Apr 06, 2009 01:40 pm It's the preamp, EQ, and power amp for your speaker cab.
what does a head do?
Posted on Apr 06, 2009 01:37 pm
Tinstryde
giv me gear
Member Since: Jan 29, 2009
hey ppl! i knw this is really dumb but what is an amp head really used for?
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Apr 06, 2009 01:40 pm It's the preamp, EQ, and power amp for your speaker cab.
Apr 06, 2009 01:50 pm is it indispensible?can't a marshall mg15cdr do?
Apr 06, 2009 01:51 pm Mine can turn and nod, it also houses my brain, eyes, ears, nose and mouth. I get alot of use out of it, if it were stolen I would definitely get another!!!
Apr 06, 2009 01:54 pm i am having some trouble with my brain thing i'll go in for the new 4gb iq models.they're expensive though.rather buy meself a mesa boogie stack!
Apr 06, 2009 01:58 pm A speaker cab could care less about the brand of amp that it is attached to.
As long as it receives a amplified signal. That is not under it's rms rating, or not to far above.
Apr 06, 2009 02:01 pm hey ppl!tell me if i cn use a marshall mg15cdr instead of a head!
you guys have seen bigger idiots than me!
Apr 06, 2009 02:07 pm Quote:
hey ppl!tell me if i cn use a marshall mg15cdr instead of a head!
Yes.
Apr 06, 2009 02:15 pm that saves up lot of money!phew!
Apr 06, 2009 09:02 pm the area you are pluggin your lead into on your marshall is effectively the head.(where all the nobs are)
the speaker area is your cab.
a seperate head and cab are those "stacks" you see on stage at metal gigs mainly.
the difference between your amp and a stack, is multitudes of power, size, and more than likely tubes. your amp is proly solid state and 15 watt.
and the stacks are anywhere from 50 to 120 watt.
Apr 07, 2009 12:52 am Yeah, the Marshall MG is a solid-state series of amps. The mg15cdr is a 15-watt solid-state amp with a single 8" speaker. Not exactly a metal machine, but you could do lots worse for a first amp. My first amplifier was a 5-watt Gorilla, something similar to this beauty:
Worst.
Distortion.
Ever.
No contest.
I've heard hair combs covered in wax paper that generated better distortion than that thing did. But it didn't stop me from trying to play Metallica songs :)
But don't let looks fool you with stacks vs. combo amps. There are amp heads as low as .5 watts, and combo amps up to 200 watts or more. You can't judge a book by its cover with amps! Or books.
A lot of people get hung up on the looks of the amp instead of being hung up on how it actually sounds. Some people argue that stacks are necessary in order to be taken seriously as a stage act. That sounds like deep-seeded insecurity talking if you ask me. Little amps can sound big with the right tweaking, and big amps can sound totally weak when used improperly.
Apr 07, 2009 02:30 am "The mg15cdr is a 15-watt solid-state amp"
it is actually a 45 watt amp.
Apr 07, 2009 06:26 am i agree Tad to a point.
but a 50 watt combo amp worth 300bucks will never compare to a 100 watt tube amp and head for sound and recording.
IMO opinion you get what you pay for mostly.
maybe a mesa 50 watt combo or equiv. would stack up, being what they are worth and the quality of em.
ive used a number of combo amps under 60watts for recording and coz of the quality of the speaker for those amps, they just dont have the response.
thing is though, im talking heavy here.
my 60 watt combo sounds better clean than my 120 watt tube.
smash some heavy thru it and it complains.
im sure if i put a celestion in it, it would sound a **** load better anyway.
i guess you buy an amp depending on what you need it for.
on the gorrila, ha ha ha, geez i used to have one too man. a real little one. just like the pic. funny!
Apr 07, 2009 03:43 pm Quote:
it is actually a 45 watt amp
The MG15CDR is 15 watts according to Marshall's website:
www.marshallamps.com/prod...;pageType=SPECS
Quote:
but a 50 watt combo amp worth 300bucks will never compare to a 100 watt tube amp and head for sound and recording
I can't really agree with that. Price alone isn't going to gauge an amp's worth, and neither will its configuration (stack vs. combo) or even its wattage. Cabinet dimensions, speaker size and quality, open-back vs. closed-back, gain staging, tube quality and type, all come into play way before the price tag that hangs off of the handle :)
All that the 100 watts versus 50 watts affords you is more clean headroom (not much of a factor in heavily distorted tone). If an amp saturates at lower volume, I'd figure that'd be a benefit for heavy guitars and not a detriment. I mean, wouldn't you rather be able to get your desired tone at 90 dB rather than 125 dB? (I'm just pulling those numbers out of thin air...I don't know the actual SPL generated by any 50-watter or any 100-watter. There are way too many other variables that determine perceived volume than raw wattage).
It's like the JSX 120-watt 2x12 versus the JSX 120-watt head into a 4x12 cabinet that we discussed in another thread. The only difference you'd hear between the two is by and large the difference between a 2x12 and a 4x12, not the difference between a combo and head+cabinet.
What I'm getting at is that there are a ton of varibles from amp to amp. Whether or not the guts of the amp live in the same enclosure as the speakers is one of the smaller factors. Combo amps are usually different dimensions than a head+cab. So they sound different. But its too subjective to say that one sounds better than the other.
There's no telling what all other differences there are between your 50-watt combo and your 100-watt stack. Just the fact that one is a combo and one is a stack isn't going to make a huge difference.
Apr 07, 2009 05:33 pm Yep, its all relative really.
Take my little Valve Jr.
Granted it is modded, but it is still louder then another 35 watt solid state head we compared it too using the same single 12" Eminence.
It is only 5 watts, but it is all tube class A single ended. Granted, with the mod's it does not maintain a super clean tone into the loud range, but its plenty loud running clean. And extremely loud running on the high gain mod's and cranked up.
But it is a killer tone and beats the pants off the 35 watt solid state unit we tried.
Apr 07, 2009 08:20 pm what i was getting at is, a $300 combo amp would more than likely have pretty average speakers, compared to 2500 G stack.
im not really getting at the point, coz its a stack its better.
but if you were to buy a Mesa 50 watt combo which is around 2 and a half G's it would compare, due to the quality yer buying and the speaker.
I havent really tried the amps you guys use, but so far, ive not come across any small amp, say 15/20/45 watt, that even when sounds not too bad when playing, has any footing when recorded.
they just sound thinner, and lack the response (especially) on heavy mutes.
having said that ive not tried alot of smaller price range amps.
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