Hi Myles:
I have a couple of questions regarding amp wattage. I am trying to educate myself regarding amps. When I was singing in bands back in the 80's my gutiarists usually had either 50w or 100w stacks and also a small 10-15 watt amp they used for practicing/writing but never for rehearsing or gigs because they were no way near powerfull enough. A lot of the beginner/practice combo amps are rated 10w-15w-25w and it looks like the cost is somewhat determined by how powerful they are but for the most part they seem to fall in the $100-$150 range.
I was doing some comparison and looked at Fender Champs, which I remember being used by a lot of guys in the 60's & 70's for studio work anyway, not sure if they were used on stage. They run somwhere in the $300-$400 range and I was surprised to find out that they are 15 watts.
These are probably a silly questions, but here goes:
Are amps like the Fender Champ strictly studio amps only that would have to be run through a PA if used live and the cost difference due to the quality of the compnents and sound?
Is there a difference in power between solid state and tube amps of the same wattage rating? Also, is there a difference in volume due to how many speakers the head is driving so that a more wattage is needed to achieve the same amount of volume with a full stack vs a half stack vs a combo?(I remember some guys opting for 50w over 100w because they got more distortion/crunch at the same volume)
Thanks!
