Hum.....thinking of dumping my bigger amp...

[rburke]

Originally Posted by Bob Womack

I'm torn. I reduced my backline to a bunch of small boxes like everyone else because I couldn't afford to irradiate my ears and wanted the lovely crunch of the smaller amps at lower volume. What I discovered was that there was a sound that was unavailable from all the lovely small boxes, and that is the big, clean sound a large amp can give you. Believe it or not, there is a difference between the sound of a nice clean small combo running at half its capacity and a nice large clean combo or clean piggyback rig running at a quarter of its capacity. The same is true of the two running gently into crunch. There is a "muscularity" missing in the smaller guys.

So after a decade of nothing but the small guys I added a 45 watt head and cab back into my rig and find it, um, scrumptious. I don't take it out very often because I really don't need it, and I don't crank it without having the earplugs in, but just having it in the guitar room when I feel the need of a little moderate-level muscular cleans and crunch is sweet.

But thanks for reminding me that I need to invest in an attenuator.

Bob

I love my little 6 watt for playing at my house but going to my brother in laws and plugging into 40 watts of Fender Blues Deluxe is pure heaven. There is a full large sound that the big guys are able to produce.

[Jeff Scott]

Originally Posted by rburke

I love my little 6 watt for playing at my house but going to my brother in laws and plugging into 40 watts of Fender Blues Deluxe is pure heaven. There is a full large sound that the big guys are able to produce.

Try a 40 watt 4-10 amp sometime; they sound truly amazing with lots of clean full tone. Like my 1962 Concert Amp!

[Paleolith54]

[QUOTE=Athana;4079041]
Intolerance for high volume is an old age thing..
Old people run at the sound of it.
Volume takes a little bit of getting used to..within the first 15 minutes to 1/2 an hour your settled in and as long as you plug in every so often & turn it up..your set. Try it. : )

Not to be argumentative, as this is a very polite forum, but you do realize that this "settling in" to which you refer is the effect of damage-inducing volume, right? You're basically anesthetizing your ears with volume, opening them to more damage as you keep turning up. Your inner ear is not a muscle, it doesn't "get used to" damaging volume. I would strongly advise people never to follow this advice. Ask old guys like Pete Townsend whose constant companion in life is loud ringing and an inability to sleep.

Again, honestly not trying to be argumentative, but another point of view is appropriate here. If you're lucky, you'll be old some day. Being old and deaf is up to you.

[Athana]

I don't think Eric Clapton..Jimi Page,Jack Bruce,Eric Johnson,Robbie Robertson..etc are nearly deaf...its true Jimi Hendrix is..but thats only because he is dead.. : )
What you say is true & oddly I as well.
When I first got married our apt was over a laudromat and our neighbor loved rock music.Our living room was a Marshall 4X12'..Marshall 4 X15..a Fender & a set of drums.
My wife(who was 19) says for that first year she had a constant ringing in her ear & it woke her up sometimes.I guess thats what it was..and i must admit she talks kind of loud but I just think it runs in her family(when we are in a restaurant you can hear her brother from anywhere in the room : )

I think it varies.If you dont have it directly blasting into your ear you can safely get it up pretty loud.

[Steve DeRosa]

Originally Posted by Athana

...Our living room was a Marshall 4X12...Marshall 4X15...a Fender & a set of drums. My wife (who was 19) says for that first year she had a constant ringing in her ear & it woke her up sometimes...she talks kind of loud but I just think it runs in her family...If you don't have it directly blasting into your ear you can safely get it up pretty loud...

Based on your own recollections I'd tend to disagree (I seriously doubt that you had those Marshalls blasting directly into your wife's ear); I can't speak for anyone else, but if my wife (also a musician) told me she had constant ringing that wouldn't let her sleep I'd get her to the doctor as fast as the local speed limits would allow (or not... ) - and take it as a warning that I need to bring it down more than just a bit. BTW, as Bob explained so well above the reason the ringing "went away" after the first year is because her hearing did as well; simply put, she was partially deaf by the time she was 20 - which is why she talks so loud to this day. Again, I can't speak for anyone else but if I knew I caused my lovely lady permanent injury I'd feel like a first-class POS for the rest of my life - and I'd be seriously reassessing my priorities...

[Paleolith54]

Originally Posted by Athana

I don't think Eric Clapton..Jimi Page,Jack Bruce,Eric Johnson,Robbie Robertson..etc are nearly deaf...its true Jimi Hendrix is..but thats only because he is dead.. : )
What you say is true & oddly I as well.
When I first got married our apt was over a laudromat and our neighbor loved rock music.Our living room was a Marshall 4X12'..Marshall 4 X15..a Fender & a set of drums.
My wife(who was 19) says for that first year she had a constant ringing in her ear & it woke her up sometimes.I guess thats what it was..and i must admit she talks kind of loud but I just think it runs in her family(when we are in a restaurant you can hear her brother from anywhere in the room : )

I think it varies.If you dont have it directly blasting into your ear you can safely get it up pretty loud.

Believe what you choose. It takes very little time on Google to find that your facts are way off. Clapton and Beck, for example, are quite well-known to have volume-induced tinnitus. There's really just not much of a factual basis for what you're espousing.

[Athana]

Originally Posted by Steve DeRosa

Based on your own recollections I'd tend to disagree (I seriously doubt that you had those Marshalls blasting directly into your wife's ear); I can't speak for anyone else, but if my wife (also a musician) told me she had constant ringing that wouldn't let her sleep I'd get her to the doctor as fast as the local speed limits would allow (or not... ) - and take it as a warning that I need to bring it down more than just a bit. BTW, as Bob explained so well above the reason the ringing "went away" after the first year is because her hearing did as well; simply put, she was partially deaf by the time she was 20 - which is why she talks so loud to this day. Again, I can't speak for anyone else but if I knew I caused my lovely lady permanent injury I'd feel like a first-class POS for the rest of my life - and I'd be seriously reassessing my priorities...

I didnt say that they were blasting directly into my wifes ears..and only one of those Marshalls was mine but thats how we had it..and when your young, what do you know?
As an older person you think differently.
When your young you think and do,differently.
And there is nothing wrong with that.

[arie]

Originally Posted by ahorsewithnonam

Bought a Hot Rod Deluxe III two years ago and I'll bet I've turned it on less than 5 times. Just not into it anymore. I have a little VYPYR practice amp that gives me my fun electric.....overdrive...metal fix for 10 minutes every few months. Then I'm done.

Seems a waste to keep it. As I think this through...I can't really see any reason why I would need it now or in the future.

I was going to ask for opinions...but as I'm typing this I guess it clarified the silliness of keeping it. Ok....I answered my own question. Thanks for listening. Back to my Martins!

i dumped my "wall of terror" stack a while back. very large, very heavy, and very full of very rare tubes even when it was new 43 years ago. that thing crippled my hearing for life. but i don't gig out anymore, and don't have a band anymore. so i bought a 120w combo.

then i saw my favorite half stack used for an awesome price and really had to control myself...i had to point myself towards the door and walk away before that thing wound up in my car.