What is the reasoning? Mini amps

[Headache]

I've always wondered why most... Or a lot of amp companies when they make a mini head opt for 20w versions and use something like el84 tubes instead of just making them with 2 6L6 tubes at assumedly 60watts?

That's a simplified question, in my opinion you can still rock with a live drummer with a 50 or 60w head and NOT with a 20w head.

I mean they can still be used in a practice room, or a studio. And I understand that market.

I would just love a lunchbox sized head that ran "real" (big) tubes for girth an oomph at 50 or 60w
Instead we usually get either a full sized 50w head, or a mini 20w head that sounds (always) "almost as good" as the real thing...

What's your take on that?

 

[Dogs of Doom]

the Marshall studio 20 watts:

DSL20 = 2 x EL34
SC20 = 2 x EL34
SV20 = 2 x EL34
ST20 = 2 x 5881
2525 = 2 x EL34

I swapped the EL34 in my SC to KT88 & it rocks!
I swapped the EL34 in my SV to 6L6GC & it rocks!

 

[tallcoolone]

in my opinion you can still rock with a live drummer with a 50 or 60w head and NOT with a 20w head

Well first off, there are very few venues where you will not be mic'd up and run through FOH. Here is the SC20 when it first came out. 20w. Vistalite kit in a small room. It was far from dimed

 

[marshallmellowed]

I've always wondered why most... Or a lot of amp companies when they make a mini head opt for 20w versions and use something like el84 tubes instead of just making them with 2 6L6 tubes at assumedly 60watts?

That's a simplified question, in my opinion you can still rock with a live drummer with a 50 or 60w head and NOT with a 20w head.

I mean they can still be used in a practice room, or a studio. And I understand that market.

I would just love a lunchbox sized head that ran "real" (big) tubes for girth an oomph at 50 or 60w
Instead we usually get either a full sized 50w head, or a mini 20w head that sounds (always) "almost as good" as the real thing...

What's your take on that?

I think it comes down to size & weight. Low powered amps don't require heavy transformers. Even low powered amps that use the larger tubes (EL34's...) are running those tubes at well below their intended operating voltages, requiring only miniscule transformers. A small box 1987x is 50w and isn't that unmanageable, but if reducing the physical size was that important to someone, they could squeeze a 1987x chassis into a smaller headbox, but wouldn't be worth the effort IMO.

 

[RCM 800]

One of the things I love about my JCA50 is they managed to cram a 50w amp into a head the same size as my Or20. Dont know what it will do for heat/longevity but I play it pretty regularly and so far no problems.

 

[Leonard Neemoil]

6L6 suck, EL 34 for the win...

 

[johan.b]

.. because people asked(demanded, really) for them for too long for manufacturers to ignore..

 

[StrummerJoe]

As @tallcoolone noted you're going to be mic'd for most gigs.

 

[fitz]

I would just love a lunchbox sized head that ran "real" (big) tubes for girth an oomph at 50 or 60w
Instead we usually get either a full sized 50w head, or a mini 20w head that sounds (always) "almost as good" as the real thing...

Lots of 50w-ish amps have a chassis size that's much smaller than the head shell sized to fit a 4x12.
Get a smaller head shell and they'll fit on a 1x12.
Some goofballs even put smaller chassis combos inverted in a head shell...

 

[Headache]

6L6 suck, EL 34 for the win...

Spoken like a true Marshall forum man. Ha ha. I love the EL34 very much actually.

I have a 60w ENGL head that shakes the very ground, it's really the difference between that head and my PV 6505mh that prompted this question.

The lil Peavey sounds great, but with the bass maxed, it still lacks the bawls that the ENGL has ample amounts of.

 

[Headache]

I suppose I could have started off by stating that I'm a metalhead, and we only rock half stacks on stage.

FOH guys usually don't like us very much.
And quite truthfully, we don't care about them very much.

No apologies, your ears will ring.

I was wondering about the transformers, as @marshallmellowed mentioned.

I really like how the Katana heads came out with the selectable wattage in the right sized head, but of course those aren't tube heads.

I'm not very knowledgeable about the smaller Marshall heads, I've only owned full sized Marshalls.

 

[scozz]

.. because people asked(demanded, really) for them for too long for manufacturers to ignore..

This in a nutshell,…. Players have asked for these amps for decades, the amp companies responded.

 

[Dogs of Doom]

I suppose I could have started off by stating that I'm a metalhead, and we only rock half stacks on stage.

FOH guys usually don't like us very much.
And quite truthfully, we don't care about them very much.

No apologies, your ears will ring.

I was wondering about the transformers, as @marshallmellowed mentioned.

I really like how the Katana heads came out with the selectable wattage in the right sized head, but of course those aren't tube heads.

I'm not very knowledgeable about the smaller Marshall heads, I've only owned full sized Marshalls.

transformers are everything...

compared to a 100 watt, a 50 watt will sound thin & anemic...

compared to a 50 watt, a 20 watt will sound thin & anemic...

It's just the way it goes...

Even w/ your 60 watt, if someone has the 120 watt version they'll think yours sounds small...

same reason people who play (200 watt) Majors do not like 100 watt (or smaller) super leads...

 

[vivanchenko]

No reason at all, Marshall produced lots of 15 W amps, the DSL and Haze spring to mind, pretty sure there's more.