50 or 100 Watts?

[TannisRoot]

Which is better, 50 or 100 watts? Typically I like amp distortion. Currently play a 20 watt cranked and want more volume and fatness.

[Corey Y]

If I'm using a dirt pedal of some sort, I prefer 100W for guitar. If I'm using amp distortion I usually prefer 50W, since if headroom isn't an issue there's usually not a significant volume difference. Depends on the individual amp though.

[everdrone]

moar is betta


unless you have to turn down!

[RacerX]

There's not a huge difference in apparent volume between 50 & 100 watt amps, so I tend to agree with Corey Y: if you want power tube distortion, lower wattage is better.

[giantchris]

Personally I'd say 50watt.  You can usually get a better quality head for the same price and at least around here absolutely nobody will let you dime a 100watter anyways so might as well go quality>quantity.

[Submarine]

it varies by brand but some 50 watters sound better than their 100 watt counterparts and vice versa. 

[Mr. Foxen]

Watts don't determine a great deal about how stuff acts when you play it. Other factors will dominate.

[everdrone]

nothing sounds like anything else, use your ears young jedi

[mortlock]

go big or go small.

sometimes the turtle wins the race grasshopper.

[liquidsmoke]

50 will probably do you right but read lots of reviews.

[stooge]

if you want crunch
get a low watter
no mor than (ac)30 needed
you can crank it up and it´ll sound great
with a 100 watter you will need tons of distortion pedals

[CID Vicious]

How flabby do you like your low end?

The mini heads are all flabby to me IME.

I LOVED a JCM900 2500 50w on half powed though.

I just pull a pair of tubes on an old school 100 watter & adjust load accordingly.

Some tube high gain heads like the triple recto have 150w and high headroom, & some players dig it. A marshall type amp might sound better to a thrash player at 100w for a given volume than a 50w - still worked but not maxed.

However there's no "double power" switch on a 50 watter, & used prices between 50 & 100 watt tube heads is mostly a wash.

[liquidsmoke]

Ah yes, get a head with selectable power. 25/50/100

[socket]

60 Watt

[jibberish]

from the OP's style, it sounds like an incremental power upgrade would be a higher percentage first try for getting what he is looking for.

in other words, I would also be out there auditioning 40 and 50 watt amps to see if the extra 3dB of volume with still the well driven sound you like, does the trick.

still not enough beef, THEN start on the 80/100 watt amps which would be more like 6dB louder than a 20 watter. 

after hanging out with the red giant guys for all that time, I got used to their sound(LP standards->big muffs->marshall stacks)

fully driven 100 watt marshalls into 2 4x12s basically flays your face off. drums have to be mic'd to hear them. I hurt myself in their practice space with just 1 4x12 heh.
also, at this bar/venue place right by the GC I go to they used to have a live band metal/rock karaoke thing. they had a wonderful carvin house pa setup. i covet it, ALL of it...anyways
they had a hotrod deville or wtf 50w 2x12 fender combo onstage and that thing, on the floor kind of behind everyone, cut through the whole soundfield. I was impressed.

[everdrone]

the OP should specify what type of music and what he is tuning too

for ultra low doom you just wont get the neeeded low end out of most 50 watters unless you play out of a full stack, not satisfying to my ears, I hated my marshall for this, just no low end

I have an orange thunderverb 50 but it has bass transformers so it has low end for days

[dogfood]

There is something about a 100w head.  They have "it".

[Dylan Thomas]

If I'm using a dirt pedal of some sort, I prefer 100W for guitar. If I'm using amp distortion I usually prefer 50W, since if headroom isn't an issue there's usually not a significant volume difference. Depends on the individual amp though.

I agree with this.  I used to be a more is better kinda guy on principal, though experimenting with different amps in the studio over the last 20 years has changed my tune.

Let's just put it this way - my 100w amp used to break windows in venues, knock bottles off the bar, and get us shut down after playing one song.  That was with the volume halfway up and an old 4x12 with halfway decent speakers.

I have an old Soundcity 120 with the six EL34's in it.  For all intents and purposes, it's unusable it's so loud.  I played one gig with it and the 100W in NYC, and ron from these boards said it was the loudest guitar rig he'd ever heard, and that it was just too loud.  That dude has seen more shows than god.  Sometimes loud just ain't good.

I still use an OR120, so 120 watts, though I keep it sparkling clean and push it with dirt pedals.  If I'm using an amp for its natural distortion, I like a 15-30 watter.  A 30 watt is plenty loud to play shows with.  I have one of those old Crate AC30 clones in my garage, it sounds radical cranked up.

[TannisRoot]

Tuning is drop d. Music is 60s garage to master of reality stuff.

[Dylan Thomas]

60's garage?  Yeah, just get an AC30 and crank the shit out of it!!

[Danny G]

With tube amps, 50 to 100 watts is really only about 20% more volume.

Goto a local store with a great used selection and try everything.

Figure out what you like then try to track it down for the best price.

Sent from my QTAQZ3 using Tapatalk

[Pissy]

There's is something though in the jump from 50 to 100 that is hard to describe.  100's have it, 50's generally don't.  I'd call it dick.  100's have dick.  50's have sugar.

[xander face]

My Orange Overdrive 80 and my Matamp Classic 120 are essentially identical.  All knobs dimed, through the same speakers, the 120w doesn't necessarily sound louder but it feels bigger.  Lows shake your ribs harder.  Maybe my ears are wrecked and I'm not able to hear the difference as much as i can feel it... haha.  The Matamp has a more effective master volume though, so it tends to stay home while the Orange gets me the same basic sound live.

I've read that a 100w amp is only like 3dB louder than a 50w so it really is more about how soon you hit overdrive than it is volume.  You want to assume a 150w amp is going to be a metal monster but it's actually super loud and clean...

[jibberish]

that's the rule: double the power for a 3dB volume increase.

what is 3dB?  when you turn up your stereo enough so you can tell it is a little bit louder.
decibels vs power increase is a logarithmic(non-linear) thing. if you want to double your volume, that takes 10 times the power.

so a 100watt amp can get twice as loud as a 10 watt amp (10dB is double volume). 
you would need 1000 watts to get twice as loud as a 100 watt amp.

if you tested volumes of this sequence of amps with these power values: 1->2->5->10/12->18/20->40/50->85/100    each step up would be about a 3dB volume increase

hth

[everdrone]

Tuning is drop d. Music is 60s garage to master of reality stuff.

I vote for 50 watts too!

I like the low end for my chugga chugga style of playing but your not doing much of that