Loud drummer, best cheap amps

[Thegearman#7]

Maybe this is the problem with being a gear hound. No gear will ever be able to fully compensate for a lack of professionalism. Some problems are only fixed by replacing the problem with someone that's NOT a problem.

Dude! You've never heard me play, you don't know me..jumping to major conclusions, u have any idea how many great players have gone through alot of gear, as well as have tried many setups? What does raising this question have to do w anything its a pretty common occurrence. Usually I'd just whip out a Marshall w 4x12 and be done w it, just asking what cats are using lately. But hey whatever man judge away

 

[wilburpan]

Yes, I've been a massive gear hound over the yrs. But lately I've just been recording w minimal gear. At the moment I'm doing a few sessions maybe live gigs w a loud rock drummer he can't come down in volume I've tried. I'm not gonna get a Marshall and 4x12 I'm usually a blues and jazz guy. Right now no PA so can't mic it. Saw that Duncan 175 or 200 pedal that acts like a head considering that. Just seeing what u guys use lately that's got some volume I know many of us have been going lower watt and I totally get that. Much thanks in advance

Assuming your smaller amp is on the floor, raising the amp has worked well for me in this sort of situation. I used to just put my amp on a milk crate. This was with a 1980's Fender Concert, which was 60 watts, but just a single 12" speaker.

 

[Cedar]

No PA?

So this is instrumentical?

 

[PeddleGuy]

This is my wheelhouse.

Depends on the amp.. I have a little 22 watt with a 12" that will keep up with any drummer all day, but I can dime that amp and not worry about blowing it up. On the other hand, if I play my DSL 40 at full volume, well I'd be sweating after 2 songs.. wondering when - not if - it will fail on me.

You can try cutting some low-end from your sound. You don't need it to cut through, and it might tighten up the mids a bit.

More speakers can be louder but it depends on the space. Often times an open-back 2x12 will be far louder "sounding" than a 4x12 because of the directional component.

Also, the highs will be the death of you.. Those are the "Ice pick" frequencies that cause everyone to plug their ears. If you have darker speakers like Vintage 30, or Lead 80, you can turn them up louder with a higher perceived volume - cut through better - and not hurt everyone's ears.

Raising the amp can help, but placing it farther away from you can also help, believe it or not, because these sound waves caused by 12" speakers actually take space to develop.

Earplugs will cut out the high's from the cymbals - which are why your drummer is so loud. It's not how hard he hits the drums - it's the thick ringing cymbals he's smashing as hard as he can over & over... block those frequencies and the mids will seem louder.

 

[GCDEF]

I use a 5 watt Champ most of the time at the jam I go to and it is not miked. Sometime drummers say I am too loud!

A 5 watt amp won't keep up with any drummer I've ever played with.

This should be in the amp forum

 

[Captngeetch]

I take my Egnater Tweaker 15 head and either the matching 1x12 or my 2x12 cab (depending on my back pain that day) when I go jam with my drummer friend. He is a heavy hitter. Plays lefty on a righthanded kit so his hihat had is really heavy. It keeps up just fine. Used to drag my 100w head and 4x12 but it was overkill and I need help loading/unloading. I recently built a Low wattage Marshall JCM800 clone. Puts out 20/40w depending on the mode I switch it to (pentode/triode). Look forward to using that next time. So 15-30w tube amp would be more than enough. Solid state I would think you’d need 40-50w at least. I used to use my Marshall VS265R to jam using pedals. That was a hybrid (I doubt the 12ax7 did anything tho) 65w a side in stereo and it fared well albeit not as loud as a mono amp.

 

[Mister Natural]

Roland Cube - loud & just about indestructible being thrown in and out of your van / rehearsal / stage

 

[John(aka: Moby Dick)]

You need tube watts.
A Marshall dsl40 is about the least power/price point you should be looking at.
Maybe a Peavey classic 30.
But more power is more cushion.

 

[Motterpaul]

I would get a Marshall DSL 40. Or one of the older DSL 50w. Those things crank.

An older Peavey 2x12 50-watt for $250 is also an option.

 

[Billy Moss]

You should ask this question in the amp forum.

You will get better advice.

 

[instructorMan]

Three words for this volume war: 80s Peavey Bandit.

Brutishly loud.

 

[doc]

Cheap and loud is almost the definition of a Peavey solid state amp like the Bandit. Came into this thread to say that, but instructorMan beat me by a few minutes. Check locally online and in the pawn shops, they almost always have one. You should be able to find an old Bandit for about $150 to $200 in most areas.

 

[fenderjapan]

Don't overengineer this, just get a loud amp that sounds good. Get a Peavey Bandit. Red Stripe, ideally. Any of the transtube Peavey Bandit models will do. Mine lives downstairs so I can grab it and go for literally any possible gig in any possible genre.

Get the footswitch, bring a tuner, good to go.

 

[Neer]

Yes, I've been a massive gear hound over the yrs. But lately I've just been recording w minimal gear. At the moment I'm doing a few sessions maybe live gigs w a loud rock drummer he can't come down in volume I've tried. I'm not gonna get a Marshall and 4x12 I'm usually a blues and jazz guy. Right now no PA so can't mic it. Saw that Duncan 175 or 200 pedal that acts like a head considering that. Just seeing what u guys use lately that's got some volume I know many of us have been going lower watt and I totally get that. Much thanks in advance

Don’t forget earplugs, man. Trust me.

 

[fenderjapan]

With amps like the Peavey Bandit you are going to see a lot of "local pickup only" shopping online because shipping a bandit costs about twice as much as it did even a month ago, so I would hit every used music store, guitar center, music go round, etc. in the area to try to find one. Even craigs.

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[tracyk]

I paid $90 at a pawn shop for my Peavey Studio Pro 112. It's a slightly smaller and lighter version of the Bandit and it can hang with a metal drummer just fine. It even sounds pretty good when cranked up, the "TransTube Technology" is legit.

These days I play straight to PA, but I've kept the Peavey sitting in the garage in case I ever need to use it.

 

[Dubious]

Dynamics and drums are related to the genre your playing as much as the drummer themselves.

When i played in a death metal band we certaibly had intros and breakdowns and interlides where the volume came down and the nuances came out but 90% of the set was full throttle as thats par for the course.

my 60s slingerlands would not be up for the task. No matter how hard you hit em they do not BOOM.

When the other drummer swapped in his Pearl “rock” kit nothing we could do could bring them down. The same drummer who could play at a reasonable volume with plenty of dynamics on the Slingerlands was now making our ears ring on the Pearls.

theres no master volume on accoustic drums and some kits are built to project and be LOUD and some arent.

 

[Thegearman#7]

Man I had peavey's for yrs growing the stereo chorus and bandit much love there

With amps like the Peavey Bandit you are going to see a lot of "local pickup only" shopping online because shipping a bandit costs about twice as much as it did even a month ago, so I would hit every used music store, guitar center, music go round, etc. in the area to try to find one. Even craigs.

"peavey bandit" Results | Guitar Center

Your peavey bandit result provided by Guitar Center site.,templateDimensionStrategy 1700003,,Search H1 Template,,Your Search Results for "peavey bandit

www.guitarcenter.com

https://www.musicgoround.com/products?search=peavey%20bandit

 

[jim lavender]

Hi Jim,
Been curious on that amp, have tried the block pedals very cool, might check the Aviator

If you mean the Superblock yes I have tired them . In fact I liked the Cub so much I picked up a Superblock US to run into my Bose S1 PA system . I think I like it better than the Iridium but both are great

 

[Maggot]

I have a Roland JC-40. It's plenty loud and clean. It needs pedals if you want any good dirt at all, but I've never been to a show and found the guitar sound lacking because the player was using a JC series.

A Peavey Delta Blues is another nice, inexpensive amp that never wants for volume. A Classic 50 is louder still. Another idea would be to get a 2x12 cabinet, and then use just about any head. There's a 20-watt Friedman Runt in my living room that belongs to the guitar player for my band. There are very few drummers that it couldn't compete with. He's played many an unmic-ed punk rock show with it, and I think he could be a lot cleaner if he wanted to. I also had one of the early Quilter amps (TB 200 or 201, I can't remember) that sounded good, especially with brighter guitars, or darker music. It could get sickeningly loud, and with an undersized Fender 4x12 filled with Celestion G12-Ts, it sounded absolutely enormous.

Otherwise, I have two words of advice for people who are playing with loud drummers for the first time: 1) Elevate the amp, and 2) Wear hearing protection.