Amp to 10 or guitar to 10

[shoey]

Ok so it's a dilemma I'm faced with and I'm sure many of you have also. I play through a fender hot rod deluxe iii, which is a loud little so and so. So loud in fact that even playing "big" rooms I've never dialled it up past 3.

So my question to you...

Amp up to the desired tone/volume and dial in at the guitar

Or

Sit the amp on its knees and wind the guitar to full (because I'm a little lazy, my sound tech is also my bassist and I'm trying to sing and don't want to add any more to my already overworked thinking sponge)

[ponch]

Guitars on 11 all day for me. Is there any way to add a power break to that amp?

[stan]

different views on this, but if you want OD, crank the amp and use the guitar volume for master control

[Fretworn]

Guitar on full, amp just high enough to get a good clean(ish) tone. Pedals to drive the amp harder if required. Roll back on guitar volume occasionally to clean up the sound.

[ponch]

Or if your lazy, as I am, volume pedal.

[ultpanzi]

Even lazier, I use a modelling amp with presets and leave guitar on 10, amp on the right volume for the room size and all the presets have their own volumes set individually and pop up with one click.

[Nickosaurus]

I use a single channel amp so I need to have good control of dynamics. So amp on 10, guitar + right hand variable :P

[DrNomis_44]

Another alternative is to try using a small 5 Watt amp, can be a little Pignose, a Fender Champ (the single ended version with one 6V6 power valve), or maybe something like Epiphone's Legacy Valve Edition 5 Plus (I've got one of these), then mic the amp up, the great thing about these 5 Watt amps is that you can crank them all the way up yet don't get the ear-splitting volume.


I tend to leave both my guitar's volume and tone controls on 10 so I can get the best tone out of the guitar, then I just vary my picking to control dynamics, if I need more overdrive I'll use some kind of distortion pedal, or a treble-booster pedal like a Rangemaster.


Here's a pic of my Legacy Valve Edition 5 Plus Amp:

[stan]

small amp idea is a good one. I have an orange tiny terror, 20w with valve preamp. turn the gain to max, volume to whatever like max, and play though a speaker cab, control master volume from either guitar , amp, mixer etc.

I went to an excellent jam session and the home studio worked like this:
mixing desk and monitors in one room, playing studio next door. guitars through roland g10s into the mixer, bass had a direct line, mics for a sax player, vocals etc, keyboard direct, and drums mic'd.

Everyone listened through headphones, and could have their own and master levels mixed as they wanted.

If you opened the studio door, all you hear is drums and any acoustic instruments, no mixed sound inside. In the control room, you could hear it all mixed together and out through the monitors.

It was brilliant, and you could all go full tilt without annoying the neighbours.