Ceriatone Forum

British Style => 20 Watt Lead, Bass => Topic started by: pantshappened on June 02, 2013, 01:11:45 AM



Title: Is the 20watt L&B loud enough for gigs?
Post by: pantshappened on June 02, 2013, 01:11:45 AM
Hey everyone! New to the forum. From what I can tell, Ceriatone is a great amp. I'm thinking of having Nik make me a 20 watt Lead & Bass head with a master volume. But I'm skeptical, simply because I've been seeing on forums people saying they crank them up to 10. Right now I have a Princeton and I can't put it past 4 without it being too loud. That's 15 watts. If people can dime the amp to 10 and be able to stand it, makes me feel like it might not be as loud as I need. My drummer isn't crazy loud either. I'm wondering if the 20 watt is not a very loud 20 watts perhaps?

Basically, what's everyone's experience with this amp? Have you used it for rehearsal and gigs? Strictly rehearsal? Strictly gigs? I'm guessing it'd make a great studio amp regardless so I'll leave that out of the question. Any insite would be great. Just want to make sure I'm getting the right amp ya know? Thanks very much!


Title: Re: Is the 20watt L&B loud enough for gigs?
Post by: pantshappened on June 02, 2013, 01:26:51 AM
oh, and i'd be running it with a 2x12 cab. do you think a 1x12 would be better? I'd rather not go 4x12 if I can help it. And i'm not 100% sure on the size of the rooms. Lets say a good size bar? I'm able to mic it I believe but I'm trying to figure out if it can be loud enough on it's own. Thanks again!


Title: Re: Is the 20watt L&B loud enough for gigs?
Post by: wyatt on June 19, 2013, 01:39:29 PM
It's hard to vouch for someone else's live situation. Even something like the eagerness of the drummer can change everything.

I know people who gig with original Marshall 20-watters because it lets them crank it to '70's JMP-style overdrive at reasonable stage volumes. But the amp does have to be cranked to overdrive, there is a lot of headroom in the volume sweep (as there is with larger JMP's).

We can look at the math. An EL84 is a 12 watt tube at 100% dissipation. Assuming suitable plate voltage and biased for 60-70% dissipation, you get 7.2-8.4 watts. So your RMS wattage (RMS is the maximum output the amp can maintain continuously, but it is also an indicator of the maximum CLEAN output). So you have 14-17 watts RMS, with a peak wattage of around 25 watts when overdriving. it should provide more volume than the Princeton, but not significantly more. A lot will depend on how sensitive the speakers are its paired with.


Title: Re: Is the 20watt L&B loud enough for gigs?
Post by: Leftyguitarguy on February 15, 2015, 08:32:41 PM
I have a Ceriatone 2061 and use it for all kinds of gigs. I'm running a 2x12 Marshall 1936 cab. I have never had a problem with it not being loud enough. But we use a large sound system, so if your playing with just your amp you should be able to keep up with any drummer IMO.