Top 10 LOUDEST Guitar Amps EVER!

[@fulbridgerectifier2497]

You look like you'll eat a jcm800 lmfao!

[@RobertWJackson]

k

[@bigsauce1116]

I bet you wouldnt say that to his face

[@fulbridgerectifier2497]

Your rite I I probobly wouldn't.

[@bigsauce1116]

@@fulbridgerectifier2497 that's a good reply

[@misakiyoshida]

I would too if I could

[@THEQueeferSutherland]

I don't think the Twin is too loud, you just have to really like high pitched ringing for the rest of your life. I've grown to like the ringing, it's like a friend that's always there for me.

[@richardburns4194]

What ?

[@amritjanardhanan]

@@richardburns4194 Tinnitus. You get it after listening to loud things for too long, and you can't fix it ;c

[@hadleymanmusic]

I like it to sing myself

[@gordonhuskin7337]

the 75 watt twins really aren't that loud. its the later 70's silverface ones that are LOUD and HEAVY

[@willdossett6287]

But if your in a small room and if you have it cranked then it’s extremely loud

[@FloridaManMatty]

I can attest to the absolute truth of the Twin Reverb eating the JCM800 alive. My first “good” guitar amp was a ‘72 Twin Reverb with the master volume. At age 15, I had a chance to pick it up for $500. Sitting next to it in the store was a used JCM800 half stack for $800. I had $1000 left over from the money I had saved over the previous 2 years working as a dish washer, after buying a gorgeous Ibanez 540S (the salamander green with maple fretboard). The Marshall definitely LOOKED better. Way more bad ass to my eyes, but after the shops tech had serviced both amps, the Twin not only sounded WAY better, it was INSANELY louder. Like orders of magnitude louder. The Marshall damn sure shook the windows, but that old Twin hit you in the guts in a way I’ve never experienced with any other amp. It had to be some sort of subharmonic frequencies being tickled. Whatever it was, the sheer volume that thing produced was heard and felt to a degree that couldn’t have been healthy. The 4th position on that Ibanez sounded like Heaven through a loud, clean amp with the onboard Reverb and an old Boss DD-3. I got the Twin and a bunch of pedals with the money I had left over (Boss DD-3, Boss CE-2, Dr. Blade “Sustortion”, Crybaby Wah, an early 90s Marshall Blues Breaker, and an OLD Foxx Tone Machine Octave Fuzz). Best damn New Gear Day of my life! My ears ain’t been right since 🤣

[@geraldcalifornia5923]

Do you know if the Twin Reverb its louder than a SUNN beta lead? I ask you because I have both but I think that somthing is wrong with the SUNN volume. Its not that loud as the TWIN. I read on forums that the SUNN its very very loud but I have to know if its louder than the Twin to know if I had to fix my SUNN

[@RobertWJackson]

I’ve never compared them head to head before, but I would venture to guess that the Twin Reverb is WAY louder than the Sunn Beta Lead. A fully cranked up Twin Reverb is UNGODLY loud. The Sunn Beta Lead is a solid-state amp and I think it’s only 120 watts or so, solid-state needs to get up to about 350 watts before it gets into eardrum crushing territory.

[@pickinthatbanjo]

Used to run a twin reverb, that bitch can crunch

[@palletjackinfo]

Q:What's the least loud Marshall? A: JCM2000 TSL! It's always broken so it never makes any sound!

[@RobertWJackson]

I would have said the MA100 for the same reason. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@mapamen6010]

FRS Driva had tsl for 10 years and I it never broke down, but i heard a lot about their bad durability

[@professorprog4170]

Małpa Men the quality was awful for the first year or two from circuit board issues. I had from 2005 I believe and that thing was a tank

[@rockdaddy2168]

TSL broken, true that.

[@User-jk8wq]

The Hiwatt DR405 deserves to be here! 400 watts of all tube evil

[@Highrollinhunter]

Agreed

[@funksaves]

Measured my speaker cables last night. Realized why the 400 PS is made for multiple 4 ohm outputs and not just a single 2 or 1.6 ohm output. Because at 2 ohms, 20% of your amps power is going into heating up your speaker cable, assuming you have 8-12 foot speaker cables. At 4, 8, or 16 ohms, the resistance of the speaker cables is much less important. Higher voltage. Lower current. So less losses in the cables. More efficiency means more volume. So solid state amps should be made with higher impedances in mind, not factoring in damping. The heating of wire is also why tube amps are pretty limited in size. Transformer mass grows exponentially once you hit 300-400 watts. My two 400 PS amps will be dumping 120 watts of power just in the 6 speaker cables. If they ran a single 2 ohm load each, and only 2 cables total, the losses would be on order of 250+ watts. Gotta love having a 970 watt stereo tube rig. Anybody else think about this?

[@georgoroth]

If i'm right (i really doubt it) It's not about resistance, it's about impedance, good cables should be less that 0,2 Ohms, impedance is tested with 1khz, just think about how long and thin is the voice coil wire compared with speaker cable, i don't think speaker cables suck that much power

[@BustedJunkStudio]

Technically solid state amplifiers not having any use for an output impedance matching transformer don't really have an impedance to match. They will supply what you allow them to supply without complaint. The lower the load impedance the higher the delivered power up to the maximum current the amps power supply can muster. It can be almost zero ohms all the way up to and including infinite ohms, this is not so for a tube amp. Use good stout speaker cables and you're golden.

[@jacobwalker8565]

I turned every knob on my twin to 10 and it was the most amazing experience. It had this beautiful harmonic overdrive with lots of sustain. Luckily I had ear plugs in, but a squeal of feedback gave me temporary tinnitus in my right ear :(

[@RobertWJackson]

Those amps are UNGODLY loud when they’re cranked.

[@dragonpundit.6443]

Ted Nugent tone

[@auntjenifer7774]

😂 I used to turn every knob on 10 on my old 140 watt 1986 Fender twin reverb 2 and plug my Gibson ES135 into it, automatically Ted Nugent tone from when he used 10 or 12 fender combos stacked up 😂

[@Bricklinsv1970]

The loudest amp I ever played thru was a Mesa Boogie Strategy 500 Stereo. 400 Tube watts with deep extend bottom end pushing 16 12" speakers!

[@mikebrown3662]

My dad had a sunn 1000s AND a Marshall jmp 50 watt, with his script logo mxr pedals, and his first year 1978 silverburst Les Paul custom, and his Paul stanley iceman, man the 70s rocked!

[@geraldcalifornia5923]

Do you know if the Twin Reverb its louder than a SUNN beta lead? I ask you because I have both but I think that somthing is wrong with the SUNN volume. Its not that loud as the TWIN. I read on forums that the SUNN its very very loud but I have to know if its louder than the Twin to know if I had to fix my SUNN

[@justincourtney8691]

Speaking of crate blue voodoo.... Remember about 20 years ago the BV600? Im not sure crate actually sold them on a consumer basis, but they made a 600 watt all tube head and cabinets. Each cab had 16 12" speakers. And supposedly at about 3 on the volume it would knock you slap out of your shoes. Crate blue voodoos are pretty awesome

[@PapaWheelie1]

Wow ok I need of those

[@dirkydirk3070]

I'm buying a BV300 off of a friend. Fucking Brutal

[@RobertWJackson]

@Dirky Dirk I’m jealous. LOL

[@dirkydirk3070]

@@RobertWJackson you wouldn't want to know the price either. It's crazy

[@offkeyericdee]

Regarding the Fender 400 PS, they were marketed with three 1x18" cabs for full power. Also, at full power, they are louder than the deck of an aircraft carrier.

[@marksteagall6177]

3 - 1 x 18". I came here to say this.

[@Bluesky5553]

The Stones were using the Ampeg SVT amps because their were dissatisfied with their Marshalls. Ampeg asked them to take a hand in development of the amps which is why they had the Ampeg tech on tour with them. Once they got the power transformer issues worked out after a few months they were solid amps. I had the SVT's little brother in a combo Ampeg VT-22. That VT-22 could crush my Fender Twin Reverb.

[@honour123]

I have the Ampeg VT40 and I can tell you that it is LOUD! and meant to be so. Actually it blows about the Fender Twin easily. Early 70's tech tube that is very heavy (over 90 lbs) combo. My fave amp next to my Vox AC30.

[@liquefactionist]

The 400 PS makes an SVT feel light. And tremolo and reverb!

[@breifne555]

I used the SoundCity 200w stacks as well as HiWatt. I think maybe the SoundCity were louder but it was a long time ago. I still have a HiWatt now though and yes the sound does start to break up when it's fully warmed up going like an engine and sounds sublime. How the hell we did it all makes me think now....

[@ryanjackson2203]

Don’t even have to finish the vid to know it’s gonna be a banger

[@RobertWJackson]

Huh? LOL

[@scottperry8162]

I had a Peavey 5150 half stack back in the 90s Man it was loud it was my first tube amp I miss that one

[@mikeblue385]

i played a super twin for a while. 180watts with a 5 band parametric eq. that thing would knocks birds out of the sky. ted nugent used them in the 80's.

[@Daverotherham]

Peavey Renown. Basically a double Bandit; 160W 2x12 SS. I use one as a home amp as it has better tone at back room volume than anything else I have tried or heard. But the headroom is immense. I accidentally turned it right up once and played a couple of chords. I have heard louder aircraft, but not louder guitar amps.

[@mikelowther1896]

Yessir.

[@downtown_brown2254]

I have a renown 400, twin 12,,, its wicked loud

[@BigJakeMusic]

In a loss of sense and control, I once turned the Pre-Gain and Post-Gain knobs to 10 on my Peavey Bandit silver stripe on the overdrive channel. It was the loudest sound I've ever heard and I think I still hear bells ringing to this day.

[@auntjenifer7774]

I had a Peavey Heritage vtx 212 combo and that was louder than my twin reverb and they were supposed to be the same wattage 140 watts. The fender had better tone but the Peavey had sheer "shock and awe" with house shaking power and volume 😢

[@georgeeaklor3442]

I had a 1969 Bassman 100… Put 2 Cabinets filled with 4/12” 100 watt Jensen’s under that thing and since I played mostly Rhythm Guitar, this thing kicked… Put a Wawa pedal, Sun Distortion Box and you could be heard for miles in the right location.. And yes, I played it near max when I could, but I had more sound power than the other guys in the band…So I just had it mostly for looks…❤

[@beerman7079]

The loudest amp was marty mcflys amp you tube it

[@lanayajordyn9950]

Rofl yes🤣🤣

[@lanayajordyn9950]

Rofl yes🤣🤣

[@rsfields2009]

In todays age of plug and play, overly processed amp simulators, kids don't know the struggle. You had to be able to lift something a touch bit heavier than your double soy, triple whip, carmel Venti espresso latte. We had to have something giant, heavy and loud to be heard over an actual human beating the life out of a real drumset. We didn't have the option of running a little plastic box into the mix. Which if you were lucky, you had 8 channels for your PA.

[@jordanbarney8629]

It wasn’t that long ago, bro. I’m 29 and I can remember a time where amp modeling wasn’t affordable nor good enough to replace my 150 watt amp head and 4x12 cabinet. I used to have to carry that shit up/down a 200 set stair case of death before/after gigs to my rehearsal room. It wasn’t that long ago. Amp modeling just got good enough and more accessible in the past 8 years tops.

[@FlyingAce39]

@@jordanbarney8629 I'm also 29 and all I have are big and heavy tube amps. A Fender 410 DeVille, Marshall DSL40C WITH the added weight of a V30, a Peavey Ultra 112 with a Swamp Thang, a Classic 50 212... They hurt, but I love them all the same.

[@jordanbarney8629]

@@FlyingAce39 Haha! I have an oversized Marshall mode 4 cab and a really old block letter Peavey Triple X! I’ll never get rid of them even though I’m almost exclusively Helix. It a place has a shitty PA I still have to drag my cab and I use my XXX as a tube power amp!

[@FlyingAce39]

@@jordanbarney8629 My Peavey Ultra 112 isn't a Mesa killer, but for the chump change I paid for it, it is a bonafide killer. Especially with the Swamp Thang.

[@kodas3366]

I used the settings: Bass-10 treble-8 on jcm-800 100w(had 3 power tubes assigned to clean ch + 1 When boost was on) on every song in a cover band(4 sets per night)..I remember not micin it one night and turning up to find it was loud as PA

[@charliet.sanford2495]

I haven’t even finished the video yet, but you need to crank a Fender Dual Showman head into the 2x15 Dual Showman cabinet with JBL D130’s. It’s glorious if you’re outside with a 50 foot cable. Indoors, you will rattle everything off the walls and shatter the windows. But the tone is unbelievable.

[@checkpointcovid8021]

I recently bought a Peavey Delta Blues 30 watt with the 15" speaker. Holy crap! That 15" speaker just makes everything sound huge.

[@harleyhexxe9806]

Great video Robert! I enjoyed that thoroughly! I own a Fender 400PS, and it is insanely loud, not to mention insanely heavy too. The head alone weighs in just slightly more than a silver faced Fender Twin, and in this day and age, re-tubing that amp is not cheap. It uses six 6550 power tubes with one 6L6 for a driver tube, and ten pre-amp tubes. It was designed by Bill Hughes from Ampeg, and has a massive transformer at either end of the chassis, which accounts for the weight. This may be one reason why it wasn't very popular with bass players, and also why it was introduced with the steel roller cart. (No one wanted to lift that head onto the top of the speaker cabs)! If I may be permitted a small correction to the video, those cabinets pictured were not 8x10 cabs, they were in fact, 18" reflex cabs for the bass guitar. I could be wrong about this but I believe the speakers in those cabs were Electro-Voice SRO speakers. This could be another reason these amps were not so popular with bass players, there were a lot of lows with those speakers, but mids and highs were very weak, and it didn't have the clarity of the SVT. At the time, Fender was using JBL speakers for their top of the line amps, and you could, at the time, purchase a Dual Showman cab loaded with two JBL D-140 speakers for bass, or a Dual Showman cab loaded with D-130 speakers for guitar, (both of these cabs were 2x15" speakers rated at 350 watts each, but both were bulky, and heavy). The amp was two channels like most of the Fender amps at the time, but what would have been the Normal channel on this amp was the Bass channel with a Deep switch instead of a bright switch. The other channels was set up exactly like the Reverb channel on a Twin Reverb with a Master Volume. The sound of this is still powerfully clean, but much more aggressive than a Twin, probably because of the power tubes, and the circuit design. On my personal 400PS, I use one Fender mid-sized 2x15" cab loaded with two JBL D-140's, one mid-sized 2x12" cab loaded with Altec Lansing G-17's, (mid to late 70's), and Fender small 2x12" cab loaded with JBL D-120's. A unique sound for guitar, but not practical for club dates these days!

[@jaypeterson7637]

You are correct sir! I owned an empty v4 cabinet that I placed my JVC boombox in. This was back in the '80's. The sound that came out was fantastic! Loud and punchy...☺

[@jamesalfano5740]

Marshall Major! The one I've obtained has 4 speaker outputs. I can't even imagine what that would sound like as plugging into 1 cabinet indoors the plaster falls off the walls, no kidding. Also before I had that a friend lent me a Peavey Super Festival 200 watts with 10 input capabilities that sounded great! Fender Twin is a clean monster too. I agree with all your choices, great presentation. Thanks

[@goovialisticprofunks]

I started playing with Marshall 50 watts and Old Twins. Now I play through a Tweed Champ 5 watt and I’m still too loud for restaurants and at home. Constant complaints. I’m sick of everyone oppressing my groove and feel. I can never let loose and feel my tone turned up. It makes life suck.

[@ReddNashe]

There used to be a place called The upstairs. It was an old fire station. We played their back in probably 2015. We were turned up too loud already warming up and I saw the sound engineer coming along and saying something to each player and then he got over to me and he simply said' I need you to turn this all the way up'. I was playing a blues deluxe with a lead 80. Or I may have changed it over to a celestion millennium Neo. I can't remember. All I can remember is it was so loud that the warmth of The Rock was just washing over me and I felt like I was in a hot tub. We were laughing and smiling the whole show. As we came down off the stage one by one the entire crowd was coming up to tell us that they had a migraine we sounded horrible and they hated us. We just kept smiling and thanking them. It was so much fun! I just had to share that brother. I miss those days too

[@robertcarey3383]

Sunn also made a 200-watt Concert Lead in the 70's that was solid state and LOUD. I melted the voice coils in 14 speakers at once and was shaking the house so hard dishes were falling out of the cabinets in the kitchen when playing in the other end of the house.

[@ricklavigne4466]

Lab Series L11 head. I had one and it had a built in compressor that if you turned it to the left it would act like a compressor but if you turned it to the right it would boost the amp to 300 watts ( might be 400 but I don't remember ). This amp did make my right ear bleed. After playing one night I felt my right ear itching. When I put my finger in my ear to scratch it , it felt wet. Yes, it was blood and of course the result was a partial loss of hearing.

[@MrDussek]

rick lavigne that’s insane, that’s one hella of an amp

[@StratmanDarrell]

I believe John Entwhistle favoured the Sunn Amps. He used to tell Pete, "Turn it up make their ears bleed!"

[@jacobbockover1628]

Im glad you included the marshall major. My dads were sold off after a tour no mast just had to crank it

[@rockdaddy2168]

Marshall's sound best dimed out. Better if you have one that goes to 11.

[@JohnvanCapel]

There's a period of time when guitar amps had to be designed to compete with thousands of screaming fans at outdoor concerts - this was before guitar amplifiers would be mic'ed up to the PA, but after concerts got bigger in scale and more screaming-fan-heavy. That was where the "more louder, more better" philosophy came from - bands literally got into a loudness war with their own fans, and needed bigger and bigger amplifiers to win that fight and be heard while they were playing. When mic'ing became commonplace, you still had quite loud amps because at that point it had a certain coolness factor, owing to the reverse-logic - if you need an amp that's that loud, you must have thousands of screaming fans at your shows.

[@bobbystereo936]

Vox AC100.

[@outlawguitar2092]

But I ask the question? How many amps would I need for thousands of screaming fans? But just for my back yard I want to be so loud I get the cops called. I got a fender stage lead. But I need MORE!!!!! I want to be heard at least a mile or two miles away. Would two marshall stacks be enough?

[@bobbystereo936]

@@outlawguitar2092 Frank Zappa had a set up of 2 Marshall super leads with a Vox super beatle in between them. Try that.

[@Marcus-lq9yj]

It's really cool you mentioned those Sunn amps. They are loud yet have what I call " the cool Factor"

[@jcon2357]

I had a Sunn Solaris with two cabs with a total of 4 12s ... that was in the early 70s... I think it was only like 40 watts... that thing cranked ..I put my strat through it.. my neighbor that I jammed with back then had a les Paul and an acoustic combo amp that cranked.. we would jam... several hours later our heads were oscillating from the volume.. it sure felt good playing like that...

[@PeterDad60]

I had the Ampeg SVT CL 300 watt bass amp. I ran it at 2 oms through 4 Ampeg bass cabs. One of the Ampeg cab's the 200 watt SVT-15E caused permanent hearing damage. Once I ran the Ampeg SVT CL though my Marshall Full Stack of JCM900 1960A and JCM900 1960B speaker caps. It sounded to "bassy" for my Strat. So I kept my JCM 900 MkIII 100 watt head hoked up to the stack.

[@mundainmonstre2372]

Oh man you may have missed one. The Peavey Renown 400. 200 watts of pure solid state destruction. I can get my windows rattling at 2! And the amp distortion actually sounds pretty friggen good!

[@jimskelton7078]

I have a transtube 112 with scorpion speaker, 160 watts. Best pawn shop amp I've ever bought. I run it beside a studio pro 112.

[@davefossett7407]

Had one. Loved it until it died. Still use it as a 2x12 cab now.

[@jakobwheelhand9907]

I had a Peavey stereo course 400 with celestion relic 30s that thing was intense it would completely drown out unmiked drum kit and my buddies base rig five times the size

[@michaelczesnozki1671]

An old friend of mine ran an insane Frankenstein rig. It was an Ampeg SVT-3 (a 450w head) modded just for the pre amp section. His power amp was a Marshall EL34 100/100 units. After he jury rigged the two amps into one he decided to slave the amp into a JCM900. From there it ran into what started life as a Fender 8x10. I don't know what he changed the speakers to. I think they where from a Randall or Marshall I don't remember. It was extremely loud. It didn't help he used a Les Paul with EMG's. Some more backstory (if interested) is: This project started as a tone replication. He wanted to replicate the White Pony album tone. He said it sounded to him like the Around The Fur tone, but better. After a month or two he gave up and started building a dream rig. Mind you he was better off, ran his own studio. It was amazing when I first saw it. He called me up and asked if I remembered the White Pony idea. I said yes and he continues to tell me about this amazing rig. "The kind of rig that would make Dime cry" as he described it. I wasn't doing anything, so I took the hour drive. I show up and all I can hear is the monster loud sound coming from his studio. I wait a minute for it to stop and ring the doorbell. He answers and just had the biggest grin. He takes me to the basement and shows me the insane rig. He had made the gigantic rig. He explained what it was and what went where. It went over my head, I had no idea what he was talking about. He walks up behind me while I'm checking out the slave 900 and tries to give me the Les Paul. I take it, he tells me to strum an open d. I do, and he flips off stand by. It was the loudest thing I ever heard.

[@DCDacey-cq6nb]

Marshall Major is awesome. I had one and yes, they are ungodly loud. I used to use a Sholtz power soak on mine, and you could fry eggs on it. You could smell it too.

[@valuedhumanoid6574]

The loudest I personally have ever heard is the EVH 5150. The original 100w head before all the other models. One of my old bosses would bring his in and set it up in our warehouse which was just built and empty. I am talking 100' deep and 300' wide. He set that amp at one end with two 4x12 EVH cabs and stood in the center with his wireless and had all controls dimed. It was a religious experience. The loudest I have ever owned was the first run Fender Hot Rod DeVille 212 III 60w combo. It was weird. The volume control was not the correct taper. 3 was just as loud as 8. So I lived in the zero to two range. Just touching the volume knob would add 20 db. I was told there was a popular mod where the volume pot was replaced with one that had a more gradual taper. It was insanely loud. Especially in a bedroom. Nice list Robert. Always a treat to see what you come up with.

[@chrisloibner2786]

A friend gave me a Peavey stereo chorus, 120 watts 2 scorpion speakers. That thing was crazy loud but only good for one thing, 80's metal. I would have kept it if it didn't weigh about 4000 lbs.

[@paulshaum3421]

Don’t worry, I’m 15 and keeping the traditions alive, mostly cause I can’t afford the nice stuff. I have a PA with only 4 channels and cause my practice room is so small i do the greatful dead mic trick of having. Two taped together to reduce background noise and feedback. I play a 1970 Ludwig standard drum kit and while my guitarist and bassist use combo amps they’re still pretty big. We are always looking to get louder but the gigs we play don’t require more than 10 watts, but in the practice room we crank it and it can be heard for about a square half mile around. Not to mention the PA alone weighs about 50 pounds

[@geraldcalifornia5923]

Also its great for cleans like a twin reverb and Smashing pumpkims distortion. Its also like a Roland Jazz chorus but with a kick ass sat distortion

[@goodun2974]

BTW, the 6146B tubes used in early Ampeg SVT's are actually a small radio-transmitting tube. Later versions were wired for 7027s or 6550s if I remember correctly (I've never worked on an SVT but the V2, V4 and V4B used 7027s, and when those tubes got scarce people often converted them to run on 6550s or KT88'S. The VT22, a combo version of the V2, also used 7027s).

[@seang1948]

My 80's Peavey Butcher stack was insanely loud !!!

[@joexschmoex85]

that Randy Rhoads white marshall that was hot-rodded with his cascade mod is a friggin' window shaker

[@jayhart8717]

What about the Marshall JVM410? I know it’s only 100 watts, but I got the chance to hear one played turned up all the way once, and I swear not just my ears, but my whole entire head was ringing for a couple days afterwards.

[@marceljerabek4030]

Must Agree I Got Two Of JCM 2000 TSL 100 And Their Killin'

[@xerodelacroix5552]

You forgot the Peavey Super Festival. 400w. So powerful the dude from Death From Above once chained his own custom 24 speaker cab and four ampeg cabs to his and still couldn't turn it up past half.

[@oyster7746]

I played a 100 watt Hiwatt years ago, I had it up around 1 o' clock. It was so loud it made me almost puke, not kidding.

[@scotthutchens1556]

I have a Sunn 2000S from around 1970 or so. I think it’s about 120 watts. Beautiful warm sound. The loudest amp I’ve ever played through is my Traynor YBA-3 Custom Special (I estimate 1970-‘72) at 130 watts. It’s usually a bass amp but has a Marshall/Bassman tone and is a good candidate for mods turning it into a regular guitar amp because of being like a Marshall. They were designed with a master volume circuit. I could not turn this up full, it was killing me at half to 2/3 volume. These are heavy heads with huge transformers.

[@rockdaddy2168]

I bought an original Peavey EVH block letter rated at 120 watts. I ran it up on the test bench and it was actually pumping out 142. Peavey admitted they were very conservatively rated at 120.

[@NASTXL]

I have experienced several of these amps except for the Marshall and Ampeg. And in my armament my JSX 120 with a single 4x12 is just stupid loud as well. Enjoyed the video Robert.

[@rjpike75]

I can back up your claims on the twin reverb. That little monster put my 5150 half stack to shame in terms of volume. My dad's buddy was going on and on about how loud his little Fender was. Being the douche bag metal kid i was, i brought my 5150 and a 4x12 over to his house and was quickly embarrassed, LMFAO.

[@kenedwards3430]

Back in ...82' I think I was hang'n out at the nude beach on campus at Evergreen in Washington and heard someone playing guitar, went and checked him out and he was playing on the commons thru a Fender 400 with those cabs. The loudest amp I have ever heard and it sounded great.

[@deepend69]

I have a Mesa boogie bass 400+ that reaches 500 watts all tube when using the 2ohm outputs with two 8x10 cabinets. Had to sell one of the 8x10 cabs and drop it down to 4 ohms because it made my triple rectifier, the drums and the P.A. combined; sound like ones of those little music boxes your sister has with the little dancing ballerina.

[@popsfitch7938]

Right after 15 min. you said 3 eight by ten cabs? In 1973 my Fender 400 PS cab was an 18” speaker in a folded horn cab like those in the picture. I think 8x10 cabs may have been lighter. Thank God for built in wheels on the back of the cabs and a little red wagon for the head. LOL. My head stand didn’t have wheels though. I loved that rig and never should have sold it. It made my EB come alive. The reverb was outstanding and getting it to breakup pissed of every FOH sound man. It made everything feed back. So fun...Our road crew hated them too..... thank you so much for the memories. Keep up the great videos. Sincerely, Pops Fitch

[@goodun2974]

Subtitle: " amplifiers guaranteed to make your ears ring from everybody shouting at you to Turn It Down"!

[@RobertWJackson]

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@Macrohard_On_Fire]

The way you describe the stuff is hilarious, in a good way. You are extremely knowledgeable and funny. Cracked me the hell up

[@RobertWJackson]

Really? What did I say? LOL

[@Macrohard_On_Fire]

Robert's Guitar Dungeon ahah just when you said stuff like “this amp will rip your face off” just your tone of voice and manorisms

[@yellowhorse52]

I think the Sunn Coliseum lead has them all beat. I still use mine with (2) 4 speaker bottoms and it never disappoints.

[@bobbalog6316]

A 200 watt Marshall Major amp head was my first bass amp. I had it hooked to 2 "EV" Electro Voice 15' ELIMINATOR speaker cabinets. The speakers were facing rearward and they also had a metal horn that ran all the way across the inside top of the cabinets. I used a Fender Musicman bass because of it's size and weight over a J Bass or a Precision with steel wound strings instead of the smooth bass strings. What a sound! No running it through the PA with this thing! You could drown out the PA if you wanted to. Never had to turn it over 3 even outside! Never ever had to worry about being heard in the band either.

[@vasilijpupkin3681]

And the Orange OR120, of course. A beast

[@guitarnist]

Fender Super Twin Reverb. These amps had 6 x 6L6GC power tubes and a graphic eq on knobs. It was 180 watts RMS and 387 watts peak. Loud was not the word!!!!!!

[@rodmoyes80s]

Have you ever been in a room with a Roland JC-120 turned past 4? Anything past 6 will make your great great grandchildren deaf.

[@DallasGunther]

Another guitar player in another band practiced in the storage facility my band practiced it, way back, another lifetime ago. He had a fender twin and it drowned out my Marshall valvestate to such a degree I had to figure out why. Thus began my obsession with tube amps.

[@derekchristensen6670]

Missing from the list... Sunn Model T which is usually considered the loudest of the Sunn amps, Matamp/Green offering such as the GT120. Basically any tube amp that is 50w and up and also non-master volume is going to be loud... Like really loud. There is actually a formula for determining how loud an amp can be based on the watts. It takes an exponential increase in watts to provide something like a 2db increase. Look it up, very interesting reading.

[@williamcooper6069]

Hey RGD. Just want to wish you and your family a safe and awesome holiday season. Thanx for the vids this year and look forward to checking ya out next year.

[@63stratoman]

You should check out the Peavey Heritage VTX or Peavey Mace Amps! They were big with the southern rockers back in the day. The Mace supposedly had about 160 watts and from what I hear, they often took out tubes to quiet them down. The Heritage VTX (which I had) was about 130 watts with a solid state preamp and a 4 x 6L6GC tube output. You could switch it down to 65W but I couldn’t tell the difference! It would easily blow my friend’s Fender Twin right off the stage although neither of us cranked that loud. With two huge transformers and two 12” Black Widows, it weighed about as much as two Fender Twins! Great (clean) tone though and wonderful built in phase shifter.

[@albertambo3510]

I bought one of these for 200 bucks never got it above 3 in house before neighbors began calling the cops

[@drewpederson2039]

I had a Peavey Heritage with two 12in black widow spkrs @ 300plus wts a combo amp was too heavy for those stairs etc..

[@genekloszewski5484]

Sunn concert lead,(solid state) had two crown D150 power amps inside. 150 true watts r.m.s. i used this amp with Electro voice SRO 12's,.. Super loud!( 1970's )

[@grantpeters999]

I think the Ampeg V-4 deserves a mention. I had a Twin prior to getting my V-4 (and I completely agree that Twins are insanely loud), but I would argue that my V-4 is a little louder than that still.

[@pathall1532]

My LAB Series L-11A is a 200 watt tyrannasaurus rex that was $1799.99 new back in the early 80's that has a cooling fan and built in compressor with overload/curcuit breaker !!! BB King used them exclusively !!! I run it into 8 12" JBL's and it will hurt your ears !!!!

[@oddball669]

The carvin x-100 is crazy loud, and any old sound city map bordered on just insane.

[@7xchad]

True. I run a 2 amp rig (Carvin X100B 1st edition and Mesa Dual Rectifier Rev G). The Carvin matches the Mesa with the volume on 3 in 25% mode with the volume below 1

[@J8D2]

Its worth noting that Jim Marshall didn have any input on the Major. They were actually designed out of house by GE to accomodate their KT88 valves. Theres a number of different itterations too. The three knob version is the most infamous and the most unstable. The PA versions are still reasonably common throughout the UK and feature the same brutal output.

[@RobertWJackson]

Really? I didn’t know that!

[@jamesraleigh4299]

However, Jim Marshall oversaw the mods made to Ritchie Blackmore's Majors... Mods to Boost Treble. Blackmore also had additional mods that added two output stages to his Majors

[@eschultzz]

It's not as famous but the loudest amp BY FAR is the Verellen Meatsmoke. It's a 300 watt all tube amp that sounds like a Sunn Model T on steroids. I cannot even begin to explain how loud it is. I used to play in a doom band and we shared a practice spot with several other bands, so there were a ton of speaker cabs stacked up against the walls. One time, for fun, we hooked up the Verellen to SIX 4x12 cabs to make a wall and tried it out. We had the amp on 10 o'clock and were wearing earplugs and I still gave myself permanent hearing damage after only 10 minutes. The audiologist actually told me that earplugs stop working at a certain point because loud sounds at extremely high volumes can actually vibrate the small bones in your inner ear and damage the hairs.

[@klashway]

Hi all, the Sunn 200s is around 60 watts with KT88's. The 2000s is 120 - 200 watts depending on which tubes you use.

[@glenkepic3208]

I had a 'colored knob' ('81?) Peavey Mace in the early 80's. I had the tone circuit modded on it and ran Pyle Driver 12s. Its been said that the 160 watt rating was peak but it did have 6 6L6's. I used this for party and bar gigs and while the pre gain would be dimed, post volume was never past 4. It was pretty loud (and heavy).

[@skepticalbystander]

I played a Crate BV300H at Guitar Center in mynearly days of guitar, and I would plug into aaalllll the amps to check them all out and compare them, the BV300 to me beat out everything, the clean was real clean and real beautiful sounding, and the distortion was sooo satisfying! It became my dream amp. After a year or two, in '07, I had the money to finally get rid of a blah amp I had for something I could really enjoy! I happened to check on eBay, and that's where my search for my next amp ended, cuz someone was selling a pristine BV300 head for a thousand bucks out the door! I ended up getting a 2ohm Avatar 4x12 cab with G12s in the top and Vintage 30s in the bottom. I'm an effects pedal whore, but to get my base tone, I have a 10-band EQ (because that amp REALLY REALLY becomes magic with an EQ pedal), a Boss RV5 on spring reverb, i have an MXR Stereo Chorus that's always on for everything, set to a super slow wide and shallow chorus effect that just gives this real pretty wet sheen to everything, and an Xotic Effects BB+ where one channel is always on for that extra bit of boost that really livens the fretboard up, and the second channel set to a little more for leads. That's all I really need to get my base guitar tone. It's a really great amp, but dialed in with an EQ, a verb, and a little lift from a great boost like the BB Preamp, you'd be surprised how much you'll fall in love with the tone! I'm very fortunate to have found it when I did, still to this day, especially these days after having so many thousands of hours with it, it's truly something special when I am even the most beloved high gain amps out there, ya a lot of it is my pedal setup, but there's more voodoo in that thing than the initial tone suggests!

[@FireMoon42]

Rarer than rocking horse droppings in the USA however, the Burman Head, in effect, a British Mesa Boogie which was itself a development of the Fender. "Money For Nothing" by Dire Straits is a Burman amp.

[@auntjenifer7774]

😂Mark knopfler used a Crate vintage club 50 for money for nothing. Joe walsh used the vintage club 50 as well !

[@serapiopereziii3741]

Here's a little info on the Marshall Major. When mine was put on a scope it was hitting 150 watts and pedal steel clean, zero distortion. When we pushed it into the distortion range it was well over 200 watts.

[@JMK-kb1yq]

Great content as always dude.

[@RobertWJackson]

Thanks man!

[@Nonexistanthuman]

I been trying to do some research on sunn equipment and this is one of the few videos thats knowledgeable man. Thanks again

[@radocool1]

Mesa Boogie Mark lll Coliseum 300 from 1987 (six 6L6 tubes in power amp section)

[@Mark_of_the_Bear_Studios]

Awesome video as always. Two quick things - I believe I read recently somewhere that SRV used the Major alongside a Fender Vibroverb and a Dumble Steel String Singer. Lots of loud there. The other thing is that I’ve heard that if you turn a Sunn Beta Lead up past 1 (not 1 o’clock, just barely 1 of 10), you’ll open up a rip in space time and turn the universe inside out or something. They sound nice and fuzzy, but also ungodly loud.

[@roycekletke8787]

I had a Fender Super Twin rated 180 watts, 6 x 6L6 output tubes. A bit heavier than standard twin, beefier speakers. My memory might be gone, but I seem to recall it could start moving on its wheels if you cranked it enough. I've now got a Marshall Major. The Twin was my introduction to earplugs.

[@jimistheman9732]

About 100 lbs, IIRC. And they did travel on those casters. Needed to lock the wheels in place.

[@auntjenifer7774]

My Peavey 6534+ 120 watt head is pushing 140 watts at 5 or 6 and was surging the head unit off the 412 cabinet, 😮good thing I noticed and put it back on its 4 feet atop the speaker cabinet😅

[@danielsperry8114]

My local music store had a full stack Marshall Major for sale and wow was that amp loud . I have a full stack 50 watt Marshall 1987 and lived on a retired dairy farm { country } in the summer months i would being it out on the front porch and turn it up to 10 , my nearest neighbor was 1/2 mile away so it didn't bother him , the cows in the pasture loved it .

[@jonhornbeck4324]

Peavey Session 500. It might have been solid state, but it was an absolute monster for some guitar players, and a boatload of pedal steel guitarists. And for a single 15", it sure could move a lot of air.

[@texastyrannyresponseteam794]

a monster clean amp.. eardrum piercing clean mids and highs... fiddle, steel guitar, harmonica.. etc.. and since they rarely get distortion the speakers last forever... component failure is rare too very little vibration... awesome amps..

[@woodystemms3799]

The "Legend" - Rock & Roll 50 - has been notoriously loud since the 70's. Just for grins, I just cranked mine to 10, just this once. ( glad I wore plugs ) It officially has my vote for the loudest single speaker combo amp. The speaker is the original, a Celestion G12 -80. Plugged into the Low input, with a '57 Strat, it was loud. But, through the High input ... it was the goddamn Crack of Doom!

[@drippinglass]

I’ve got a ‘98 Mesa Triple Rectifier full stack with full cabinet armor. It’s loud.

[@MrJackal43]

Not impressive at all actually

[@guerrillaradio9953]

Blackstar Series 1 200 (4x KT88's). This is my current rig, and when dimed, you have to be in another room with the door shut or all it does is feedback. Even then, you can still feel it. It's supposed to be a near-direct clone of the Marshall Major, but I can't confirm that. The Fender showman and the newer Super Bassman 300w (both are 6 x 6550 tubes) are absolutely insane. Both can give a gorgeous clean that will peel your skin off.

[@rockdaddy2168]

The Fender 400 used 3 18" rear loaded folded horn cabinets. Similar to what Acoustic 361 had.

[@bigrockets]

The Sunn Coliseum Bass was a monstrous thing it pushed around 400 watts of solid state power into a couple of folder horn enclosures that used a paid of Cerwin-Vega 18" drivers. Kick ass loud was really about all you needed in a coliseum, but they were pretty flat tonally speaking.

[@geraldcalifornia5923]

Do you know if the Twin Reverb its louder than a SUNN beta lead? I ask you because I have both but I think that somthing is wrong with the SUNN volume. Its not that loud as the TWIN. I read on forums that the SUNN its very very loud but I have to know if its louder than the Twin to know if I had to fix my SUNN

[@kennygardner5041]

Peavey Mace. At 4 ohms it is 160 watts and was made for stadiums as it came with balanced and unbalanced line outs as of the late Seventies. Next when run at 2ohms which I have it pushes about 180. This is the Skynyrd amp. They ran it at 4ohms. Six 6L6 tubes stock.

[@mrstowe12]

Agreed. It was also a favorite of Neal Schon’s for a bit early on.

[@TheTurtleneck64]

I use a VTX Heritage, which is basically a 130 watt version; it can easily compete with a full stack. Made a bandmate buy a Mace immediately after hearing it. Edit: I keep finding old comments of me babbling about this amp, Easter eggs of sorts lol

[@auntjenifer7774]

​@TheTurtleneck64 😂 Yeah I had Heritage vtx and ran out at 4ohms and it was like 170-180 watts, loudest amp I've played I 🤔 think.

[@davidharvey4803]

I agree. I have 2 of them that I run with with my Ibanez PT3 DX. Volume at 2 1/2 is deafening.

[@BustedJunkStudio]

Back in the late 60's and early 70's we would use multiple amps, usually around 100 watts each but that was never really the deciding factor. What made the difference was the amount and size of your transducers (speakers). Generally, the more, the louder. I do remember either Alvin Lee or Ted Nugent using Marshall majors and they blew up one by one as they continued playing. The roadies were busy swapping heads, finally they put up some Marshall 100 watters and they could finish their performance in peace.

[@aaronatwood9298]

The predecessor to the original 5150... The Peavey VTM-120. Ungodly loud....

[@sski]

Cool list! I forgot all about those Fender 400 amps. Actually had my mitts on one back in the late 80s for a couple weeks. It was brutal. These days I have an ADA Quadtube 150m 2x12 combo that runs at 150w (75w stereo) that I can never use past 1/2 master without moving and breaking things around the room. And there's the Nady GTH-100 that opens its own portal into other dimensions when set to 2/3rds master volume. Neither of these amps do great things for my tinnitus but they feel and sound glorious when they speak up. Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to you, Robert!

[@Tacklebox455]

Sunn 200s is a 60 watt amp not 200, the 2000s was 150 watts running 6550s same wattage as the Sunn model T

[@ulcus...]

It's a sunn 60w tho 😌😉 veeery conservative

[@checkpointcovid8021]

The loudest tube amp I ever had was a Peavey 3120. 3 Channels. Way too much for an apartment dweller at the time. Wish I still had it though. The loudest amp I now have is a Peavey Classic 50 212. I bought the Bugera Power soak to drop the volume down and still get a tubey tone. If you use an attenuator make sure to turn the Master volume down after you take the attenuator out of the loop. I found out the hard way and I will never forget to check again. 50 watts full blast into my ear as I was really close to the amp when I flipped the Standby switch.

[@hubbsllc]

Not sure of exact model but Kustom’s Kasino line had 8-speaker solid-state *combo* amps that could go up to 300W and could be had with a pair of vertical “wing” cabs each with four more speakers.

[@rockdaddy2168]

Played one with wings a friend had in early 70s. Holy crap.

[@hubbsllc]

@@rockdaddy2168 Would love to mess with one especially to run a tube amp through it.

[@JInfinity7]

Its not all about the wattage, but it plays a part -wattage -tube vs. SS -transformer sizes -pickup output -class type A vs A/B etc. -speaker type -speaker cabinet type These all affect loudness

[@TheKBLarsen]

I would also recommend that you try a MK2C+ or an old Mesa Boogie combo with a 200w EV speaker. I personally don't think it's going go to be as loud as others on the list, but definitely pretty loud for a 1x12 combo

[@redwhiteblue9866]

I have a C+ with the evm12l. I've never had it over 3 even out doors. Best amp ever IMHO.

[@Timetofly8888]

I was doing FOH at a Festival in the late 90s in New Zealand where one of the bands rocked up in the late afternoon on the 3rd stage I was mixing on. This guy rolls out his Fender Twin, with the stage crew , does a quick line check so I know I got it at that console out FOH, I set the Gain for the channel as I did with all the other back line and set up a basic mix around gain and ready to go. What I didn't see was this guy , AFTER the line check cranked his Master on the amp, I found out later because he couldn't hear his own amp, (joys of working with inexperienced amateurs) so when the first song kicked it, a second after I let off my Mute Groups BOOM !!!!!!!! His channel is clipping my input HARD. I immediately pull back the fader ready to pounce on the Gain and it didn't really mater. The bleed offstage from this tiny Fender twin was STILL cutting the Hds off the front 3 rows of people !!! Im on the CANS , Shouting " MATE, CAN SOMEONE GO AND TURN DOWN HIS FKN AMP !!!!!!" Honestly it was cutting through like nothing id heard up until that point to the point the PA was getting eaten by it where we had strict noise control limits this thing, outside just scoffed at ! Yup , everyone time i see a Fender twin now i instantly remember that day. I did manage to get it under control a song and a half later with the help of the stage crew but what a wild 5 minutes !

[@vasilijpupkin3681]

Don't underestimate the AC30. A Twin might be louder (i had a 100W one), but those Voxes are also insane

[@iggyfritz7150]

Back in the day myself owned a 100s&200s Sunn heads. Ran them into 2-4-12 cabs loaded with Ev12L Speakers. Each cab weighed 140+lbs. In a garage with the doors closed My friend rode his scooter down the road until he could barely hear it. He had rode 1&1/2 miles 😂 One amp I think deserves mention although I never tried one is the peavey festival series. They had a 400watt,16 kt88 tubes 😳 that probably gave off enough heat to cook a thanksgiving turkey on top of it 😂 the loudest amp I experienced was my friends 1971 Marshall plexi with both cabs. I knelt in front of it to tune my guitar. The volume was only on 3. Turned the standby off, knelt in front of the bottom cab, hit the e string and the sound pressure knocked me over. While my drummer laughed hiss ass off. With the volume at 5 I cleared an entire party of about 30 people holding their hands over their ears as they left. Good times🎉😂

[@Fragments_Ov_Shattered_Malice_]

I feel bad for the sound engineers who have to deal with people who own these amps

[@rwleetx]

I am a sound engineer and own two of these amps haha.

[@BabySafeHaven]

Ok, you missed two amps that if you've never been near one, you'd know they rank in the top 4. 1st is the Fender Super Six Reverb. It's the 100 watt version of the late sixties Twin Reverb in a tall combo-cabinet with 6 X 10"" speakers. I sat in the front row of a Johnny Winter concert where he had 4 of these cranked up really high, and set-up in a double stack that almost went to the ceiling. My ears rang for the next 3 days. I've sat in the same location, at the same venue -- The Boston Tea Party -- for shows with acts that had double stacks of Marshall plexi's, double stacks of Hi Watts, and others that you think would be louder, but the Super Six Reverb blew them all away. 2nd, is an amp I owned. It was an Ampeg VT-22, with the EV SRO 2 X 12" speakers in a combo. If you turned it past 5 you were hurting everyone within 100 feet. And yes I ran it against a Fender Twin Reverb -- also made and back in the late 60's. The VT-22 with the SRO's beat the snot out of it for both volume and tone. My bassist had an SVT, with 2 of the 8X10" cabinets that I plugged into for fun sometimes. The VT-22 was louder. And sounded better with my late 60's Les Paul with the soap bars. Also my 60s Strat, Guild Starfire III, and mid 60's SG Junior. For looks I had a V4 4X12" cab under the VT-22. Then I had a full stack of a V4 head with two 4X12 cabs below that. I never used the double stack at a show. It was far too loud for the medium sized venues I play at.

[@dannydine5263]

I had a 1968 Twin Reverb and although it was the best sounding cleanest amp I've ever known I only got one consistent remark about it from friend and foe alike. Turn it down. And that was with the amp on 4. And below 4 it didn't sound all that great because the amp didn't turn on and open up until 4.

[@TheMattc999]

I had the same problem with my blue voodoo 120 half stack. When I first saw one in a shop and tried it out I hated it, just couldn't get a good tone out of it. Then I joined a band who's other guitarist had on, and wanted me to try it out. These guys played loud- had to turn the crate up to about 4 to be heard and it was a completely different animal. Turn the volume up on it and I absolutely fell in love with it- bought it from him on the spot and never looked back since.