In the late Tony Cohen’s exceptional book Half Deaf, Completely Mad, the legendary engineer describes a hilarious scene in which an exceptionally grumpy Billy Thorpe is berating him for not being able to capture his enormous guitar sound in the studio.
From what I recall, Billy was using a 100 watt stack turned all the way up, same as he did live, and could not understand why the resulting sound was thin, fizzy and flat. He was completely blowing the mics out and probably every other part of the signal chain too. But Billy wouldn’t listen to Cohen and insisted that the louder he played, the bigger the guitar amp should sound on record.
Ironically, and as Cohen intuitively knew at the time, if Billy had been recording with a measly 5 watt practice amp he probably would have gotten closer to the sound he wanted. Even with the extended headroom that modern recording equipment affords us, when it comes to recording a guitar amp, bigger is most certainly not always better. In fact for a truly ‘big’ guitar sound, often it’s the smallest guitar amp that is the best choice in the studio.
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For a gritty rock and roll guitar sound, you still can’t beat a cranked tube guitar amp. But you do have to crank them and if you have 100 watts of headroom or even 50, by the time you get to break-up land you will have exploded everything in sight and created a black hole where the studio used to be. Yes, there are isolation booths and the like to avoid broken glass and eardrums but even so, the resulting sound just isn’t what one might imagine.
Larger amps are capable of generating far more low end frequencies which can certainly create an impression of magnitude and power in the room, but as any engineer will tell you, those low frequencies are often cut out of the mix anyway to make room for the drums and bass. To create a true sense of ‘bigness’ with a guitar sound, it’s the midrange that needs to be accentuated. That’s where the presence is and that’s where all those delicious harmonic overtones that come through when you overdrive an amp exist. And for that reason, small amps are the way to go.
So let’s take a look at some of the best small, low wattage amplifiers around and some of the more famous examples of their effectiveness in the studio.
Fender Champ
Perhaps the quintessential example of the small studio amp is the Fender Champ. Featured on a vast array of classic rock records, the Champ is known and loved for its gnarly midrange attitude, healthy amount of tube sag and quintessential rock and roll sound. Featured on classic records like Layla and Assorted Love Songs and All Things Must Pass, the original champ was only 4 watts and had a single 8” speaker. Today, producers such as Nashville’s Dave Cobb still swear by the amp, with Cobb having stated in an interview that:
“You put any mic on it and it sounds like a record.”
Another great option is the famous Pignose 7-100. The Pignose is a tiny 5 watt practice amp with a 6” speaker that runs on six AA batteries. It has been referred to as a fuzz box with a speaker, and that’s a pretty apt description. The Pignose was designed as a simple, one knob practice amp for students practising in their dorm rooms and the like but found its most famous use in the hands of Frank Zappa. On the Pignose, Zappa had this to say:
“In the studio most of the stuff is played through a Pignose. I’ve done all kinds of things with a Pignose; I’ve taken it and put it in a ‘live’ chamber and taken an (ElectroVoice) RE-20 and stuck it right in front of the Pignose, and that will get one kind of sound. It’s actually the sound of an amp, but you can hear that it’s in a room, and the room is resonant, so it’s a realistic sound. Another thing I’ve done with the Pignose is just put it out in the middle of a dead studio, put two mics on it, and mic it in stereo. It gets a good sound. Put one mic behind the other so there’s a slight spread to it. I’ve also put the Pignose in an echo chamber and mic’d it, but not too close, because the echo chamber is real resonant. Since the amplifier isn’t real loud, if you put the mic a foot away from the amp, you’re going to get a sound that really approaches what you hear in a hockey rink.”
Josh Homme
Finally, we have the mysterious Peavey Decade. After years of being incredibly cagey about his equipment, Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age recently revealed that this unassuming little solid state practice amp is his secret weapon in the studio. The Peavey Decade, whilst nothing special on paper, has a unique, wiry sound and a whole lot of lo-fi charm. Homme describes the tone as ‘instant Kinks’ and it certainly is reminiscent of that classic garage sound. Since Homme’s revelation, the price of an original Decade has skyrocketed, but luckily the brand has recently reissued the model to keep up with demand. The current version of the Decade is 10 watts, has a unique saturation switch, a three band EQ and additional Top and Bass boost switches, making it a versatile and very cool tool for the studio.
So whilst the 100 watt stack certainly has its place for precise, mid-range focused tones that sit perfectly in a mix, a small, low wattage guitar amp may be the best choice. If you want the attitude and character of your favourite classic rock records without breaking the bank or your eardrums, 5 watts may truly be all you need for your next recording project. With the optimal tone sculpting capabilities, easily accessible natural overdrive sounds and minimal noise bleed, when it comes to the studio, the smallest amps truly can pack the biggest punch.
For further info on recording an array of small amps, watch this video on Eric Valentine’s recordings here.
