16 guitarists - 1 100w Marshall half stack on 10

[Fretworn]

Guitarcon looks like it was an absolute hoot. So many great YouTube videos coming from it.

[Sonic Mountain]

Man only got to listen to a couple (supposed to be working) but thats rad.

[Marcel]

Some awesome reactions from some well known people ..

Seems so few of us ever try our 100W Marshall gear dialled up to 10.

[DrNomis_44]

I've got a 100 Watt Marshall MA100C Valve Amp and have only ever turned it up half-way, even on about two on both channel volumes it does get pretty loud in my studio room, even my little 5 Watt Legacy valve amp gets pretty loud for it's size, I think it's mostly due to the harmonics generated by the valves distorting in a non-linear way that's responsible for the perceived loudness, valve distortion tends to have a kind-of brassy tone, most likely due to the mix of even and odd harmonics, whereas solid-state distortion tends to have a hollow, blanketing tone to it, caused by the predominantly odd harmonics, ever noticed why brass instruments (Trumpet, Saxophone, Tuba, Trombone, etc) sound loud?, well it's got a lot to do with how the even and odd harmonics increase as brass instruments are played louder by blowing harder through them, they tend to be very dynamic, and as it turns out, the actual waveform produced by brass instruments resembles a Sawtooth Waveform as produced by an Analog Synthesizer, the Sawtooth waveform is made up of the fundamental frequency that determines the overall pitch, and also all the even and odd harmonics that determine the Timbre (tonal-colour) of the waveform, the human ear perceives the extra harmonics as being both brighter and louder.

Another thing to consider is that when a Marshall amp is cranked up to 10, it tends to produce a lot of midrange frequencies as well, the Output-Transformer probably has an influence on it, anyway, it's a well-known fact that the human ear tends to be more sensitive to midrange frequencies than bass or treble frequencies, so that's another reason why Marshall amps sound very loud when cranked, of course this also applies to most makes of valve amps, I'm thinking that these are the reasons why lots of guitarists like playing through valve amps.

[Marcel]

Funny story.. about '10'...

A long time ago back in the mid '80's I used to service amps of all kinds in a workshop I had above the Musicians Pro shop in Brisbane. I had this one dude come in with a faulty Twin Reverb 100W combo and when he came back to pick it up he said he wanted to test it first... I responded "yeah, why not, it's only us in a car park" ... (The car park for the shop was above the store). So we plugged it in, let it warm up, he plugged his guitar in, I wound it to about 3 and he strummed/picked a few notes. All was good. We chatted, talked about what I had done of which one of them was replaced and biased the o/p tubes. We digressed on how he never thought the amp was very loud... I said "Crank it up and we'll see"... foolishly he did, straight up to 10.... He only played a few notes and stopped - a huge grin now firmly etched on his shocked and amazed face.... 10 seconds latter about half the office staff from 2 floors down and Mick the owner of the shop came running up into the car park all yelling "What's going on.??. What's the f^@* was that?" etc.. etc.. etc.. The guitarist dude and I just knowingly smiled and nodded to each other approvingly ...

[DrNomis_44]

I seem to remember reading somewhere that the reason why humans like hearing loud music is to do with human psychology, apparently we human beings tend to get excited when we hear loud music.

[Joe3334]

If I dare try playing with my amp on 10 AGAIN I'd have a horde of elderly people swarming my front garden armed with canes and brooms

[wazkelly]

Brings back memories of the 100w Super Bass head I had from 1979 to 1985. Had no master volume and was super loud barely on 1, ridiculously loud on 2, absolutely insane the further you turned the dial. The best part was also experiencing the breeze coming from the 4 x 12" Celestion Green backs. Mid range heaven and harmonic feedback to die for.

Something everyone needs to experience at least once in their life.

[DaveC64]

My Peavey Vip3 goes up to 16 but I Have only had it up to 8. I think it may set the Alarm off in the adjacent building If I crank it all the way up to 16. It is to dam difficult to set up. My roland cube 40x is So much easier as a practice amp Dial it in and play.
I will test max volume without the power sponge on when my Les Paul Is finished. :-) I need more practice on the amp than the guitar.

[MusicStudent1]

I agree...its worth any hearing damage!