Loving my tone,but.....

[bomber1970]

So frustrated...Best tones I've ever had in my life,but i'm currently getting MURDERED volume wise... The only cab I currently own is an old angled Marshall 412 cab with 25 watt Celestion G12M's running @16ohms..Took my beloved Competition to rehearsal with my new band the other day,and the drummer drowned me out,not to mention the other guitarist who's crappy sounding Randall(yuk) pushed out WAY more volume.. I'm thinking there's something wrong with my baby,but i've only had her for about 6months, and the tubes seem fine. Tried another cab with the same results..I'm used to 100 watt heads,but I wanted 50 this time so i could get the ol' power tubes working. The drummer is a bit of a beast,but I feel like my Competition should hang.. Think it's the speakers? Anyone had this problem with their Compy in a loud band setting? I had to play through a cruddy B-52 head that someone had at the rehearsal space, and it was quite depressing... ANY feedback would be quite appreciated.... Playing a lot of gigs with no P.A., and i'm wondering if I should have gone with a Quick Rod instead..
But heavens to Mergatroyd, I don't wanna lose this TONE!!!!!!!!!!!
Total Schenker/Lizzy goodness!!!!!!!!!!

[Shawnee]

50 watts is plenty if you play distorted. Clean would be another issue since tube amps generally only stay "clean" up to a setting of about 4 or 5 on the volume. 100 watts is great for the extra headroom you need to stay clean but not needed for clubs and smaller gigs when playing dirty. In your case I would look for a speaker with the highest "SPL" rating you can find that still gets the tone you are after. Scott's small blocks would work or maybe eminence wizards and governors. If you get something in the 100-103db SPL range it will be way louder than the vintage speakers you are using now. If I'm not mistaken, the vintage celestions will be in the 97db range. It doesn't look like a big change but going up 3db is a very significant change in volume level. New power tubes may help as well if yours are worn. That Compy should work in that situation.

[Panties]

I have no problem with volume and my comp. I play distroted, riffy metal stuff thorugh an 8 ohm 2x12 oversized avatar with a small block and a Hellatone 30. It hangs with 5150s and recto half stacks. I do get drowned out if I scoop my mids out. Maybe try adding some more mids. Or what about getting a lower ohm cab? I'm not sure if it would be louder but Its worth a shot.

[Shawnee]

Lowering to a lower resistance cab will not change the volume because you have to match the resistance with the switch on the back of the amp. Adding mids however was a great point!

[TuskerKevin]

My brand new 40 watt Street Rod easily keeps up with my party rock band.....hmmmmmmm

[Jammermatt]

I say it's about tube time. The Comp should keep up and I never had problems hearing mine in the band setting and our drummer is loud and I've always played with another player. When I first played my Compy with a band, I was being drowned out by some vintage 80s Crates. I was kinda bumming and then the tubes crapped out two days later. I haven't had that problem since, so I say it's tubes.

[Jammermatt]

Oh, and I've always used my 2x12. I've used Greenbacks to Big Blocks and volume has never been a problem - usually too loud has been my problem, I always had to squish it with a volume pedal.

[jvk]

I don't play with a band anymore so it isn't an issue for me but here's my observations:

Love my Comp's tone and feel too, had it built new last yr. Always felt it wasn't as loud as a 50W head could be. There isn't much in terms of sheer volume increase after noon on the master, (just more compression/saturation) Scott confirmed this to me as well. He mentioned that if using the loop to make sure it was up all the way with the correct setting selected.

I'm using a oversize Lopo sig series 2x12 (Orange format) with a Mesa C90 and a Weber C1230-55. The previous head that sat on this cab was an early 90's Mesa DC-5. It was also 50W but far louder, could make the room shake, your ears ring and not want to stand too close to it before maxing it out. I too was used to 100W heads and 4x12's for many yrs before going to 50's and a 2x12.

What I tried:

1) I felt the Compy's tubes all needed replacing after six months and at that time I found it was biased very cold. I corrected that with the next set which helped a little bit. I also experimented with the new tubes setting them from a cold to warm bias and noticed the overall tone change with the upper mids increasing.

2) I swapped in two new Eminence Wizard's for their very high efficiency and this did make a big difference volume wise. I wasn't at all happy with the tone though even after some breakin time so out they came and the original speakers went back.

3) Lastly I found my modded GE-7 EQ in the loop set with a boost to make the biggest difference of all bringing it inline with what I would expect volume wise and keeping the tone I wanted.

[rocker35]

Because Greenbacks have a low efficiency, you easily have to push the master volume up a couple of notches against say Eminence speakers or V30's which have a higher efficiency.
For example if using Eminence's and you could run in a band situation with the master at 9 o'clock, it would need to go to 11 o'clock or more using Greenbacks for the same level of volume

[ronmail65]

I've owned a Competition. It was plenty loud for band rehearsals and gigs with full acoustic drums. I don't think I ever had to turn the volume past 10 o'clock.