What is Headroom?

[gibsonandmesa]

If this is a really easy question, I probably don't need 20 people telling me how dumb it is.. Thanks!

 

[picnic]

Loud clean sound to me

 

[nor]

 

[Red Barchetta]

Simply, headroom is the amount of power...well, how LOUD you can go before breakup (distortion).

I usually use the term "clean headroom"...an amp with lots of clean headroom will have that sparkly clean tone at a much higher volume than an amp with lower clean headroom.



RB

 

[strumminsix]

Loud clean sound to me

Same here.

When I say "has tons of clean headroom" think the Fender Twin.
When I say "not enough clean headroom" think the Fender Hotrod.

Notice you can 'dime'* a Twin and still clean.
You get a HR up to about 5 and you are breakin' up.


* Dime means turn the knob to 10

 

[btdvox]

Headroom to me, is how much you can project to a crowd before sounding ugly, which someone posted already mainly but , i put it relativly to gigging live. So mainly, will I have to mic the amp? or will it sing fine w/o at the type of gigs i play at.

 

[TheRazMeister]

here's a scenario....you have this nice shiny new amp and you're at home playing some wonderful clean sounding arpeggio....You think man this sounds so pure and natural...kinda like an acoustic guitar. Then you get to practise and you so confidently start playing the same piece, but alas, your drummer is drowning you out...you then reach for the volume knob of your 30 watter and turn it up to 6....then..."hey, what happened to that lush pure acoustic like sound?????" That would be lack of "headroom". If your amp is a 2x12 100 watt Lonestar Classic, you're still smiling, because you have...."headroom" and your drummer is amazed that he doesn't have more game than you 8)

If this is a really easy question, I probably don't need 20 people telling me how dumb it is.. Thanks!

 

[gibsonandmesa]

Thanks! It totally makes sense now! So if I take my mesa dual down to 50watts by removing the appropriate tubes...I am lowering some of my headroom.

 

[Brewski]

Yep. If you're cutting your power in half, your probably losing around 3 decibles give or take.

 

[no soul]

Yep. If you're cutting your power in half, your probably losing around 3 decibles give or take.

Its not that simple really..

This comes from the assumption that a DR is truly a 100w beast, but it isnt.

Funn this comes up, because it IS related to headroom.

The 100w rating of a DR is based on an old convention from when guitarists usually wanted nothing but a clean sound.

100w is actually the amps rating BEFORE clipping (distorting).
So guess what happens when the tubes start to clip?
Your wattage increases! This doesent happen on solidstate amps, which is why a SS amp rated @ 100w isnt as loud as a 100w tube amp.

 

[Brewski]

Its not that simple really..

Well, I did say give or take! :wink:

 

[JoeVFR]

Another way to think of headroom is dynamics, if you are playing a part a little more softly (and clean) and then get more aggressive, an amp with headroom has enough power reserve to meet that demand and stay clean. That's part of the give and take to a tube amp for me, I know I can get it to break up a little bit if I play it hard enough.

 

[no soul]

Another way to think of headroom is dynamics, if you are playing a part a little more softly (and clean) and then get more aggressive, an amp with headroom has enough power reserve to meet that demand and stay clean. That's part of the give and take to a tube amp for me, I know I can get it to break up a little bit if I play it hard enough.

you are talking about compression of dynamics, different thing, but it is related, as the more break up you have, the more compression there is.

however, I could say take a Fender twin, and add compression without breakup through an outboard device, and still have plenty of headroom.