Guitar In The Church 10: Some Thoughts On Watts, by Sojourn's Mike Cosper

In today’s churches, the guitar is coming to dominate the landscape in the same way that the piano and organ once did. It’s important that as church musicians we give great care and thought to our guitar playing – everything from chord voicings to tones – so that the instrument is a servant of the congregation, not the star and not the distraction. Each week on Sojournmusic.com, Pastor Mike Cosper posts a guitarist’s feature, which will range from articles to links, online lessons and interviews:

Some Thoughts on Watts…
Wattage, that is, not the English non-conformist, poet, and father of the English hymn – though plenty will be said about him in this blog soon.

As a guitarist, nothing sounds more beautiful to me than a loud tube amplifier. When you turn up an amp, you run higher amounts of current through parts of the circuit causing the whole amp to work harder – the transformers, the capacitors, the tubes and more. The resulting sound is a dynamic, roaring beast. Pick harder, and the amp breaks up. Pick softer, and it gets clean and chimey. Pushing an amp to its brink sends all those components into distortion – even the speakers – and gives you as a player a wider range of dynamics at your disposal.

This is why you so often hear sound engineers telling guitarists to turn down. It’s not that guitarists are arrogant jerks who just want to hear themselves (or I should say, it’s not only that guitarists are arrogant jerks who just want to hear themselves) – it’s that amplifiers sound better turned up. Guitarists are more comfortable with them up because the amp responds organically to the player. No amount of amp modeling or even pre-amp distortion solves this problem because it doesn’t create the range of issues that a loud amp creates – preamp distortion gives you a few loud tubes – not the caps, transformers, output tubes, and speakers. (I refuse to even acknowledge digital modeling as worth talking about in a discussion of tone.)

So what are we to do in our churches? For that matter, what are we to do in most of our venues? The vast majority of us aren’t playing huge rooms where we can open up a 4×12 and let it rip. Let me offer two solutions:

Go low-wattage

Most classic amps are 40 watts or more – often much more. Fender Super Reverbs, Twins, and most of the Deville series are up over 40 watts. Even 30 watt amps – Orange, Matchless amps, and the Vox AC30 – are loud in big rooms. These amps sound great turned up about 30%, but take over a small to medium sized stage. Turned below that, they lose low end, punch and dynamic expressiveness.

So go low wattage. Way low. 15 watts or less. It at least gives you as a guitarist a fighting chance at good tone in a small room or a stage where volume is an issue. For inexpensive amps ($500) nothing touches Fender’s Pro Junior and Blues Junior. These amps sound fabulous with a mic in front of them. They record exceptionally well, and can be dynamic in a rock setting.

For a little more, check out Fender’s Princeton Reverb Reissue. It’s not quite as sweet and soulful as the originals, but it sounds great, and will set you back less than a grand.

If you want a Cadillac, go to headstrongamps.com.  These amplifiers are hand-wired clones of vintage fender amps, at a much better price point than most of the folks making this kind of amp.  The Lil’King Reverb is my current stage amp.

There are some great boutique options that run upwards of $2000. Check out Swart Amps – all low wattage, fun stuff.

I dare you to gig with one of these low-wattage wonders. Crank the amp up and fall in love – without making anyone in the band or the engineer mad.

Attenuate

Volume attenuators have been around for a long time. Essentially, it’s a box you plug in between your amplifier and speakers that controls your volume like a master volume. Unlike a master, however, it leaves your power amp tubes at whatever volume the amp is set. So adding an attenuator allows you to “cook” your amp’s power tubes, providing all of those tubes’ harmonic distortion without having to live with the overall volume. They’re expensive, but worth it. Be sure to test it with your amp before buying – I’ve used a few and they all sound different. I’m a fan of the Bad Cat Leash.  The THD Hot Plate also sounds pretty good.

Guitar In The Church 9: Kevin Twit of Indelible Grace, part two

Guitar In The Church 8: Kevin Twit of Indelible Grace, part one

Guitar In The Church 7: Guitar Scale Length

Guitar In The Church 6: Tuning And Intonation 102

Guitar In The Church 5: Tuning And Intonation 101

Guitar In The Church 4: Less Is More (Playing With Distortion)

Guitar In The Church 3: Adding Color To Guitar Parts

Guitar In The Church 2: Pursuing Excellence With Acoustic Guitar

Guitar In The Church 1: Jim Campilongo On The Lost Art Of Melodic Guitar Playing