Does the 5:25 sound good at low volume?

I play at a church of 80 people and they always complain that the electric guitar is too loud. Therefore, I'm looking for an amp that will sound great at a relatively low volume.

Does the 5:25 sound good at a low volume, and if so, at the 5w setting or 25w setting?

Of should I be looking for a solid state amp or a lower watt tube amp?

I plug the electric directly into the amp so I'm looking for a speaker that has wide dispersion and 2 channel with foot pedal so I can switch between clean and crunch.

Thanks in advance.

grayson73 said:

I play at a church of 80 people and they always complain that the electric guitar is too loud. Therefore, I'm looking for an amp that will sound great at a relatively low volume.

Does the 5:25 sound good at a low volume, and if so, at the 5w setting or 25w setting?

Of should I be looking for a solid state amp or a lower watt tube amp?

I plug the electric directly into the amp so I'm looking for a speaker that has wide dispersion and 2 channel with foot pedal so I can switch between clean and crunch.

Thanks in advance.

Click to expand...

Depends on what you mean by "low." I play mine in the living room with the kids asleep in the next room. It sounds thin. I also play it at reasonable volume when they're awake (about 9:00 on the master volumes) and it sounds ridiculously good.

I think these amps excel at getting rich, full tones at lower volume.

I get some phenomenal tones out of mine (10" combo) at low volumes but if you're looking for wide dispersion, don't get the 10 incher. The 12" combo will be better at dispersion but I get my best tones at very low volume with a big old 8X10" Yamaha cab and a 1x12 on top playing along...kinda counterintuitive but it's my experience. Beautiful fat, juicy tube cleans (Strat or Yamaha SG with SD Jazz pickup) with the volume way down and gain and eq way up. I'd suggest maybe getting the head version and a nice 4x12 cab. (and a dolly.)

Sounds excellent at low volume, IMHO. I really tried to like the 5w setting ...it's good if you want that more "roots rock" gritty tone with more mids/highs; because it lacks bottom end in this setting, even more so at low volumes. I found the full 25w setting sounds bigger and fuller at all volumes, particularly low levels. But the contour knob does much to help shape the tone here, as in lower volume settings the amp's dynamics and tone definitely changes vs "band-level" volume (normal band level, that is, as you do NOT have to crank the express to get superlative tone).

Edward

I'll bet you can get as huge of a sound as you want out of 5W mode, boosting the bass/contour and close mic'ing the puppy. Let the sound guy balance the mix. Excellent, sweet cleans at speaking volumes, the same with drive. Mic it.

Playing in churches is my specialty. Are you mic'd? Tell me about the room.

JUS said:

Playing in churches is my specialty. Are you mic'd? Tell me about the room.

Click to expand...

Depending on how "hard" the room is, even in a small church you can get away with turning the 525 down low, still on 25w setting (because that's how I personally prefer the tone), EQ'd accordingly (because you have to adjust for the lower volume, natch).

What also helps is I built my own plexi sound isolation wall on the cheap. Home Depot has 24" tall panes of plexi: I bought three pieces, some clear duct tape and made a tri-fold wall, and place in front of the cab. Mic'd with an SM57, or even better yet a Senn e609 (love these!), it sounds good. The plexi-thingie doesn't kill the volume as much as it deflects it away from the front row/stage area ...the typical kill zone for an amp. I don't always use the plexi, but finds it helps depending on the stage arrangement. FWIW, when I can get away without using it, I do. I suppose for better suppression you can use acousti-foam to further baffle the plexi, but I never needed to go that far as the plexi attenuated "just enough" for me to get by.

Edward

JUS said:

Playing in churches is my specialty. Are you mic'd? Tell me about the room.

Click to expand...

We meet in the Middle School cafeteria, so it's hard floors, no carpet. The room can fit 300, but we only have around 100 people.

I'm wondering if a solid state (e.g. Fender Mustang III) or a smaller tube amp (1w-5w) would be a better fit?

edward said:

Sounds excellent at low volume, IMHO. I really tried to like the 5w setting ...it's good if you want that more "roots rock" gritty tone with more mids/highs; because it lacks bottom end in this setting, even more so at low volumes. I found the full 25w setting sounds bigger and fuller at all volumes, particularly low levels. But the contour knob does much to help shape the tone here, as in lower volume settings the amp's dynamics and tone definitely changes vs "band-level" volume (normal band level, that is, as you do NOT have to crank the express to get superlative tone).

Edward

Click to expand...

+1
...couldn't have articulated it better (I own a 5:25+ head run through a recto 2x12)...

grayson73 said:

JUS said:

Playing in churches is my specialty. Are you mic'd? Tell me about the room.

Click to expand...

We meet in the Middle School cafeteria, so it's hard floors, no carpet. The room can fit 300, but we only have around 100 people.

I'm wondering if a solid state (e.g. Fender Mustang III) or a smaller tube amp (1w-5w) would be a better fit?

Click to expand...

Oooh, a cafeteria is a hard room alrighty!! With all that natural verb and uncontrolled reflections going on, I think you'd do plenty well with trying the amp on 5w setting, possible even on a chair or angled up (if not up and off-center to the congregation ...or perhaps even further "off stage" aimed toward you from the side) to help "isolate" the amp from booming around the room. FWIW, I cannot see any SS amp doing any better; and if anything you will lose the superb touch dynamics of a good tube amp, like the express, by going SS. I personally do not think a different amp is the answer as much as placement and EQing is your solution (to an acoustically-challenged room). EQ for that room ...may sound like absolute junk elsewhere, but for that room it works. Turn the knobs by ear (don't look at the knob numbers ) and walk around. You may have to set up an hour earlier than soundcheck (and with a very long guitar cord ) to experiment for a bit and see what works for that venue.

Edward