Re: Power

[Tim Nelson <psychle62@yahoo.com>]

--- Paulzric@aol.com wrote:
> Question about power: If you have two one-hundred
> watt amps blasting away, does this add up to
two->hundred watts?

Nope. It works on a logarithm; an increase in apparant
loudness of a mere three decibels requires doubling
the power. But two 100 watt amps are still two 100
watt amps. You can make an amp *seem* more powerful by
increasing the power at the front end, being careful
of course not to induce unwanted distortion.

> I'm just wondering how some of those walls of amps I
> see behind, say, Brian May or Edward VanHalen work,
> in terms of power.

That's mostly for reasons other than power, including:
1) Looks. In the early days, Kiss used to tour with a
wall of empty Marshall cabs, using one or two real
ones.
2) Sound spread, to be able to hear oneself from many
points across a large stage. Eddie Van Halen has been
quoted as saying he liked to feel his pants legs
ripple in front of his cabinets. And his bassist
Michael Anthony has been quoted as saying he didn't
even like to go over onto that side of the stage
because it was so painfully loud.
3) Separation of a complex signal. Brian May's wall of
AC30s allowed him to send the different delayed
signals from his tape echoes to different amps to
avoid having them mush all together into mud. (This
reason is the most applicable to us as loopers...)

-t-


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