volume to the monitors,
and I use an amp stand that tilts my amp towards my ears so I
can monitor my playing regardless of what the sound guy does."
This my fellow guitarist was and still is sage advice.
I started researching this advice, I watched videos of my
favorite players and notice a trend they were using smaller
amps, and yet the sound was great. I mean guys like Paul
McCartney, Robert Cray, Neal Young and many other artist were
actually using smaller amps.
One thing to remember is that you and the rest of the band have
microphones in front of your amps or are going through at line
out from the rear of your amp and the sound is in turn going
through the P.A. where the crowd of your adoring fans are out
listening to you. Your amp doesn't need to be huge to be able to
be heard the microphone does a great job of reproducing the
sound, and great result can be achieved.
Another reason for using smaller amplifiers is that they are not
as heavy as the larger counter parts. They can be carried by one
person using usually one hand. Yet another reason is they don't
take up as much space in your vehicle, and save space on stage
as well.
So there you have it, smaller amps can sound over driven at
lower levels, they don't take up as much space in your vehicle
and on stage, setup and specifically tear down is not a much
work on your body when you have less weight to have to lug
around. Just a few advantages of using smaller amplifiers.