can i change the watts in order to play at low volume on rk

[chriz_batman]

i was wondering once my roadking comes can i use at 50 watts and sponge mode in order to play it at low volumes? basically i want to know what's the best way to play at low volumes

 

[Piers]

Chriz

I have the RKII head linked up to a RK 412. I use the 412 as 2 212's and whilst you do lose some "tone" when turned down it's perfectly possible to play at "bedroom volume" even using the full power amp selection of 2xEL34s and 4x6L6s and the variac at bold. In particular it boosts the lows, you can either live with it and keep your "full power" settings or tweek the mid and treble to offset. It's never going to be as sweet as playing with it cranked but you'll cope, trust me, I do.

If you're worried about it being too loud for gigs, you may have bought the wrong amp!

Regards,

Piers

 

[Octavarius]

Knocking it down to 50 watts won't help much with volume at all. You'll barely notice a difference. Heck, I even barely notice a significant volume drop when switching from 85 watts Simul-Class to 15 watts Class A on my IIC+! 10 watts is actually approx. half as loud as 100 watts.

 

[primal]

double post

 

[primal]

triple post (I really need to learn to use the edit button better)

 

[primal]

i was wondering once my roadking comes can i use at 50 watts and sponge mode in order to play it at low volumes? basically i want to know what's the best way to play at low volumes

Really depends on what you mean by low volume and what type of sound you are going after.

You can get softer at 50watts, but not nearly as softer as you would think. It's pretty negligable.

For me the biggest thing I notice with the wattage settings is tightness and thickness. I love the tone the best in the 135 Watt mode with all four 6L6's with the two EL34's.

But at night when everyone is in bed, I usually setup channel 3 on 50Watts in Vintage distortion.

I put the channel volume at around 12:00 with the Master all the way down (My jam room is close to the bedrooms).

If your looking for a cool classic rock tone at low volumes, setup channel 2 in Brit mode. Peg the Gain and Channel Volume but keep the master volume low. That gets a pretty cool classic rock tone. Real tubey distortion sound.

When it comes down to it, the independent channel volumes seem (to me anyway) to be more like additional gain controls rather then just pure volume.

On Channels 3 and 4, if you peg the channel volumes it can get a bit flubby. I play with the channel volumes more to find the right tone rather then adjust the volume.

ON channels 1 and 2 the Channel volume can be pegged and get a pretty cool tubey overdrive. Not Metal, more old school.

 

[kingster911]

Screw around with Ch.4 vintage if you want some grind at a lower volume, not as full sounding but will still give you some fun for playing leads too.