Guitar Amp Myths Part 2 - Why Wattage is NOT a good measure of how loud your amp will go!

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👆 Captain Anderton recently caught up with Blackstar senior engineer Paul to tackle one of those big questions, will higher wattage give you more volume?

Let us know what you think in the comments!

This is a 4 part series... Part 3 is out next Saturday.

Interested in other Andertons YouTube channels? Click on one of these links to find out more…

[davidtomkins]

Amp volumes ought to be measured using an “amp vs drummer” rating as that is usually what determines whether you can be heard or not!

[jacko]

For easy reference amps should have a graphic "Neighbour Rating", like
🏡 😠😠😠

[renhoek]

To be fair, I'm not sure there's an easy way to explain engineering

[NKN]

But when your playing in your bedroom, 5WT small Marshall the same loud like jet airplane.

[schecterseven]

To much volume not enough talent, my biggest problem.

[matiastarkkala]

I think it would have been also nice to point out that people buy higher wattage amps just to be able to get more headroom, not just volume. But I really enjoy this series and am looking forward to more. Thumbs up!

[adozensparrows]

I got rid of my 5150 III to go Blackstar: HT40 MK-II. Much better & more versatile tone. Thank you, dudes at Blackstar!

[markz]

Lee thanks for bringing it back down to the ground at the end.

[bassmandudge]

Fantastically interesting video with the flow of information almost completely ruined by YouTube deciding to put 4 adverts in an 18 minute

[newtondelmar]

A 50-60 watt SS amp with one 12" super efficient (High SPL rating 98-99) speaker should be enough to gig with these days..just mic it up and you should be fine...
If not...check with you P.A. guy and your drummer :)

[lance]

Thanks, Paul. I didn't know that the output transformer of a tube amp was one reason why tube amps seem to be much louder than solid state amps.

[rorybninetythree]

Incredbily clear and informative talk from Paul here - understand more in 12 minutes about how amps work than I did after playing half my life!

[DavidRFIT]

The distorted channel of my Blackstar HT5-R (5w) is WAY louder than a Fender Mustang III (100w) and just about as loud as a Blues Jr. (15w) driven with a Wampler Sovereingn pedal... If that doesn't confuse you I don't know what does.

[OtherTheDave]

@11:46 I did not know any of that! I’d thought it was because tube amps could start distorting (and therefore put out more power) without have as much of an audible effect as compared to solid-state amps. Neat!

[Blackstaramps]

These Spinal Tap / Nigel Tufnel references are amusing. Maybe not surprising, I do come from the same part of London, Squatney.

[IPushHard]

What he's telling us is that an amps loudness is Voodoo Magic.

[SimonC]

Very cool -- I learned a lot from this one! Many thanks, Paul.

[jwlademann]

Saying that cheaper speakers are less sensitive and more expensive are more sensitive is a pretty big generalization, some high end speakers are less sensitive, e.g. smaller magnet Celestion speakers like G12M Greenbacks and G12M-65s and similar, which are far from cheap.

[Runoratsu]

This should be interesting!

PS: I wish Cap would let them end their explanations though, instead of cutting them off. It sounded like there were a few more interesting things going to be brought up, and now we'll never hear them…

[bennettskb]

Presumably somethings are changing as newer solid state amps appear to be getting louder?.... my Katana 50watt is bloody