Is a 22 watt tube amp suitable for home use?

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BarnyardCoral
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Re: Is a 22 watt tube amp suitable for home use?

Post by BarnyardCoral » Fri Oct 22, 2021 12:54 pm

FWIW, I use a 24w Supro Saturn as a "bedroom amp" and I use an AIAB for my low volume OD tones. My current AIAB is a Catalinbread Formula 5F6. I've found it to have the most natural, amp-like sounds out of the various ones I've tried. So yeah, a 22w tube amp can work fine.
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Re: Is a 22 watt tube amp suitable for home use?

Post by s_mcsleazy » Sat Oct 23, 2021 1:59 am

i'm using a traynor guitar mate reverb as my home amp AND..... yeah. it's not overwhelmingly loud, but it's barely running past 2 on volume. still, not like i was going to be able to use my normal rig in the flat...... hell, i carried it up the stairs once and decided "never again"
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Re: Is a 22 watt tube amp suitable for home use?

Post by marqueemoon » Sat Oct 23, 2021 10:29 am

I got the 20ish watt Swart AST that now lives at my practice space in May 2020, so it spent some time at home while things were locked down.

Obviously no meaningful overdriven amp sounds were possible at home volumes. I found that a Klone (Archer Ikon) was super helpful in bringing this amp to life at low levels though, and I’m pretty sure it would do the same for others.

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Re: Is a 22 watt tube amp suitable for home use?

Post by Larsongs » Sun Oct 24, 2021 7:54 am

I’m rediscovering an old Fender Champion 110 Amp I bought back in the late 80’s or early 90’s if I recall. I haven’t played this thing in years…..

Last night I was up late & didn’t want to make a lot of noise so I plugged it in, grabbed a Tele, some Headphones & played it for a while..

It has a Clean Channel & a Drive Channel. EQ has Bass, Mid & Treble. Has Inputs for Headphone, included Foot switch & one for External Spkr. It’s a bit smaller than my Fender 65 PRRI..

I’m not a big fan of Digital Amps but was able to dial in pretty good Cleans & Drive & was surprised as to why I haven’t been using it for my late night playing all along?

I don’t know if there are any of these little Amps out there any more but thought I’d mention it…..

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Re: Is a 22 watt tube amp suitable for home use?

Post by noisepunk » Sun Oct 24, 2021 11:14 am

HedonismBot wrote:
Sun Oct 17, 2021 2:24 pm
Also, what are the pros and cons of the attenuator switch vs master volume control?

P.S: it’s been a while so thanks for bearing with my possibly dumb questions.
someone with a better understanding of circuitry will hopefully chime in, but functionally, in my experience attenuators make the amp sound like a lower wattage version of itself (complete with lower breakup point) whereas a master volume knob, past a point, will sound like the amp is a bit starved of energy, if that makes any sense... i imagine what i'm hearing equates to a difference in how the highs and/or lows are rolled off.

garyfanclub wrote:
Mon Oct 18, 2021 1:36 pm
I run a 18W Ampeg Reverborocket in my apartment, works fine and sounds good - I play fairly clean though, I *do* use an Echoplex preamp to fatten thing up a bit but other than that, no complaints from the neighbors or from me tone-wise.

That said it's *definitely* overkill... requisite pron

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yum–i'd love to get my hands on one of those.

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Re: Is a 22 watt tube amp suitable for home use?

Post by MayTheFuzzBeWithYou » Sun Oct 24, 2021 1:16 pm

andy_tchp wrote:
Fri Oct 15, 2021 6:55 pm
MatthewK wrote:
Fri Oct 15, 2021 6:40 pm
tribi9 wrote:
Fri Oct 15, 2021 5:51 pm
I got a 50 watt amp in my bedroom. :ph34r:
go hard *and* go home!
Silverface Vibrosonic Reverb under the desk and a BF Showman on top of an EVM 15L equipped 1x15" in the spare room. I think with both I could probably serenade/annoy the 'neighbours' on the other side of the valley several kilometres away.
Hehe, that‘s my kind of taste.
Dripedge Bandmaster (40W) with a 2x15 Bassman cab in the living room. Would probably be enough to raise the attention of the whole neighbourhood - but on about 3-4 it‘s loud enough to feel and sound really good.

I‘d recommend getting an amp that you really like AND feature either a master volume or an effect-loop (best one with adjustable volume) my Supersonic 60 was always too loud and THIS + an AY7 instead an AX7 made it tame-able).
I also tried the tube amp doctor silencer before but it took so much of the dynamics. Can‘t say much about inbuilt attenuators or those half-power switches though. Orange has these often, right? And so does the new Tone Master series Deluxe Reverb. Maybe this would be a good starting point.

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Re: Is a 22 watt tube amp suitable for home use?

Post by Larsongs » Sun Oct 24, 2021 9:30 pm

Larsongs wrote:
Sun Oct 24, 2021 7:54 am
I’m rediscovering an old Fender Champion 110 Amp I bought back in the late 80’s or early 90’s if I recall. I haven’t played this thing in years…..

Last night I was up late & didn’t want to make a lot of noise so I plugged it in, grabbed a Tele, some Headphones & played it for a while..

It has a Clean Channel & a Drive Channel. EQ has Bass, Mid & Treble. Has Inputs for Headphone, included Foot switch & one for External Spkr. It’s a bit smaller than my Fender 65 PRRI..

I’m not a big fan of Digital Amps but was able to dial in pretty good Cleans & Drive & was surprised as to why I haven’t been using it for my late night playing all along?

I don’t know if there are any of these little Amps out there any more but thought I’d mention it…..
Well, I played it today without headphones at normal volume.. Now, I remember why I haven’t played it in years! Shrill, harsh, annoying Digital sound!

A friend of mine got a 5 Watt Blackstar Tube Amp.. I think someone here has one too.. I think they sound great for Rockin’ at low volume!

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Re: Is a 22 watt tube amp suitable for home use?

Post by sookwinder » Mon Oct 25, 2021 6:33 am

Just commenting on master volume control.
There are a number of circuit designs that can be used to achieve a master volume functionality…IMO some good some crap. The type I have used in my designs successfully is the Post Phase Inverter Master Volume PPIMV

Overdrive and distortion can occur both in the amp circuitry and the speakers. Obviously we are just talking about it occurring in the circuitry as the volume when using a master volume dimed down would not cause any speaker related distortion to occur

If the master volume is located after the phase inverter and before the power valves the sound produced at low master volume levels should and will have any overdrive produced by the preamp circuitry. It will not have and overdrive or distortion that could be produced by the power valves being run at their limit… ie at “11”

I can achieve awesome creamy (BF circuit) or aggressive Neil young style sound (tweed circuit) with the master volume set way down, as the preamp is still running as per normal and with the preamp volume control set high normal overdrive will occur in the 12AX7 or 12AY7 preamp valves
In fact when I record with the amps I have built with PPIMV I normally never have the master volume at 10
I will set up the sound I want via the preamp sound and the raise the over all volume to a level where the speaker is chugging away quite nicely

The fundemtal question I have is do people really want to achieve loud overdrive sounds and low room volumes?
The human ear hears sound differently depending upon the level of the sound. So what you set up at high volume levels probably won’t sound good at low room levels or at least it will sound different

I used to run one of my amps that I built with a MV in my lounge room…. these days I just use a Vibro Champ
Just easier to use and if I want some FX just plug them in before the VC
relaxing alternative to doing actual work ...

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Re: Is a 22 watt tube amp suitable for home use?

Post by Larsongs » Mon Oct 25, 2021 11:36 am

sookwinder wrote:
Mon Oct 25, 2021 6:33 am
Just commenting on master volume control.
There are a number of circuit designs that can be used to achieve a master volume functionality…IMO some good some crap. The type I have used in my designs successfully is the Post Phase Inverter Master Volume PPIMV

Overdrive and distortion can occur both in the amp circuitry and the speakers. Obviously we are just talking about it occurring in the circuitry as the volume when using a master volume dimed down would not cause any speaker related distortion to occur

If the master volume is located after the phase inverter and before the power valves the sound produced at low master volume levels should and will have any overdrive produced by the preamp circuitry. It will not have and overdrive or distortion that could be produced by the power valves being run at their limit… ie at “11”

I can achieve awesome creamy (BF circuit) or aggressive Neil young style sound (tweed circuit) with the master volume set way down, as the preamp is still running as per normal and with the preamp volume control set high normal overdrive will occur in the 12AX7 or 12AY7 preamp valves
In fact when I record with the amps I have built with PPIMV I normally never have the master volume at 10
I will set up the sound I want via the preamp sound and the raise the over all volume to a level where the speaker is chugging away quite nicely

The fundemtal question I have is do people really want to achieve loud overdrive sounds and low room volumes?
The human ear hears sound differently depending upon the level of the sound. So what you set up at high volume levels probably won’t sound good at low room levels or at least it will sound different

I used to run one of my amps that I built with a MV in my lounge room…. these days I just use a Vibro Champ
Just easier to use and if I want some FX just plug them in before the VC
I seldom, if ever run anything, 10… My AC15 & AC10 can have Master Volume at low levels & then dial in the Top Boost to taste..

Works ideal for Low, Medium & Loud Volumes…

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Re: Is a 22 watt tube amp suitable for home use?

Post by HNB » Sat Oct 30, 2021 8:11 am

Not tube, but my new number 1 amp. :) Totally loud enough for my living room and even likely to practice with a band. (Could be mic'ed on stage and it also has a preamp out to go into a power amp or something similar.)

It is AMAZING. The clean and dirty channel is awesome. Three band EQ. The chorus isn't really useable for me (just has speed control), but everything else is 10/10. I like having it at 4. Beautiful cleans and you don't have to worry about running it louder to get the tubes working.

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Re: Is a 22 watt tube amp suitable for home use?

Post by hulakatt » Mon Jan 17, 2022 6:08 am

If you're driving an amp into OD than a Champ is loud. If you're looking for lush cleans, a Twin Reverb is great. If you're jacking straight in, turn up the amp and turn your guitar's Vol knob down for even better cleans.
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Re: Is a 22 watt tube amp suitable for home use?

Post by hulakatt » Mon Jan 17, 2022 6:08 am

I use a BF Bassman or jtm45 a lot around the house so...
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