Guitar Amplifier Speaker Power Handling

The power handling of a speaker enclosure is equal to the power handling of the lowest wattage speaker multiplied by the number of speakers in the enclosure.

All speakers should have the same impedance (i.e. 8Ω or 16Ω).

Example:

You have a 2x12 cabinet with a 15 watt speaker and a 100 watt speaker.

Your power handling is 30 CLEAN watts.

However:

Important: Distortion makes the speakers max out earlier.

Here Are Some General Rules of Thumb:

• If you play with a clean tone only, go with a bit more than the rated power. I highly recommend 12" speakers.

• If you want early breakup/OD use 50% to 100% more power handling. (40-50 watt amp = 60-100 watt power handling).

• You play with lots of gain you want 4-5x the rated power. 12" speakers are pretty much required.

The Classic Blues, Rock, and Metal setups:

Here's the standard amp setups from rock history:

Clean:

Fender twin 85 watts (with black control panel, aka Fender Blackface era)= 2 12" Jensen’s or fender gold labels (100-120watts)

1970's 100 watt twins (with silver control panel aka Fender Silverface era) are sometimes found loaded with JBL F series speakers or 12" Electrovoice (EV) speakers. These speakers are extremely loud and add about 30 pounds to the weight of the amp.

Breakup/OD:

Fender '59 Bassman

and reissue (~40 watts) = 4 Jensen P-10Rs (100watts)

The classic early breakup Fender Bassman sound:

is achieved with 4 x 10" alnico magnet speakers.

The Brian May (of Queen) sound:

is achieved with 12" alnico drivers.

Heavy distortion or fuzz:

50w head = full stack of G12-H's (240 watts) or a half stack of vintage 30's (240 watts)

100 watt head= full stack of vintage 30's G12-65s, or G12t-75's or a half stack of g12H-100's